The popularity NFL pick'em games has exploded over the past 5 years with the rise in popularity of sports betting and DFS apps like PrizePicks and Underdog. We've even seen the effect in Las Vegas with the Circa Millions prize pool growing to $6 million this year.
With this growth in popularity came a flood of apps and an industry that is still relatively young already seems overwhelmed with options. A basic search in the App Store will return hundreds of options, some well executed and worth your time, many not.
Our team has worked directly with many of these companies, has tested nearly every product, and many of the writers on our staff are daily users of several of these apps. Find our top 5 NFL Pick'em apps for 2024 below.
We're coming out of the gates swinging with our pick for best overall app, but hear us out on this one. EatWatchPlay is the only app featured in this article that pays out actual prizes without requiring you to make a deposit. It's 100% free to play while remaining competitive and challenging.
The format is simple:
Enter a contest for the sport of your choice.
Answer questions such as which team wins or which QB has more passing yards.
Earn points for every pick you get correct.
The top users from each contest are rewarded tokens which can be rewarded at local restaurants or for prizes in their new marketplace.
This app checks several boxes that no other app on this list can check. It's free, it includes contests on politics and reality TV (is there a difference?), and it's available in every U.S. state.
This is another pick that may surprise many of our readers but our choice came down to two simple criteria:
Variety of sports and stat categories offered.
Size and speed of payouts.
There are plenty of other things worth considering, such as customer support, app availability, and app performance, but typically all of the top pick'em DFS apps check each of these boxes.
With Betr Picks, you get the variety of contest options that PrizePicks users have come to expect but with higher (and faster) payouts. The app looks great, is easy to use, and offers plenty of options for depositing and withdrawing funds.
If pick'em contests are all you are looking for, Betr Picks is the best daily fantasy app on the market.
If you are looking for an app to help you manage a pick'em pool or survivor pool at work or with friends, Run Your Pool from Splash Sports is your best bet. Run Your Pool is so far and away better than the next-best option we couldn't even list an alternative.
NFL pick'em pools are an absolute blast, and are even more fun when you're playing with friends, but nobody wants to be the person in charge. From gathering money to gathering and checking picks, running a pick'em pool is a lot of work.
Run Your Pool handles all of that work for you. They take the payments, they track the picks, and they make the payouts once the pool is over. There is a small fee to use the service, but its a no brainer when you add up the time and hastle of having to manually manage your own pick'em pool.
For years, when asked what the best fantasy app is, our answer has been Underdog and we don't see that changing anytime soon. While they are miles behind Betr Picks in terms of pure pick'em play, we simply can't ignore everything else Underdog brings to the table.
The NFL season starts early with Underdog. Their season-long best ball contests are a staple of the offseason and last season's $2 million winner drafted his team in June. These traditional snake style best ball drafts don't end when the season starts, either. Drafts fill for every Sunday throughout the season, simply draft the best possible team for that week and take home the top prize.
Back to Underdog's pick'em options, they check most boxes for the NFL. You will find options for every team, and every game. However, the number of players and stat categories available trail Betr Picks just slightly. Additionally, Underdog does not offer pick'em contests outside of the most popular U.S. sports: NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, CFB, and CBB.
Underdog deserves a spot on this list, even if it isn't the best overall pick'em app in the DFS category.
We all think of either sports betting or real money fantasy sports when we hear the name DraftKings. However, did you know that they run weekly pick'em pools that are free to enter? These pools are a fun way to test your NFL knowledge without any betting knowledge and without ever having to make a deposit.
The DraftKings pick'em pools can be found in the DFS app. Simply click the 'Pools' button from the home screen and browse the available pick'em pools. There are certainly times where no pools are available, but DraftKings does a good job of making sure there is at least one pick'em pool available for every week of the NFL season.
While there are rarely any prizes attached to these pools, one of the unique features we enjoy is you are typically competing against one of the DraftKings celebrity ambassadors. Whether it is Kevin Hart or Chris Simms, you are able to compare your picks to not only other users' but also to the celebrity picker.