PaS is an awesome sports pick'em for those that love sports. Playing is easy, once you become a member (membership is required). The competition centers around making predictions on a slate of selected matchups each week for a specific sport. Predictions are compared to the actual outcome using an algorithm, and a score is given for each game. At the end of sports week, the scores are summarized, totaled, and recorded. A running total is maintained along with weekly wins.

Games are selected by league (currently NFL, CFB, & NBA) each sports week. For example, the NFL sports week runs from Wednesday to Tuesday, while the NBA runs from Monday to Sunday. At the beginning of the sports week, the PaS team selects the games that will make up the slate for that week. Once the week starts, and the games are selected a scorecard will become available.

The scorecard is the most important part of PaS - it's how you play the game. The scorecard contains the list of games selected for the week, allowing you to submit predictions for each contest. Each league has it's own scorecard. Each score piece (game listed) lists the home and away team, the game date and time, and the betting odds.

You don't have to fully complete a scorecard to submit scores. As long as the game hasn't started, scores can be submitted - this includes changes. Once the game starts, the score piece is locked and cannot be changed. If you want reminders for games you may have missed, there are notification settings available. You can access them in your profile (tap/click your avatar in the menu or the gear in the upper right corner on mobile - must be logged in to see these options).

Always remember to tap/click the submit button to save and submit your scores. If you fail to submit a score for a game you will not receive any points for that contest. You can still win the week with some skill, saavy, and a few balls bouncing your way, but only the best can pull out those types of weeks. If you have any issues or additional questions, suggestions, or comments, don't forget you can always reach out to us HERE.

Everything is better with friends - well, almost everything. If not friends, a group of people competing for a title or mastery. PaS offers members the ability to create member pools. You can create multiple pools, join multiple pools, and even manage pools as a non-member. Pool statistics and standings are calculated and saved separately as well, allowing you to compete with multiple groups of people while competing against the entire PaS community.

Creating a pool is simple. Access the competion page by tapping/clicking "POOLS" in the menu or tapping the icon in the quick access menu if using a mobile device. Select the "Managed Pools" tab and tap/click the "new pool" button.

Fill out the form, add a pic if you'd like, and save the pool. A couple of important things to note: the "Participate in pool" toggle must be enabled to add you, the pool owner, to the pool when it's created; enable the "Make pool public" toggle if you want the pool to appear in PaS search results. If you leave the pool participation toggle off, you can still join your own pool and accept the request yourself.

You will also notice the "Membership cap" is set up in buckets with a maximum of 15 members. If you need a larger pool, reach out to us HERE to discuss.

You must add a season to your pool in order for members to compete against one another at the pool level. One of the most important steps in managing your new pool (or an existing pool) is to add it to an active season. This feature allows you to select the leagues and/or seasons you would like your pool to participate in. To add a season to your pool, access the pool management page and tap/click the "Add season" button. Select the season and tap/click "add".

To join an existing pool, just search for the pool using the PaS search page. You can access the search page by tapping/clicking the icon in the menu, or in the top nav bar on mobile devices. This icon is only visible when you are logged into PaS. Search results yield members and pools, with pools identified using a subtext "POOL" designation. Tap/click the pool, and if the pool is joinable, you will see a "Request to join" button. Tapping/clicking this button sends your request to the pool owner. Once approved, you will become a member of the pool.

You can invite members to your pool a couple of ways. If it is a non-member, someone who is not on PaS, you can invite them from the pool management page by tapping/clicking the "Invite friends" button. Type in the email and hit "send". PaS will send an email to the person conaining a link for them to join PaS and your pool.

The easiest way to invite existing members is to look them up using the search feature. Click the icon in the menu, or in the top nav bar on mobile devices, and search for the user name. Click the "invite" button to the right of the member's name. This will send the member a notification and email and/or text with a link to accept your invitation.

One of the coolest features pool play offers is LiveView. In LiveView, you get realtime score updates for all members of your pool. You can also chat with fellow pool members - trash talk, give analysis, root for your team, or just holla at your friends. In LiveView, you can view pool member picks to compare them to your own. Pool member picks are only available after the game has started. This means, the full scorecard will be exposed as the games are played during the week. LiveView is a fun tool for big game days where there are multiple games in progress simultaneously. The scoring can get hectic with positions changing constantly.

You can access LiveView from the menu by tapping/clicking the "LIVEVIEW" link or by tapping the icon in the quick access menu if using a mobile device.

PaS basically started out as a drawn whiteboard grid turned spreadsheet. In picking winners and scores, I came to a couple of conclusions: it's hard to designate a true winner in just win/loss tallies, and how well does the winner really know the game by just guessing who will win? So, an algorithm was written to score the guess against the actual outcome of the game. Later, we added the spread, over and under, and the all mighty risk factor.

Picking the winner for a game is the biggest factor in PaS scoring. It is one of three factors that is completely binary. Pick the winner and you get nearly half the full base score; miss it and you get zero for this factor.

This factor only comes into play when you pick the winner. It is flexible measuring your predicted margin of victory to the actual result. The more accurate you are, the closer you get the the max percentage which is around one-fifth of the base score.

Score accuracy yields points whether you pick the correct winner or not. It compares your predicted score for each team to the actual results of each. The more accurate you are, the closer you get the the max percentage which is about a tenth of the base score.

Although this is a binary factor (hit it and you get points, miss it and you get zero), you can get points even if you don't predict the winner of the game. This is solely based on whether you predicted the spread correctly. Pick right and you get about one-sixth of the base score; miss it and you get zero.

Just like the line/spread factor, this is binary as well (hit it and you get points, miss it and you get zero). Also, you can get points even if you don't predict the winner of the game - it is solely based on whether you predicted the over/under correctly. Pick right and you get about one-twelfth of the base score; miss it and you get zero.

The risk factor can completely turn a leaderboard upside down. It is completely flexible and fluid based on the spread. This factor only comes into play when you pick a team that is NOT favored. The bigger the underdog, the bigger the payoff - in points. The risk factor is added after the base score is calculated (the sum of the other factors). Slight underdog = low risk. Heavy underdog = big risk.

The final factor for scoring is the submission factor. This factor is based on the order scores are submitted. When a member submits a score (or changes it), that submission is ordered based on the scorecard submissions of the entire PaS membership. At the end of the sports week, an algorithm runs to assign a point adjustment based on your scorecard's submission position. This helps prevent a tie for any given event, week, or game.

Currently, PaS is running for 3 leagues: NFL, CFB, and NBA. We will run at least 2 seasons for each league: regular season and playoffs (bowl season for CFB). Scoring will be reset for the start of each new season. Each league has what is considered a start and end date to the sports week:

• NFL: The week begins on Wednesday and ends on Tuesday (earliest game is usually Thursday)
• CFB: The week begins on Tuesday and ends on Monday (earliest game can be Tuesday)
• NBA: The week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday (games all week in most cases)

At the close of the sports week, all scores will be calculated and summarized (finalized). They will then be available for review on the Leaderboard. Also, each member can review their statistics overall and for each pool they are a member of on the Stats page. Stats are only updated at the end of the sports week. Both the Leaderboard and Stats pages are available to members and accessible via the main menu.

If you have any issues or additional questions, suggestions, or comments, don't forget you can always reach out to us HERE.