Spice Up Your Super Bowl Office Pools
Does this look familiar? It will next week in offices across America.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the Super Bowl is one of the highlights on the sporting calendar. Whether you play fantasy football or simply enjoy placing a wager or two on the big game, the Super Bowl is colossal and sportsbooks, casinos and online bookmakers take millions of dollars in bets throughout the build-up to the showpiece event.
Ultimately, the chances are that your team didn’t make the Super Bowl – especially if you’re a Cleveland fan. Only two of the NFL’s 32 teams can feature on the biggest stage of all and that means us fans of other teams need to keep ourselves busy before, during and after the game. So, why not start up your own Super Bowl office pools for the game?
It’s certainly a good idea. We all love a wager from time-to-time and nowadays, there are plenty of ways to stretch out the office pool plan. In years gone by, markets have been small but now, you can bet on almost anything; from the coin toss to the color of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s tie – you and your office buddies can easily get in on the action.
Firstly, one of the most famous methods for this is the ‘X amount per square’ sheet – this usually involves the scores at the end of each quarter. However, this is limited in both length and fairness. For example, some scores can be wiped out almost instantly and you could consider adapting the grid for EVERY score – here’s how it works!
For argument’s sake, let’s say that the New England Patriots face the Seattle Seahawks in next year’s Super Bowl. If New England score on the opening play of the game, whoever has New England to go 6-0 up gets a win. If they then go for the PAT and it becomes 7-0, then those who have that particular score-line get a win as well.
It is very easy to do. At the end of the game, calculate how many winners there are and divide the total prize fund by that number to calculate how much money each player gets. If you had two correct scores, you will get double the winnings – it’s as straightforward as that and helps to keep everybody engaged during the big game.
The best thing about this method is that you can involve a lot more people and therefore, have a lot more money to split between winners. While you’re not going to win too much money, it keeps people entertained and will put a few smiles on faces ahead of the dreaded Monday morning shift.
A second idea is running ‘prop’ bets. Plenty of online bookmakers and sportsbooks have done this in recent years and they are usually fantastic – there’s no reason why your office cannot build on their success. These range from things like which team player to score the first touchdown to how long the national anthem will last; the majority are fun and a bit of a laugh if nothing else.
You can go as far as you want with this. For example, you could offer markets like how many times will Cam Newton dab or will Trent Richardson rush for over 15 yards. Ultimately, it’s down to you guys – you can keep it as serious or as fun as you want. Remember – the Super Bowl comes but once a year and you should make the most of it.
The Super Bowl truly is a magnificent event and your office pools could be magnificent too – if you follow these simple steps. Keep things easy and straightforward, but feel free to experiment. Eventually you will find a method and set of pools that work for you, truly spicing up your evening!
Whether your team is involved or not, sit back, relax and enjoy the day. Make sure you enjoy plenty of fun bets amongst you and your colleagues and feel free to add total yards, passing yards and rushing yards predictions too – there are so many ways to tweak and test your abilities against the rest of the office. While the Super Bowl commercials are usually great (not), this is better. Get involved!
