Commissioner setup guide

Baby Arrival — Commissioner Setup Guide

The baby pool your family already plays on a group text, run properly: everyone guesses the day and time, the closest wins to the minute, and you can split the pot with the parents so it reads as a gift rather than a bet.

Anyone running a baby pool for family, friends or the office · 5 min read

A Baby Arrival pool is the simplest contest on the platform, and the only one where nobody needs the rules explained. Everyone guesses the day and time the baby will arrive. When the baby comes, you type in the real moment and we rank every guess by how close it was — to the minute.

It is worth running as a fundraiser for the family rather than a straight winner-takes-all. Set a split, half to the closest guess and half to the parents, and the pool stops being a bet and becomes a shower gift with a game attached. Everyone sees that split on the join screen before they pay anything.

Underneath it is our Closest Guess engine, so once you have run this you can ask any other question the same way — when it will first snow, what time the game will end, when your campaign hits its goal.

Setting it up

Start at New contest → Closest Guess → Baby Arrival. The template fills in sensible answers and you can change every one of them.

Baby or family name: What everyone will see — "Baby Elledge", "Rebecca & Ryan's Baby". It names the pool and the share link.
Due date: The expected date. It only sets the default guessing window and the countdown — it is never used to score anything.
Timezone: The single most important setting, and the one most baby pools get wrong. Every guess is read in this clock no matter where the person guessing is sitting. Pick the zone where the birth will actually happen.
Guessing window: The range people can pick from. Defaults to a week either side of the due date. The baby arriving outside it breaks nothing — everyone is still ranked by how far off they were.
How precise: To the minute, every 5, 15 or 30 minutes, on the hour, or just the day. This decides how many slots exist, and the wizard shows you the number as you change it.
Each time can only be picked once: On by default. Taken times grey out, so guessing early matters and the board feels like a race. Turn it off to let several people share a time.
Last chance to guess: When guessing closes. You can also close it instantly at any point — see "It's happening" below.

Choosing how precise to be

This is the one setting worth thinking about for a minute, because it decides whether the board feels like a race or an empty field.

The number that matters: Window length divided by precision is how many slots exist. A fortnight at 15 minutes is 1,344 slots; a fortnight to the minute is 20,160.
Too many slots: With to-the-minute precision and thirty guests, nobody will ever land on the same time — so "each time can only be picked once" stops meaning anything and the board looks abandoned.
Too few: A three-day window on the hour is 72 slots. Fun and fast, but a large family will fill it and latecomers find nothing left.
A good rule: Aim for roughly 20 to 50 slots per person you expect. The wizard tells you as you change it.

Money, and splitting the pot with the parents

Optional. A free pool is a perfectly good pool — but this is the feature that makes people join.

Free to play: The default. Bragging rights only, and it costs you nothing.
Per guess: Any price. Players pay you directly through Venmo, PayPal, check or cash — ChooseASquare never holds the money and never takes a cut.
Share the pot with the family: Name who the other share goes to and set the percentage. 50/50 is typical.
Everyone sees it first: The split appears on the join screen and the share preview — "$10 a guess, $5 to the closest guess, $5 to Baby Elledge's fund" — before anybody pays. Nobody discovers it at settlement.
Guesses per person: One by default. Raise it and people can buy several guesses, which is the natural way to raise more.

Twins, triplets and the questions only they can ask

Say how many are coming and the form rearranges itself. This is worth reading even if you are having one, because it explains why the arrival guess works the way it does.

Still one arrival guess: Everyone guesses when the FIRST baby arrives. Twins are minutes apart, so a second board would be the first one plus eleven minutes for everybody — the same guesses, twice, splitting two prizes.
Who arrives first?: The question the family is already arguing about. Scored on being right rather than close, so several people can win it — which makes it a better tiebreaker than a prize of its own.
Who arrives last?: Offered for triplets only. With twins the last one is whoever is not first, so asking is the same question twice.
Minutes between them: From the first to the last. In minutes, because that is how the answer arrives — "nineteen minutes apart", not "0.3 of an hour".
Everything else, per baby: Weight, length, head circumference and boy-or-girl are asked once for each of them, labelled by name where you have given one.
Changing your mind: If the count changes, questions for a baby who is not coming are removed — unless somebody has already answered them, in which case they are kept and simply stop being asked. Nobody's guesses are ever binned.

What everyone gets emailed

Four emails, all tied to something real. A baby pool that mails people weekly is a baby pool people mute.

You're in: Sent when somebody guesses, with the exact time they took and when guessing closes.
Closing tomorrow: One reminder, roughly a day before your deadline — and only if you set a deadline at all.
It's happening!: Goes out the moment you close guessing, so everybody hears at once instead of finding out from the group chat.
They're here: The arrival time, your note, and the three closest guesses.
The winner's copy: Whoever was closest gets a different email that leads with "you were closest", because that is the entire point of the pool and burying it inside the general announcement wastes it.

Bonus guesses

Turn on as many as you like. Each one is scored separately and has its own winner — there is no combined score, because minutes and ounces cannot honestly be added together.

Weight: Closest to the birth weight.
Length: Closest in inches.
Head circumference: Also in inches. Off by default — it is the third number on the wristband and worth having, but four optional boxes is where a forty-second guess form starts to feel like paperwork.
Boy or girl: Only worth offering if the family has kept it a surprise. It is a coin flip, so it makes a poor prize on its own and an excellent tiebreaker for the main guess.

While you wait, and when it happens

The pool has a few states, and moving between them is one tap.

"It's happening": Closes guessing immediately when labour starts, so nobody can sneak a late guess in once word gets round.
Record the arrival: Type the real date and time. Nothing is announced yet — you see the standings first.
Confirm: A separate, deliberate step. This is what decides who won, so it is never the same click as typing the timestamp.
Undo: Got the AM/PM wrong? You can reverse it and re-enter, as long as no winnings have been marked sent.
The reveal: Add the baby's name, a note and a photo, and the contest page turns into the announcement.

FAQ

Do people need an account?

No, and that is the point. Anyone with the link picks a time, types a name and an email, and they are in. The email is only used to tell them if they won.

Why is email required?

Because the entire payoff is telling someone they were closest by five minutes. Without an address we cannot reach them, and a winner who never finds out is a pool that did not work.

What if the baby comes outside the guessing window?

Nothing breaks. Everyone is still ranked by how far their guess was from the real moment.

What if two guesses are exactly the same distance away?

It happens — a guess two hours early and one two hours late are tied. Decide in advance: split the prize, or use a bonus guess like the weight as the tiebreaker.

Can family in other states play?

Yes, and this is what most baby pools get wrong. You choose one timezone when you set the pool up, and every guess is read in that clock regardless of where the person guessing is.

Can I run one for something other than a baby?

Yes. Baby Arrival is a template for our Closest Guess engine. Start from scratch and ask anything where the nearest answer should win.

Ready to run yours?

Set it up in a few minutes — every option here is right there in the wizard.

Start a Baby Arrival pool →