New England Patriots

How to Play and Download a Free Super Bowl Squares Printable Chart

January 27, 2020 By Amanda Blankenship 3 Comments

The 2020 Super Bowl is coming up soon. Two teams that don’t typically appear in the season’s biggest game are playing: The San Francisco 49ers and The Kansas City Chiefs. As the game approaches, many people are beginning to play Super Bowl squares. If you’re not quite sure how to play but want to get an office pool started, here’s a step-by-step guide (plus free printable Super Bowl squares).

Step One: Print the Super Bowl Football Squares Chart

First, print a 10 square by 10 square chart. Use this link to print your free Superbowl squares chart.

Step Two: Set a Price for the Value of the Squares

If you decide to make a friendly wager on the game, you need to determine how much each square on the chart will be worth. Each participant will need to pay this amount for each square they place their name in on the chart. The amount for each square is completely up to you – adjust it according to the group of people you’re playing the game with. Below are a few examples of amounts you could determine each square to be worth, and what the total pool for that amount would be.

10 cent squares would create a total pool of $10.00
25 cent squares would create a total pool of $25.00
50 cent squares would create a total pool of $50.00
1 dollar squares would create a total pool of $100.00
2 dollar squares would create a total pool of $200.00
5 dollar squares would create a total pool of $500.00
10 dollar squares would create a total pool of $1000.00

If you don’t want to bet cash on the Super Bowl, you may consider giving away small prizes to the winning square holders. Typically, you’ll award these prizes after each quarter.

Step Three: Assign Squares

Next, you will need to fill in the 100 squares inside the chart. As long as it is easy to determine who has claimed which square, you can organize this any way you want. The most common way to do this is to have all those participating initial the square(s) they want for the game. You can also assign each participant a color and allow them to color in the squares they’d like to claim.

The number of squares each person gets depends on the number of people playing the game. If you have 10 people playing, each would pick 10 squares (5 people playing, each would pick 20 squares, and so on).

Step Four: Randomly Assign Numbers

Have people fill in their squares before assigning numbers. Then, assign numbers 0-9 on the top and side of the chart. It is more likely for the end score for either team will end in a 0, 3, or 7 than most other numbers. For this reason, you’ll want to assign the number after people have colored/initialed their squares to provide everyone with the same odds of winning.

Step Five: Decide How to Award Prizes

There are a wide variety of ways to award prizes. You can decide which is best for you and the group you’re playing with. Most games give out a small amount at the end of each quarter, with a bigger prize for the participant that has the winning square at the end of the game. Below you’ll find some of the different ways you can award the prize money. For those who are giving away predetermined prizes rather than money, you should also determine how these will be awarded.

Ways you can payout prize money for super bowl squares

Step Six: Determine the Winners

In order to determine the winner, you need to look at the last number of the score for each team. For example, if the score is Kansas City 14 and San Francisco 13 after the first quarter, you would look for the “4” column from the Chiefs side, and “3” column from the 49ers side. Once the two columns have been determined, you run the lines together until they meet at a square which is the winner. You follow the same process with the scores at half-time, the end of the third quarter, and the final score.

Readers, are you participating in Super Bowl squares or any other Super Bowl game? Let us know your plans in the comment section below!

Photo: Erik Drost

How to Better Your Odds at Winning a Super Bowl Squares Pool

January 27, 2017 By Amanda Blankenship 5 Comments

The big game is just around the corner. It won’t be long before you’re sitting in front of your TV watching the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots playing Super Bowl LI to see who becomes the 2017 champion. You may even have put a pool together for the game with money or alternate prizes for some added fun.

If you participate in Super Bowl football squares pool and it’s done correctly, there really isn’t any way to better your odds of winning. This is because the numbers for the game will be randomly assigned after all of the spaces in the game have been filled. This will mean that nobody knows which numbers they have until after they have already chosen squares. This ensures that those who receive the most coveted spaces do so randomly.

The key is that there’s no way to better the odds if the game is set up correctly. The reason that many times it’s possible to better your odds is because often these games aren’t set up correctly. You can do this by understanding the odds of what number combinations are most likely to appear from past Super Bowls. By knowing the number combinations with the greatest chance of appearing, you can choose those slots giving you a distinct advantage over those who join the pool later, or don’t understand that some squares are much more likely to win than others.

