Your guide to setting up a Super Bowl squares pool for the big game.
Many of us have participated in a Super Bowl squares pool. Not all of us, and I include myself in this, remember exactly how they’re set up.
Well have no fear, we are here to help you do this thing.
How to set up the Super Bowl squares grid
First, make a square. Then you carve that square up into 10 rows and 10 columns. (You can go bigger, of course.)
There are different ways to play, but usually the x-axis applies to one team, and the y-axis applies to the other team.
Participants can then purchase squares on the board. Usually, this is done at random. People don’t know what number they will be assigned; you just buy a square. In a 10×10 grid, obviously enough, there are 100 squares available to purchase. You can sell squares for a dollar or ten dollars or whatever it is you want.
Write their name in the squares. At random.
Once names are assigned in random squares, you randomly assign numbers 1-10 to both the rows and columns. So it will look like this:
The names should be filled in the boxes, and you’re ready to go.
How do you score in Super Bowl squares?
The way you find a winner is whoever’s square correctly matches to the ones digit of the score of each team at the end of each quarter, half, and game. So if the score after the first quarter is 14-10 49ers, the player who has square that coincides with the 4 in the 49ers column and the 0 in the Chiefs column will win that quarter.
If you do the square divided up by bigger numbers, you don’t have to do the ones digit. In that instance, you would just do the score.
Again: Most people carve up scoring by quarter, half, and then final score. The pot can be carved up however you want. One way of doing it is 50% of the pot for final score, 30% for halftime score, and then 10% for 1st and 3rd quarter score, but it’s totally up to you. Some people just do 25% of pot after each of the four quarters.
It’s fun because each quarter gives you a fresh chance to win.
What are the best squares to have in Super Bowl squares?
Let’s let my friends at USA TODAY Sports handle this one:
The Harvard Sports Analysis Collective wrote that the single best square to have is seven on the favorite’s axis (the Patriots are the favorites this year) and zero on the underdog’s, with the 0-0 square a close second. The Washington Post lists 0-0 as the best square to have, with the two combinations of seven and zero (7-0 or 0-7) right behind it. Three, four and one also aren’t bad numbers to have from an odds standpoint.
Is there any skill in Super Bowl squares?
Absolutely not. But it’s still fun.
