With a week to go before the 2016 Super Bowl between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers, our 9th annual WayCool Super Ticket Pool is on pace to be our biggest ever. Here's why it should be a part of your Super Bowl weekend:

It's Free & Easy to Play
All SecondTicket pools are free, so that's a given. And in our unscientific review of every Super Bowl pool, ever, very few that featured any significant prize have ever been free. Ok, we didn't really perform a review of every pool ever, but the point is, not many Super Bowl pools are free.

Beyond that, another of our informal studies (albeit one with more factual science behind it) revealed that you can play the pool in as few as about 10 seconds. The average length of time it takes fans to make their predictions is about 40 seconds (based on the average time spent on the page). Some fans like to research some of the elements in the pool, such as the Super Bowl coin toss and the percentages of NFL scoring plays, so for them it can take longer. But generally, it's pretty quick.

Speaking of Super Bowl Facts and Prediction Probabilities
We provide many of them for you on the pool home page. Here are three interesting takeaways:

1. The Super Bowl coin toss odds are obviously 50% heads vs. tails. But did you know fans pick heads way more often? As a result, in the eight years of the pool, fans have only correctly picked the coin toss 36.5% of the time.
2. Did you know the favored team has scored first in 65% of Super Bowls, and, coincidentally, the first team to score has also won the game 65% of the time?
3. The most common three-minute segment in which the Super Bowl's first scoring play has occurred are minutes four, five and six.

Tips for Winning Our Super Bowl Pool
Though not guaranteed to win you the pool, here are three good ideas:

1. Align your 'first team to score' and final score predictions. Since the first team to score wins 65% of the time, you're betting against yourself if you predict that the first team to score will lose the game.
2. Align your 'minute of first scoring play' prediction with the total number of points you predict. If you think the first scoring play will occur early, that generally implies you think the game will be higher scoring.
3. Remember that you may change your predictions until 6:00p ET on game day. So if a key player gets injured, arrested, or just doesn't show up for the game, you may want to revise your picks.

And don't forget that the winner of the pool will also take the early lead in The 2016 Mega Pool, which features a separate $1,000 cash prize.

So enjoy the game, enjoy the parties, enjoy the commercials, but most of all, play the pool and enjoy winning stuff! Good luck!