Office pool · 100, 50 or 25 squares
Football Squares
A free football squares template you fill in right here. Pick a board size, name the teams, sell the squares, and draw the numbers at random. Set a price per square and it works out the payouts. Print it or share the link.
The numbers are a random draw, 0 through 9, one fresh set per game. Draw them only after every square is sold.
Quick fill
Paste names, one per line or comma-separated. They scatter at random across the empty squares, so nobody's squares end up clumped together.
Who won this quarter?
Draw the numbers, then enter the score. The winning square lights up in the grid below.
Draw the numbers to enable this.
Pool & payouts
Set a price per square. We total the pot and split it across the four quarters. The same math runs a fundraiser: pick a price, scatter the names, donate the pot.
$0
$0
$0
$0
$0
| Home Team | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ||
| Away Team | · | ||||||||||
| · | |||||||||||
| · | |||||||||||
| · | |||||||||||
| · | |||||||||||
| · | |||||||||||
| · | |||||||||||
| · | |||||||||||
| · | |||||||||||
| · | |||||||||||
How it works
The whole game in a paragraph
Here's football squares, if you've somehow never been pulled into one. There's a 10×10 grid, 100 squares. People buy squares, a buck or five each, and write their name in. Once every square is taken, you draw the digits 0–9 across the top and down the side, one per row and column, at random.
At the end of each quarter you look at the last digit of each team's score. Say it's 17–10. That's a 7 and a 0. The square where column 7 meets row 0 wins that quarter. The beautiful part: it's pure luck. Grandma wins as often as the fantasy-league guy, which is exactly why everyone's happy to play.
Want the full version? The how-to-play guide covers the rules, a worked example, quarter payouts including forward-and-backward, and which numbers actually win.
Using this grid
From blank board to winner
- 1Set the two team names up top. These label the columns and rows.
- 2Collect names. Type them straight into squares, or paste a list into Quick fill and let it scatter them around.
- 3Once every square is sold, hit Draw the numbers. Not a second before.
- 4Print the grid so everyone can see the board.
- 5Each quarter, type the two scores into the winner finder. The winning square lights up.
FAQ
Squares pool questions
How many squares should each person buy?
However many you sell them. There are 100 squares total. Some people grab one, some grab ten. Buying more squares improves your odds, but every square is still a coin flip, so nobody can really game it.
When do you draw the numbers?
After every square is sold. Never before. If you drew the digits first, people would cherry-pick the good number combos, and the whole point of squares is that nobody can. Sell first, draw second.
How do the payouts usually work?
Four quarters, four winners. Plenty of pools weight it. A common split is 20% after the first quarter, 20% at halftime, 20% after the third, and 40% on the final score. Set it however your group likes.
What if the winning square was never sold?
Up to your group. Some roll the empty-square money into the next quarter, some give it to the closest square, some donate it. Decide before kickoff so there's no argument later.