How confidence pick'em works
The basics of a confidence pool: picking winners, rating how sure you are, and how points add up over a season.
A pick'em pool is about the simplest sports game there is: every week, you pick who wins each game. A confidence pool adds one twist that changes everything. Next to each pick, you say how sure you are, and that number decides how many points the pick is worth.
On Pickem League, every pick gets a confidence value from 1 to 10. Pick the winner correctly and you earn that many points. Pick wrong and you lose the same amount. Skip a game and it scores zero, never a penalty.
A worked example
Say there are three games this week. You're very sure the first favorite wins, so you give it a 10. The second game feels like a coin flip, so you give it a 2. The third you lean one way but not strongly, so it gets a 5.
If the first two picks hit and the third misses, your week is 10 + 2 − 5 = 7 points. If instead your 10 misses and the others hit, your week is −10 + 2 + 5 = −3. The lesson: your highest numbers decide your week, so they belong on the picks you trust most.
Why some games count double
Not every game is weighted the same. Every NFL game counts double. In college football, any game with a Power 4 team (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, or SEC) counts double, and games between Group of 5 or FCS teams count at the normal rate. In the NBA, every game counts at the normal rate except the week's featured games and each night's Game of the Night, which count double.
Double means both directions: a correct 10 on a double game is worth +20, and a missed one costs 20.
Bonuses on top
A few optional bonuses reward going all in:
- Full slate: pick every game in a week for a flat +5.
- Game of the Week: one featured game each week has two optional side picks — which team covers the spread (+20 by default) and a final-score prediction, where the closest guesses earn extra points.
- League bonuses: a league's owner can turn on extras, like a big bonus for a perfect week.
Timing
Each game locks at its own kickoff or tip-off, not at the start of the week. A Thursday night game locking never stops you from changing your Sunday picks. Picks save the moment you make them, and you can change any pick until its game starts.