How do Super Bowl squares work?
Super Bowl squares is the classic 100-square grid game played for the big game: claim squares, digits 0–9 are drawn for each team, and the last digit of each team's score picks winners each quarter.
What are the basic Super Bowl squares rules?
Everyone claims squares on a 10×10 grid before the game — 100 squares total, one price for all of them. After the board fills, each column and each row is randomly assigned a digit 0–9, one axis per team. Nobody chooses their numbers; they're drawn after the squares are claimed, so every square is an equal-odds lottery ticket at purchase time.
At the end of each quarter, match the last digit of each team's score to the grid. A 23–20 halftime score pays the square at 3-and-0. Most Super Bowl pools pay four times — Q1, halftime, Q3, and final — with the final worth the biggest share of the pot.
How do you run Super Bowl squares for a party?
The old way is a printable grid and a Sharpie, which works until you need to track digits, watch the score, and figure out who won while hosting a party. The reason online boards took over: the board does the bookkeeping. On a Blocklock Super Bowl squares board you share one link in the group chat, everyone claims squares from their phone with just a display name — no accounts, no app downloads — and the board locks and draws digits automatically when it fills or at kickoff.
During the game, live scores light up the winning square in real time, every square that has already paid keeps a red outline, and each winner gets a push notification the second their square hits — before the room finishes arguing about who had it. The commissioner handles the money; Blocklock never touches it.
What's the best payout structure for Super Bowl squares?
The standard split is 20% for Q1, 20% for halftime, 20% for Q3, and 40% for the final score — on a $10-per-square board that's $200/$200/$200/$400 from a $1,000 pot. Bigger final payouts (25/25/25/25 is flatter, 15/20/15/50 is more dramatic) are common variations, and the group's taste should win.
The every-score-change format has become the modern favorite for Super Bowl parties because it creates a winner on every field goal, touchdown, and extra point — often 10 or more payouts in one game, including the 0–0 square winning at kickoff. More winners keeps more of the party watching. Blocklock supports quarters and every-score formats, with the payout math shown before anyone claims a square.
When should you set up a Super Bowl squares board?
Open the board one to two weeks before the game — enough time for a big group to fill 100 squares without a last-minute scramble, since a full board is what makes the pot and the payouts clean. Conference championship weekend, two weeks out, is the traditional starting gun.
Filling the last squares is usually the hard part, which is why a shareable link beats a paper grid: the commissioner reposts it to the group chat and the board fills from phones. Blocklock boards show a live fill count and lock automatically at kickoff either way, drawing digits for whatever is claimed.
Free · No accounts for players · Blocklock never touches the money