How to play

Everything you need to know about Play Money Sportsbook, start to finish.

Play Money Sportsbook works like a real sportsbook, with one difference: you bet with free credits instead of money. You get real odds on every NFL game, you can build parlays, and your results count toward a public leaderboard. Nothing can be bought and nothing can be cashed in.

1. Sign in and get your credits

Sign in with a Google account, pick a username and confirm you're 21 or older. Your account starts with 10,000 credits. Every Tuesday morning, every active account gets another 1,000 credits, so nobody is ever out of the game for long.

2. Pick your games

The NFL page lists every upcoming game with three kinds of bet. If these are new to you, the betting basics page explains each one with examples.

• Spread: bet on a team to win by more than a set margin, or to lose by less than it.
• Total: bet on whether both teams' combined score goes over or under a number.
• Moneyline: bet on which team wins outright.

Tap any price to add it to your bet slip. The odds come from a real US sportsbook and are refreshed several times a day, more often as kickoff approaches.

3. Place a single or build a parlay

With one pick in your slip, enter a stake and place the bet. With two or more, you choose between Singles, where each pick is its own bet with its own stake, and Parlay, where the picks are combined into one ticket.

• A parlay only wins if every pick on it wins, and pays far more because the odds multiply.
• A parlay can include one pick per game, and up to 25 picks in total.
• There is no minimum or maximum stake. You can bet one credit or your whole balance.
• Betting on a game closes at kickoff.

If the odds change between you adding a pick and placing the bet, the site stops and shows you the new price, so you never get a line you didn't see.

4. Bets settle on their own

After a game ends, the final score comes in and your bets are graded automatically, usually within an hour or two of the final whistle. Winnings are added to your balance straight away.

• Win: you get your stake back plus your winnings.
• Loss: you lose the stake.
• Push: the result lands exactly on the number, for example a 7-point favorite winning by exactly 7, or a moneyline game ending in a tie. Your stake is returned.
• Push inside a parlay: that pick is dropped and the parlay is paid at the odds of the remaining picks.

If a result arrives wrong or a game is postponed, bets may be corrected, regraded or refunded.

5. Cash out early if you change your mind

Until the first game on a ticket kicks off, you can cash it out from My Bets. The cash-out value is what the ticket is worth at the current odds. If nothing has moved, that's a little less than your stake; if the line has moved in your favor, it can be more.

6. Climb the leaderboard

There are four leaderboards, each with a weekly and a season view:

• Profit: credits won minus credits staked.
• Return: profit as a percentage of what you staked.
• Win rate: the share of your decided bets that won.
• Biggest win: your largest single winning ticket.

Only settled bets count; the free weekly credits don't. Return and win rate need at least 3 decided bets in a week, or 10 in a season, so one lucky pick can't top them. The weekly boards reset every Tuesday.

Your profile and privacy

Your profile page shows your record, profit, return and recent bets. Other players can see it unless you switch it to private there. Either way, your username, record and rank still appear on leaderboards, and your email address is never shown.

Notifications and the app

You can turn on notifications from your profile page to hear when your bets settle, when weekly credits arrive, and about an hour before the day's first kickoff. You can also add the site to your phone's Home Screen and use it like an app. On an iPhone, notifications only work from the Home Screen version.

What it isn't

This is a game. Credits have no cash value and cannot be bought, sold, withdrawn or exchanged for prizes. Play Money Sportsbook is for adults 21 and over and is not affiliated with the NFL, its teams or any sportsbook. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER.