Play Squares

Run a Football Squares Fundraiser Online

Sell every square, collect the money in one place, and let the board track scores and winners in real-time.

“After years of pen and paper, this was such a welcome upgrade.”— Timothy M, Super Bowl Host

How It Works

1

Set up your board

Pick your football matchup, choose your grid size and price per square, and set how the prize pool gets split with your cause.

2

Share it with your supporters

Send one link to your team, your workplace, or your donor list, and collect every payment through the same board instead of tracking cash and messages separately.

3

Track scores & winners automatically

We update scores in real time and work out the winning square for every quarter, so your supporters can check the board themselves while you spend the game raising money instead of managing a sheet.

See For Yourself

Bills
Chiefs

100 squares available

Playing as: You. Choose your squares!

Players (8)

Why Fundraiser Hosts Choose Play Squares

Built on three core principles: Easy, Fun, and Fast. If this is your first fundraiser board, the full guide to hosting a football squares pool walks through the whole setup, and the Super Bowl fundraiser guide covers the biggest board most groups run all year.

Easy
Fun
Fast

A board built around your goal

Set up a 10x10 grid for any NFL or college football matchup, then decide how much of what you collect goes to your team or cause and how much gets paid out as prizes.

Collect the money in one place

Supporters pay through one-click links using Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, or Zelle, and you keep one central record of who has paid instead of chasing a paper list.

Scores and winners handled for you

We update the score in real time and work out the winning square for every quarter, so nobody has to sit with a printed sheet and a pen during the game.

Supporters can check the board themselves

The board shows who is on track to win the quarter while it's still being played, so your supporters stop messaging you to ask which numbers they have or who just won.

Fill your board faster

Share one link with your whole supporter list, watch the squares fill in as they get claimed, and see exactly which ones are still open when you need a last push.

Smaller boards for smaller groups

If 100 squares is more than your group will comfortably buy, run a 5x5 or a 4-square grid instead and pay out exactly the same way.

One pass, every sport you fundraise for

Run football boards in the fall, then use the same account for NCAA basketball, the NBA, or baseball when the calendar turns.

Made for phones

Perfect for fundraising nights and watch parties where everyone is looking at the board on their own phone.

How We Compare

Our AppPDFs/SheetsOther Sites
Automatic winner detectionSometimes
Real-time updatesNo/ManualSometimes
Mobile-optimizedYes/LimitedVaries
Setup time<5 minutes10-15+ minutes5-10 minutes
Fun animationsRarely
Flexible payment optionsSometimes
Multiple games on 1 boardRarely
Board Creation LimitsUnlimitedPer boardPer board
CostOne Game Pass - $12.99FreeFree to $25/board

What Hosts Are Saying

Real feedback from people running Play Squares boards.

“After years of using pen and paper, this was such a welcome upgrade. It was easy to set up and share for our Super Bowl party.”

— Timothy M., Super Bowl Host

“As a host, this saves so much time and eliminates manual errors. The interface is easy for players, and I'll use this for every event I host.”

— Brodie D., Super Bowl Host

“Even my older uncle had no issues picking squares. I felt confident sharing it with everyone, and it was completely worth the price.”

— Brandi, Fundraiser Host
View all testimonials →

Getting a Fundraiser Board Sold Out

Supporters claim squares on a blank grid, the digits get randomized once every square is taken, and whoever holds the square where the two teams' last digits meet wins a share of the prize pool at the end of each quarter. Nobody has to follow football and nobody picks their own numbers, which is exactly why a squares board raises money from people who would never buy a raffle ticket. Our walkthrough of how to play football squares is worth sending to anyone on your list who has never been on a board before.

Pick the game before you set the price

The board has to be full before the numbers are drawn, so pick a game far enough out to give yourself a couple of weeks to sell it. A rivalry game, a homecoming game or a bowl game gives supporters a reason to buy that a random Week 6 matchup doesn't, and groups running one board a season usually hang it on the Super Bowl, which sells itself but also puts you up against every other board your supporters get asked to join that week.

Selling every square is the whole job

A hundred squares at $10 is a thousand dollars, but only if all hundred sell, and a half-empty board is the one thing that genuinely costs a fundraiser money. Share the link everywhere your group already talks, and let people take more than one square. Then watch which squares are still open as your deadline gets close and name the number in your last push, because “eleven left” moves people in a way that “please buy a square” never does. If your list won't absorb a hundred, a smaller grid beats a big board with holes in it.

You decide what the cause keeps

The one thing a fundraiser board adds is the split. Half to the cause and half to the prize pool is the usual starting point, so a $10 board that sells out collects $1,000 and pays $500 across the four periods, but you set that however your group prefers. Tell supporters the split before they buy, settle it before a single square is sold rather than after, and weight the last prize heavier than the early quarters to keep people watching to the final whistle. Our guide to squares payouts lays out the structures worth choosing between.

The mechanics are identical whichever game you put on the board, so a youth team can run a football board in the fall and a March Madness fundraiser in the spring without teaching anyone a new game. If the score gets complicated, our rules guide covers overtime, ties, and repeat winners.

Simple, Transparent Pricing

You buy one host pass, and the money your supporters put in never passes through us. It goes straight between them and you through the payment method you already use, so what you raise stays with your cause.

One Game Pass - $12.99

Best for single-event hosts.

