Football Pool Strategy 2022: Best tips, pick advice for how to win NFL survivor pool contests in 2022

The 2022 NFL season has arrived. There is an opportunity to win big prizes if you use the right survivor pool strategy. In this post, we review four tips that will increase your odds to be the last entry standing. PoolGenius also offers picks for football pick 'em contests and NFL betting picks. For the beginning of the 2022 season, Sporting News readers can get a free trial of all football pool picks and betting bets.

In an NFL survivor pool, you can't always play it safe and pick the team that's most likely to win. The ultimate goal is to survive as long as it takes to be the last entry standing. In smaller pools, achieving that goal often requires you to go deep into the season. Smart players take risks earlier in the year to set up a strong endgame. It also gives them a better chance to eventually win the pool. Below is an example of how we currently project out winning percentages for each team each week.

The perfect survivor pick has three defining features: It's almost a lock to win, unpopular for other entries in your pool and useless as a potential pick in future weeks. The teams most likely to be successful are usually the best teams in the NFL. Teams with the highest win odds are popular picks because everyone wants to pick a winner. If a team is mediocre but has a juicy matchup in current week, it will probably be a popular pick.

It's almost a lock to win. It's unpopular with other entries in your pool.

Pick popularity matters in NFL survivor pool contests in 2022. If multiple people pick the winner, they all get put in a raffle to win the $100 prize.

The Saints have about a 70-percent chance of beating the Falcons. If 99 of 99 opponents plan to pick the Saints, picking the underdog Falcons will maximize your expected winnings from the game. The Falcons have a much higher chance to win the $100 prize if they do win. Expected Value (EV) is a calculation that considers both risk and reward. NFL Survivor Picks product includes a customizable EV calculator.

It's important to avoid picking the same team as others. Some major upsets wiped out large chunks of survivor pools. There is no universal "best pick" for all types of Survivor pools, so it's a matter of strategy. For example, taking an unpopular team instead of a popular big favorite may provide higher EV. For a strike pool, consider rules. The expert survivor pool players use data to understand when it makes more sense to take or avoid a very popular team. Their customized survivor pick rankings take all the necessary factors into account. They take into consideration Expected Value, popularity, size, rules and other circumstances.

The most popular pick of the week lost for six weeks in a row. Upsets wiped out 50 percent of still-surviving entries each week. 2019: Over 80 percent of all remaining entries were eliminated when the Saints and Colts both lost in Week 10. 2018: A Saints loss in week 1 knocked out 30 percent, and 58 percent two weeks later when Buffalo upset Minnesota. 2017: 37 percent were knocked off in weeks 5 and 5 when Jacksonville upset Pittsburgh.

Football Pool Strategy 2022 is a free guide to winning NFL survivor pool contests in 2022.