How to Create a Super Bowl Pool

A Super Bowl pool is a fun way to celebrate the most important football game of the season with others. But you don't have to wait until one gets passed your way. Use this guide for making a Super Bowl pool.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Draw a grid with 11 columns and 11 rows on a piece of paper, or use a computer to create a blank 11 x 11 table. Make the squares large enough for people to write their names or initials. Make an X in the first square of the first row.
2. Decide how much you want the pool to be worth, and then sell each square for the appropriate price. You can't sell the first column or the first row of squares, so there are 100 squares. If you sell all the squares for 5 dollars each, the total in the pool is $500.
3. Pass the pool around and let people pick their squares. Collect the money and keep it in a safe place.
4. Cut out 10 small squares of paper, all the same size, from a different piece of paper. Number these squares 0 to 9. Fold the squares in half and put them in a bowl. Have a friend pick one out without looking.
5. Write the number that your friend picked in the second square of the first row. Have your friend choose another piece from the bowl, and write its number in the third square of the first row. Repeat until the bits of paper are gone and all of the squares in the first row are numbered. Refold the numbered squares and begin the process again, this time writing the numbers chosen into the empty squares of the first column.
6. Put one of the team's names at the end of the first row, indicating that the numbers in the first row correspond to that team's score. Then put the other team's name at the bottom of the first column.
7. Make copies of the pool and pass them out to everyone who entered. Winners are determined by the last digit of the score at the end of the first quarter, the half, the third quarter and in the final score. For example, if the score is 11-21 at the end of the half, the person whose name appears in the square corresponding to (1,1) on the grid is the half-time winner.

Tips & Warnings

• Divvy up the proceeds after the game. Many pools give half to the final score winner and divide the other half between the winners for each of the first three quarters. However, your pool can pay out any way you want, as long as you let everyone know in advance.
• The reason you should have someone choose numbers out of a bowl is so that the numbers on the grid are completely random. You can also do this by drawing cards, ace through 10, with 10 counting as 0.