A survivor pool is the simplest football contest most people ever play.
You do not have to beat a spread, shop a moneyline, or sweat a point total. You just need your team to win the game.
See PBJ Proxy OptionsWhat is a survivor pool?
It is an elimination contest. Everyone starts alive. Each week, every remaining entry picks one team to win that week. Entries whose team wins move on. Entries whose team loses are eliminated. You can only use each team once.
The people still standing at the end split the prize. In a small office or friends pool, this includes social bragging rights. You want to be the one to outlast the field with wins, not pile up points.
How a week works
The weekly loop is short:
- The week's games are posted.
- You pick one team from the games that have not started yet.
- That football team has to win straight up.
- If they win, you come back next week and do it again.
Deadlines matter. Most pools lock a pick when that team's game starts, or at a posted cutoff. Some pools allow players to pick early for a Thursday game. Miss the deadline and your pool's rules decide what happens — often that counts as a loss.
Why it feels different from betting
A spread bet asks whether a favorite won by enough, or a dog stayed close enough. A moneyline bet is about the price. A total is about combined points.
Survivor ignores all of that. A 3-point win and a 30-point win both keep you alive. A 1-point loss knocks you out the same as a blowout. You are not trying to beat a number. You just need to pick a winner.
You usually cannot reuse a team
On a given entry, most pools let you use each NFL team only once. If you pick the Chiefs in Week 1, you cannot pick them again later on that same entry.
That is the main strategic wrinkle. Strong teams are tempting early, but you may want them later. But it can be hard to predict who will be strong by the end of the season. You cannot pick a team on a bye week.
This primer does not cover strategy. The rule itself is simple: once you use a team, it is no longer available for that entry.
Rules vary by pool
Where people play
Survivor shows up in three places: casual office/friend group pools, online contests, and Las Vegas sportsbooks.
Office/friend and Yahoo-style pools
This is how most people first see the game. A coworker, a group chat, or a Yahoo Fantasy board collects a small buy-in, and everyone picks each week. These pools are scattered. The format is more or less the same wherever you find one.
Big online contests
A handful of sites run large public survivor contests online. Splash, DraftKings, and BetOnline are the main ones. You enter and submit picks through the operator's app or website, in the places they are allowed to take entries. Certain states still prohibit these. Buy-ins and prize pools range widely from small to millions.
Las Vegas casinos
Circa is the landmark house contest. Circa Survivor is a high-stakes Las Vegas pool with official sportsbook rules, in-person Nevada registration, and a major following. Westgate also runs SuperContest Survivor. Both are the same basic game — one pick a week, no reuse — inside a Vegas sportsbook contest.
Vegas is different
You do not have to live in Las Vegas to play Circa or Westgate. You do have to register in person in Nevada.
After that, a local proxy (a friend, a family member, or a paid service) can submit your weekly picks from Nevada while you are back at home. You choose the teams. The proxy handles the Nevada submission.
That process has its own deadlines, confirmation steps, and trust questions. The Las Vegas contest proxy guide covers it in detail. The ever-growing interest and excitement around the Vegas contests is why the proxy industry exists.
Want to play Circa or Westgate from anywhere?
Register in Nevada once. PBJ can submit your weekly picks after that — including confirmation, multiple entries, and optional later deadlines.
What if more than one person is still alive?
Most pools split the prize among whoever is still standing. Some play all the way through the season even if a few entries remain. A few end early if only one entry is left. Your pool's rules say which of those applies.
Across the size and location of these contests, your focus remains on choosing a winner each week, hoping to be one of the last players remaining.