Set the rules
Choose confidence scoring, your entry fee, the weeks, and how picks lock.
Build the schedule
Pull each week’s games from the games library and choose the featured tiebreaker game.
Rank & score
Entries pick winners and assign confidence points. Enter results and standings update automatically.
Features, options & plans
Tune every detail to fit your fundraiser — and see exactly what’s on each plan.
＋ Add-on = available as a paid add-on on that plan, included free on Champion. See full pricing →
Pick your game — we bring the teams
On Varsity & up, choose your matchup from our synced library — team names, logos, and start times come pre-loaded. Leagues we integrate:
More leagues added regularly. On any plan you can always type in team names yourself.
How a Confidence Pool works
Think of it as a pick’em with strategy: you’re not just picking winners — you’re ranking how confident you are in every pick. Here’s exactly how a confidence pool works, with a scored example, strategy, the rules you can set, and how to run one without a spreadsheet.
What is a confidence pool?
A confidence pool is a weekly pick’em with one extra layer: you don’t just pick the winner of each game — you rank how sure you are. With N games on the slate, every player assigns each pick a confidence value from 1 to N, using each number exactly once. A correct pick earns the points you assigned it; a wrong pick earns nothing.
The most points wins the week, and points accumulate into a season-long standings. Because your most confident pick is worth the most, nailing your “locks” — and avoiding a blown one — is where pools are won and lost.
See a week scored
Say four games are on the slate. You pick a winner in each and rank them 4 (most confident) down to 1:
Three of four hit — but your “2” missed, so it earns nothing. Week total: 4 + 3 + 0 + 1 = 8. A rival who also went 3-for-4 but put their big number on the game you both missed scores far less. It’s not how many you get right — it’s which ones.
How confidence scoring works
Each week you list the games, pick a winner in each, then rank your picks by confidence. Your surest pick gets the highest number; your shakiest gets 1.
- 16 games on the slate → assign 16 down to 1, each number used once.
- A correct pick banks the points you put on it; a miss earns 0.
- Your weekly score is the sum of the points on your correct picks.
- Weekly scores roll up into a season standings to crown an overall champion.
Confidence pool vs. a regular pick’em
A straight pick’em gives one point per correct pick — a blowout and a coin-flip count the same. A confidence pool weights each pick by how sure you were, so your best reads matter most and a missed lock can sink an otherwise great week.
Ready to run your own confidence pool?
Spin one up in under five minutes — free to start, and players rank their picks right on their phone.
Strategy: where to put your big numbers
- Spend your highest numbers on the safest games — big favorites, not the most exciting matchups. The standings live and die on the top of your ranking.
- Rank underdogs low. If you love an upset, give it a middle number — being right on a 3 barely helps, while being wrong on a 15 is a disaster.
- Don’t agonize over your lowest picks; a 1 or 2 barely moves you. Save your energy for the 12-and-up range.
- Biggest beginner mistake: putting a big number on the “fun” pick. Confidence pools reward boring, high-probability picks at the top.
- Check injuries, weather and line moves before you lock — a late scratch can turn a “lock” into a trap.
- Over a season, consistency beats heroics: steady weeks near the top win more championships than one monster week.
Rules and variations you can set
- Straight-up winners or against the spread (ATS).
- Push handling: when a pick ties the spread, score it zero or award half its confidence — your call.
- Weekly winners plus a season-long champion.
- A featured-game tiebreaker — entries predict the total combined points to break ties.
- One entry per person or several, with unique-value enforcement so nobody double-assigns a number.
Running a confidence pool the easy way
ChooseASquare builds each week’s schedule from the games library (any league), enforces unique confidence values automatically, and scores every week the instant results are final — keeping weekly and season standings live.
Players rank their picks by dragging or with up/down arrows on their phone — no number-juggling, no manual math, no spreadsheet. You share one link, set how pushes and tiebreakers work, and let it run. Add the optional Fundraising module and the same pool also raises money for your program.
Is a confidence pool right for your group?
Confidence pools are a perfect step up for office leagues, friend groups and booster clubs that already run a pick’em and want more strategy and season-long stakes. If your group prefers last-one-standing drama, look at a Survivor pool; for a one-game party, Football Squares is the classic. But for week-after-week engagement that rewards real football knowledge, a confidence pool is one of the stickiest you can run.
Confidence Pool, answered
Other contest types
Run a Confidence Pool for your program
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