When football squares are set up correctly, all participants must choose their square (among the white squares from the image above) before the 0 – 9 numbers for both teams are written (the grey squares in the above image). The mistake that happens more often than it should is that the 0 – 9 numbers are filled in before people choose their squares. When this happens, you can choose squares which are much more likely to pay than those that aren’t because you know exactly where they are. Even if you know nothing about football, you have a good chance of winning by knowing the numbers most likely to appear. Here are the numbers you need to know:

The simple rule of thumb is that you want squares that have the numbers 0, 7, 3 and 4 in them and avoid squares that have the numbers 2 or 5 in them. If you have your choice, you want to pick one of the five following combinations:

0-0
7-0 (0-7)
3-0 (0-3)
7-3 (3-7)
0-4 (4-0)

Looking at all the past Super Bowls, this is how often all the numbers have appeared: “0” has appeared 101 times (26.9%), “7” has appeared 78 times (20.7%), “3” has appeared 58 times (15.4%), “4” has appeared 39 times (10.4%), “6” has appeared 31 times (8.2%), “1” has appeared 23 times (6.1%), “9” has appeared 17 times (4.5%), “8” has appeared 10 times (2.7%), “5” has appeared 10 times (2.7%) and “2” has appeared 9 times (2.4%).

By understanding that the 0-0 square (or any of the others mentioned above) is much more likely to appear sometime during the game than the 2-2 square (or any other square not mentioned above), you can greatly increase the chanced that you’ll win one of the prizes given away. It’s important to note that these are the odds, and that doesn’t mean the above numbers are guaranteed to win. They simply suggest that going by past Super Bowl games, which numbers are much more likely to appear and which aren’t.

With the above knowledge, you could take advantage of any game put together where the 0-9 numbers have already been written on the sheet before filling in your square(s) and increase the likelihood of winning. A better course of action, at least in my opinion, would be to point out the flaw in the way the game has been set up. The game can then be properly set up so that it’s random and nobody has an advantage over anyone else when the numbers are chosen.

Finally, for a handy printable Super Bowl squares chart, go here.

If you enjoyed this article please leave us a comment below, or share it on social media.

Tricks to Win at Super Bowl Squares 2017

January 26, 2017 By Amanda Blankenship 1 Comment

If you’re looking for some additional fun this Super Bowl Sunday, consider playing Super Bowl football squares. It’s a fun game to play along while watching the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons play Super Bowl 51. Since there is often cash involved with the game, some of you may be wondering what tricks there are to win when playing Super Bowl squares.

If the game is set up correctly, there’s no way to increase your odds of winning. You can find a detailed explanation of the rules and a free Super Bowl squares printable here. Have the members of your party then fill in their initials (all 100 spaces should be filled), and then randomly assign the numbers 0 to 9 across the top and side of the grid. A winner is often identified after each quarter by matching the last number of each team’s score with the numbers on the grid. For example, if at the end of the first quarter, the Seahawks are up 17 to 9, the person whose initials occupy the following square wins: 7 vertically and 9 horizontally. You and your friends can then decide how to assign prizes.

Returning to the art of winning (or at least trying to), if the numbers are assigned in the columns before you place your initials in a grid, you can increase your odds of winning by knowing which numbers appear more often. Football is scored in such as way as to have certain numbers appear much more frequently than others. You want to try to avoid squares with the numbers 2 or 5 in them, and place your initials in squares that have the numbers 0, 7, 3 or 4. This trick is based on the frequency with which these numbers appeared in past Super Bowls. For example, in Super Bowl scores, the number “0” has appeared approximately 27 percent of the time, “7” has appeared approximately 20 percent of the time, and “3” has appeared around 58 times (15.4%).

The number “5”, however, has appeared only 10 times (2.7%) and the number “2” has appeared barely 2 percent of the time. Thus, by placing your initials in the 0,0 square, for instance, you’ve significantly increased your odds of winning. Other “good” number combinations include 7-0 (0-7), 3-0 (0-3), 7-3 (3-7) and finally, 0-4 (4-0).

Of course the more honorable action might be to ensure that people place their initials in squares before randomly assigning the numbers, but if someone sets up the game incorrectly (which happens quite often), by knowing which number combinations are more likely to happen, you put yourself in a position of increasing your chances of winning the Super Bowl squares pool.

Keep in mind that there is no definite answer to who will win Super Bowl 51 and there is a chance you could lose money playing Super Bowl squares.

Will you be participating in a Super Bowl squares pool this year?

