How do you run a squares pool online?
Pick a real game, share one board link, and let players claim squares from their phones. A good online squares board draws digits automatically at lock, follows the live score, and notifies winners — the commissioner only handles the money.
What does the commissioner actually have to do?
Running a squares pool has exactly four jobs: fill the board, draw the digits fairly, track winners against the live score, and settle the money. An online board should do the middle two perfectly and make the first one easy — leaving the commissioner with just the cash, which stays in Venmo where it already lives.
On Blocklock, creating a squares pool takes about twenty seconds: search the real game (every NFL and D1 college matchup is in the schedule), set the price per square and the payout format, and share the link. Players need no accounts and download nothing — they open the link, tap a square, type a name. The board shows a live fill count so the commissioner knows exactly who's in and who's stalling.
How do digits get drawn fairly online?
Fair digit drawing means two things: the draw happens after all squares are claimed, and no human can influence or repeat it. Paper pools handle this with numbers in a hat and witnesses; a good online pool should be even stricter. Blocklock draws digits on the server, exactly once, automatically when the board fills or at kickoff — the commissioner has no draw button to press twice, and the whole group watches the same shuffle land.
The same standard applies to results: scores should only pay once they're official. Blocklock holds each scoring play through the review window before paying it, so a touchdown that gets overturned on replay never falsely pays a square.
What should you look for in an online squares site?
Four things separate a good squares board from the ad-farms that dominate this category: nothing between your group and the board, no accounts required for players, automatic locking with a provably fair digit draw, and live winner notifications so nobody has to do scoreboard math in the fourth quarter. Price matters too — most legacy pool sites charge commissioners $50–150 a season for hosting.
Blocklock is free, runs every NFL and college game with live scoring, pays out on quarters or every score change, pushes a notification to each winner's phone the moment their square hits, and never touches the pool's money. It exists because the incumbent squares sites are bloated with ads and haven't changed since 2010.
Free · No accounts for players · Blocklock never touches the money