These days, it can be hard to make sure that your office culture is thriving. After all, with most people working at home, it’s possible that it’s been months since you saw many of your colleagues in person!
For that reason, there are surely lots of bosses and managers searching for ways to make sure that their staff is able to keep in touch beyond just sending emails and taking part in Zoom calls.
If you’re looking for new ways to keep your office and virtual office friendly with one another this fall, consider creating an office football pool.
So, what is an office football pool and how do they work? Keep reading to find out!
Basically, pools of all kinds work when a number of people put in a certain amount of money and then predict the outcome of either one event, or a series of events. Sport pools are quite popular, as are award ceremonies (such as the Oscars or Grammys), or even reality television events such as The Bachelor or Survivor.
If you are thinking about starting an office pool, one important thing to keep in mind is what would be a comfortable amount of money for all of your employees to buy in. If $100 feels too steep, maybe start lower at $50 or $25. Remember this is supposed to be fun, not stressful!
Different types of football pools
The three most popular football pools include box pools, survivor pools and pickem pools.
Box pools
Box pools are created through the use of a 10×10 grid. From there, participants pay to put their initials in one or two of the 100 total squares (depending on how many people are playing). In box pools, the score is checked at the end of every quarter of a specific game, with the last digit of each team’s score determining which scare wins. 25 percent of the pool is then paid out at the end of each quarter.
The reason why this is a great pool for your office is because it requires zero knowledge about football or the specific game that is being betted on. It’s all fun and games!
Survivor pools
This is another wildly popular football pool and can be really fun and really lucrative. In fact, even if your office is at the center of the pool, there are many people who are encouraged to invite as many people as they want as that makes the pot get bigger and bigger. The way it works is every person chooses a team to lose each week of the NFL season without being able to pick the same team twice.
At the end of the season, it is customary that the last four people remaining get a certain amount of the total pot.
Pickem pools
Pickem pools are exactly like survivor pools except you are picking a different winner each week. These pools can get highly competitive and lend themselves to tons of cheerful trash talk as people root for their favorite team of the week.