Football is the game squares was built for
The format depends on scores that move in odd increments and stall in interesting places, and football obliges. Threes and sevens make some digit pairs famously valuable and others nearly dead, which is exactly why the digits are drawn after claiming closes rather than before.
Nobody can hunt the zero and the seven, nobody gains from claiming first, and there is nothing to be aggrieved about when the grid fills.
Four quarters, four winners
Each quarter pays on the score at the moment it ends, so a square that was worthless at half time can take the third. The board tracks claims, the draw and each quarter’s winner as the scores arrive off the live feed.