Super Bowl Squares explained: How to play the Squares game for Super Bowl LVII

Explaining how to play Super Bowl Squares for the Chiefs vs Eagles matchup in Super Bowl LVII with rules, traditional payouts and more. 

There are few more lucrative, if any, times to make friendly wagers than the Super Bowl. And with two teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles playing in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, Feb. 12, there are going to be a ton of people doing so. One of the most popular ways to do so is Super Bowl Squares.

It’s one of the most inventive, fun and wildly unpredictable ways to put a little money on the Big Game as Super Bowl Squares is something that anyone can play, even if they don’t have a ton of football knowledge.

But of course, you don’t want to put your money down if you don’t actually know how to play. So as we prepare for Chiefs vs. Eagles, let’s take a look at how you can play Super Bowl Squares. It should be noted that there are multiple ways to play, but this is the most widespread set of rules that you’ll find.

Super Bowl Squares explained: How to play Super Bowl Squares for Chiefs vs Eagles

The first thing you need is the 10×10 grid of the squares mentioned in the name. For Super Bowl LVII, the Chiefs will be on either the X- or Y-axis of the grid while the Eagles will be on the other. Along each of the axises, the numbers 0-9 will be assigned, which is best achieved randomly. However, that comes after the fact most of the time.

First, people who are playing in the Super Bowl Squares pool will buy their squares. They choose randomly in the 100-square grid (which is one of the most difficult aspects of this — filling all 100 squares) and that is their square. That allows for the true randomness of the game to be played.

That’s when the numbers are filled out on the grid and each person will have a number for the Chiefs and a number for the Eagles that corresponds with each square.

Now here’s how you determine a winner. In most pools, there are four times that a person playing Super Bowl Squares can win: after the first quarter, at halftime, after the third quarter and at the end of the game. A person wins one of the allotted prizes for each opportunity (usually increasing incrementally for each stage of the game) if the numbers to their corresponding squares are the final numbers for each team on the scoreboard.

For example, if the score of Super Bowl LVII at the end of the first quarter is Chiefs 13, Eagles 10, then the person whose square matches with the 3 from the Chiefs axis and the 0 from the Eagles axis will win that prize money. There are variations of this where people whose squares are touching the winning square will also win some money, but that is somewhat rare and an advance way to play.

And again, it is usually set up with a payout structure where the person who has the winning square for the final score gets the biggest payout.

So now you know how to play. But when you get your squares in the Super Bowl Squares game, which numbers are you hoping for?

Super Bowl Squares explained: What are the best numbers to have in Squares?

Here’s a historical breakdown of the final scores in the Super Bowl of the 56 previous games in relation to the Squares number that would’ve been correct:

• 7: 20 times
• 1: 16 times
• 4: 15 times
• 0: 15 times
• 3: 12 times
• 6: 10 times
• 9: 9 times
• 8: 6 times
• 5: 5 times
• 2: 4 times

Based on this data, while having three can potentially pay out earlier in the game, to potentially win based on the final score and get the most prize money, you’d want to have either 7, 1, 4 or 0 as those have all been correct 15 times or more historically.