What the randomizer does
It produces two independent orders of the digits 0–9: one for the columns across the top and one for the rows down the side. Every digit appears exactly once per axis, which is the standard football squares draw. It does not assign players to squares or choose winners; it only decides which digits sit on which row and column. Your board, names and payout split stay exactly as you set them.
Why the draw happens after the board fills
The order matters. If numbers are drawn before players claim squares, someone can choose the 7-0 square deliberately. If numbers are drawn after the board is full, every player has the same chance at every square and the draw is the only random step. The randomizer is built for the second order: fill the board first, then shuffle. If your group insists on drawing early, at least write the rule down and use the same process for everyone.
Run the draw in front of the pool
Open the page on a phone or laptop that everyone can see, or share your screen. Press shuffle once. Read the column order left to right and the row order top to bottom as they appear. Do not press shuffle again because someone does not like their digits; a redraw invalidates the fairness you just demonstrated. If the result needs to be recorded, take a photo of the board with the timestamp visible.
Seed, timestamp and a paper trail
Each shuffle shows a seed and the time it was generated. The seed is the input that reproduces the shuffle: enter the same seed and you get the same two orders. That is useful when a player asks how the numbers were chosen, or when the host needs to rebuild the board after a refresh. The timestamp proves the draw happened before kickoff. Neither is a guarantee against a rigged device, but together they make the process easy to audit and hard to fake after the fact.
Blank or randomized: which to use
Use blank numbers when the pool is in person and the group enjoys the ritual of drawing slips from a hat. Use the randomizer when players are remote, when the group is large, or when nobody wants to be the person accused of loading the hat. The randomizer is also faster: one click replaces ten slips for the columns and ten for the rows. Both methods produce the same kind of result, and both should happen only after every square has an owner.
Checking a shuffle by hand
A fair draw has two properties you can check without trusting the software. Each axis must contain every digit from 0 to 9 exactly once, and the two axes must be independent of each other. Read the column order and the row order separately; if a digit repeats or is missing, the shuffle is invalid. You can also compare the result with a physical draw: ten slips in a hat should produce the same kind of order. The seed and timestamp are there for the case where someone wants to repeat the exact result later.
After the draw
Write the digits on the printed board or let the generator place them, then print a clean copy for the wall. Record the seed and timestamp somewhere with the board. During the game, read the last digit of each team's score at the end of each quarter and mark the winning square. If you are running the pool online, lock the board instead of using the standalone randomizer: the server draws and stores the numbers, and the winning square is highlighted automatically.