How Pickem Pools Work

A pickem pool is a weekly football prediction game. Everyone picks which team will win each NFL game, then compares results after the games are played. It's popular because the rules are obvious even to casual fans.

1. Make the pool

The commissioner names the pool and gets a private link, which is also the invite. The browser that made the pool gets a secure cookie that opens the settings page.

2. People join

People open the link and type a display name. Pickem Maker remembers them with a browser cookie, so they can come back each week without logging in.

3. Circle the winners

Each week lists every NFL game. Tap the team you think will win and the pick is saved right then, with a check to show it went in. You can change a pick until that game kicks off. After kickoff it's locked, and that's when it shows up on the pool sheet for everyone else.

4. Follow the standings

When games finish, correct picks count as wins and wrong or missing picks count as losses. The standings show the season record, how far back each person is, a week-by-week strip, every week's winner, and the full pool sheet of who picked what.

5. Commissioner tools

The commissioner can see who hasn't picked yet, copy a reminder message, rename the pool, remove people, lock the pool, or delete it. Locking stops new joins and freezes every pick.