Optimal OffshoreProject 01 · Sports & gaming
Sports Pool: a real-money NFL pool platform.
A production NFL pool platform where players buy parlay cards, make their picks and get paid — with every dollar movement verified server-side.
01 ▸ Overview
Real-money pools platform.
Sports Pool runs public and private NFL prediction pools. Players join a pool, buy up to three parlay cards through Stripe Checkout, and predict a slate of games; picks lock at each kickoff.
Final scores stream in from the ESPN scoreboard feed. Once every game in a pool is finished, the platform scores every card, breaks ties on the closest total-score prediction, and credits the pot — less the platform fee — to the winners' in-app balances. Withdrawals go out through PayPal Payouts after admin approval.
Because it handles real money, the design is server-first: pool prices are set server-side, a card is issued only after the Stripe webhook confirms payment, and Postgres row-level security keeps every player inside their own data.
02 ▸ What we built
The parts that do the work.
Stripe-gated card issuance
Entry fees run through Stripe Checkout; the webhook is the source of truth, so a card exists only once payment is confirmed.
Live scoring from ESPN
Game results pulled from the public ESPN scoreboard API and applied to every open card in the pool.
Automated settlement
Deterministic scoring, tie-breaks and pot distribution the moment a pool's last game ends — no manual reconciliation.
Balances and PayPal payouts
Winnings credit to an in-app balance; withdrawal requests queue for admin approval and pay out through PayPal.
Pool chat and operator console
Real-time chat inside every pool, plus an admin console for pools, payouts and incident handling.
03 ▸ Stack
What it runs on.
04 ▸ Related services
The operations services behind the build.
05 ▸ Related projects