How to play

Why eleven?

Because of the blackjack part. In blackjack you're chasing twenty-one and you're out if you pass it. Here you're chasing eleven goals, and passing it is just as final.

Eleven is a deliberately awkward number. Premier League matches have averaged a little under three goals each in recent seasons, so four matches lands somewhere near eleven all by itself. Close enough that you'll fancy your chances, far enough that you can't just pick the four biggest names and stroll off.

How points work

Every goal in your four matches counts, from either team. A 4–3 classic hands you seven goals whether you were hoping for them or not, and an own goal in the last minute counts exactly the same as a thirty-yard screamer.

Notice that the punishment isn't even. Finishing one goal short is worth two points. Finishing one goal over is worth nothing at all. Keep that in mind when you're tempted by a fifth high-scoring fixture — there's more on that in picking to eleven.

Making your picks

1. Open My Picks and you'll see every fixture in the coming gameweek, grouped by the day it's played on.
2. Tap four of them. Tap a fifth and it quietly takes the place of your first — no need to deselect anything.
3. Save. Come back and change your mind as often as you like — each fixture stays open right up until it kicks off, not just until the gameweek starts.

Each fixture shows what the two teams have scored in their last three games, so a row reading Last 3 · 3·1·2 v 0·1·1 is telling you the home side have been scoring freely and the away side haven't. That's the only research the game asks of you, and even that's optional — plenty of people pick on a hunch and do fine.

The deadline

Each fixture closes for picking the moment it kicks off — not the whole gameweek at once, so an early Saturday lunchtime match no longer shuts out the rest of the week for anyone who hasn't finished picking yet. Pick a match on Thursday and add the rest by Sunday, and your Thursday pick still counts.

Once you've got all four in, though, that's it: the moment the gameweek's first match kicks off, your picks are locked — every one of them, even one that hasn't started itself yet. Otherwise you could watch an early result come in and then swap a later pick to chase whatever total it leaves you needing, which defeats the point of picking blind. The one exception is a pick that gets postponed after you've saved it — you can always swap that one out, whenever in the week that happens.

There's a countdown on the pick screen for the point fewer than 4 fixtures are left to choose from — the last moment a fresh set of four is still possible — and a Remind me button that drops it into your calendar with a nudge the day before, because forgetting is by far the most common way to score nothing.

Nobody can see anyone's picks for the week until that same point; after it, anyone can open your row on a leaderboard and see exactly what you went for.

When your points land

As soon as all four of your matches have finished. If your last one is a Monday night game, that's when your week is settled and added to your season total. Until then the leaderboard shows your goals so far, ticking up as the results come in — which is either the best or the worst part, depending on whether you're on nine or thirteen.

If one of your matches is postponed

It happens — weather, a cup replay, a fixture moved for television. A postponed match can't be picked in the first place: it's kept off the list, and if one of yours is called off after you've saved, the pick screen tells you and asks you to swap it — whenever in the week that happens.

If you don't get the chance to swap it before the rest of the gameweek's fixtures kick off, your week simply waits. It's scored in full once the rescheduled match is played, however many weeks later that is, and the goals count exactly as they would have. Nobody loses points because a fixture moved.

The season

Thirty-eight gameweeks, August to May, points adding up the whole way. Miss a week and you score nothing for it, and that's the entire penalty — there's no catching up to do and nothing to fix. Pick again next week and you're back in it.

Your profile also tracks the streaks: weeks in a row you've entered, weeks in a row you've scored, and weeks in a row you've hit eleven exactly. The last one is rarer than you'd think.

Playing with other people

This is the bit that makes it worth playing. You can follow other players so their week shows up on your dashboard, and you can set up a room — a private league for your friends, your family, your team at work, your five-a-side group, whoever you can talk into it.

• Create a room and you get a six-character code. Share it and anyone with the code can join.
• Rooms are private unless you choose to list yours publicly, in which case anyone can find and join it.
• One set of picks counts everywhere — the global table, the people you follow, and every room you're in. You never pick twice, no matter how many leagues you end up in.

Wildcards, from inviting people

Not the fantasy-football kind you save up and play deliberately — these are a safety net, and there's nothing to actually play.

Invite a friend using your profile link, and the moment they sign up you earn a wildcard. Invite up to five people and that's five wildcards, the most you can hold at once.

A wildcard does one thing: if you forget to pick a fixture in some gameweek, the game notices once that gameweek is over and fills in whatever you're short — the rest of your four fixtures, chosen at random — so a forgotten week can still score instead of guaranteeing zero. It only tops up a shortfall: pick two of your four yourself and forget the rest, and you keep those two while a wildcard fills in the other two. Your dashboard shows how many you've earned and how many you've still got, and marks any gameweek a wildcard filled in for you.

What this game deliberately isn't

There's no squad to build, no transfers, no captain to choose, no bench, no waiver wire and no reason to be reading team news at eleven o'clock on a Friday night. Traditional fantasy football is a genuine hobby with genuine homework. This is four taps and a bit of nerve.

It's also free. No purchases, no premium tier, no paywall — advertising and the occasional coffee through Ko-fi cover the costs.