Run NFL Squares Pools the Easy Way
Fill your board faster, keep players updated, and automatically track scores and winners all in one place.
How It Works
Create your board
Choose from multiple game modes, scoring options, and prizes.
Share with others
Our host tools make it easy to share your board, fill the squares, and collect payments quickly.
Track scores & winners automatically
We update scores in real time and determine the winner for each quarter, so players can check the board themselves instead of asking you who won.
See For Yourself
100 squares available
Playing as: You. Choose your squares!
Players (8)
Why Choose Our Squares Board
Built on three core principles: Easy, Fun, and Fast. If you're new to hosting, start with our full guide to hosting a football squares pool or our mid-game rules for overtime and the reverse score rule. Moving your group off a printed sheet for the first time? Here is what running football squares online actually changes on game day.
Automatically track scores & winners
Scores and winners are updated in real time automatically.
Keep players updated
Players stay in the loop with updates and notifications for each game.
Mobile-optimized
Perfect for in-person events, and it works great on phones and tablets.
Multiple scoring options
Keep your players engaged with multiple game modes, like final scores, reverse scores, touching squares, and more.
Multiple game options
One board, multiple games. Run a slate for the Thanksgiving Day games, the March Madness Tournament, an NBA series, or just 1 game like the Super Bowl.
Multiple board types
Keep it classic with a 10x10 board, or tone it down with a smaller, 5x5 board for a smaller group.
Multiple sports
Choose from multiple football and basketball leagues, like the NFL, NCAA Football, NCAA Basketball, and the NBA.
Fun animations
Make game day more exciting with animations for key events, scoring changes, and winners.
Fill your board faster
Our host tools make it easy to share and fill your board.
Collect payments
Players can use one-click payment links through supported payment methods, like Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, or Zelle.
Players pick their squares
Players can pick their own squares and join the pool in seconds.
How We Compare
| Our App | PDFs/Sheets | Other Sites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic winner detection | Sometimes | ||
| Real-time updates | No/Manual | Sometimes | |
| Mobile-optimized | Yes/Limited | Varies | |
| Setup time | <5 minutes | 10-15+ minutes | 5-10 minutes |
| Fun animations | Rarely | ||
| Flexible payment options | Sometimes | ||
| Multiple games on 1 board | Rarely | ||
| Board Creation Limits | Unlimited | Per board | Per board |
| Cost | One Game Pass - $12.99 | Free | Free 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.”
“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.”
“Even my older uncle had no issues picking squares. I felt confident sharing it with everyone, and it was completely worth the price.”
How Do NFL Squares Work?
An NFL board runs on the same 10x10 grid as any other squares pool. Players claim squares while the grid is still blank, the digits get randomized once every square is taken, and each square ends up holding one digit for the home team and one for the away team. What makes an NFL board its own thing is the rhythm around it: four quarters of scoring instead of one result, and a fresh matchup every week from September through January.
Four quarters, four chances to win
At the end of every quarter you take the last digit of each team's score and find where they meet on the grid. Because the score keeps moving, the winning square changes four times over one afternoon, and a square that looks dead at the end of the first quarter can be live by halftime:
| End of | Score | Winning square |
|---|---|---|
| 1st quarter | Home 7, Away 3 | 7 home, 3 away |
| Halftime | Home 14, Away 13 | 4 home, 3 away |
| 3rd quarter | Home 17, Away 20 | 7 home, 0 away |
| Final | Home 24, Away 26 | 4 home, 6 away |
Which squares actually come up in NFL games?
Squares built on a 0, 3, 4 or 7 come up more often than the rest, and the gap is widest early in the game. We went through 1,359 NFL regular-season games from 2021 to 2025 and checked which square would have won each scoring period:
| End of | Most common square | Win Rate | Squares that never won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st quarter | 0 home, 0 away | 14.5% | 57 of 100 |
| Halftime | 7 home, 0 away | 6.4% | 18 of 100 |
| 3rd quarter | 7 home, 0 away | 4.78% | 6 of 100 |
| Final | 7 home, 0 away | 4.27% | 0 of 100 |
A square holding a 2 or a 5 usually sits out the first quarter, but by the end of the game every one of the 100 squares had won at least once, and even the most common one only came up about once every 23 games. Since the digits are randomized after the board fills, this is something to watch for rather than to plan around, and our football squares odds tool breaks down every square by quarter, including the playoffs.
One game a week, or several on one board
Every weekly board starts over, with squares claimed on a blank grid and the digits randomized again, so the square that won somebody three quarters last Sunday carries nothing forward and nobody keeps a season-long standings table to argue about. Some weeks call for more than one game, though: Thanksgiving puts three NFL games back to back, which is why plenty of groups run Thanksgiving football squares on one board across all three, Christmas Day brings another tripleheader for Christmas football squares, and Wild Card weekend works the same way with six playoff games across one weekend. For a quieter Thursday night game, a 25 square football pool or a 10 square football pool fills faster than the full 100.
Nobody has to text you for the score
Play Squares follows the game while it's still being played and highlights the square that is currently on track to win the quarter if the score holds. Players open the board and see it for themselves, which is the part that saves a host the most time: no more answering "did my square win" and "which numbers do I have again" in a group chat all afternoon.
New to running one? Our walkthrough of how to play football squares covers the whole game from a player's side, start to finish, and if your group still wants a sheet on the wall, the football squares template prints one for any NFL game.
Simple, Transparent Pricing
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.