The 18th year for the OSGA NFL Progressive Pick ‘Em saw the jackpot grow to the maxiumum of $1800 because, over the entire season, not a single player was able to pick a perfect card. The weekly prize winners did cash in often, with sportsbook prizes handed out over 18 weeks, and the final leaderboard saw some of the widest winning margins we have seen in years.

This was an NFL season that saw huge upsets, key injuries and dashed hopes for teams early in the season that ruined most Survivor Pools in the first three weeks of the season. And it continued. The Eagles went from 10-1 to limping into the playoffs, losing five of their last 6, Buffalo struggled early and were dominate late, Kansas City was very un-KClike for the majority of the season and the the rise of teams like Houston, behind rookie CJ Stroud and Cleveland with the best story of the year, Joe Flacco, made picking games every week a virtual crapshoot. This caused the weekly contest prize that builds at $100 per week for a perfect card to never be hit! Many weeks came down to the tie-breaker and, as evidence of the tough task of picking winners in 2023, just three players achieved at least 19,000 total points.

Congratulations to “Caldwell” who averaged more than 10 wins a week for the entire season to win the 2023 OSGA Progressive Pick ‘Em, despite never capturing the weekly prize! With extra points awarded for a correct Monday Night Football pick and 187 winners, “Caldwell” amassed 19,600 points, crushing the rest of the field by 500 points, despite never winning a single weekly prize! This year’s pool was again guaranteed, but again it was a moot point, with no players achieving a perfect card in the 18 weeks of the regular season. In fact, there were only two weeks where a player only missed the big money with one incorrect pick, every other week saw two or more losses by all players. “Caldwell” pulled ahead towards the end of the season and cruised to victory, cashing for 50% of the final pool money – $900.

The first four places at the end of the season are all winners in the OSGA Progressive Pick ‘Em and after nearly 300 games, tie-breakers still needed to be used to determine the final standings. “hl928” and “JNoss” tied for with 19,000 points, so we had to go to the season-long tie breakers. It was so close that we had to go to second tie-breaker! “hl928” and “JNoss” each picked 181 games correctly and were still tied after the first deciding factor, so we had to use the second tie breaker, the amount of correct weekly tie-breaker picks. Here is where “hl928” pulled ahead with eight correct picks to “JNoss’s” seven, taking second place and the $450 prize for the runner-up. “JNoss” was awarded 15% of the total prize pool, good enough for $270!

Two players were also tied for fourth place and “APO” and “DC” had strong showings all season long, each ending the 2023 season with 18,900 points, missing the bigger money by just one, 100-point pick. Again we had to implement the tie-breaker and this time the first tie breaker, the number of correct picks, was all that was needed. “APO” claimed the $180 prize with 179 correct picks, edging out “DC”, who picked less games correctly (176), but achieved the massive point total with more weekly tie-breakers and the 200 points that comes with those correct picks.

We would like to thank all the players and sponsors in the 18th annual OSGA Progressive Pick ’em. Sponsors included Jazz Sports, BetAnySports and BetOnline, ponying up prizes all season long. These sportsbooks offered varying weekly prizes, from free plays and free cash and made good on over $1000 worth of no-deposit, free bets.

Players should look out for our annual NCAA Tournament contest and OSGA members should keep their eyes on osgamembers.com for our Playoff Bracket Challenge and annual Members Only Super Bowl contest in just one month!

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