A Super Bowl squares payout is the pot (price per square × squares sold) split across the four scoring checkpoints — most pools pay 25% at the end of each quarter, or weight it 12.5% / 25% / 12.5% / 50% so the final score pays the most. A $10-a-square board with all 100 squares sold is a $1,000 pot: $250 per quarter on the even split, or $125 / $250 / $125 / $500 on the final-heavy one.
That's the whole answer. The calculator below does the math for any price, any number of squares sold, and any split, and gives you a one-line payout summary to post before kickoff so nobody argues about it at the party. Below that is a blank board generator, then everything else people ask about squares.
The Super Bowl Squares Payout Calculator
Pick the split, type what you're charging, and the four payouts appear. The "copy" button gives you a one-liner like "$10 a square · 100 squares · pot $1,000 — Q1 $250 · Half $250 · Q3 $250 · Final $250" to paste in the group chat. Announcing it before the numbers are drawn is the one rule that prevents every argument we've ever seen.
Need a Board? Generate One Here
Blank 10×10 grid, the numbers get shuffled with one tap, and you can print it. Click any square to type a name or initials. The numbers are supposed to be drawn after every square is sold, so sell first, then hit shuffle in front of everyone.
How Do Super Bowl Squares Work?
A squares pool is a 10×10 grid — 100 squares. One team's name goes across the top, the other down the side. People buy squares at a fixed price, writing their name in each one they take.
Once every square is sold, the organizer randomly assigns the digits 0 through 9 across the top and again down the side. Now every square sits at the intersection of two numbers: one for each team.
At the end of each quarter, look at the score. Take the last digit of each team's points. The square where those two digits meet wins that quarter's share of the pot.
Say it's 17–10 at halftime. The last digits are 7 and 0, so the square at the 7 row and the 0 column (or vice versa, depending on which team is on which axis) wins the halftime payout. The score at the end of the game decides the final payout — including overtime, in every pool we've ever seen.
That's the entire game. Nobody picks a team, nobody needs to know football, and a 6-year-old has exactly the same chance as a lifelong fan, which is the whole reason squares outlive every other party game.
What Is the Standard Payout for Super Bowl Squares?
There isn't an official one, which is exactly why people search for it. Three structures cover almost every pool in America:
| Split | Q1 | Half | Q3 | Final | On a $1,000 pot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Even | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% | $250 / $250 / $250 / $250 |
| Final-heavy | 12.5% | 25% | 12.5% | 50% | $125 / $250 / $125 / $500 |
| Climbing | 10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | $100 / $200 / $300 / $400 |
The even split is the most common in office pools because it's the easiest to explain. The final-heavy split is popular with bigger boards because it makes the end of the game matter most, and keeps the room watching a blowout.
A few pools add wrinkles: paying a small amount every time the score changes, or "reverse" squares where the mirror square (digits flipped) also wins half. Both are fine — just put them in the calculator as a custom split and post the result where everyone can see it.
The one thing we'd never do is let the organizer keep a cut. Beyond the argument it starts, it's the detail that turns a legal office pool into an illegal one in most states (more on that below).
How Much Should I Charge Per Square?
Charge whatever the least enthusiastic person in the group will happily pay, because you need all 100 squares sold, and the last twenty are always the hardest.
The practical ladder:
| Price per square | Full-board pot | Q payout (even split) | Typical setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1 | $100 | $25 | Office pool, kids at the party |
| $5 | $500 | $125 | Family and friends |
| $10 | $1,000 | $250 | The classic bar board |
| $20 | $2,000 | $500 | Group chat of regulars |
| $50 | $5,000 | $1,250 | Big party, serious money |
A board that sells out at $5 beats a board stuck at 70 squares at $20. Unsold squares still win when their numbers come up, and then you're explaining to the room why the $250 halftime payout went to nobody.
If you can't fill 100, the clean fix is a 25-square board: five digit pairs per axis (0–1, 2–3, 4–5, 6–7, 8–9) instead of single digits. Same game, a quarter of the sales effort. Just note that the pairs blunt the "good numbers" edge discussed next.
How Do You Run Squares in a Group Chat?
Same game, fewer paper cuts. Shuffle the board above, screenshot it, and post it in the chat with the payout line from the calculator pinned underneath. People claim squares by replying with a number pair (row 3, column 6), and you type their initials into the cell.
Collect the money before the numbers are drawn — every pool that falls apart does so because somebody "would've paid" after their square lost. Post the shuffled board, with the digits showing, the morning of the game, and then post the updated winners after each quarter. The organizer's whole job is making sure nobody can say they didn't know the rules.
What Are the Best Numbers in Super Bowl Squares?
0 and 7, then 3 and 4. The worst are 2 and 5, with 8 and 9 close behind. Football scores come in 3s and 7s, so the last digits aren't remotely random.
