How to Run an NFL Pick'em Pool With Friends (2026 Season)

The 2026 NFL season opens on Wednesday, September 9, when the Seattle Seahawks host the New England Patriots at Lumen Field at 8:20 PM ET. Week 1 doesn’t end that night — it runs through Monday, September 14.

That gap is the whole reason most pick’em pools fall apart, and it’s worth understanding before you set yours up. Here’s how to run one that survives past October.

Why a pool has about a week and a half to get organized

If you’ve run a soccer pool before, the format is familiar: everyone picks, points get awarded for correct calls, the table decides. Three things about the NFL will still change how you set it up.

1. It’s a week, not a matchday. An NFL week carries roughly thirteen to sixteen games, against nine in a typical soccer matchday. More rows to fill, more places for the standings to move, and a lot more to score by hand.

2. There’s effectively no draw. In soccer, marking a draw is a real decision — often the decision that separates a table. NFL ties are rare enough that in practice a pick’em pool is pick the winner, full stop. That makes it easier for casual players and harder to separate the leaders, which is why the scoring choice below matters more than it does in soccer.

3. The week is split across three days. A game on Thursday night, the bulk on Sunday, and a Monday night close. This is what kills spreadsheet pools: somebody sends their whole card on Saturday thinking nothing has started, and the Thursday game was played two days ago.

The four decisions to make before Week 1

Winner only, or winner plus margin

Winner only is one point per correct call. It works with big, mixed groups where not everyone follows the season closely, and everyone understands it on the first read.

Winner plus margin awards extra points for how close you got to the final score difference. It separates the table much faster and rewards the people who actually watch. In Quini, NFL pools ship with this built in — 3 points for the winner and 2 more if you call the margin — so you don’t have to invent a rulebook or defend it in the group chat in November.

Full season, or a block of weeks

An NFL season is five months. That’s a lot of commitment to ask for cold in September. Starting with a handful of weeks and extending if it catches on works better than announcing a pool that runs to February and watching half the group stop sending picks by Week 6.

When picks lock

This is the one that decides whether your pool survives. With the week split across Thursday, Sunday and Monday, locking everything at Thursday kickoff forces people to decide on Wednesday what gets played four days later.

The healthy alternative is each game locking on its own, a few minutes before it starts. That’s how Quini does it — picks close five minutes before each kickoff, so you call Thursday on Thursday and leave Monday for Monday. And if someone joins mid-week, they fill in whatever hasn’t started yet.

What the winner gets

It doesn’t have to be money, and in an office it probably shouldn’t be. The winner picks the lunch spot, last place buys the coffee, or it’s simply on the record that they won. Pride is enough — the right to bring it up until February is worth more than a pot, and it keeps the whole thing simple for everyone involved.

Setting it up

1. Create the pool and pick NFL as the competition.
2. Choose the format — winner only for the big group, winner plus margin for the people who follow every snap.
3. Let each game lock at its own kickoff, not all of them on Thursday.
4. Share the six-character code once, wherever your group already talks. Don’t chase anyone.
5. Don’t score anything by hand. Results come in automatically and the table moves on its own while games are still being played.

The mechanics of each format are in how it works, and if you’ve never run one, how to run a prediction pool with friends covers the basics. Running it at the office has its own five decisions, and those are in the office pick’em guide.

Frequently asked questions

When does the 2026 NFL season start?

Wednesday, September 9, 2026. The Seattle Seahawks host the New England Patriots at Lumen Field at 8:20 PM ET. Week 1 runs through Monday, September 14.

How much does it cost to run an NFL pick’em pool?

Nothing. You set it up free, and Quini never handles money between players. What’s at stake is first place in the standings.

How many people do I need?

Six is enough for a real table. More is better, and for large groups the winner-only format is the safer choice — everyone understands it immediately and nobody gets left out.

What happens if an NFL game ends in a tie?

It’s rare, but it happens. It’s scored like any other result: nobody picked the winner, because there wasn’t one.

Can I join after the season has started?

Yes. You give up the points from the weeks you missed, but nothing stops you playing the rest.

Can I run an NFL pool and a soccer pool at the same time?

Yes, and most people do. One runs by week and the other by matchday — separate pools, separate tables, no conflict. If you’re new to the soccer side, what a quiniela is explains it in short.

Set it up before September 9

The pool that gets created on the night of the first game is always born with half the group missing. You have until Wednesday the 9th.

Get Quini and have your group’s pool ready before kickoff. Free to run, no money involved, and nobody has to add up a single column.