When Do Recommended Picks Lock For The Week?

We allow for different lock times for different pools, so you get the best possible advice as close to when your picks are due as possible.

Starting in 2017, our recommended picks for your pool(s) will “lock” (i.e., stop updating) after a time that you specify:

  • Each week, when you update the status of a pool, we will ask you when you plan to submit your picks for the week
  • You will select a day and time (e.g. “Sunday morning before kickoff of the first game”)
  • We will disable updates for a pool’s pick rankings and entry-by-entry pick recommendations after that time
  • You will be able to manually lock or unlock a pool via links in the My Pool Picks list

What Does Pick Locking Mean?

Throughout a given week, you have the option to update each pool’s pick rankings (and our overall pick portfolio recommendations across all your pools and entries) using the latest data we have on win odds, pick popularity, etc.

Since that input data can change from day to day, it also can cause pick rankings and our entry-by-entry pick recommendations for a pool to change over the course of the week.

However, any changes to pick recommendations that might occur AFTER you submit your weekly picks for a specific pool aren’t very useful to you. From experience, we’ve found that:

  1. Seeing pick advice change after a pool’s pick deadline has passed often leads to confusion and frustration
  2. Most users want to preserve a record of the picks we recommended at the time their picks were due

As a result, we now stop updating (“lock”) pick rankings and recommendations for a pool, after the time you specify in the weekly update process.

If you visit the site after a specific pool’s lock time has passed, we will not update pick rankings or our entry-by-entry pick recommendations for that pool.

You will still be able to view the latest set of pick rankings and recommendations that you generated before the pool’s lock time passed.

IMPORTANT: Remember that we do not automatically update pick rankings and recommended picks for your pools at the lock time, or throughout the week. You still need to visit the site before a pool’s lock time (preferably, very soon before it), and view our updated recommended picks for that pool, so that the final pick recommendations you get incorporate the most recent data.

What If Different Pools Have Different Pick Deadlines?

That’s fine. Pick locking is specified on a pool-by-pool basis. So if you’re going to submit picks for one pool on Friday and another on Sunday morning, it’s no problem.

After a specific pool locks, the system still allows you to update picks for the rest of your pools that haven’t reached their lock time yet, up through the final lock time for the rest of your active pools.

What Are Your Options For Pool Lock Times?

You’re allowed to select any time in the future, up to the start of the main batch of games that week, as a pool lock time.

Most weeks, that means the latest time you can select is 1pm Eastern Time on Sunday. London games do not affect this; even when there’s an very early Sunday game played in London, the last allowable lock time is 1PM Eastern.

Occasionally, due to a Sunday holiday, the majority of a week’s games are played on Saturday. In those cases, the latest time you can select is kickoff of the first Saturday game.

What If You Didn’t Get Picks Before A Pool’s Lock Time?

If it’s before the start of the main slate of NFL games for the week, you can use the “Unlock this pool” link on the My Pool Picks page to set the lock time to some point in the future, and then get picks as normal.

If it’s after the main slate of games has started (or for some reason you don’t want to unlock the pool), we can still create new picks your pool.

However, two important details:

  1. To reiterate, we can create new picks for a locked pool, if you never generated picks for that pool at all, but we cannot update prior picks. If you had already generated an initial set of pick rankings and recommendations for a pool several days earlier, but simply forgot to come in and update them right before Sunday kickoff, you won’t be able to update those earlier picks.
  2. If you never generated picks for a locked pool, for technical reasons our portfolio pick recommendations will make picks as if all games after your pool’s lock time (or the main batch of games for the week, if you didn’t set a lock time) hadn’t started yet. So there may be some teams that have already played their game (or are currently playing) in the recommendations. In those cases, you will need to view the Pick Rankings for that specific pool, and substitute in the highest ranked team that hasn’t played yet, if any are still available.