Commissioner setup guide
Series Squares & Season Squares — Commissioner Setup Guide
Every setting for both Series Squares modes: fixed-pot Series/Playoff Squares (buy once, per-game payouts) and weekly-pot Season Squares (fresh numbers every week, auto NFL load) — plus entry pricing, the organizer cut, and releasing more grids.
Series Squares puts one grid to work across an entire series, tournament, or short schedule instead of a single game — buy a square once and it rides every game you add, with one shared pot you divide up as you go. Season Squares is the sister mode built for a whole NFL season: buy one square for all year, get fresh numbers every single week, and every game each week pays its own winner out of that week's pot.
This guide covers both modes of the same contest type — how to set each one up, how the pot and payouts work, and what you do week to week (or game to game) as the commissioner. It's written for whichever one you're running, so skip to the mode that matches your pool.
Choosing your mode at creation
The create wizard is Style → Format → Details → Review. The first step picks which of the two modes you're running.
- Series / Playoff Squares
- Buy a square once for a set price, then you hand-set each game's prize from one shared pot. Best for a playoff run, tournament, or any short multi-game stretch.
- Season Squares — weekly pot
- One square for the whole season. Fresh numbers every week; each week's pot (weekly price × squares sold) splits across that week's games. Auto-loads the NFL schedule.
Setting up Series / Playoff Squares
- Price per square
- A one-time price that covers the whole series — buyers pay it once, not per game.
- Numbers each game
- Fresh numbers each game (a new random draw before every game) or the same numbers for the whole series (one draw used across every game). You can also change this game-by-game later with "Use for all games."
- Games in the series
- Enter the matchups and dates for the series at creation (add or remove rows as needed); you can add more games later too, either typed in by hand or pulled from the game library by sport/category.
- The playoffs (NFL or MLB)
- Don’t hand-type a postseason — choose the schedule template “The playoffs” and pick a shape instead. For the NFL: the Super Bowl, Championship Sunday, Championship Sunday + the Super Bowl, the Divisional round, Wild Card weekend, or the whole 13-game postseason. For MLB: the Wild Card round, a Division Series, a Championship Series, the World Series, or the whole postseason. You can do this before anyone knows who is in the bracket — the grids are built from the real schedule with real dates, matchups read TBD, and the teams and kickoff times fill themselves in as the bracket is set. The grids you sell in September are the same grids that score in January. NFL playoff games are single elimination, so every grid gets played; MLB series can end early, which is why a baseball pool also asks what to do with the money for a game that is never played.
- Buy once for the whole series
- On (recommended): one square is good for every game you add. Off: each game's grid is sold separately instead of sharing a single purchase.
Setting up Season Squares
- Price per square, per week
- What one square costs for one week; buyers pay this amount × the number of weeks in the season upfront, shown live as you set it.
- Start week
- Which NFL week the season begins — Week 1 for the full season, or a later week to launch a mid-season pool. The NFL schedule auto-loads from your chosen week.
- Include playoffs
- Adds the 4 playoff weeks (Wild Card through Super Bowl) onto the regular-season weeks, which also raises the upfront price accordingly.
- Buy-once, always
- Season Squares is always buy-once by design — a single square purchase covers every week of the season you configured.
Running Series / Playoff Squares
On the contest's "Schedule & payouts" screen (linked from Overview as "Manage games, numbers, prizes & scores").
- Draw numbers per game
- Draw (and redraw, before scores are final) each game's row/column numbers individually, or draw one game's numbers and use "Use for all games" to copy them to every other game in the series.
- Per-game payouts
- For each game, pick the payout period(s) for your sport (e.g. quarter, half, final), the win pattern (exact score match, or reverse), and whether that period pays cash or a named prize item. "Copy to all games" repeats one game's payout setup across the rest.
- Scores & finalize
- Enter each period's score as it happens ("Save scores"), or lock it in as official with "Save & finalize" — finalizing a period computes and displays that period's winning square.
- Pot, payouts & you keep
- The top of the page always shows the full sellable pot, what you've allocated to payouts so far, and what you keep — updated live as you add games and set prizes.
- Rolling jackpot
- Under "⚙ Series settings". If your board won’t sell out, most winning squares will belong to nobody — that money normally just stays with you, and the supporters who did buy watch week after week with no winner. Switch this on and an unclaimed prize carries into the SAME period next game and keeps climbing ($20, then $40, then $60) until a square somebody actually bought wins it. It rolls, it does not double, and it can never cost you more than the amounts you already published: a pot only grows using money set aside for a game that paid out to nobody, and anything left in it when the pool ends stays with you. Tell your players "if nobody wins, it rolls to next week" so they know their money didn’t vanish.
