Sportsbook.com’s $50,000 NFL Survivor Pool
It’s that time again football fans. Get out your pen and paper, grab the 2010 NFL schedule and start planning out how you are going to take home the $50,000 grand prize in Sportsbook.com’s NFL Survivor Pool.
For Survivor Pool beginners out there, the rules of are pretty simple. Starting with Week 1 of the NFL season you must select a team you think will definitely win their game for the upcoming week. If the team you selected wins, you move onto Week 2; if they lose, you are eliminated. Whoever makes it the longest without a loss will win the grand prize.
Sounds easy right? Not so fast. This is where you need some careful planning and sound strategy in order to make a deep run into the season.
You are only allowed to select a specific team one time. Once you have selected a team, you won’t be able to choose them the rest of the season. So make sure you unleash teams like the Colts and Saints at the most optimal time.
Let’s take a look at some Survivor Pool strategy as you can’t simply pick the best team every week if you expect to cash-in on the grand prize.
1. Avoid selecting road teams – It doesn’t matter how good a team is, when they play away from home they have a much better chance of losing. Take the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. Despite being huge road favorites versus the Kansas Chiefs in Week 11 and Cleveland in Week 14, they ended up losing both games outright. No team eliminated more Survivor Pool entrants than the Steelers in 2009. Again, avoid road teams unless you have no other viable option.
2. Always check the point spreads – Even if you aren’t a gambler it is essential to check out the betting lines each week that you are alive in your Survivor Pool. Sportsbook.com is always a good resource to check the lines for the upcoming week as they post their lines very early and don’t mind sharing who the bettors are backing on any given game. Obviously once you have the odds available, pay attention to which teams are the biggest favorites. Anything over a touchdown should catch your eye.
3. Save some stud teams – Considering you can only use a team once, it is inevitable that you will have to use plenty of mediocre teams and possibly a couple of poor teams. So even though you are checking the betting odds to narrow teams down, often you might want to select a mediocre team that is a home favorite of 10 points over a great team that is a 14 point favorite. This way you will still have that great team to use later in the season when your pool of available teams shrinks.
4. Map out your plan before the season starts – Grab the NFL schedule and for each week of the season mark down teams that you think will be a good option to select that week. Again, take into account teams that are playing at home and teams that will likely be favored by the most points. After you go through all 17 weeks take note of how many times each team was selected. If you selected a team like the Eagles just once yet picked the Colts four times, you might be better served using the Eagles that specific week, whereas you can hold onto the Colts until later in the season or use them during a week where there are few options. However, considering some teams end up being much better than expected and vice versa, it is advisable to update this list numerous times throughout the season.
Please note, to avoid any confusion, Survivor Pools are also called Last Man Standing; Suicide Pools; Eliminator Pools; Knockout Pools and King of the Hill Pools.
Week 1 Survivor Pool Pick
Taking a quick glance at the Week 1 lines provided by Sportsbook.com there are definitely a couple solid choices. Currently the three biggest favorites are all favored by about 7 points and are all playing at home. The Giants (-7) are favored over the Panthers, the Bears (-6) are favored over the Lions and the Titans (-6.5) are favored over the Raiders.
The Giants have the Lions at home Week 6 so it might be best to save them, plus Carolina is a much better team than the Lions and Raiders.
The Bears also have a favorable match-up Week 6 as they’ll host the Seahawks.
The Titans, on the other hand, have a pretty tough home schedule. Things change, but as of now, it is hard to imagine them being favored by seven points or more is any of their home games.
Week 1 Survivor Pool Pick: TENNESSEE TITANS
If you want to be part of the biggest NFL Survivor Pool, head over to Sportsbook.com and take your shot at turning $25 into $50,000.
