What are the best numbers to get in a football pool?

Answer 1

The table below shows the best numbers for each of the quarters and then combined for the entire game. Essentially, 0 and 7 are the best numbers, 3 and 4 are good, 6 and 1 are OK, and 8, 9, 2, and 5 are not so good. The table comes compiling the scores by quarter for pro football games from 1994-2012 (when the current 2 pt conversion rule was adopted). Much more can be found (it's work in progress) at http://footballsquares.blogspot.com.

Answer 2

The following answers are from my own calculations of Super Bowl stats. If there are any mistakes please let me know but I believe them to be absolutely correct! These numbers include only Super Bowls 1-44. Therefore, 176 quarters multiplied by 2 teams equaling 352 digits.

According to my calculations, the BEST overall number set to have in a Super Bowl pool are definitely 0,0!!!!!

A. Of the total number of digits (352) at the end of the quarters, ZERO has shown up the most!

Zero: ...... 96, (27.27% of all digits at the end of quarters)

7: ........... 76, (21.59%)

3: ............55, (15.63%)

4: ............38, (10.80%)

6: ............30, (8.52%)

1: ............17, (4.83%)

9: ............15, (4.26%)

8: ..............9, (2.56%)

5: ..............8, (2.27%)

2: ..............8, (2.27%)

**what this is saying is that having 0, 7, and 3 are the most advantageous and having 2, 5, and 8 hurt you. But of course you already knew that!

B. Which number set has shown up the most in total?

0,7: ................. 20, (11.36% of the total sets represented)

0,3: ................. 17, (9.66)

0,0: ................. 13, (7.39)

3,7: ................. 13

4,7: ................. 13

0,4: ................. 9, (5.11)

6,3: ................. 7, (3.98)

7,7: ................. 7

**this may seem to suggest that having 0,7 is the best number set to have but this is not so. Remember, there are two sets of 0,7 on the board (i.e. SF 7, DAL 0 or DAL 7, SF 0) and unless you have both your odds of winning are technically cut in half. When you have 0,0 you are the only one with this number combo thus increasing your odds of winning. A good analogy to describe this is from Texas Hold'em Poker; It's better to have pocket Ace's versus an Ace, King combo.

C. How often have the number sets actually landed by quarter in the Super Bowl?

........................1st............... 2nd .............3rd .............4th

0,7: ................ 8 ...................5.................4 ................ 3

0,3: .................10 ................4 .................2 .................1

0,0: .................10 ................2 .................1 .................0

3,7: .................2 ...................4................. 5 ................2

4,7: ................ 2................... 3 .................3..................5

4,0: .................3 ...................2................. 4 .................0

6,7: ................ 3....................2................. 0..................2

7,7: ................ 1 ...................2 .................2..................2

**what this is saying is that certain number sets are of more value early on in the game (ie 0,3 or 0,0) and other number sets gather value as the game progresses (ie 3,7 or 4,7). This makes sense because the number of permutations are fewer at the beginning of the game versus the end.

D. Curious about the number of different permutations that have actually shown up by quarter?

1st quarter: only 10 permutations have ever shown up at the end of the 1st quarter in all 44 Super Bowls.

0,7

0,3

0,0

0,4

7,7

7,3

3,3

7,4

6,3

4,6

2nd quarter: 22 different number sets

3rd quarter: 25 ""

4th quarter: 29 ""

Hope this helps someone and remember, no cheating or rigging of Super Bowl pools!!!