NFL Loser Pool — Pick the Losers, Not the Winners
NFL Loser Pool — Pick the Losers, Not the Winners
A loser pool works exactly like a pick’em pool with one rule turned around: you pick the team you think will lose each game. Same weekly sheet, same automatic scoring, completely different conversation — because picking the worst team in a matchup is a lot harder than it sounds.
What a loser pool is
In a standard pick’em pool, you go down the week’s schedule and choose the winner of each game. In a loser pool — the app calls it reverse pick’em — you go down the same schedule and choose the loser of each game. Get the loser right and you score the point.
On paper that sounds like the same exercise backwards, and mathematically it often is. In practice it plays very differently, because the mental habit of backing teams you like has to be switched off completely. Players who cruise through a normal pick’em on instinct tend to fall apart in a loser pool for the first few weeks, which is exactly why groups that have run the same pick’em for a decade enjoy it so much.
It is also the friendliest way to keep a pool alive during a bad season. If half the office supports a team that is 2–9, a loser pool suddenly gives them something to be right about.
How scoring works
Everything a pick’em pool does, inverted.
The week’s schedule loads automatically. Each player selects the team they expect to lose, from their own phone or laptop, before picks lock.
Run it straight up and you simply need the team that loses outright. Turn spreads on and the favorite has to fail to cover for the pick to count — which makes backing a bad team against a big number a real decision rather than a formality.
Results come in as games finish. Nobody is cross-checking box scores on Sunday night or fielding “did you get my sheet?” messages on Monday.
Everyone can see where they stand for the week and for the year, which is what keeps people checking in after a bad Sunday.
Set a tiebreaker on total combined points or margin of victory, scored closest-to or closest-without-going-over, so a two-way tie settles itself.
Loser pool or reverse survivor?
Both formats ask you to pick losing teams. They are not the same game, and picking the wrong one is the most common mistake commissioners make here.
| NFL loser pool | Reverse survivor | |
|---|---|---|
| Picks per week | Every game on the slate | One team, once |
| What happens if you are wrong | You lose a point and play on | You are eliminated |
| How long players last | All season, guaranteed | Until their first mistake |
| Best for | Keeping a big group engaged all year | Short, tense, high-drama pools |
The short version: a loser pool is a scoring format and reverse survivor is an elimination format. If you want everybody still playing at Thanksgiving, run the loser pool. If you want half the office knocked out by October and the survivors sweating every week, run reverse survivor. A fair number of commissioners run both.
A loser pool works on any of these
Reverse pick’em is a format, not a sport. Choose it once, then point the pool at whichever league your group actually watches.
Setting one up
Two minutes, start to finish.
Name the pool, choose Reverse Pick’em (Loser Pool) as the pool type, pick your league and season, decide whether you are running straight up or against the spread, set your tiebreaker and invite your players. The season is already loaded, playoffs included, so there is no schedule to build.
It is free for up to 4 players. Beyond that, pricing scales down as the pool grows — roughly $3 per additional player over the free 4, then $2 per player (30–99) and $1 (100+), billed annually. Full detail is on the pricing page.
Other ways to run it
Seven formats, one account — and you can run more than one pool at a time.
If the reverse idea appeals but you want elimination stakes, reverse survivor is the one. If you want your best calls to count for more, a confidence pool lets players rank every pick. If you want something nobody has to think about at all, an NFL 33 pool deals everyone a random team each week and pays out on an exact score. And the office football pool overview is the place to start if you have never hosted before.
Run your loser pool this season
Name it, pick your league, invite your group. It takes a few minutes.
Start your pool free →