How To Do Super Bowl Squares
By playing online, this is as simple as a click of the button. For those using offline options, randomly assign numbers 0 through 9 to each column, followed by doing the same for each row. Now each square represents a specific score in the game based on the column and row numbers. The square is played as the group tracks the score of the Super Bowl at the end of each quarter. Whoever has the score in correspondence with the last posted number in each respective team’s score is the winner of that portion of the game. When the Chiefs and Buccaneers square off in Super Bowl 55 on Sunday, chances are you’re going to ask the age-old question. How do you win Super Bowl squares? Super Bowl squares is a common office pool or party game played during the game, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic the game will be more prominent online in 2021.
Super Bowl squares are a mainstay at Super Bowl parties across the country each year, as it’s an easy way to involve everyone in the game and keeps people cheering for more scoring right up until the end of the game. We look at how to play and offer up some tips to go along with our printable Super Bowl squares grid.
How do Super Bowl squares work?
Also known as football squares, the game has a 10×10 grid, which creates 100 individual squares – or boxes. If you’re looking for a Super Bowl squares template for this year, feel free to use this:
Download Squares Template (make sure you print in landscape)Before the Big Game begins, each box is assigned an equal cost – usually $.50, $1, $5 or whatever value your group decides. We’ll use $1 here as our working example. At $1, the full board value is $100.
Super Bowl squares pro tip #1
Have someone in your group act as the bank to collect everyone’s money. In the chaos before a game begins, it’s easy for money not to be accounted for.
Super Bowl squares participants claim open boxes on the board by putting their name or initials in each box they choose randomly until all 100 boxes have been claimed.
Let’s say I take 10 boxes, I’d then have to contribute $10 to the pot in this case.
Super Bowl squares pro tip #2
If you have a large party, you might want to set a maximum number of squares available so everyone has a chance to participate and a few people don’t wipe out available squares too fast. We usually start with a max of five squares per person and then players can buy more after everyone has had a chance to participate if spots remain.
Once the board has been filled out completely, randomly assign numbers 0-9 to each of the 10 rows and columns. Make sure each row has a unique number and the same for the columns. We usually pick these numbers out of a hat to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. If you’re looking to print out numbers, utilize this:
Download 0-9 number sheetEach axis will represent one of the teams. Generally, we run with the AFC (Kansas City Chiefs) on the columns and the NFC (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) on the rows – but it really doesn’t matter.
To determine a winning square at the end of each quarter, you’ll be using the last digit of each team’s score at that point in the game.
How winning squares are determined
To determine a winning square you will be using the last digit of each team’s score at the end of each quarter.
Example: At the end of the first quarter, the Chiefs have 17 points and the Buccaneers have 14 points.
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Go to the Chiefs’ column of numbers and find the number 7 (the ones digit in 17) then go to the Buccaneers’ row of numbers and find the number 4 (the ones digit in 14). Find where these two numbers intersect on the grid and the name in that square wins the first quarter.
Repeat this process for all four quarters (the 4th quarter and overtime would be counted as one if OT comes into play).
A winning square is eligible to win in additional periods, too.
Suggested squares prize structure
1st quarter: 15% of pot ($15 on $1 squares)2nd quarter: 20% of pot ($20 on $1 squares)3rd quarterHow To Do Super Bowl Squares Payout
: 25% of pot ($25 on $1 squares)
4th quarter/Overtime: 40% of pot ($40 on $1 squares)Super Bowl squares pro tip #3
Bring four empty envelopes with you, mark each one for each quarter and put the appropriate prize money in each. It makes it easier distributing the prizes during the game. Whoever you made the “banker” earlier can handle this chore.
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When the Chiefs and Buccaneers square off in Super Bowl 55 on Sunday, chances are you’re going to ask the age-old question.
How do you win Super Bowl squares?
Super Bowl squares is a common office pool or party game played during the game, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic the game will be more prominent online in 2021.
It's a game of chance and each player draws two 'numbers' but it can make the Super Bowl experience more rewarding if your favorite team isn’t playing.
How do you play Super Bowl squares? Which numbers produce the winning combination most? Here is SN’s guide to those questions, including rules, tips and a printable squares grid.
SUPER BOWL PICKS: Against the spread Straight-up predictions
How do Super Bowl squares work?
How To Do Super Bowl Squares Youtube
Most Super Bowl squares are played on a 10x10 grid with a 'home' team row on top and the 'visitor' column on the side:
An empty board starts with 100 'squares.' The next step is filling out the board, which can be done online or using a poster. In the online version, squares are generally labeled 1-100.
There is no perfect science to picking a square, because the numbers down the 'home team' row and 'visiting team' column are drawn at random.
Keep in mind, however that if you pick multiple squares in the same row or column you will have fewer number combinations to work with.
TIP: You can also use 'winning score' and 'losing score' instead of the team names for a more complex pool, but for the sake of simplicity we will stick with 'Chiefs' and 'Buccaneers.'
When all 100 squares have been filled out with players, then the board is set. It should look like this:
It's almost time to draw numbers. First here are the combinations with the best statistical odds of winning on Super Bowl Sunday.
What are the best numbers for Super Bowl squares?
There have been a total of 216 winning number combinations in Super Bowl history (which is a limited sample size), but here's how those combinations have hit by quarter. The home team is on the horizontal access and the road team is on the vertical axis.
For reference, in the game between the Chiefs and 49ers last season the winning combos were 7-3, 0-0, 0-0 and 1-0.
In the history of the Super Bowl, the four best combinations have been 0-0 (19 times), 0-3 (11 times), 0-7 (10 times) and 7-0 (10 times).
| COMBO | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | SUM |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 33 |
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 24 |
| 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| 6 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 23 |
| 7 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 38 |
| 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 13 |
| 0 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 19 | 54 |
| SUM | 15 | 4 | 36 | 24 | 4 | 9 | 43 | 10 | 7 | 64 | 216 |
How to draw numbers for squares
You should designate a person to hold a drawing to randomly place numbers 0-9 across the Chiefs row and the Buccaneers column. Use Post-It notes in a hat or an online number generator.
TIP: You could also do a 25-square grid where each home and road team gets two numbers instead of one. In that case, each player would have two numbers for each team.
Once the board is full, each player has two numbers.
Your numbers should align with your square from both the vertical and horizontal position. So, let’s say your numbers are '7' for the Chiefs and '3' for the Buccaneers.
How do you win Super Bowl squares?
Most standard Super Bowl squares pools pay a winner after the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter and final score. How is that determined?
Go back to those numbers of '7' and '3.'
That player would win if Kansas City leads 7-3 or Tampa Bay leads 13-7 after the first quarter. The magic “number” is always the last number in the score. Obviously, 7, 3 and 0 are among the most-popular numbers, even if it doesn’t always work out.
Printable Super Bowl squares grid
Need a printable grid for your Super Bowl squares? Now that you know how to fill it out, here's a PDF version for Super Bowl 55.
You can download the grid by clicking here.
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