How scoring works
Three picks a day. The harder the call, the more it is worth. Your score is what you average per pick — and 100 is par.
What a pick is worth
Every game has a price the market puts on each side. We strip out the bookmaker’s cut and turn what is left into points: the less likely a result, the more it pays.
| The call | Roughly | Hits about |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy favourite | 110 pts | 9 times in 10 |
| Comfortable favourite | 140 pts | 7 times in 10 |
| True toss-up | 200 pts | 1 time in 2 |
| Underdog | 330 pts | 3 times in 10 |
| Real upset | 600 pts | 1 time in 6 |
Why 100 is par
Multiply any row above and you get the same answer. A 110-point favourite landing nine times in ten averages 100 a pick. A 600-point upset landing one time in six averages 100 a pick. So does everything in between.
That is the whole design. There is no safe way to farm points and no clever corner to hide in — chalk and longshots are worth exactly the same over a month. You get ahead by being right when the market was not.
Which means your score reads straight off par. Above 100 and you are beating the market. Below 100 and it is beating you. Most months, most people land near it.
Your score
Your score is your points per pick, with one thing added and one thing taken away. Everyone starts the month with 8 blank picks worth nothing, which every real pick washes out — and the whole thing is measured against a full month, so a month of fair picks lands on par rather than just short of it.
Pick all 90 slots and get fair value:
exactly 100.0
This is what par means. Show up every day, call it as the market did, and you finish level.
Make one pick, win 600, and stop:
600 over 1 pick → 72.6
A great call, but 8 blanks still outweigh it.
Make 30 picks and average 120:
3,600 over 30 picks → 103.2
Ahead of the market, and ahead of par — but you left two thirds of the month on the table.
Make 80 picks and average 120:
9,600 over 80 picks → 118.8
Same edge, nearly a full month of it. This is a very good month.
So playing more helps, without the month becoming a contest of who showed up most. And nobody wins it by getting lucky once and walking away.
Picks that don’t count
A postponed, abandoned, or tied game is voided. It scores nothing, does not count as a loss, and does not use up one of your three for the day. You are never punished for a game that never happened.
Live picks
You can pick a game already under way, right up until it ends. It is not the loophole it sounds like: a team well ahead is close to certain, so calling it is worth almost nothing. The points move with the game.
The month
Scores reset on the first of each month, Eastern time. Late games count for the day they were played, so a 10pm Pacific first pitch belongs to that evening rather than the next morning.
Highest score at the end of the month takes the title — a badge next to your name. There is no money in it, and there never will be.