← Office prediction league · Guide for HR and organisers · 8 min read
How to run an office football prediction league: step by step, with a free kit
An office prediction league is a season-long competition where colleagues predict the scores of real matches before kick-off and climb a shared table. Run well, it gives a team a reason to talk every week, across departments and between the office and people at home. Run badly, it dies by the third round. This guide covers the setup, the rules, the weekly rhythm and the messages, and links a free kit you can use with or without an app.
The short answer
- One competition most of the team follows, such as the Premier League or the Champions League.
- Simple scoring: 3 points for the exact score, 1 for the right outcome.
- No money: free to join, and the prize comes from the company.
- A champion: one colleague who loves football runs the social side.
- Automatic locking and scoring, so nobody edits picks after kick-off or works out points by hand.
- A weekly rhythm: a reminder before the round, the table after it, a winner every month.
Step by step
- Pick the competition. Choose what most of the office already watches. A league with matches every week keeps the rhythm going better than a tournament every four years, though a World Cup or a Euro is a great way to start.
- Agree the scoring and the rules. Use the house rules below. Decide them before the first match, never after.
- Choose a prize without money. A small monthly prize beats one big prize in May (ideas below).
- Find a champion. HR can open the league, but a colleague who lives for football keeps it alive: reminders, banter, announcing winners.
- Set it up. With BeTeam it is a one-minute form on the office prediction league page: company name, competition and email. You get a join link, an organiser link for the champion, an A4 poster with a QR code, a live table for the office TV and the three messages below. Prefer a spreadsheet? Our free prediction pool template has the scoring formulas built in.
- Launch on a Monday. Send the launch message to the team chat and put the poster up in the kitchen.
- Keep the weekly rhythm. A reminder before the round closes, the table after it.
- Crown a winner every month, reset the excitement, and close the season with a small ceremony.
House rules you can copy
- Predict the score of every match in the competition before kick-off.
- Picks lock when each match starts. No changes after kick-off.
- 3 points for the exact score, 1 point for the right outcome (win or draw), 0 for a miss.
- Knockout matches are judged after extra time; a penalty shootout counts as a draw.
- Missed a match? You score nothing for it (in BeTeam an automatic pick can score at most 1 point).
- Ties on points are split by the number of exact scores.
- Free to play. No money changes hands between players; any prize comes from the company.
- New colleagues can join at any time and start from the next match.
The full system, including Super Games worth double and bonus questions, is on how scoring works, and you can test it in the scoring calculator.
The weekly rhythm
| When | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | The table from the weekend goes to the team chat | The champion |
| All week | The table is on the kitchen screen | Runs itself |
| Thursday or Friday | A reminder that the round closes | The champion |
| Matchday | Picks lock at kick-off, points arrive from the real results | Runs itself |
| End of the month | The monthly winner is announced and gets the prize | HR or the champion |
Get the whole kit in a minute
Open the league on the office page and the poster, the TV table, the join link and the three messages are on screen straight away. Free, no money, no sales call.
Open an office leagueThe three messages to send
Copy them into WhatsApp, Slack or Teams. When you open the league on BeTeam, they come filled in with your company, competition, prize and link.
1. Launch (Monday)
⚽ The [Company] League is open! We're predicting Premier League scores — no money, no spreadsheets, just who's right more often. The prize: lunch for the monthly winner. Join (takes a minute): beteamapp.com/join/[your code] Already have the app? Join code: [your code] Picks close before each match, so get in today 🙂
2. Reminder (before the weekend's games)
⏰ Reminder: this weekend's Premier League picks close soon. Haven't predicted in the [Company] League yet? Now's the time. One minute on your phone. beteamapp.com/join/[your code]
3. Results (with the table)
🏆 This week's results in the [Company] League: [paste the table image from the app here — "Share" on the table screen] Not in yet? You can join mid-season: beteamapp.com/join/[your code]
Prize ideas without money
- Lunch on the company for the monthly winner
- A trophy that moves to the leader's desk
- The parking spot closest to the door, for a week
- Coffee on the company all month
- The winner picks the office music for a day
- A shirt of the winner's team
- The winner picks the food at the next team night
- A wooden spoon for last place, with love
Getting everyone involved, not just the football fans
The people who don't follow football are the ones who make a league feel like a whole-office thing. A pick takes seconds, and in a points system like 3/1/0 a lucky guess beats a careful one often enough that anyone can win a round. Put the table on a screen where everyone passes, mention the round's surprise winner in the chat, and let people pick a sport the team actually likes: the same league works for the NBA, the NFL or the Champions League.
Is it allowed at work?
A free league with points only is a social game, not a betting pool: nobody pays in, there is no pot and no cash prize between colleagues. Pools where people pay into a pot are treated differently in many countries. We explain the rules in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, the US and Israel in is an office football pool legal?. It is not legal advice.
Questions and answers
How do you run an office football prediction league?
Pick one competition most of the team follows, agree simple scoring (3 points for the exact score, 1 for the right outcome), choose a small prize that is not money, and ask one football-loving colleague to run it. Set it up in an app that locks picks at kick-off and keeps the table on its own, send one launch message to the team chat, then a reminder before each round and the table after it.
What scoring system should an office league use?
The simplest fair system is 3 points for the exact score, 1 point for the right outcome (win or draw) and 0 for a miss. It rewards skill without punishing people who don't follow football, and everyone understands it in one sentence. Basketball and American football leagues use their own scales, for example 10, 3 and 1 in basketball.
How do you keep an office prediction league going all season?
Give it a weekly rhythm and someone who cares. A reminder before each round, the table after it, a small monthly prize so people who start badly have a reason to come back, and a screen in the office that shows the table. Leagues die when nobody talks about them, not when people lose.
What prizes work for an office prediction league?
Small prizes that come back every month work better than one big prize at the end: lunch on the company, a trophy that moves to the leader's desk, the best parking spot for a week, or a wooden spoon for last place. The prize comes from the company, and no money passes between colleagues.
Do people need to pay to join an office prediction league?
No, and they shouldn't. A free league with points only keeps it a social game rather than a betting pool, keeps HR comfortable and lets anyone join mid-season. BeTeam is free for everyone and has no entry fees, pot or payouts.
Can remote and hybrid teams play?
Yes. Everyone predicts on their own phone and the table and chat live in the app, so people at home or in another office are in the same league. Send the launch message and reminders to the team's WhatsApp, Slack or Teams channel.