Getting into a pool
Invite emails, shared links and public pools — plus every reason a join is refused.
You got an invite email
Press Join Now in the invite email: if you are signed in the pool's invitation dialog opens straight away, if you are signed out you sign in and come back to it, and a brand-new account has to confirm its email address first.
The subject line reads You're invited to join, followed by the pool's name. Inside is a Join Now button, with the same address repeated in plain text underneath in case your mail program strips the button.
- 1 Press Join Now. If you are already signed in, a dialog titled Pool Invitation opens on the pool you were invited to.
- 2 If you are signed out you land on the sign-in page instead. Sign in and you are returned to the same invite — you do not need the email a second time.
- 3 Press Accept Invitation. You join on the spot, the pool's owner is notified, and you are taken to the pool.
A brand-new account takes a longer route. Registering always ends on a check-your-email page rather than back at the invite. Click the link in that confirmation email and every invite already sent to your address attaches itself to your account, so the pool is then waiting on your Invitations tab at /pools and the original link is never needed again.
One gate applies to everybody: a first and last name have to be saved on your profile. Until they are, every pool page sends you to /profile instead. Fill both in, then go back to the invite.
Accepting from your Invitations tab
Every invite addressed to you is listed on the Invitations tab at /pools, where each pool is a card with a Decline and a Join Pool button — no link required.
This is the reliable way in when a link has gone missing or was never sent to you directly. The tab carries a count of what is waiting, and while an invite is outstanding the browser tab itself reads Pools - New Invitations with the number in front.
Each card carries an Invited pill, the pool's name, how many players have joined so far — or Be the first to join if nobody has yet — and an Invited by line naming the owner, so you can tell which pool it is before you commit.
- 1 Open /pools and choose the Invitations tab.
- 2 Find the pool's card and check the Invited by line against who you expected.
- 3 Press Join Pool. A Success dialog offers Go to Pool, which takes you there, and Stay Here, which leaves you on the list to deal with another invite.
- 4 Or press Decline. A Decline Invitation dialog asks you to confirm, with Keep Invitation as the way back out.
Declining is not as final as it sounds. A declined membership can be invited again and can still join later — the owner just has to send the invite a second time.
An invite shows up here only once an account exists for that address and its email has been confirmed. Before then the invite is held against the address and attaches itself the moment you confirm.
Someone sent you a link
A working pool link has /pools/invite/ in it followed by the pool's id — if the one you were sent does not load, ask the sender to invite your email address instead, because not every copy-link button in the product builds a real address.
Open the link and one of two dialogs appears. If the owner invited your email address, you get Pool Invitation with an Accept Invitation button and you join on the spot. If someone forwarded you the link and nobody invited you personally, you get Join Pool instead.
The button on that second dialog tells you what will happen before you press it. On a public pool it reads Join Pool and you are in immediately. On a private pool that is still taking people it reads Request to Join, and the dialog says the pool requires the owner's approval.
- Signed out, and the pool is public: you see a preview of the pool first, before anything asks you to sign in.
- Signed out, and the pool is private: you are sent to sign in, then returned to the same link.
- Already an active member: you are told you are already a member of this pool and sent to the pool itself.
- Left, declined or removed from that pool before: the link works again and puts you through the same join dialog.
A link that starts /invite/ rather than /pools/invite/ has no page behind it. Those came from an older share button and are not something you did wrong — ask the sender for a fresh link, or to invite your email address instead. Older links that start /tournaments/invite/ are fine; they forward to the current address.
- 1 Check the address before anything else: a working one contains /pools/invite/ followed by a long id.
- 2 If it does not load, ask whoever sent it to invite your email address from the pool's settings. The Join Now button in that email always uses the right address.
- 3 Once that invite exists you do not need a link at all — the pool appears on your Invitations tab.
There is no join code, pool code or access code anywhere in the product, so nothing you have been sent is meant to be typed into a box. Wording on the front page about entering a pool code describes something that does not exist.
Public pools you can just join
The Browse Public tab at /pools lists open pools that need no invite: press Join Now and you are an active member immediately, with no approval step.
The tab's own line reads Open pools anyone can join — no invite required. Each card shows a Public pill, the week range it covers, the number of players in against the pool's cap, and a bar that fills as it does. Near the top it flags Filling Fast; otherwise it counts down how many spots are left.
Press Join Now and you are in. The pool moves onto Your Pools, the card's pill changes to Joined and its button becomes View Pool.
You cannot make one of your own pools appear here. A pool's settings offer only Private - Invite only, with the public option present but disabled and marked coming soon. Even a pool switched to public on the older members page is not listed, because listing also requires the pool to belong to the platform's own commissioner account.
The list is deliberately short. It covers the current NFL regular season only, drops any pool whose start week has already gone by, and shows one pool per week range, so you never see five near-identical options.
If the tab reads No Public Pools Available, nothing is open for the weeks still to come. That is the tab working, not your account being restricted.
Asking to join a pool
Reaching a private pool through a forwarded link rather than a personal invite sends the owner a join request instead of adding you, and you are in only once they approve it.
The dialog says which it is before you commit: the button reads Request to Join rather than Join Pool, and the line above it says the pool requires the owner's approval. Confirm and you see Request sent — the pool owner must approve it.
Until they act, nothing else changes for you. The pool does not appear under Your Pools and there are no picks to make.
The request is not silent on their side. The owner gets an email saying you want to join, a count beside Pools in their sidebar, and a card on their pools page headed with the number of pending join requests. When they approve you, you get an email whose subject starts You're in.
Opening the link again while you wait does not nudge anyone. It answers that you already have a pending join request and returns you to your pools list.
If the pool's roster has been locked, a request is refused outright rather than queued: the link answers Pool is not accepting new members and nothing is recorded. A personal invite from the owner still works while the roster is locked, so that is what to ask for.
Why a join gets refused
A refusal is always one of a short list, and the message names which: the pool is full, it is not active, its roster is locked, it is a Survivor pool that has already started, or your own membership is in a state that cannot rejoin.
Every way in runs the same three checks on the pool — it has to be active, it has to have a seat free, and a Survivor pool must not have started — and then one more on you, which is whatever your own membership row already says. The message you get names exactly one of them.
Games having started is not a reason on its own. Every format except Survivor still takes new members once the season is under way, whatever a pool's settings screen says about enrollment being closed. If you were turned away mid-season, the reason was one of the rows above.
Left, declined and removed all read as final and none of them are: a membership in any of those three states can join again, through the same link or a fresh invite. Suspended, revoked and rejected are the three that cannot.
What happens once you're in
You land on the pool with a confirmation that you joined, it appears on the Your Pools tab at /pools, and making picks for the current week is the next thing to do.
There is no second approval step once you are a member, and nothing else has to be accepted. The pool's owner is emailed that you joined.
- 1 Open the pool from the Your Pools tab at /pools.
- 2 Go to its picks screen and make your picks for the week that is open.
- 3 Set a display name for that pool if you would rather not be shown under your account name. It applies to that one pool.
Joining part-way through a season is allowed in every format except Survivor, so a pool that is already several weeks old will still take you.
You can leave a pool yourself from its dashboard, under Membership Settings, using Leave Pool. Leaving is not final either — a membership that left can be invited again, or can use the same link a second time.
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