Free Super Bowl Squares Printable Chart for Super Bowl LI

January 25, 2017 By Amanda Blankenship 3 Comments

With the Super Bowl just around the corner, it’s common for people to begin getting ready for the game between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons. One of the questions which often arises is, “How do you play Super Bowl football squares?” For those who only play the game once a year when the championship game comes around, it’s not necessarily obvious simply by looking at the chart. The good news is it’s not too difficult at all once you learn the proper way to set the game up. Properly setting up Super Bowl football squares is important because not doing so can give participants the chance to greatly increase their odds of winning by manipulating where they place their name in the squares. Once you know the basics, you can use if for any football game in the future. Below you’ll find a step by step instructions on how to play Super Bowl LI football squares:

Step One: Print the Super Bowl Football Squares Chart

The first step to playing is to print a 10 square by 10 square chart. You can do so by clicking on the image or for a larger printable football squares chart, you can follow this football squares link (pdf printable)

Step Two: Set a Price for the Value of the Squares

If you decide to make a friendly wager on the game, you next need to decide how much each square on the chart will be worth. The amount you decide is what each participant will need to pay for each square they place their name in on the chart. The amount for each square is completely up to you and can be adjusted to fit the group of people you’re going to be playing the game with. Below are a few examples of amounts you could determine each square to be worth, and what the total pool for that amount would be.

10 cent squares would create a total pool of $10.00
25 cent squares would create a total pool of $25.00
50 cent squares would create a total pool of $50.00
1 dollar squares would create a total pool of $100.00
2 dollar squares would create a total pool of $200.00
5 dollar squares would create a total pool of $500.00
10 dollar squares would create a total pool of $1000.00

For those who don’t want to bet money, another common option is to not sell each square for a certain amount, but to have the host buy small prizes which are given away to the winning square holders at the end each quarter or at the end of the game.

Step Three: Assign Squares

The next step is to fill in the 100 squares inside the chart. The most common way to do this is to have all those participating initial the square(s) the want for the game. Another common way is to assign each participant a color and they color in the square(s) they want. You can use any method you want to assign the squares as long as it’s easy to determine which ones belong to each participant.

The number of squares each person gets depends on the number of people playing the game. If you have 10 people playing, each would pick 10 squares. If you have 5 people playing, each would pick 20 squares. If you have 50 people playing each would pick 2 squares.

It’s important to not switch step three and four around, as doing so can give those who first choose squares a distinct advantage of winning.

Step Four: Randomly Assign Numbers 0 – 9 to Top and Side Rows

You want to have participants fill in all the squares before assigning random numbers to the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots rows. There are certain numbers which are far more likely to end up being a winning number than other numbers due to the way football is scored. It’s much more likely the score for each team will end with a 0, 3 or 7 than with a 2 or 5. If you fill in the top and side rows with numbers before assigning squares, those who first fill in their squares have a huge advantage as they can pick numbers which are much more likely to appear as the game’s score. Randomly assigning the numbers (this is usually done by picking the numbers out of a hat) after all the squares have been picked ensures all have an equal chance of getting the “good” numbers.

Step Five: Decide How to Award Prizes

Step Six: Determine the Winners

In order to determine the winner, you need to look at the last number of the score for each team. For example, if the score is New England 14 and Seattle 13 after the first quarter, you would look for the “4” column from the Patriots side, and “3” column from the Seahawks side. Once the two columns have been determined, you run the lines together until they meet at a square which is the winner. You follow the same process with the scores at half-time, the end of the third quarter, and the final score.

Finally, if you want to learn how to improve your odds of winning Super Bowl squares, check out our article here.

If you enjoyed this article please leave us a comment below or share it on social media.

How Much Money Is a Super Bowl Commercial 2015?

January 30, 2015 By Lilian Nwa Leave a Comment

With some Super Bowl tickets selling for approximately $18,000, you might think this is expensive, but that cost pales in comparison to the price of a Super Bowl commercial slot. At $4.5 million for a 30 second ad for the 2015 Super Bowl game, it’s nearly 250 times as much as the cost of the most expensive ticket. It’s also a half million dollars more than Super Bowl commercials cost last year, with some advertisers choosing 1 minute ads for $9 million. Already, many of this year’s ads can be found online, although some companies have chosen to publish shortened segments of the 30-second ads that will run on Sunday (that’s right, there are commercials for the Super bowl commercials).

But the more pressing question is the following: are these ads still profitable for companies? Or is it simply something that profitable companies have gotten accustomed to doing–somewhat like a signifier to audiences? (See? We have a Super Bowl ad and so we must be cool!)

