Guides
Quiniela, Porra, Bolão: Football Pool Names Around the World
Read this post in: Español
It is the same game everywhere. The group calls the weekend’s results, points get handed out for being right, and a table decides who gets to bring it up at every dinner for the next six months. The only thing that changes is what you call it.
And it changes a lot. Tell an Argentinian you are running a quiniela and they will picture something with no football in it at all. Invite a Spaniard to a polla and you will get a look. Here is the map — plus the two words that will send you to completely the wrong place.
The map, country by country
| Word | Where it’s used |
|---|---|
| Office pool / pick’em | United States, Canada |
| Predictor / prediction league | United Kingdom, Ireland |
| Quiniela | Mexico, Central America, and as a general term across much of Latin America |
| Prode | Argentina, Paraguay — short for pronósticos deportivos |
| Polla | Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador |
| Penca | Uruguay |
| Porra | Spain |
| Bolão | Brazil |
| Tippspiel | Germany, Austria |
They are functional synonyms: predict results, collect points, argue about the table. The real differences are in the habits, not the words. An Argentinian prode usually runs a whole tournament. A Spanish porra tends to form around LaLiga and the derbies. A Uruguayan penca is very often a workplace institution. And an American office pool is the one most likely to be a knockout bracket rather than a week-by-week table, because March is a national holiday over there in all but name.
Two words that mean something else entirely
This is the part worth knowing before you go searching in the wrong language.
“Quiniela” in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay is not football. In those countries the word refers to a numbers game of chance with no connection to fixtures, predictions or your group chat. In Mexico and Central America it means exactly what you think it means. Same six letters, two unrelated games. If you are in Buenos Aires looking for the football thing, the word you want is prode; in Montevideo it is penca.
“Quiniela” in Spain is a state-run football product, not the thing your friends run. The Spanish word for what your group does is porra. This one catches people out constantly, because the fixtures involved really are football — it is just a completely different product with a completely different purpose.
There is one more worth flagging for British readers: a sweepstake is not a predictor. In a sweepstake, names are drawn from a hat and you are assigned a team at random — you make no predictions at all. It is a fun office tradition, and it is a different game. If what you want is everyone calling the scores every week, the word you want is predictor or prediction league.
And one pronunciation warning, delivered plainly: “polla” is perfectly normal in Colombia, Chile, Peru and Ecuador, and is vulgar slang in Spain. Use porra with Spaniards.
Does anything change besides the name?
Barely, and that is good news. The decisions are identical no matter what your group calls it:
The game mode. Simple picks — home, draw, away — work best in big mixed groups, because everyone understands them in ten seconds. Exact-score rewards the people who commit and spreads the table much faster. If you go exact, make the exact-score points worth clearly more than the result points, or nobody will take the risk.
The scoring. Nothing exotic required. What actually matters is that the rule is the same for everyone and that it is settled before anything kicks off. Most historic group arguments are born from a rule clarified after the round was played. If you want the detail, we wrote up when picks should lock and how exact-score scoring works.
The prize. It does not need to be money. “Last place buys dinner” ages far better, and what is really on the line is the right to remind everyone for years.
Who keeps score. This is where ninety percent of these games die. Somebody volunteers to track everything in a spreadsheet, lasts three rounds, burns out, and by the fourth nobody knows who is winning. It is not their fault. That job should not exist.
Guides in your word
We wrote one for each, in the vocabulary and habits of each country:
- How to run an office pick’em pool at work — United States, Canada
- How to run a soccer prediction pool with friends — the general version
- What is a quiniela? — Mexico, Central America
- ¿Quiniela, prode, polla, penca o porra? — the same map, in Spanish
- Como organizar um bolão com os amigos — Brazil
Frequently asked questions
Are a quiniela and an office pool the same thing? As a game between friends, yes: predict the fixtures, collect points, one table at the end. The words are regional. The formats differ slightly by habit — Latin American pools usually run week by week across a league season, North American ones lean toward knockout brackets.
What do they call it in Spain? Porra. “Montar una porra” is exactly what you would call setting up the office pool. Avoid quiniela there, because it refers to a state-run product instead.
What about Brazil? Bolão. Same idea, in Portuguese, and it is a huge tradition around the Brasileirão and the international tournaments.
Is a predictor the same as a sweepstake? No. In a predictor you make picks every round and points decide the winner. In a sweepstake you are assigned a team at random and make no predictions. Different games that happen to appear at the same office at the same time of year.
Can I play with people from several countries in one group? Yes, and it is normal when the group is spread out. The game is identical; everyone calls it whatever they call it at home. The only thing to agree on is the scoring, and that only has to happen once.
Do you need money to play? No. Quini is free to play and does not move or hold any group’s money. Most of these games work perfectly on a symbolic prize — the dinner the last-place finisher buys, and nothing else.
Call it whatever you like
Quiniela, prode, polla, penca, porra, bolão, Tippspiel, predictor, office pool. The game is the same and it has been working for decades. The only thing that changed is that nobody has to type the results in by hand any more — they fill themselves in while the match is still running, and the table moves without anyone touching it.
You set the rules. We keep the live score. Get Quini at playquini.com and have your pool ready before the next round, or see how it works first.