What is a block pool?
A block pool is the same game as football squares — a 100-square grid where random digits 0–9 decide winners from the last digit of each team's score. "Block pool" is the regional name, common around Philadelphia and the Northeast.
Is a block pool different from football squares?
No — block pool, box pool, grid pool, and football squares are one game with regional names. "Squares" is the term most of the country uses (and what national media call it every February), while "blocks" or "block pool" survives strongly in the Philadelphia area, New Jersey, and pockets of the Northeast, and "boxes" runs through New York and New England.
Whatever the name, the mechanics are identical: 100 blocks on a 10×10 grid, digits 0–9 drawn per team after the blocks are claimed, winners matched from the last digit of each team's score at each checkpoint. Blocklock takes its name from the block-pool tradition — and from the rule that a full board locks before digits are drawn.
How do you run a block pool online?
The paper block pool taped to the breakroom wall works fine until someone has to chase down 100 claims, draw digits fairly, watch the score, and track who won what. Running it online removes every one of those jobs. On a Blocklock block pool board, the commissioner picks the real game from the schedule, shares one link, and the group claims blocks from their phones with just a name — no accounts.
The board locks itself the moment the 100th block is claimed (or at kickoff), draws the digits in the open, then follows the live score: the winning block lights up at every checkpoint and winners get push notifications instantly. The commissioner settles the money exactly as the office always has; the app never touches it.
Free · No accounts for players · Blocklock never touches the money