We didn't want to repeat folklore, so we ran the numbers ourselves: every NFL final score from the 1999 season through October 19, 2026 — 7,369 games from the public nflverse dataset. Here's how often each digit shows up as the last digit of a team's final score:
| Last digit | Share of final scores | vs. the 10% a "fair" digit would get |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 17.0% | +70% |
| 7 | 16.8% | +68% |
| 4 | 14.0% | +40% |
| 3 | 13.1% | +31% |
| 1 | 9.8% | about even |
| 6 | 8.7% | −13% |
| 8 | 6.4% | −36% |
| 9 | 5.6% | −44% |
| 5 | 4.3% | −57% |
| 2 | 4.2% | −58% |
Put the two best digits together and the gap gets dramatic. The 0–7 combination (either way round) decided 7.1% of all final scores — roughly 3.5% per square, when an average square should win about 1% of the time. 4–7 (6.5%) and 0–3 (6.5%) are right behind.
At the other end, a 2–2 square won the final payout in 4 games out of 7,369. That's a 0.05% chance — twenty times worse than an average square.
Two caveats so you don't over-trust this. These are final scores; first-quarter scores skew even harder toward 0 (a lot of 0–0, 7–0 and 3–0 boards). And none of it helps you choose a square, because the numbers are drawn after the board is full. What it tells you is how to feel about your square once the digits land, and why the person holding 7–0 suddenly gets very popular.
What Happens to Unsold Squares or a Tie Score?
Decide both before kickoff and write them on the board. The three normal answers for an unsold winning square: the money rolls into the next quarter's payout, it all rolls to the final, or it's refunded pro rata. Rolling to the next quarter is the crowd favorite because it keeps everyone in.
Ties can't happen in a Super Bowl (overtime settles it), but the same-digit squares can: a 17–7 score lands on the 7–7 square. Those squares are legitimate winners — in our data, matching digits decided 8.5% of games, so don't let anyone claim a "tie" rule voids them.
Overtime: nearly every pool counts the final score after overtime for the final payout, and the end-of-regulation score for nothing. Say so anyway. The 2017 Super Bowl went to overtime and the squares arguments it started are still going.
Are Super Bowl Squares Legal?
Technically a squares pool with money on it is gambling — it has consideration, chance and a prize, and the rules depend on your state. Employment-law firm Littler's guidance for employers puts it bluntly: "Super Bowl squares are, by definition, gambling," and cites an American Gaming Association count that office pools are illegal in 37 states on paper.
In practice, the pools that stay on the right side of the line share the same features everywhere: every dollar collected is paid back out, the organizer takes no cut, the stakes are small, everyone's in the same state, and it's among people who know each other. Littler notes Ohio and Colorado explicitly allow pools "as long as the organizer does not profit," and Washington caps it at one board at $1 a square. Nobody is kicking down doors over a $5 office board, but a $50 board where the host skims 10% is a different thing, legally and socially.
Also worth knowing: squares aren't part of the legal sportsbook market at all. The American Gaming Association projected a record $1.76 billion in legal wagers on Super Bowl LX, and not one dollar of that is squares money. The pools are a parallel economy of folded bills and Venmo requests.
Is a Squares Pool a Good Bet?
It's a perfectly fair one, which is rarer than it sounds. With no house cut, 100% of the money goes back to the players, so the expected value of every square is exactly what you paid for it. Compare that to a sportsbook, where the built-in margin means most bets return less than they cost before the game even starts.
What squares aren't is a skill game. There's no edge to find, no line to shop, no number to beat, which is the fun of it. If you want an actual decision to make on Super Bowl Sunday, that's what live betting during the game is for, and it rewards paying attention in a way a square never will.
Our advice is to treat them as separate pockets. Squares money is party money; it comes out of the entertainment budget, not the bankroll. If you keep a real betting bankroll, a square shouldn't touch it, and if the $20 for a square would sting, that's the answer about the square. The industry's Have A Game Plan campaign is built on exactly that habit: decide the budget before kickoff, not during the fourth quarter.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do you win in Super Bowl squares?
Whatever share of the pot the pool assigned to that quarter. On a $10 board with the even split, each winning square pays $250; on the final-heavy split the final-score square pays $500 and each of the first and third quarters pays $125. Use the calculator above for any price or split.
What is the payout for $5 Super Bowl squares?
A full $5 board is a $500 pot — $125 per quarter on the even split, or $62.50 / $125 / $62.50 / $250 on the final-heavy split.
What is the payout for $20 Super Bowl squares?
A $20 board sold out is $2,000: $500 per quarter on the even split, or $250 / $500 / $250 / $1,000 final-heavy.
Do Super Bowl squares use the score at the end of each quarter or the total?
The score at the end of each quarter, and it's cumulative — the halftime payout uses the actual halftime score (say 17–10), not the points scored in the second quarter alone.
What are the worst numbers in Super Bowl squares?
2 and 5, then 8 and 9. In 7,369 NFL games, a final score ending in 2 or 5 happened about 4% of the time each, against 17% for 0 and 7.
Can the organizer take a cut of a squares pool?
They shouldn't. Paying out 100% of the money collected is the single biggest factor in keeping a pool legal in most states, and it's the only version your friends will play again next year.