Jimmy Boyd in 
NFL survivor contests are one of the best ways for the general public to enjoy the football season. They provide week-to-week entertainment and give everyone a chance to win significant prizes. And best of all we have our survivor pool picks each week to help you get an edge over the field!
If you want help on other season long bets then you can check out our Super Bowl odds and NFL win totals pages for a couple other fun wagers.
What is an NFL Survivor Contest?
The traditional format for a survivor pool is everyone picks a team each week. If that team wins (or ties), you advance. Lose and you are out. The catch is that you can only pick each team one time during the season so you can’t simply ride the best team in the league week after week.
The winner is the player who makes it the longest without having a single defeat. That is why these pools are sometimes known as Last Man Standing, Knockout, or Elimination contests.
The rules are fairly simple which is why it’s popular in offices across the country, but the fields can be pretty large. That means large payouts for the lucky entrant who can go 18-0 to outlast the rest of the field.
Popular 2023 NFL Survivor Pool Contests for Real Money
DK has four different pools taking place with its own entry fee and payout structure.
| Entry Fee | Guaranteed Prize | Max Entries Per Customer |
|---|---|---|
| $1 | $25,000+ | 50 |
| $10 | $100,000+ | 25 |
| $100 | $1,000,000+ | 25 |
| $1,000 | $100,000+ | 10 |
You can enter these pools in the following states: AZ, CO, IA, KS, LA, MA, MI, MD, NH, NJ, NY, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY. You should note that you also have to submit your pick in these states too, so if you are doing any traveling this fall you’ll need to have a plan in place to make sure you don’t miss any weeks.
I’d say Circa has the granddaddy of them all right now when it comes to football contests.
$1,000 entry fee with a max of 10 entries per person.
20 picks which contain NFL Week 1-18, plus Thanksgiving Day/Black Friday and Christmas Day.
No Rake! This means the house doesn’t make any money off of the contest. There is $8 million guaranteed to be paid out but if the entries are more than that the pot increases.
The rub here is that all picks must be made in Nevada. You’ll have to use a proxy service if you want to play and reside somewhere else in the country.
The last person standing at FanDuel receives $100,000 and you can play for free! Free normally means a lot of competition so after 18 weeks you’ll likely have to split the pot, but it’s still a freeroll opportunity at a pretty big payout!
BetOnline has a $250,000 guaranteed rake-free pot that will increase if they surpass the quarter-million in entry fees.
You need to have a valid BetOnline account to register and can purchase up to 25 entries. The entry fee varies based on how many times you enter:
| One Entry: | $30 |
| Entries 2-5: | $20 each |
| Entries 6-10: | $15 each |
| Entries 11-25: | $10 each |
There’s also an early bird promotion where if you purchase three or more entries before August 20th you will get another one free of charge.
Another online sportsbook that has a decent contest is MyBookie. They have a $100,000 contest, but one thing to note is that if your team ties, you are out. That is why paying attention to the rules of each contest is important!
There is also a $50k week 4 survivor contest for those who lose early. It’s basically the same format but it starts with Week 4 at the end of September. You don’t have to be out of the original contest to enter this one, but if you are then it’s a way to jump back into the fun.
Finally, there is the Crypto Week 8 survivor contest which starts even later in the season. You can purchase up to 10 entries into this one.
There are five different options for the BetUS survivor contest with pools at the $500, $100, $50, $25, and $10 levels. You’ll be allowed to re-buy before the end of the week after you were eliminated up until Week 9, when re-buys are no longer allowed.
These are some of the biggest public survivor pools that I found that anyone can enter. Most contests are run locally either with offices, college buddies, bars, etc.. Want to start your own NFL eliminator contest? Then our guide will help you with that too.
We also have advice on how to run your own survivor pool and the best strategies to win a last man standing contest coming up in the next few days.