- Release another seriesPro
- Sell another full 100-square set once the current one fills, either manually or automatically once a chosen percent of squares are sold.
Running Season Squares
On the contest's "Weeks, numbers & winners" screen.
- Draw week numbers
- One set of numbers per week, shared by every game that week — draw week-by-week, or draw every remaining week at once with "Draw numbers for all weeks."
- Auto-drawPro
- Turn on and each week's numbers draw themselves automatically about two days before that week starts, so you never have to remember.
- Undraw week numbers
- Undoes a week's draw — useful if a week drew earlier than you wanted, or auto-draw ran before you were ready. Games that have already started or been scored are left alone, and you're told how many. Squares bought after the draw go back to playing those games.
- Enter final scores
- Enter each game's final score for the week as results come in.
- Settle the week
- Splits that week's pot evenly across however many of that week's games have final scores, and assigns each game's winning square — available once numbers are drawn and at least one score is entered.
- Mark winners paid
- Each settled game shows its winning square and prize; mark it paid once you've sent the money.
Entry price, pot & organizer cut
- How the pot is built
- Series/Playoff: pot = squares sold × the one-time series price. Season: each week's pot = squares sold × the weekly price, calculated fresh every week.
- Organizer cutPro
- Every entry-fee pool supports a cut on the Settings tab — a percentage of the pool, a flat total, or a flat amount per entry. The prize pot shown to you and to buyers is always net of it. It is a Pro Commissioner and Organization feature.
- Payments
- Buyers pay you directly through the app's in-app payment step when they claim a square — money never routes through ChooseASquare.
Grid settings (Settings tab, per set)
Applies to each 100-square set individually — a series with multiple sets configures each on its own.
- Reveal numbers
- Choose when drawn numbers become visible to participants: at lock, at game time, once all squares are claimed or paid, on a schedule, manually, or immediately.
- Unsold squares at lock
- Assign any unsold squares to the club (recommended, so every number is covered) or leave them blank (a winning number on a blank square pays no one).
- Lock timing
- Locks automatically at game time by default; set an earlier lock time if you want selling to close sooner.
- Display
- Toggle showing the 1–100 square numbers and participant names on the public grid.
FAQ
What's the difference between Series/Playoff Squares and Season Squares?
Series/Playoff Squares uses one fixed pot for a set of games you choose — buy once, you set each game's prize from that shared pot. Season Squares runs the whole NFL season with a fresh weekly pot: buy once for the season, get new numbers every week, and each week's games split that week's pot.
I picked the wrong mode — can I switch an existing pool?
Not from the console: the mode is set when the pool is created and there is no toggle for it afterwards. But you do NOT need to buy anything again — one flat Contest Pass covers both modes, because they are the same contest type. If you have not sold any squares yet, the fastest fix is to delete the pool and re-create it in the mode you wanted: deleting releases your Contest Pass back to your account as unused, and it re-applies automatically to the next contest you create, so it costs nothing but the few minutes of re-entering your logo and payment details. If squares have already been claimed, tap "Talk to a human" with your pool name and the mode you want and we will convert it for you instead. Worth knowing before you ask: Season Squares pays out on each game's FINAL score only, so if you want Q1 / halftime / Q3 / final prizes on every game, Playoff / Series is the mode you want.
Do Series/Playoff Squares have to be NFL, or can I use any games?
Any games — enter matchups by hand at creation, and add more later either typed in or pulled from the game library across any sport or category. Season Squares, by contrast, is built for the NFL and auto-loads the schedule.
Do participants pay once, or every week?
Both modes are buy-once. Series/Playoff buyers pay the one-time series price up front; Season Squares buyers pay the weekly price × however many weeks the season runs, all upfront at purchase.
Can I sell more than 100 squares?
Yes — for Series/Playoff Squares, release another full 100-square set once the current one fills (manually, or automatically at a percent-sold threshold you set).
Do the numbers stay the same all season, or change?
In Series/Playoff Squares you choose: fresh numbers each game, or one shared draw for the whole series (with a "use for all games" shortcut). Season Squares always draws fresh numbers every week, shared by every game that week.
How does the organizer cut work?
Set it on the Settings tab as a percentage of the pool, a flat total, or a flat amount per entry. Every pot shown — the series pot or a given week's pot — is already net of your cut, and it works without the Fundraising add-on.
Set it up in a few minutes — every option here is right there in the wizard.
Start a Series Squares pool →