How to Run a Soccer Prediction Pool With Friends

Every friend group has that pool that starts hot and dies by matchday three. It is always the same story: someone keeps the predictions in a spreadsheet, goes quiet mid-week, nobody knows who is leading, and the whole thing collapses into “but I had that scoreline.” Good news — you can run a season-long prediction pool that survives the whole campaign, and you never have to touch a spreadsheet. Here is how.

What a prediction pool actually is

Simple: everyone in the group predicts each matchday’s games. Correct calls earn points, the leaderboard decides bragging rights, and nobody has to “trust” whoever tallies the scores — because there is no manual tally. Results come in on their own.

That is the format that keeps a season alive from the first whistle to the last. Every round shifts the table, there are comebacks, there are upsets, and there is always something to argue about in the group chat.

The decisions you make before kickoff

Homemade pools usually stall over details nobody agreed on up front. Sort out these three and everything else flows.

1. Which game mode?

Simple (win, draw, or lose): best for big, mixed groups. Everyone gets it instantly and nobody feels shut out.
Advanced (exact score): rewards the brave and spreads the leaderboard fast. Perfect for the crowd that likes to call a scoreline to the number.

If you play Advanced, keep exact-score points meaningfully higher than plain outcome points, so calling a tricky 2-1 actually pays off.

2. How does scoring work?

You do not need to reinvent anything. The defaults work: points for the right result, bonus points for the exact score. What matters is that the rule is the same for everyone and locked in before the whistle — not after the round has already played out.

3. Is there a prize?

It does not need to be money. A dinner paid by whoever finishes bottom ages beautifully over a season. What is really on the line here is pride — the right to remind everyone for years that you finished on top.

Setting it up in two minutes

Create the pool. In Quini, tap Create and pick the competition — from the Premier League to LaLiga to international tournaments.
Choose the mode. Simple for the whole crew, Advanced for the ones who like to suffer.
Invite everyone. Share the 6-character code or the link. Friends play from the browser without installing anything.
Let the app do the work. Picks lock automatically at kickoff, results come in live, and the leaderboard updates itself.

Your only job as organizer is the group chat. Want to see how it all fits together first? Take a look at how it works and the FAQ.

What if it is a knockout?

Season pools and knockout pools play by slightly different rules — extra time and penalties change everything. If your group is taking on a single-elimination tournament, we wrote a guide just for that: how to run a knockout-tournament pool with friends.

Start your pool for free

No more spreadsheet nobody updates. With Quini you build the pool in two minutes, invite the group with a code, and let the live leaderboard handle the rest. No arguing over who is ahead, no “I had that score” — the table tells the truth on its own.

Get Quini at playquini.com and set up your pool before the next matchday.