How to Play

The weekly loop

Hotshot is a weekly NFL pick'em you play with your friends. Each week everyone picks the side they think beats the spread across the full slate of games, all competing to top the leaderboard. Lock your picks in before kickoff — stake more points on the games you are most confident in — then watch the live sweat board track scores and each pick's cover status as the games play out.

Picking against the spread

The spread is the cushion the favorite has to cover. Say the Eagles are favored by 6.5 over the Cowboys, written Eagles -6.5. Pick the Eagles and they must win by 7 or more. Pick the Cowboys and you win if they lose by 6 or fewer or win outright. You are picking who beats the number, not who wins the game.

Weights

Every pick carries a weight you choose. Low is worth 1 point, Medium is worth 3, and High is worth 5. Put your weight where you feel strongest. A wrong High pick costs the same 5 points it would have earned.

Scoring

Every pick cuts both ways. A correct pick adds its weight, a wrong pick subtracts the same amount, and a push (the result lands exactly on the spread) is worth zero.

The All-In

Once per week you can mark a single pick as your All-In. It is worth plus 10 if you are right and minus 10 if you are wrong. You only get one each week, so save it for the game you trust most. In the season's final week, unlimited All-Ins may be turned on — letting you go All-In on every pick that week.

Locking and unpicked games

Kickoff closes each game. Under House, keep editing a pick right up until then. Under Gamer, your first lock places a final ticket — its side, weight, and line cannot change or be unlocked. A game you could have picked and didn't still costs you points — sitting one out is not free. That only applies to games your league had a line for, and only for weeks after you joined; a game with no line, or one from before you joined, never counts against you. Some rounds are marked as not counting, like preseason or practice weeks. You still pick them and watch them grade, but they do not move the standings.

Which number grades a pick

Your league plays one of two rules, and your commissioner chooses which. Under House, every pick on a game is graded at the same closing line, the spread in effect at kickoff, no matter when you locked — your own locked number is recorded and shown, but it does not score. Under Gamer, your first locked side, weight, and line are final, and that locked number grades you, so two players on the same side can settle differently. A switch between them applies only to games graded from then on; weeks already scored keep the rule they were scored under.

Beyond the picks

There is more to Hotshot than the weekly board.

• Week shows that round's board and its Weekly Hardware — three awards for the round's standout picks, separate from the season's tier honors and reset every week.
• League is Standings and Honors. Standings ranks the season; Honors is its own tab holding the trophy case, wooden spoon, and season awards: the reigning champion wears a crown, past champions fill the trophy case, and last place takes the wooden spoon.
• Stats tracks your own accuracy over the season, your head to head record against the rivals you disagree with most, and your credibility rating — a number starting at 1500 (even with the market) that bands into Square, Solid, Sharp, and Hotshot as you beat the spread more consistently. You're Unrated until your first 55 graded picks are in. It also shows how the number you locked compared with the closing line.
• Market is NFL-wide, not your league's picks: Team ATS records for how every team is covering the spread this season, with a lines-by-week grid below — the same view for everyone.
• Weekly recap is a short, AI written rundown of how your league's week went. A toast surfaces it when it's ready, and every past week stays reachable in the Season recaps archive.

The leaderboard and house rules

Your weekly points roll up into a season total on the leaderboard, where you can see how you stack up against your league. Your commissioner sets a house rule for which line your picks grade against. Any twists your league adds show up as you play.