Bonus Picks
Star your locks for bonus points.
A Pick’Em where each week you flag a few picks as “bonus picks.” Hit one and it pays a bonus on top of the normal point — the strategy of a confidence pool without ranking every game. You choose how many bonus picks per week and how big the bonus is. Weekly and season standings, auto-scored, and it can run straight through the playoffs.
Great for:Office pools that want a twistBooster & school fundraisersGroups new to strategy formatsAny sport with a weekly schedule
How it runs
Bonus Picks, start to finish.
01
Set the rules
Choose Bonus Picks scoring, how many bonus picks each week, and what each one pays.
02
Load the schedule
Pull each week’s games from the games library — the NFL loads with one click — and set the pick deadline.
03
Star & score
Players pick winners and star their best calls. Results score automatically and standings update.
Everything you can customise
Features, options & plans.
Tune every detail to fit your group — and see exactly what is on each plan.
＋ Add-on = a paid add-on, included on Pro Commissioner. A Contest Pass unlocks the Pro tools on one contest — it does not include separately-sold modules like Fundraising, or anything account-wide such as extra admins. See full pricing →
The complete guide
How a Bonus Picks works.
Bonus Picks is the easiest way to add real strategy to an office pick’em without asking anyone to rank sixteen games. Here’s exactly how it scores, how it compares to a confidence pool, and how to choose the two settings that decide how your season feels.
What is a Bonus Picks pool?
A Bonus Picks pool is a weekly pick’em with one addition: each week, every player flags a small number of their picks as “bonus picks.” A correct pick scores its normal point; a correct bonus pick scores that point plus a bonus you set. A missed bonus pick scores nothing, exactly like any other miss.
That single wrinkle changes how the week plays. Everyone has the same slate and often similar picks, so the pool is decided by where the stars went — and by who was brave enough to put one on a game nobody else trusted.
See a week scored
Say the pool gives three bonus picks a week and a correct one pays an extra 1 — so a hit is worth 2 instead of 1. Six games, and you star three of them:
| Game | Your pick | Bonus pick? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chiefs vs. Raiders | Chiefs | ⭐ Yes | ✅ +2 |
| Eagles vs. Giants | Eagles | ⭐ Yes | ✅ +2 |
| 49ers vs. Cardinals | 49ers | ⭐ Yes | ❌ 0 |
| Bears vs. Lions | Lions | No | ✅ +1 |
| Bills vs. Jets | Bills | No | ✅ +1 |
| Ravens vs. Browns | Browns | No | ❌ 0 |
Four of six correct — but two of the three stars landed, so the week is worth 6 rather than 4. A rival who also went 4-for-6 with their stars on the two games they missed scores just 4. Same picks, different week.
Choosing your two settings
A Bonus Picks pool has exactly two dials, and between them they decide how wild the season gets.
- How many bonus picks per week: three is the default and suits a full NFL slate. Fewer makes each star agonising; more makes the format closer to a straight pick’em, because starring most of your card stops being a choice.
- What the bonus is worth: a bonus of 1 (a hit star is worth double) keeps the standings sane and rewards good reads. A larger bonus makes a single brave star capable of winning the week outright — more volatile, and more fun for a casual crowd who want to stay in it late.
- Both are set before the season and apply to every week, so players can plan around them from Week 1.
Bonus Picks vs. a confidence pool
Both add strategy to a pick’em; they ask for very different amounts of effort. A confidence pool has you rank every game from 1 to N with each value used once — richer, but it is genuinely a chore on a sixteen-game Sunday, and it is the reason some players quietly stop submitting by October.
| Bonus Picks | Confidence pool | |
|---|---|---|
| What you submit | Winners, plus a few stars | Winners, plus a rank on every game |
| Effort each week | One extra decision | Rank all N games, no repeats |
| Where it is won | Which games you starred | Where your big numbers went |
| Best for | Office pools & first-timers | Groups that want maximum strategy |
| Plan | Free on every plan | Pro Commissioner |
If your group has never run anything but a straight pick’em, Bonus Picks is the gentler step up — and it is free.
Running it as a fundraiser
Charge an entry fee, set the cut your program keeps, and the rest becomes the pot. Supporters pay you directly by Venmo, PayPal, check or cash — ChooseASquare never holds the money and never takes a percentage of it, so the full cut reaches your program. Add weekly prizes to keep people paying attention after their season total is out of reach.
Is Bonus Picks right for your group?
Pick this when your pool wants more than “one point per correct pick” but you know your players will not rank sixteen games every Sunday. It is the format with the best ratio of strategy to effort, it runs on the same engine as our Pick’Em pool so everything else works identically, and it costs nothing to run. If your group wants the full strategy exercise, run a confidence pool instead; if they want last-one-standing drama, look at Survivor.
FAQ
Bonus Picks, answered.
What is a Bonus Picks pool?+
It’s a weekly Pick’Em with a bonus layer. You pick winners as normal, then flag a few of those picks — three by default — as your “bonus picks.” Every correct pick earns its usual point, and a correct bonus pick earns a bonus on top. Miss a bonus pick and you simply get nothing for it.
How is it different from a Confidence pool?+
A confidence pool makes you rank every single game from 1 to N, which is the whole appeal for some groups and the reason others never start. Bonus Picks asks for one small decision instead: which two or three am I surest about? You get most of the strategy with a fraction of the effort, which makes it far easier to sell to a casual office pool.
How many bonus picks do players get?+
You decide. Three a week is the default and works well for a full NFL slate; a smaller slate usually wants one or two. It’s a setting on the pool, so you can pick what suits your group before the season starts.
What is a bonus pick worth?+
Whatever you set. It is added on top of the normal point for a correct pick, so setting it to 1 makes a hit worth double, and a larger figure makes the stars swing the standings harder. Set it once and it applies all season.
Does a missed bonus pick cost me points?+
No. A missed bonus pick just earns nothing — the same as any missed pick. Nobody ever goes backwards, which keeps casual players in it rather than watching a negative score all season.
What plan do I need?+
Bonus Picks scoring is free on every plan. Auto-scoring, weekly prizes and multiple entries per person come with Pro Commissioner or a one-time Contest Pass.
Does it work beyond the NFL?+
Yes. Build each week from any league in your games library — college football, basketball, MLB and more. The NFL and college football schedules load automatically.
Other contest types
Not quite what you wanted?
Run a Bonus Picks for your group.
Free to start, set up in minutes — and you keep every dollar.
No player fees · No percentage of the pot · Your money stays yours
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