  • Host a squares pool for 1 game
  • Players join for free
  • One-time purchase (no subscription)

One Month Pass - $29.99

Best for hosting multiple pools over a short period, such as playoffs, tournaments, or busy game stretches.

  • Host unlimited squares pools for 30 days
  • Add multiple games to a single board
  • Players join for free
  • One-time purchase (no subscription)

One Year Pass - $79.99

Best for frequent or season-long hosts.

  • Host unlimited squares pools for 1 year
  • Use across all sports and seasons
  • Players join for free
  • One-time purchase (no subscription)

30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee
If you're not satisfied, we'll refund you. No questions asked.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How does a football squares fundraiser actually work?

Supporters buy squares on a 10x10 grid at a price you set. Once every square is claimed, the digits 0 through 9 get randomly assigned to the home team along the top and the away team down the left side, and the square sitting where the two teams' last digits meet wins at the end of each quarter. Most groups keep half of what comes in for the cause and pay the other half out as prizes, though you decide that split yourself. Plenty of hosts also add the reverse score rule, which pays a smaller prize to whoever holds the same two digits the other way around.

How much should we charge per square?

Work backward from the amount you want your cause to actually end up with. On the common even split, half of what you collect goes to the cause and half gets paid out, so a $2,500 goal means collecting $5,000 in total, which works out to $50 a square on a 100-square board. Divide your goal by 50 and you have your starting price, and if your split is different, adjust that divisor to match. According to our data the most common prices for football boards are $1, $2, $5, and $10, so anything well above that needs a group genuinely bought into what you're raising for. The trade-off is worth thinking through: a higher price raises more once the board fills but is harder to sell, and a lower price sells out quickly but caps your total, while a board that never fills raises nothing at all.

How do we split the money between prizes and our cause?

An even split between the prize pool and the cause is the most common starting point, and everything after that is up to you. On a $10 board that collects $1,000, keeping $500 for the cause leaves $500 to pay out, and a sensible way to spread it is $75 for the first quarter, $100 at halftime, $75 for the third quarter, and $250 for the last prize. Weighting the end that way keeps people watching to the final whistle instead of losing interest once the early quarters are settled. Whatever you choose, tell your supporters the split before they buy so everyone knows where their money is going.

What if we don't sell all 100 squares?

Run a smaller board rather than leaving gaps in a big one. A 5x5 board splits the same digit combinations across 25 squares by pairing two digits on each axis, so one square covers four possible score endings instead of one. A 4-square board groups five digits per axis, which puts 25 combinations behind every square. There's also the 10-square format, a single strip of ten numbered squares where the winning number is the last digit of both teams' scores added together. All of them pay out the same way, and selling out a small board beats running a half-empty large one every time.

Are some numbers better than others on a squares board?

Nobody picks their own digits, here or on any board worth playing. Supporters claim a square on the grid and the numbers get randomized afterward, so there's no way to angle for a good digit and no reason for anyone who bought late to feel shortchanged. If you're curious which pairings genuinely come up most often, we ran the numbers on 1,424 NFL games from the 2021 through 2025 seasons and published the full football squares odds breakdown. A 7 for the home team against a 0 for the away team came up 424 times, a win rate of 7.33 percent, which is the most common pairing by a wide margin and still loses far more often than it wins.

Can we run a fundraiser board for other sports too?

Yes, and football is simply where most groups start, because the same board also works for NCAA football, NCAA basketball, the NBA, and baseball, with scores and winners tracked automatically for each one. A youth team can raise money on a football board in the fall and come back for a March Madness fundraiser board in the spring on the same host pass.

How do we sell squares to supporters who don't follow football?

Lead with the fact that there is nothing to know. Nobody picks their own numbers and nobody has to understand the game, so a supporter who has never watched a down has exactly the same chance as the person who watches every Sunday, and that is the pitch. Tell them what the money is for, tell them the price, and send them the board link so they can look up their own square during the game instead of waiting to hear from you. In practice the people who buy without caring about football are buying because they want to support you, and the board is just a more entertaining way to do it than handing over cash.

Can supporters buy more than one square, and can we run more than one board?

Yes to both. Nobody loses anything in fairness when a supporter takes several squares, because every square still gets its digits at random, so there is no reason to cap it unless you want the board spread across as many people as possible. Running a second board is the better move once the first one sells out, rather than adding squares to a board people have already bought into. Keep the two completely separate: each has its own price, its own prize pool and its own draw, so nothing has to be recalculated and nobody's odds change after they've paid.

Do you take a cut of what we raise?

No, we don't take a cut of what you raise. You pay once for the host pass and the money your supporters contribute never passes through us, because payments go directly between them and you. We also don't handle payouts or hold prize money, so you stay in control of the rules, the split, and paying your winners.

Is a squares fundraiser considered gambling?

Play Squares is a digital board for teams, workplaces, and causes raising money together. Everyone chips in the same amount, the numbers are drawn at random, and the score decides who wins, which is what keeps it a game your whole group can enjoy. Rules around pools and contests do vary by state, so check your local laws and regulations to confirm what's allowed where you live, and if you're raising money under a school, a booster club or a registered nonprofit, check their own rules as well, since a district policy or a set of bylaws can be stricter than the state is. Keep a record of what came in and what went out either way, because that is what any of those bodies will ask you for. Our Terms of Service covers the rest.
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Football Squares Fundraiser: Run One Online | Play Squares