FREE NFL POOL
"Free" usually means ads, a trial, or a feature wall. Here it means free: every feature, up to 5 members, all 18 weeks.
THE WHOLE PRICE LIST
FootballPools has one price rule and no fine print: pools with up to 5 members are free, and larger pools pay $2 per member above the first 5 — once, for the entire season. No subscription, no per-format pricing, no premium tier hiding the good features.
The free tier is not a demo. It's the same product large pools get — every format (survivor, Pick 5, Pick All), live NFL data and automatic scoring, per-game deadlines, email and push reminders, frozen spreads, and the payment-tracking ledger. The only thing the fee buys is more seats.
Up to 5 members
$0
Everything included. No credit card, no time limit.
Above 5 members
$2 /member/season
Paid by the commissioner. Members never pay FootballPools.
What Real Pools Pay
| Pool size | Season fee | How it's figured |
|---|---|---|
| 5 members | Free | At or under the 5-member line |
| 12 members | $14 | 7 members over the line × $2 |
| 30 members | $50 | 25 members over the line × $2 |
| 60 members | $110 | 55 members over the line × $2 |
What "Free" Doesn't Mean Here
Free football-pool sites have trained everyone to look for the catch. Fair. Here's where the usual catches would be:
No ads
There are no ads anywhere on the product, on any tier. Your pick screen is a pick screen.
No sportsbook funnel
FootballPools is not a sportsbook, doesn't take wagers, and has no gambling integrations. Spreads appear as sports information to score picks against — never with a "bet this now" button attached.
No pick-selling or paywalled features
Nobody's picks are sold to anyone, and the free tier isn't a teaser — scoring, reminders, deadlines, and payment tracking are all included at $0.
No hands on your pot
Entry fees are collected, held, and paid out by your commissioner directly. FootballPools never touches pool money — the hosting fee on larger pools is its only revenue.
The honest version of the business model: small pools cost almost nothing to host, so they're free. Large pools fund the servers, the live data, and the support inbox at $2 a head — cheap enough to fold into any entry fee, transparent enough to say out loud.
Free Fits More Pools Than You'd Think
A 5-member cap sounds small until you count the pools that actually live inside it: the family survivor pool, the fantasy-league side bet, the group chat that's been arguing about football since college, the couples' Pick All that settles who cooks on Mondays. Those pools run a full 18-week season on FootballPools without anyone ever entering a card number.
And when the pool outgrows the cap — because good pools grow — nothing changes except the commissioner's $2-a-head top-up for the new seats. Same pool, same history, same code to share. Start free, grow when the office finds out about it.
When (and How) the Fee Is Actually Billed
For pools that do cross the 5-member line, the billing is designed around one idea: you never pay for a pool that hasn't formed yet. Creating the pool, setting the rules, and inviting the whole office all cost nothing — the fee only comes due around your pool's first week, when the member count is real rather than hoped for.
The fee is billed to the commissioner's account and is completely separate from your pool's pot — it's never deducted from prize money, because FootballPools never has the prize money.
Free Pool FAQ
START FREE, STAY CHEAP
Create the pool now, invite up to 5 for nothing, and decide about the office later.