Terms of service

Pool Picks (poolpicks.ca) is a website for running NHL survivor pools. It is operated by GCOM Enterprises Inc., a corporation based in Ontario, Canada. In these terms, “we” and “us” mean GCOM Enterprises Inc., operating as Pool Picks, and “you” means anyone who uses the site, whether you run a pool or play in one.

By creating an account or using Pool Picks, you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy. If you do not agree, do not use Pool Picks.

Questions about these terms go through our contact page.

Pool Picks is a tool for running and tracking survivor pools, currently for the NHL. A commissioner creates a pool, members join it with an invite code, and each pool week every entry picks one team. Pool Picks keeps the picks, grades them against the results and keeps the standings.

Pool Picks is not a gambling operator. We never take, hold or pay out entry fees or prizes. Any entry fee and any prize money are arranged between the players and their commissioner, outside the app.

The app only records what the commissioner enters: the pool's entry fee and whether each member has paid. From those it works out the prize pool, or shows the commissioner's own figure if they enter one instead.

• Give accurate information when you register, and keep it up to date.
• Keep your password private.
• One account is for one person. Do not share yours, and do not use anyone else's.
• You are responsible for what happens on your account.
• You need to verify your email address before you can sign in.

A commissioner is the person who creates a pool, or a member the pool's creator makes a commissioner.

What you are responsible for

• Your pool's settings, including its game day, whether it is a winner or a loser pool, its entry fee and how many entries each member may hold.
• Collecting any entry fees and paying out any prize, outside the app, including sharing the prize pool if your pool ends in a tie.
• Making sure your pool is legal where your players live, including any age rules and any rules about pools that involve money.

What you can do

• Edit a member's pick. Every edit is logged with who made it and what changed, and the log is visible to the members of the pool.
• Mark members paid or unpaid.
• Email the members of your pool.
• Set how many entries each member may hold, and change a member's entries until the pool's first deadline.

Use these tools fairly, and in the interest of the people in your pool.

You must be old enough, and allowed where you live, to take part in a pool that involves money. If you are not, do not join one.

• Each pool week, every entry you hold picks one team. In a winner pool the team has to win; in a loser pool it has to lose. A wrong pick puts that entry out.
• Picks lock when the first game of your pool's game day starts, at its scheduled start time. After that no pick can change.
• An entry with no pick when the deadline passes is auto-picked, and the auto-pick is a deliberately bad one.
• If your game is postponed or cancelled, the pick is a push: it is not graded and the entry survives.
• Overtime and shootout results count like any other result.
• If every remaining entry loses in the same week, the pool ends in a tie and the commissioner pays the prize pool out equally to the members who still had a live entry going into that week. There is no replay.

The FAQ has the full game rules. If anything here seems to differ from the FAQ on how the game is played, the FAQ is the one that applies.

Picks are graded on official NHL results, as published in the league's own schedule and scores. Scores update during games, every five minutes on game days, and can change until a game is final. If the league corrects a result, the commissioner can correct any affected pick and have it graded again.

We are not responsible for errors in the league's data, or for the decisions a commissioner makes about their pool.

Pool Picks is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the National Hockey League or its teams. Team names are used only to identify the teams.

Commissioners pay Pool Picks a hosting fee for the season, based on how many picks the pool has. The fee is quoted on the pricing page, in Canadian dollars, and payment is due after the first full week of games. Pools over 2,500 picks are quoted on request.

The hosting fee is separate from any entry fee a pool charges its players, which never passes through Pool Picks.

Questions about a fee go through the contact page.

When you use Pool Picks, do not:

• cheat, or try to change a pick or a result you are not allowed to change;
• abuse or harass anyone;
• use pool emails to send spam;
• try to break, overload or get around the security of the service;
• scrape the site or collect other members' information;
• use someone else's account.

Pool names and messages must not be unlawful or offensive. We may remove content, and suspend or close accounts, that break these terms.

Your content is what you put into Pool Picks: pool names, the messages you send to a pool or to us, and the feedback you send from inside the app. You are responsible for it, and you allow us to store it, show it and send it to the people it is meant for, only so that we can run Pool Picks.

How we handle your personal information is set out in our privacy policy.

There is no button to delete an account. To have your account and your data deleted, ask us through the contact page. Your pick history can be kept in a form that no longer identifies you, so that other members' standings and prize pools do not change.

Pool Picks is provided “as is” and “as available”. It may be unavailable at times, and we may change it, add features or remove them.

To the extent the law allows, Pool Picks is not liable for:

• indirect or consequential losses;
• lost winnings, or a prize you expected and did not receive;
• disputes between players and commissioners;
• any entry fee, prize or other money arrangement, which we never handle.

You can stop using Pool Picks at any time, and ask us to delete your account through the contact page. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms.

When these terms change, we will post the new version on this page and update the effective date at the top. If you keep using Pool Picks after that, you accept the new terms.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there.

For any question about these terms, write to us through the contact page.