Here and Now, a NPR news program, posed this first question to media analyst and professor of mass communication at Boston University, John Carroll. According to Carroll, “It’s hard to tell. There’s a lot of different yardsticks for judging whether it’s worth the money. There’s no question it’s the biggest audience you’re ever going to find on television. And it’s one of the few times when the audience is actually paying attention to the ads instead of trying to ignore them. So…from that standpoint, it’s attractive to advertisers.”

But which advertisers? Interestingly, Carroll mentioned that car advertisements did very poorly last year, and so a number of companies such as Honda, Lincoln, Volkswagen and others chose not to submit commercials this year. This “opened a lot of new opportunities for newcomers” and this year, fifteen of the commercials are from companies who have never before advertised during the Super Bowl. Not surprisingly, one newcomer, super glue maker Loctite is spending more on this year’s Super Bowl commercial than they did on advertising during 2014 (approximately $4 million).

The newspaper Portland Herald has a compelling perspective on the number of ad newcomers this year. Interviewed advertising experts told the paper that the “rookie interest” is a positive sign that “companies are feeling good in the most recent economic recovery.”

With the increasing relevance of social media, it will also be interesting to see how many of these commercials are converted into hashtag quality material. For example, Loctite embedded in its commercial the hashtag “#winatglue.” Carroll also mentioned that 60 percent of last year’s ads also had accompanying hashtags, thus enabling the companies to get “extended value” from their commercial ads. Carroll expects that a higher number of ads will also feature accompanying hashtags this year.

Whether or not the ads will pay off, however, remains to be seen. Still, for advertisers, there’s nothing like approximately one hundred million individuals watching “the same thing at the same time” and subsequently discussing the merits of what they have seen. In that case, it may very well be with a $4.5 million gamble.

Super Bowl Commercial Costs through the Years

1981: $324,000
1984: $368,000
1991: $800,000
1995: $1.15 million
2000: $1.1 million
2001: $2.1 million
2011: $3 million
2013: $4 million
2015: $4.5 million

How Much Money Is a Super Bowl Commercial 2018?

January 30, 2015 By James Hendrickson Leave a Comment

The average price of a Super Bowl ticket is between $2,500 and $3,000. You might think this is expensive, but that cost pales in comparison to the price of a Super Bowl commercial slot. It is estimated that a 30-second ad during this year’s game will cost at least $5 million, up $500K from just two years ago. Some advertisers choose 1-minute slots that cost at least $9 million. Already, many of this year’s ads can be found online, although some companies have chosen to publish shortened segments of the 30-second ads that will run on Sunday (that’s right, there are commercials for the Super Bowl commercials).

Here and Now, an NPR news program posed this first question to media analyst and professor of mass communication at Boston University, John Carroll. According to Carroll, “It’s hard to tell. There’s a lot of different yardsticks for judging whether it’s worth the money. There’s no question it’s the biggest audience you’re ever going to find on television. And it’s one of the few times when the audience is actually paying attention to the ads instead of trying to ignore them. So…from that standpoint, it’s attractive to advertisers.”

But which advertisers? Interestingly, Carroll mentioned that car advertisements did very poorly last year, and so a number of companies such as Honda, Lincoln, Volkswagen, and others chose not to submit commercials this year. This “opened a lot of new opportunities for newcomers” and this year, fifteen of the commercials are from companies who have never before advertised during the Super Bowl. Not surprisingly, one newcomer, super glue maker Loctite is spending more on this year’s Super Bowl commercial than they did on advertising during 2014 (approximately $4 million).

Super Bowl Commercial Costs through the Years

1981: $324,000
1984: $368,000
1991: $800,000
1995: $1.15 million
2000: $1.1 million
2001: $2.1 million
2011: $3 million
2013: $4 million
2015: $4.5 million
2016: $4.5 million
2017: $5 million
2018: $5 million

Considering placing a wager on this year’s game? Check out these great articles:

New England Patriots

Step One: Print the Super Bowl Football Squares Chart

Step Two: Set a Price for the Value of the Squares

Step Three: Assign Squares

Step Four: Randomly Assign Numbers

Step Five: Decide How to Award Prizes

Step Six: Determine the Winners

Read More

Step One: Print the Super Bowl Football Squares Chart

Step Two: Set a Price for the Value of the Squares

Step Three: Assign Squares

Step Four: Randomly Assign Numbers 0 – 9 to Top and Side Rows

Step Five: Decide How to Award Prizes

Step Six: Determine the Winners

Super Bowl Commercial Costs through the Years

Super Bowl Commercial Costs through the Years