The NFL playoffs are the best time to run a pick'em pool. The games matter more, the stakes are higher, and people who stopped paying attention in November suddenly care again. Casual football fans who ignored your regular season pool will join a playoff pool without hesitation.
Here's how to set one up, what format works best, and what's different about running a playoff pool vs. a regular season pool.
Playoff Pick'em vs. Regular Season Pick'em
The regular season has 16–18 games per week across 18 weeks. The playoffs have a handful of games per round — Wild Card weekend has six games, Divisional has four, Championship has two, then the Super Bowl.
That changes the format options significantly.
Weekly format (round-by-round): Players submit picks before each playoff round. Wild Card picks before Wild Card weekend, Divisional picks before the Divisional round, and so on. This is the most flexible format — players can update their approach each round based on what they've seen. It also keeps engagement high because there's something to submit every week.
All-upfront bracket format: Before the playoffs start, every player submits picks for every round — including who they think wins each matchup before those matchups are even set. This is the classic bracket pool. The challenge is that a first-round upset can eliminate your entire bracket by Saturday afternoon of Wild Card weekend.
For most groups, the weekly round-by-round format is better. It keeps more players competitive longer, and it avoids the "my bracket is busted" problem that kills engagement in all-upfront formats.
Format Options for Playoff Pick'em
Straight Up flat scoring: Pick the winner of each game, one point per correct pick. Simple to explain, easy for casual fans. The player with the most correct picks wins.
Straight Up + Confidence: Assign confidence values to each pick within each round. With six Wild Card games, assign 1–6. The player who allocates their conviction correctly outscores someone who picked the same teams but weighted them differently. This is the best format for groups that want some skill differentiation.
ATS flat scoring: Pick every game against the spread. Harder than straight up — spreads in the playoffs are set carefully and covering is genuinely difficult to predict. Good for groups that follow betting lines.
Super Bowl prop add-on: For the Super Bowl specifically, many groups add a prop sheet — over/under on total points, which team scores first, MVP predictions. This isn't a pick'em format exactly, but it's a natural extension and keeps everyone engaged even if the game is a blowout.
How Many Games Are in Each Round
| Round | Games | |---|---| | Wild Card | 6 | | Divisional | 4 | | Conference Championship | 2 | | Super Bowl | 1 | | Total | 13 |
In a confidence format, the number of confidence values changes each round. Wild Card: 1–6. Divisional: 1–4. Championship: 1–2. Super Bowl: just one game, no confidence assignment needed.
Setting Up the Prize Structure
Playoff pools are usually shorter and simpler than regular season pools, so the prize structure can be simpler too.
Overall winner: Whoever has the most points across all playoff rounds wins. Clean, easy to administer.
Weekly winners + overall: Give a small prize for each round's winner (whoever went best that round) plus a larger prize for the season-long champion. This keeps everyone engaged even if they have a rough Wild Card weekend.
Super Bowl only pool: Some groups skip Wild Card through Championship entirely and run a pool just for the Super Bowl — straight up pick plus some prop bets. Lower commitment, still fun, massive casual participation.
Entry fee guidance: Playoff pools typically run with lower entry fees than full-season pools since the time commitment is shorter. $20–$50 works well for most groups.
What's Different About Running a Playoff Pool
Smaller slates change confidence allocation. With only 6 games on Wild Card weekend, your confidence range is 1–6. The spread between your top pick and your bottom pick is narrower, so every allocation decision matters more. Putting a 6 on the wrong game is proportionally more damaging than putting a 16 on the wrong game in the regular season.
Upsets are more common than people expect. The playoffs consistently produce upsets that wreck both bracket pools and confidence picks. The #1 seeds don't always win. The public consensus is often wrong. This makes contrarian confidence picks more valuable in playoff pools than in the regular season — everyone loads up on favorites, and when a favorite loses, the standings swing dramatically.
Bye weeks matter. Teams that had first-round byes are well-rested. Teams playing in their third straight week may be fatigued. Factor this into your picks.
Home field advantage is real in the playoffs. Road teams covering in the playoffs is harder than road teams covering in the regular season. If you're picking ATS, be cautious about loading up on road teams at high confidence.
Lock Times and Spread Freshness
Playoff games have significant betting action. Lines move substantially from when they open to kickoff — more so than most regular season games. A spread that opened at -3 can be -6 by Sunday.
This is why pick lock timing matters. Picks should lock at each game's individual kickoff, not all at once at the start of the round. Locking everything at once on Saturday morning means your Sunday afternoon picks are against a number set before Saturday's game results — results that can affect how the market prices Sunday's games.
On thepickempool, each game locks at its own kickoff time regardless of the format or the round.
Running Both a Regular Season and Playoff Pool
If you ran a regular season pool, the easiest path is to use the same league for the playoffs. Keep the same players, same commissioner, same platform — just run it as a playoff-only scoring period.
Alternatively, open your playoff pool to new players who didn't participate in the regular season. Playoff pools are a natural entry point for casual fans who didn't want to commit to a full 18-week season. Lower entry fee, shorter commitment, higher stakes games — it's an easy sell.
Ready to Set One Up?
A playoff pool takes two minutes to configure. Set your format, share your invite code, and collect picks before Wild Card weekend.
Need to decide on a format first? See all six pick'em formats →
Running a regular season pool too? Read the full commissioner guide →