Call every playoff series in one bracket — and score more each round
A bracket pool asks for the whole postseason at once: every series, every round, all the way to the champion, filled in before the first game. Sportpoolz is bringing series brackets to NBA and WNBA playoffs — scored automatically, free for your group, and with no money changing hands.
Free forever — no credit card, no money changing hands.
How a playoff bracket pool works
In a league that plays its playoffs as series, the bracket is a set of matchups decided best-of-several. Before the first series starts, you pick the winner of every one of them — the first round, then whoever you have advancing in each round after, up to the champion. You can also call how many games each series lasts.
Points rise by round. With the NBA's sixteen-team bracket, a correct first-round pick is worth 1, the second round 2, the conference finals 4 and the Finals 8, so the late rounds decide the pool and a champion you called in April is worth more than a perfect first round. Play-in games are not part of the bracket: it starts once the field is settled.
What a manager will set
- Which league's playoffs the pool follows — the format is fixed once the pool exists.
- Who can join and how many members the pool takes, from 2 to 30.
- Nothing about the matchups: the field and every series result come from the league, so the manager fills in a bracket on the same terms as everyone.
Key dates
- NBA — Playoff bracket pools open on Sportpoolz: Saturday, April 10, 2027
- NBA — Play-in games: April 13–16, 2027
- NBA — Playoffs begin: Saturday, April 17, 2027
- WNBA — Season tip-off (expected; dates not yet announced): May 2027
Brackets lock when the first round begins, so the window to fill one in is short. Setting the pool up ahead of time means the group is ready the moment the field is known.
A sample bracket, scored
Here is how one sixteen-team NBA bracket could score with the default points.
- First round: 6 of 8 series right — 6 points.
- Second round: 3 of 4 right — 6 points.
- Conference finals: 1 of 2 right — 4 points.
- Finals: your champion wins — 8 points, for 24 in all. A friend with a perfect first round and the wrong champion can easily finish behind you.
Bracket pool vs. the NFL playoff pool
Sportpoolz's NFL playoff pool is not a bracket. It asks you to rank the playoff teams once and pays you every time one of them wins, so an early upset never wrecks your sheet. A bracket is the opposite trade: you predict the matchups themselves, which makes a bracket that survives the first round worth bragging about — and one that does not, a long wait.
Common questions
Does a bracket pool score the play-in games?
No. Play-in games decide who fills the last places in the field, and the bracket starts after them. You pick only the series the playoff field actually plays.
What does calling the series length add?
A way to separate members who picked the same winners. Two people can both have the right champion; the one who also called a six-game Finals had the sharper read.
Be ready the day it opens
Sportpoolz is free. Create your account now, and starting your pool takes a couple of minutes once it opens.