Rules

What is true in every pool. What a commissioner can change.

This is the product handbook. Credits, tickets, locks, formats, and the knobs on create-pool. It is not the legal House Rules, and it is not a cash ledger.

How a week works is the ritual. FAQ is short answers. House Rules is the money line: we are not the bank.

Always true

These do not change with the pool.

Rule	What it means
21 and older	You confirm it on the way in. Do not invite anyone under 21.
Credits are the game	They have no cash value. The app does not accept, hold, or pay money. Standings are entertainment scoring.
This week’s slate only	You cannot park a ticket on next week. A parlay cannot span weeks.
Leftover expires after Monday night	Unused leftover dies when the week rolls. Sitting on the stack is a bad week. Winnings stay.
Odds lock when you place	The posted price on the ticket is the price you have. The board can move after that.
Kickoff locks the ticket	That game is done taking action. A parlay locks when its earliest game kicks. After that, no cancel.
Open book	Pending and settled tickets are visible to the pool. If you want a private diary, this is the wrong game. Head-to-head can hide this week’s opponent until their games lock — not the rest of the book.

Formats

Same tickets. Different race.

A pool is Free-for-all or Head-to-head. That is the first decision. A one-week pool and a full-season pool are the same format with a different window — not two products.

Free-for-all

Everyone ranked by profit

The race is season profit. Weekly board and season board.
You play the whole table.
No bracket: most profit wins. Bracket on: seeded by profit, champion won the last week.
Season bank is allowed. Remaining bank wins.
Book is always open.

Head-to-head

One opponent each week

Win the week, stack a record. Profit is points-for.
Odd roster: someone plays the field — median of everyone else.
No bracket: best record wins. Bracket on: seeded by record.
Weekly allotment only. No season bank.
Open book, or hide this week’s opponent until lock.

There is one champion. Highest season profit is a number on the board. It is not a second title. In Head-to-head it can punch the last playoff ticket if profit berth is on.

Credits

Weekly allotment or season bank.

Every pool picks one. Default is weekly. Open Table is weekly Free-for-all, 1,000 a week.

Weekly

Fresh stack. Leftover dies.

Default 1,000 each week. Last week is over.
Unused leftover expires after Monday night. Sitting out writes off the whole allotment.
Winnings stay. They are not taxed at rollover.
A bad week does not knock you out. Next week you get a fresh stack.
Works in either format.

Season bank

Starting stack. It carries.

Default 10,000 on join. Highest remaining bank wins.
Only the unused weekly obligation expires (default 1,000). The rest stays.
Free-for-all only. No bracket.
Bust is below the minimum with nothing still in action. A buy-in can be recorded only after that — a credit grant, not proof money moved.

There is no rollover of leftover in weekly. There is no burn-rate dial. Unused leftover is supposed to hurt — that is the rule that keeps sitting out from being the safe play.

Tickets

What you can bet. What you cannot.

On	Off
Moneylines, spreads, totals. Singles and multi-game parlays up to 4 legs.	Player props. Same-game parlays. Other sports unless the commissioner turned college football on.
Sportsbook-shaped prices. We are not claiming better odds than a book.	Cash out. Live betting. Parking next week.

Cancel, void, settle

Cancel before lock: 10% of the stake is burned, 90% returns to credits. That exists so nobody can post a fake lean and yank it when a friend fades them.
After kickoff: no cancel.
Void: commissioner only. No 10% penalty. Wait until the board is final before anyone treats a week as done.
Settle: when that game is final, not in a Monday batch. A losing parlay leg stops the rest of the ticket.
Minimum bet: default 100. Leftover under the minimum still expires — you cannot hide dust.

Simple betting is a personal path — one question at a time instead of the full board. Same markets, same prices, same cancel math. It is not a pool setting and it does not change the ticket.

How you win

Profit, record, or the last week of the window.

Weekly score is what you have left of that week after leftover expires. Sitting out and going broke both land on the floor. Cashing anything gets you off it.
Tie on that number: higher total staked wins. Two people who both staked nothing still tie. Same rule in both formats — an all-in miss beats a no-show.
Head-to-head week: higher week score wins the matchup. Ties count as T (0.5 in win%). Season table: win percentage, then head-to-head among the tied group, then profit, then staked.
Field game: your week versus the median of everyone else, no-shows included.
Late join: this week’s credits only. Profit and record start from join. No makeup weeks.

