Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Being a total zero is a good thing when it comes to numbers in a Super Bowl box pool.

Zero, seven and three are the best numbers to draw for fans who enter box pools, a wagering staple in U.S. workplaces this week before the National Football League championship game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 5.

In the previous 39 Super Bowls, zero has been the number that has paid off the most times, 88, in box pools, where the last digit of the score at the end of each quarter determines the winner. It's followed by seven (62 times) and three (49). Five and two, which have paid off eight times each, are the worst numbers to draw.

``Once you're assigned your numbers, you're better off with the zeros, threes and sevens,'' Kenneth Alexander, a mathematics professor at the University of Southern California, said in a telephone interview.

In a standard box pool, bettors pay to write their names in one of 100 squares. The horizontal axis of the grid has the name of one team, while the vertical axis has the other.

After the squares are all filled in, numbers zero through nine are randomly assigned to each row and column.

Bettors find their names and trace the row and column to the row and column to determine their numbers. Most box pools pay out based on the last digit in the score at the end of each quarter, with the final score usually paying the most.

For example, if the Steelers lead the Seahawks 10-7 at the end of the first quarter this weekend, a name wins if it has Steelers zero and the Seahawks seven.

Often, Never

First-quarter payouts have come with zero 36 times, followed by three and seven with 18 each. One, two, five, eight and nine never have paid off at the end of the first quarter.

All numbers have come up in the final score, with seven, at 15 times, the most common. Zero has come up 11 times in a final score, followed by four and six (10 times each), one (eight times) and nine (seven times).

``The longer it goes on, the more homogenized things get in terms of the probabilities for the final digit,'' Alexander said.

Eight has only paid off in a final score three times.

As much as $4 billion is wagered on the Super Bowl in illegal office pools each year, Edward Looney, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, said in a telephone interview.

A chart that shows how often numbers have paid off in standard office box pools during the first 39 Super Bowls:

Pool First Third Number Quarter Halftime Quarter Final Total ---------------------------------------------------------------- Zero 36 25 16 11 88 One 0 2 5 8 15 Two 0 2 2 4 8 Three 18 15 10 6 49 Four 5 8 10 10 33 Five 0 1 3 4 8 Six 1 7 8 10 26 Seven 18 13 16 15 62 Eight 0 3 3 3 9 Nine 0 2 5 7 14

To contact the reporters on this story:
Pete Coates in New York at 
pcoates@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 3, 2006 09:00 EST