For a while, the website advertisement for Circa’s Million IV Pro Football Contest is going to look mighty  tempting. 

A couple of days after the contest was announced, the website for the $6 million prize pool guarantee featured an overlay of more than $5.9 million.

Obviously, it’s not going to stay that way, but it is clever marketing by Circa Resort & Casino in downtown Las Vegas to have the overlay meter running as pick ’em experts mull getting into the $1,000 buy-in contest for the 2022 NFL season.

Whether or not there’s an eventual overlay (an overlay occurs when the house-guaranteed prize pool exceeds the total entry fees of the players), there are a number of features of the contest that fans might find sufficiently intriguing to attract their action.

First, to answer the question about participant eligibility, contestants must sign up in-person at the Circa or an affiliated property in Las Vegas, such as the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, the D Las Vegas, the Tuscany Suites & Casino, or The Pass at Water Street (Henderson).

Contestants can submit weekly picks in person. 

However, out-of-state residents are eligible to play by registering with a Nevada-based proxy service to submit weekly picks on their behalf. Proxies must be present at the time of registration. Contestants and proxies must be 21.

There is no rake and extra entry fees go into the prize pool.

Once a contestant is registered, here are some of the details:

• It’s $1,000 per entry with a max of three entries per person. 
• Contestants make five NFL picks against-the-spread each week.
• One point for each correct selection and one-half point for a push.
• The winner gets $1 million and the “coveted” blue jacket.
• Over $3.5 million in cash prizes for entries No. 2 through No. 100.
• $300,000 in “quarter” prizes will be awarded every 4-5 weeks.
• $100,000 last-place booby prize.
• $50,000 for second-to-last place.

In addition to the season-long pick ‘em contest, Circa is also offering a Survivor Contest again, in which contestants select just one team straight-up each week — no spread involved. A team can be used just once.

The Survivor Contest also has a $1,000 buy-in, with six entries max. Contest rules state that the contest will last up to 20 weeks starting with Week 1 of the NFL season and will include Thanksgiving Day and Christmas week as their own contest weeks. As an aside, a tie eliminates a contestant.

The prize money works this way (from the Circa website): “The last remaining entry will win the entire pool with a promised minimum of $6 million … and the potential to win even more since there’s no rake and all entry money goes toward the final prize! If more than one entry remains after all 20 legs are complete, or if all remaining entries are eliminated the same week, the pool will be split equally among all entries that submitted a pick that final week.”

And there’s more: “Even if an entry wins before the 20th leg of the contest they will have the opportunity to continue making selections every week to try to achieve the perfect 20-0 record. If they go 20-0, they win the $1M Undefeated Bonus Prize.”

But there’s a caveat: “To be ELIGIBLE for the Undefeated Bonus Prize, an entrant MUST NOT select BOTH the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals in ANY week of the contest season.” 

Details on all of the contests can be found here.