How NFL Pick'em works

There are three account types. Guests can use the AI assistant only. Registered members unlock leagues, brackets, and the dashboard.

• Guest — 20 AI messages per day. No leagues, picks, or dashboard. Auto-created when you open the chat.
• Free member — Unlimited free leagues, full pick’em and bracket access, 100 AI messages per day, all three AI models.
• Premium (coming soon) — Unlimited AI messages. Same league access as free members.

Create a free account to start or join a league. See pricing details →

A league is a private competition container for a group of up to 20 members (by default). Each league is tied to one NFL season.

Creating a league

From the leagues page or via the AI assistant, set a name, scoring type, and entry type (free or prize). You receive a unique invite code to share.

Joining a league

Enter the invite code on the leagues page or tell the AI assistant “join league with code ABC123.” Prize leagues may require an entry fee before your picks count.

League formats

• Season — Points accumulate across the full regular season. Default format.
• Weekly — Standings reset each week for short contests.

Each league picks one scoring type at creation. It cannot be changed later.

Straight-up

Every correct pick earns 1 point. Simple and familiar — most office pools use this.

Confidence

Before games lock, rank your picks by confidence (higher rank = more points at stake). When you’re right on a high-confidence game, you earn more; when you’re wrong, you lose more relative to a low-confidence miss. Standings reward conviction, not just volume.

Games are scored automatically once final. Standings update when you open the league page or ask the AI for league standings.

Each week, pick a winner for every game on the league’s pick sheet. One pick per game per member — you can change picks until lock time.

Pick locking

Picks lock at the scheduled kickoff of each game (typically Sunday 1:00 PM ET for the early slate). After lock, picks are visible to other league members and cannot be changed.

Where to pick

• League detail page — weekly pick sheet UI
• AI assistant — “Pick Chiefs to beat Bills in my office league”
• Dashboard — personal pick history across leagues

Prize leagues add a tracked entry fee and prize pool on top of the standard pick’em experience.

• Entry fee range: $1 – $500 (set by the league creator)
• The prize pool grows as members join and pay their entry
• Creator can add an optional prize description (e.g. “Winner buys dinner”)
• Standings determine the winner at season’s end

Payments: Entry fees are collected via Stripe Checkout. The app tracks the prize pot, weekly payouts, and season grand prize. Commissioners mark payouts as sent after distributing winnings.

When the NFL postseason begins, members can fill out a full playoff bracket — Wild Card through the Super Bowl. Bracket scoring is separate from weekly pick’em standings.

Round-based points

• Wild Card — 1 point per correct pick
• Divisional — 2 points
• Conference — 4 points
• Super Bowl — 8 points

Later rounds are worth more, so calling the champion correctly can swing the bracket leaderboard even if you missed early upsets.

Brackets are available from the bracket page or via the AI assistant.

The AI football analyst answers stats questions, compares players and teams, pulls live scores and injury reports, searches NFL news, and helps you manage leagues — all through natural conversation.

How it works

A fast conductor model (Claude Haiku) handles every request and calls specialized tools: 19 database tools for historical stats, 4 SportsRadar tools for live data, news search for current events, and a Grok analysis tool for opinions and predictions.

Example prompts

• “Compare Mahomes and Allen this season”
• “Who’s injured on the Eagles?”
• “Create a pick’em league called Office Pool”
• “How am I doing in my league?”
• “Should I pick the Bills or Chiefs this week?”

Open the assistant →

• PostgreSQL — 20+ seasons of teams, players, games, standings, and schedules
• SportsRadar API — Live scores, upcoming schedules, injury reports, and roster transactions
• Grok web search — Breaking news, rumors, and current events

The AI always queries tools for data — it does not fabricate stats. If live data is unavailable (missing API key), you’ll see a clear error instead of guessed numbers.