Tākaro SPORTS
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NFL WINS POOLS

Draft NFL teams in your group chat. Let the app keep score.

The draft is the fun part, and you already know how to run it. The part nobody wants is adding up 32 teams' records every week until January. Tākaro does that half — free.

Start a wins pool — free on iOS

How a wins pool works

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Everyone drafts NFL teams
However you like — snake, auction, or names out of a hat. Four each is a good number for eight people.
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The commissioner types the rosters in once
One setup, at the start. Nobody needs an account to be in a pool.
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Standings keep themselves
Records come straight from live NFL results all season. There is nothing to update and nothing to tally.
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Most combined wins takes it
Ties broken by fewer losses, applied automatically so nobody has to argue about it in December.

Setting one up takes about a minute

  1. 1
    Run your draft wherever you normally would — the group chat is fine.
  2. 2
    Open Tākaro and tap Play → Wins Pools → create.
  3. 3
    Enter each person and the teams they drafted.
  4. 4
    Share the link. Standings update themselves from there.

Why there is no draft inside the app

ON PURPOSE

Your draft already works

Every group does this differently — a snake in a group chat, an auction at a bar, a random assignment because two people are travelling. An app that insists on one format doesn't remove a step, it adds one. So Tākaro doesn't run the draft.

THE REAL CHORE

Four months of tallying

The part that actually kills a wins pool is the commissioner checking 32 records every Tuesday and re-sorting a spreadsheet. That's what gets automated here: the board is built from live results every time someone opens it, so it is never out of date and there is nothing to maintain.

Your Android friends can watch too

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No download to follow along. Every pool has a web link that opens the live standings in any browser.
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No account either. Nobody has to sign up to see where they stand. Send the link, that's it.
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Private by default. Pool boards aren't listed or indexed — the only way in is the link you send.
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One commissioner, everyone else along for the ride. Only the person who sets it up needs the app.

Common questions

What is an NFL wins pool?

Everyone drafts a handful of NFL teams before or early in the season, and at the end you add up how many games your teams won. Most combined wins takes it. It's the simplest season-long pool there is — no weekly picks, no lineups, no waiver wire — which is why it survives in group chats where fantasy leagues fall apart by October.

How do you break a tie?

By fewer losses. Two rosters can reach the same win total with different numbers of ties, so the roster that lost fewer games ranks higher. Tākaro applies that automatically — you don't have to agree on it in advance.

Where does the draft happen?

Wherever you already talk. A group chat, a bar, a spreadsheet, a hat with names in it — it's your draft and your rules. Tākaro deliberately doesn't run the draft; it picks up afterwards, when the commissioner enters who took which teams.

Why doesn't the app run the draft?

Because every group drafts differently — snake, auction, random assignment, a five-minute argument — and an app that insists on one format just adds a step to a thing that already works. The genuinely annoying part of a wins pool isn't the draft, it's somebody manually tallying 32 teams' records every week for four months. That's the part worth automating.

Do my friends need the app to see the standings?

No. Every pool gets a web link that shows the live standings in a browser — no download, no account, nothing to sign up for. That matters when half the group chat is on Android.

How many teams does each person draft?

That's up to you. Four teams each works well for an eight-person pool; more people usually means fewer teams each. The app doesn't impose a number.

Is it too late to start one?

Not really. A wins pool is decided over the whole season, so a pool that starts a week or two in is still mostly ahead of itself — unlike a survivor pool, where missing Week 1 is a real problem. Records so far are already counted.

Does it cost anything?

No. Tākaro is free and there are no entry fees, no payouts and no payments anywhere in the app. Pools are for bragging rights.

Other pools you can run

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Survivor pool. Pick one team a week, never reuse a team, last one standing wins. See the survivor guide at /survivor.
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Weekly pick'em. Pick every game each week and climb a leaderboard — nobody gets eliminated. See /pickem.

The season is already running.

A wins pool is decided in January, so starting a week in costs you almost nothing. Free — no entry fees, no payouts.

Get Tākaro Sports — free