Greetings to all of our users, new and old.

This year marks our 11th NFL season of being the most trusted, effective source of winning picks. Every season, over 1.5m people use Pickwatch as their most reliable, accurate source of information, and reap the rewards of using us by winning more games in more leagues.

We’ve also given away tens of thousands of dollars in prizes to players who’ve won weekly, monthly, or season prizes, and as so many of you have told us, we know that many of you can point to Pickwatch as the singular reason that they win money in sports gaming, whether that be in office pools, on our pages, or sports betting.

This season, Pickwatch is changing. From today, we’re asking all users to contribute a small amount to running Pickwatch in order to view the very best data we have, so that we can continue to provide our great service. The package is called Pro Essential and allows full access to our data tables.

To sign up for Essential, click here

Note: Pro users have full access to everything on Pickwatch and are unaffected by this change.

Here’s why we’re doing it...

The short version:

Pickwatch is the best at what we do, nowhere else offers the level of detail and in-depth data that we have across hundreds of thousands of experts and fans to help you win. To continue providing the thing we all love, we need to at some point be making more money than we spend. We’re asking for a small fee ($0.87 per month) to ensure we can do that, and by helping us, you’ll also get more say in our future direction.

The long version:

It’s a great deal for you.

So let’s start with what we’re charging. $10 for the year. Not per month, not per season, but $10 for a whole 12 months of access. That’s only $0.87c per month.

But if you are unsure, you can pay just $2 per month to trial us, and you can always flip to an annual package whenever you like. We're going to work hard to ensure you can understand our clear and easy pricing, and have full control of when to renew or subscribe.

On a fundamental level, $0.87c per month for the winning picks we provide from experts, users and data across every sport for 12 months is insane value. I know that because 99% of our correspondence is a variety of ‘OMG Thank you for helping me win my league!’. Believe me, nothing makes us happier than those messages.

Being able to follow the de facto best experts in every sport at any given moment, and being able to dive deeper into this data than anywhere else on the web is a huge part of why many people win far more than $10 each year.

We’re also trustworthy, unlike the people who promise great returns, but charge hundreds of dollars for something that we are better at. That’s because when I set Pickwatch up, it was as one of you, a fan who wanted better information, not one of them trying to make a quick buck.

We know we could have theoretically asked for 10x the amount and justified the value, but we also know that some people may not be able to afford it in the current climate, so we’ve priced it at a level that is sustainable for us and you for the long term.

It’s an investment in a better service for you

We understand how to help you win, and how much easier we make things to understand, and that’s why we’re committed to always improving in line with your needs. There are lots of small things that annoy us about Pickwatch, but with a team that is small, we are always fighting the battle to fix old things, and add new ones.

Joining us means that not only can we guarantee an even better level of service in future, but we can make significant improvements based on your feedback. We’re introducing a new user feedback system that will allow you to directly suggest features, and take part in straw polls to decide which suggestions take priority.

You will notice that we have cut out the annoying big banner adverts from the top of our website to make it easier to use this year, because of your feedback. Ultimately, the more subscribers we have, the easier it is for us to just give you what you want, and cut out anything else that impedes it.

Economic Reality

Of course, there’s also the simple nature of the world.

At some point, Pickwatch, like any company, would be at risk of not existing if we don’t make more money than we spend. I could dress it up, but I think we’ve established that if it was possible to do it for free, I’d do that. It isn’t. It’s time for us to stand on our own two feet.

Anyone who has tracked even a handful of experts on their own already knows it is impossible to do at the scale Pickwatch achieves, let alone the experts directly entering picks into our system, the exclusive data we have, the historical data we have tracked, without the large costs that we incur.

It is a well-oiled machine that has so many moving parts - not all at our end - that require constant updating and maintenance just to keep going as it is, let alone improve.

Our core users who appreciate the value we bring, know that there is nothing that truly compares to us in terms of scope, trust, ease of use, and results. There are companies that try to do what we do, but they can’t compete with hundreds of thousands of experts and user picks each week. You know with Pickwatch that you are getting a complete service, and whoever is at the top is there on merit.

I know most of you will appreciate that it is impossible for a business to make a loss while providing this service. But we also know that a small proportion of you will be upset at this news.

We sympathise with those who feel like paying for the service is too much, but I hope too, that you understand that not only is this just the reality of life, but we love helping you win, and nobody puts their users first like we do. You can trust that paying for Pickwatch allows us to remain independent and listen to your feedback without the economic pressure that forces companies to compromise on such things.

And that kind of explains it. The reality is that anyone setting Pickwatch (or an equivalent) up for the first time in 2023 would immediately charge you a lot of money, because they’d not be in it for the right reasons.

They’d still load you up on ads, sell your data to bad people, and would not care about whether you win or lose, ultimately, it would be all about the money.

That’s not us.

We really want you to win, and we’ve put your needs above our own for a long time to prove it. I’ve turned down lots of money to protect our users and keep this community going without external pressure. I don’t regret it, Pickwatch is the difference between winning and losing for so many people, and in a world stacked against the little guy, we like being your secret weapon.

By charging this low amount, we’re taking the path that lets us keep doing what we have always done, which is deliver the best picks in sports, and to continue being the most trustworthy source on the web for a price that is affordable to all.

We think that’s about as fair a deal as anyone could want, and I hope that you see it that way too.

As always, I want to finish by thanking you for using Pickwatch. You’re the heartbeat of this thing, and by joining our community, I can promise that your voice will be heard and guide our future.

To sign up for Essential, or Pro, just click here.

For now,

Shaun and the Pickwatch team.