You cannot pick your numbers — that is the whole design. So here is what actually decides a squares board.
Squares is the one office pool where you cannot outplay anybody. You buy a square, numbers get drawn afterwards, and the rest is football. That is exactly why it is the best pool for a whole office — and it is also why the “strategy” is different from every other pool you will read about.
You cannot choose your numbers. Anyone selling you a system for picking good squares is selling you nothing. The numbers are drawn after the grid is full, precisely so nobody can. What you can control is how many squares you own and how the pool is set up.
Football scoring is not evenly spread. Points arrive in threes and sevens, so the digits those add up to appear far more often than the rest.
| Digit | Why |
|---|---|
| 0 | The best digit on the board. Every scoreless start, and every 10, 20, 30 lands here. |
| 7 | One touchdown. Also 17, 27. |
| 3 | One field goal. Also 13, 23, 33. |
| 4 | Decent — 14, 24, 34 are common totals. |
| 1 | Reachable — 21, 31, and 11 after a two-point try. |
| 2, 5, 9 | The dead digits. They need unusual scoring paths to land. |
A 0–0 or 7–0 square is a genuinely strong holding. A 2–5 is close to a dud. Knowing that will not help you get one — but it will stop you feeling cheated, and it explains why the first quarter is the most predictable payout of the four.
On a hundred-square board every square is one chance. Owning four squares is four chances. There is no cleverer version of this — it is the only lever a player has.
If your pool caps squares per person, that cap is doing exactly what it should: keeping the pool fair and spreading the wins around the office.
This is the part worth thinking about, because it is the part someone controls.
Decide in advance what happens if the board does not sell out. The clean answer: at kickoff, lock it and draw the numbers for whatever sold. Unsold squares simply cannot win, and that quarter’s share either rolls forward or goes back to the room. Agree it before the game, not during it.
Some boards also pay the reversed digits — if the score lands 17–7, both the 7–7 square and the 7–7 reversed holder collect. It doubles the number of winners and spreads the money further, which is often what an office actually wants.
Run your own squares board25 or 100 squares · buy-in in sardines · you never hold anybody’s money0, 7 and 3 are the strongest digits, because football scoring is built on touchdowns and field goals. 0–0 and 7–0 are premium squares. 2, 5 and 9 are the weakest — they need unusual scoring paths to appear. You cannot choose your numbers, though: they are drawn after the grid fills, which is the entire point.
No, and that is by design. Players choose squares on a blank grid, and the row and column digits are drawn at random only after the board is full. If numbers were known in advance, the good squares would be taken instantly and the pool would not work.
For a player, buying more squares is the only real lever — every square is an independent chance and no square can be chosen. For a commissioner, the decisions that matter are paying out every quarter rather than only at the end, weighting the final quarter heaviest, and agreeing in advance what happens if the board does not sell out.
The clean approach is to lock the board at kickoff and draw the numbers for whatever sold. Unsold squares cannot win, and that quarter's share either rolls into the next quarter or returns to the players. The important part is deciding it before the game rather than arguing about it afterwards.
A hundred-square grid is standard but needs a hundred buyers to fill. For a smaller office a 5×5 grid of twenty-five squares fills far more easily and still plays like a real board, with each square covering more possible outcomes.
Sardines are a unit, not money. FantasyDailies never holds anybody’s money — players settle up between themselves.