Sports Pool Commissioner Guides

Running a sports pool should be fun, not a second job. These guides walk you through every popular pool format step by step: the rules, the setup decisions you need to make before week one, the scoring options, and the mistakes that trip up first-time commissioners. Each guide is written from 20+ years of hosting office pools at SimplySportsWare, and every format covered here can be run on our platform with automatic scoring and live standings.

Football Guides

Basketball and Hockey Guides

Choosing a Host

Why run your pool online?

Every format in these guides can be run on paper, and every guide explains how. But the single biggest upgrade a commissioner can make is moving the pool online: members submit picks before an enforced deadline, every game is scored automatically, standings update in real time, and nobody has to decode handwriting or chase down pick sheets on Sunday morning. SimplySportsWare has hosted office pools since 2005 – see all pool types or view pricing (squares pools are completely free, and everything else has a free trial).

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