Playoffs

Optional. Championship is always the last week of the window you opted into. The bracket is not a second calendar.

Spots	When	Bracket lands on
Off (0)	Commissioner choice, or fewer than 4 members	No bracket. Best record or most profit wins.
2	Auto at 4–5 members, or set	Last week of the window. Championship only.
4	Auto at 6+ members, or set	Last two weeks. Semis, then championship. NFL playoff tail on: Conference Championship and the Super Bowl. Wild Card and Divisional stay ordinary weeks.

One-week pools have no bracket. Season-bank pools have no bracket.
People who miss the bracket still get credits and may still bet those weeks. Those tickets still count for profit. They do not get a W-L that week.
Profit berth Head-to-head only. If the season profit leader is not already in, they take the last spot. It does not crown a second champion.
Elimination games do not record a tie. If both sides cash nothing, the higher seed advances.

Commissioner options

What you set once. What stays editable.

Competitive settings freeze at the first kickoff of the pool’s first scored week. A season pool sitting dark through preseason is not frozen yet.

Setting	Default	Frozen after first lock
Name	Whatever you type	No
Format	No silent default. You pick one.	Yes
Sports	NFL on. College football off.	Yes
Window	Rest of regular season during the year. Regular 1–18 in preseason. This week is available, not default.	Yes
NFL playoff tail	Off. Only offered when the window ends at regular week 18. Super Bowl is opt-in.	Yes
Credit mode	Weekly allotment, 1,000	Yes
Starting bank / buy-in / obligation	10,000 / 10,000 / 1,000 — season bank only	Yes
Minimum bet	100	Yes
Playoff spots	Auto, unless you turn the bracket off	Yes
Profit berth	On, Head-to-head with a bracket	Yes
Opponent’s tickets	Open book	Yes
Badges	Free-for-all: Podium, Last, Ghost. Head-to-head: Ghost. Goose egg off.	No — but awards are not live yet

College football uses ESPN FBS lines. A pool with both sports gets an NFL / CFB switch on Games, not a second tab. At least one sport stays on.

Badge definitions, for when they award

Podium — 1st / 2nd / 3rd by that week’s profit. Ties share the place.
Last — worst profit that week.
Ghost — no ticket reached lock. Canceling everything before kickoff is a Ghost. A Ghost cannot take Podium or Last.
Goose egg — you played, settled at least one ticket, won none, lost at least one. A week of only pushes is not a Goose egg.

Joining and leaving

The invite is a credit pool. Nothing else.

Open the invite, enter your email and a display name, click the login email. You are in that pool. Repeat if you were sent a second one.
Late join gets the current week only. You are not owed missed weeks. In Head-to-head, future pairings rebuild; past results stay.
Mid-season leave: remaining Head-to-head games against that person become field games. A side-pot buy-in, if the group has one, stays unless the group votes — same as fantasy.
An invite is not an offer to gamble with us and not a request that anyone send money.

Money

Optional, off the app, your group’s risk.

Free to play is the default. Credits-only players can stay in the pool. Do not make cash mandatory unless you are willing to shrink the board.

If a group wants a pot, they write it down before Week 1: treasurer who is not the app, a stated buy-in, how you split, no-shows, late joins, voids, ties. Zero rake. Cash moves in Venmo / Cash App / Zelle as a private arrangement. We do not adopt the board as an official cash result, and we will not appear as treasurer or appeals court.

Common group shapes, if you do it anyway: weekly Head-to-head skins, a season pot for the champion, or a 1st / 2nd / 3rd split on profit. Pick one rule before kickoff. Do not stack two ways to win the same dollars.

Legal text: House Rules and Terms. A fill-in template for a friends pot lives with the commissioner, not on this page — we will not host your ledger.

Not live yet

Do not play as if these exist.

Badge awards — the toggles are on the form. The weekly hardware is not handing out yet.
Same-game parlays — off until pricing is ready.
Imposter and Survival — later modes. Same tickets, a different job. Not in the product.
Player props, live betting, cash out — not this product.

That’s the book.

Join the open pool — weekly Free-for-all, credits only. Or play the pool you were invited to.

Play this week

Still a short question? FAQ. Want the week in four steps? How it works.