Daily App: EZ Football Pool Great For Fun, Marketing

The big game is less than two weeks away. The teams are set. And following an historic misstep by Las Vegas sports books, this year's football fanfest has been called a toss-up. The odds are in favor of a great game, so here's an app that not only automates some football-pool fun, but also gives companies a chance to inexpensively greet a new customer or spread the word about a new product, service or event.

EZ Football Pool for Android and for iOS is a fun, free and clever way to automate a grid-iron grid that lets everyone select boxes online without needing the app itself. Included with the free app is a service that builds a Web page for selecting boxes that also can carry a 300 x 150 pixel ad for just 99 cents.

To get started, we downloaded the app on our 8-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S and set up a game. This involved entering an email address, naming the game and entering its date and the names of the teams that would be facing off. The app uses the information to set up a Web page with a blank 100-box grid. A short time later an email arrived with a link to the page. The person managing the grid would forward that link to anyone participating in the pool.

People visiting the page see your ad at the top. They click on the box(es) they'd like to claim and a window pops up prompting for their name, email address, optional company, and as many as three initials. Only one grid box can be populated at a time, but information persists in the pop-up, so all that's necessary to repeat the action is to hit Submit. Players can be limited to a set number of boxes per email address/initial combination. A refresh button on the device side updates the grid as initials are entered; tapping on a square displays the full info.

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Once all 100 boxes are filled in, an email is sent to the organizer that it's time to populate the row and column headings. A button on the app takes care of that and sends all participants a link to the populated grid. Scores can be entered into the app as the game progresses or all at once after the last whistle. The app identifies winners (shown here as grey boxes), sends notifications to all players and a spreadsheet to the organizer. Aside from the fun that friendly competition can bring to game day, EZ Football Pool also can help spread company messaging.

PUBLISHED JAN. 20, 2015