We’ve been running our NFL Progressive Pick ‘Em now for three NFL seasons and after two years where a single player had not been able to pick a perfect card, the 2024 gamblersWORLD Progressive Pick ‘Em saw three weeks of perfect cards, ties nearly every week on the leaderboard and the largest amount of cash and prizes ever given away.
This was an NFL season that saw huge upsets, key injuries and dashed hopes for teams early in the season that ruined most Survivor Pools in the first three weeks of the season. And it continued. The Steelers went from 10-2 to limping into the playoffs, losing their last 5 games, Buffalo struggled early and were dominate late, Kansas City won but couldn’t cover the pointspread and the rise of teams like Washington, behind rookie Jayden Daniels and San Francisco’s injury-plagued season made picking games every week a virtual crapshoot. But the bye weeks proved profitable with prefect cards in Week 6, 13 and 15. And, in an unexpected outcome, multiple players achieved a perfect card, with eight in week 6 and four players tied with perfect cards in week 13. Many weeks came down to the tie-breaker and, due to the lack of parity in this year’s NFL season, 25 players achieved at least 20,000 total points.
Congratulations to “vikes win” who averaged more than 11.5 wins a week for the entire season to win the 2024 gamblersWORLD Progressive Pick ‘Em! With extra points awarded for a correct Monday Night Football pick and 200 winners, “vikes win” amassed 21,600 points, yet still was tied at the top of the leaderboard! This year’s pool was again guaranteed and that was a godsend for players. The final pool was just $300 after being hit in Week 15, so the guaranteed $1000 final pool was a serious boost to the top 5 players. “vikes win” pulled ahead towards the end of the season and battled to victory, cashing for 50% of the final pool money – $500.
The first five places at the end of the season are all winners in the gamblersWORLD Progressive Pick ‘Em and after 272 games, multiple tie-breakers still needed to be used to determine the final standings. “vikes win”, “APO” and “Bob56” tied for the top spot with a whopping 21,600 points, so we had to go to the season-long tie breakers. It was so close that we had to go all the way to the 4th tie-breaker! “vikes win” and “APO” each picked 200 games correctly, the first deciding factor, knocking “Bob56,” who had 199 wins, to the third spot. So we had to use the second tie breaker, the amount of correct weekly tie-breaker picks. Again the top two were tied. The next tie-beakers all revolve around the tie-breaker game each week. In week 18 both players had the exact same total of 52. So we had to go to the 4th tie breaker, the MNF score from week 17!! Finally, the enormous total of the MNF matchup between the Lions and 49ers made a difference. “vikes win” pulled ahead with a total of 50 to “APO’s” 45, handing “APO” second place and the $250 prize for the runner-up. “Bob56” was awarded 15% of the total prize pool, good enough for $150! “APO” is heading toward legend status after finishing 4th last season.
Two players were also tied for fourth place and “punter711” and “s347” had strong showings all season long, each ending the 2024 season with 21,200 points. Again we had to implement the tie-breaker and this time the first tie breaker, the number of correct picks, was all that was needed. “punter711” claimed the $100 prize with 196 correct picks, edging out “s347”, who picked less games correctly (195), but achieved the massive point total with more weekly tie-breakers and the 200 points that comes with those correct picks.
We would like to thank all the players who participated in the 3rd annual gamblersWORLD Progressive Pick ’Em. Players should look for our annual NCAA Tournament contest and the second annual Super Bowl contest in just one month!