What Is an NFL Pick'em Pool?

An NFL Pick'em pool is a season-long game where a group of friends, family members, or coworkers each pick the winner of every NFL game, week after week, and compare results against one another. Unlike fantasy football, there are no rosters to draft and no players to manage - you're simply picking which team wins each matchup.

How a Pick'em Pool Is Structured

One person - the commissioner - organizes the pool for their group. Every week during the NFL season, each member of the pool submits a pick for every game on the schedule. After the games are played, each correct pick earns points (exactly how many depends on the pool's scoring format), and a running leaderboard shows who's picking best over the course of the season.

Straight-Up vs. Against the Spread

The most common version of pick'em asks players to simply pick the team they think will win outright - this is called "straight up" picking. Some pools instead score picks against the point spread, meaning a pick only counts if that team wins by more than the spread (or, for an underdog, doesn't lose by more than it). REDZONEPicks.app supports either style, set once by the commissioner for the whole pool.

Why Groups Run a Pick'em Pool

It's a lightweight way to stay engaged with every NFL game each week, not just the teams a group happens to root for, and it gives friends, family, or a workplace a shared, ongoing conversation and a bit of friendly competition all season - continuing right through the playoffs.

Scoring Formats

Pick'em pools aren't all scored the same way. See our guide to football pool scoring formats for a breakdown of straight-up, Confidence Points, Key Picks, and Capped Point Values scoring, or read about Confidence Points scoring specifically.

Getting Started

See our How It Works page for the full walkthrough of creating or joining a pool on REDZONEPicks.app.