Why this is a football format
A margin pool needs each team to play once a week, because the whole premise is that a pick resolves to a single number. That is true in football and false in basketball, where a team might play three times in a week and there is no honest way to say which margin counted. It is the reason this format is offered for the NFL and not the NBA.
Football also produces the right spread. A season of margins ranges from a one-point escape to a thirty-five point rout, which is wide enough that the standings separate properly instead of bunching.
The safe pick is rarely the right one
Everyone can see the week’s biggest favorite, and backing it to win by four is how you stay exactly level with the field. The pool rewards spotting the game that is going to get away from somebody — a different and harder read than picking a winner, and the reason a margin pool stays interesting in week fifteen when the leader is twenty points clear and still has to pick.
Nothing to tally
Scores arrive off the live feed, so nobody types a result into a spreadsheet. Picks grade themselves as games go final, standings move on their own, and the commissioner finds out who won at the same time as everyone else.
Payment tracking and payout splits are built in. Players pay the commissioner directly — the money never passes through Poolr — and the pool keeps a record of who has settled up so nobody has to chase it in a group chat.