How it works
Paper money. Real standings. Clean receipts.
1Your paper bankroll
Every season starts everyone at $1,000.00 in paper money. It has no cash value: you can't buy it, sell it, transfer it, withdraw it, or trade it for anything. There are no top-ups.
2Making picks
Pick a market, enter a stake, and place it before the game starts. The minimum is $1.00; the maximum is everything you have available, on a single pick or a parlay. Stakes of $10.00 or more count toward achievements and missions.
3Locked odds
Your price is checked against the live market when you place, and saved with the ticket. Payouts use the saved price, never a later one. If the line moves before you place, you're asked to accept the new price.
4Moving the line
On football and basketball spreads you can buy or sell up to 3 points, in half points, from the slip. The price moves with the line — buying points costs more, and moving across 3 or 7 in football costs the most, because so many games end on those numbers. Bought lines count everywhere except contests, which score picks at the book's number.
5Grading
Tickets settle automatically from official final scores, usually within a minute of the final. A push returns your stake. A postponed or cancelled game voids the pick: a single is refunded; a parlay drops that leg and pays on the rest. Corrections are added to the record, never edited over it.
6Busting
You bust when your bankroll drops below $25.00 with nothing pending. Busting takes you off the ranked board for the rest of the season — so going all-in on one pick is a real decision: win and you're flying, lose and your ranked season is over.
7Resetting
After a bust you can reset to $1,000.00 as often as you like and keep playing — missions, achievements, sharing, everything — unranked until the next season. Every run stays in your career record.
8Seasons
A season is one calendar quarter: Jan–Mar, Apr–Jun, Jul–Sep, Oct–Dec. They run back to back, and Season 1 is Q4 2026 (Oct 1 – Dec 31). When a season ends, everyone starts the next one at $1,000.00 automatically — your old balance stays in your career record. A pick counts toward the season you place it in, so it has to be on a game that starts before that season ends; games after the last day open for picks when the next season begins. If a pick from last season is still open when a new one starts, you join the new season as soon as it settles.
9Rank and the Hall of Fame
The season board ranks players by settled bankroll: cash plus stakes still riding. Ties go to whoever settled their last pick first. You need 10 settled picks and a public profile to appear; a private profile can't hold a ranked spot. Ranking is free through Season 1; from Season 2 (January 2027) a ranked spot is for members, and free players still appear on the board unranked. Busted players are shown below the Bust Line and can't win the season. When the season closes, the top three members are written into the Hall of Fame for good, and the final board decides the season badges.
10Free and member
Everything on the board is free: every sport, bet type and stake size. Free parlays go up to 3 legs, with 25 picks a day (resetting at midnight Eastern). Members have no pick or parlay limits, a ranked spot from Season 2, a Hall of Fame place, the Gold and Diamond achievement tiers, and the advanced stats: price value against the closing line, splits by sport and bet type, and insights. Your own record, bankroll chart and calendar are always free. Membership never changes your bankroll, your stake limits or the odds.
11Bots
The board includes a few benchmark bots — Chalk Charlie always takes the favorite, Coin Flip picks at random, and so on. They bet real lines through the same rules as you, and they're always marked as bots. They never take a rank number, a Hall of Fame place or anyone's spot; they're there so you can see whether you're beating a simple strategy. You can hide them on the board.
12Fair play
One person, one account. Exploiting stale lines, duplicate accounts, settlement errors or coordinated manipulation can remove picks or a season. Nothing competitive is ever silently edited.
Levels & badges
Missions and achievements earn XP. XP only buys levels, titles and card cosmetics: never bankroll, rank or odds. Membership never boosts XP or unlocks a level perk.
Your team's painted stadium art is free from level 1. Levels add extras: showcase badge pins (3 at level 4, 5 at level 9), a level chip and a second team slot at 5, card frames (Bronze 6, Silver 10, Gold 14, Diamond 18), a PRO stamp at 8, a custom card tagline at 10, a third team slot at 12, and the Hall of Famer plaque at 20, with a star for every 10,000 XP after that.
Badges only count picks of $10.00 or more. Season badges rank you among human players; benchmark bots never earn XP, badges or missions, and never count toward your percentile.
Contests
Free to enter, from the Contests tab on Ranks. Contest picks are free picks made on each contest's own page: no stake, no bankroll, and they never touch your bet slip. Your real bets never count toward a contest, and contest picks never count toward your bankroll or record. Spreads and totals only, at the posted line; a push or a cancelled game neither wins nor loses. Prizes are XP and badges only. Benchmark bots play every contest and are shown on the boards, but never take a rank number or a prize; private profiles don't appear.
- Weekly Pick'em. Make free spread and total picks on any of this week's games, Monday to Sunday Eastern, one pick per game. Ten decided picks put you on the board, ranked by win percentage, then wins, then who got there first. The week's winner takes 500 XP and a Pick'em Champion tier; second and third take 150 XP.
- Streak. Make one free spread or total pick per day. A win extends your streak, a loss resets it, and pushes and cancelled games are skipped. The board is the longest current streak, ties to whoever reached it first, with your all-time best beside it. Hot Hand tiers at 5, 10, 15 and 25 wins in a row, with XP. It never ends.
- Slate. Make free spread and total picks on today's featured games: Saturdays are NCAAF power-conference and Top 25 games, Sundays are NFL, and every other day is every league (as is any day the featured league is off). Most winning picks wins; ties go to the longer-priced winners, then to who got there first. The day's winner takes 150 XP and a Slate Sweeper tier.
Rules version 3. A rule change never alters a pick already placed.