How Rivalry works
A Premier League or Champions League game for your friend group - draft real teams once at the start of the season, then watch real results score points automatically. No transfers, no weekly management, no waiver wire.
What Rivalry actually is
Most fantasy football games ask you to build a squad of individual players and keep tinkering with it every single week - transfers, captaincy, bench decisions, injury news. Rivalry works differently: everyone in your group takes turns drafting whole real teams, once, before the season starts. From that point on, every match those teams play - the actual real Premier League or Champions League result - scores points for whoever drafted them. Nobody manages anything week to week. The season runs itself.
It's built for people who want to follow the season with their mates without the weekly admin that comes with traditional fantasy football.
The draft
Everyone takes turns picking real teams, one at a time, in a snake draft - the pick order reverses each round, so nobody picks last twice in a row. Once you pick a team, it's yours for the whole season - no trades, no swaps. Any teams left over once everyone's picked become wildcards, and they still play a part in scoring even though nobody owns them.
Scoring, automatically
Every team scores points based on its real result - a win, a draw, or a loss. Those are your base points, and they're always yours the moment the final whistle blows. On top of that, certain results automatically trigger a shock result: beat a team well above you in the table and you earn a Giant Killer bonus; lose to a team nobody drafted and you take a Banana Skin penalty. You don't choose or activate these - they just happen, based on what actually occurs on the pitch.
For the exact points values and every shock result, see the full rules.
Power-ups: the part you do control
Alongside the automatic shock results, everyone gets a set of power-ups to play strategically throughout the season - cards like Double or Nothing (double your points from one fixture, or get nothing), Steal (take points directly from whoever's currently leading), or ones that target a rival's team directly. They unlock gradually across the season, so there's always a new way to shake up the table.
For a quick definition of every power-up and shock result, see the glossary.
Common questions
Is Rivalry the same as Fantasy Premier League?
No. FPL and its Draft mode both work at the player level - you build a squad of individual players and manage transfers, waivers, and lineups every gameweek. Rivalry works at the team level: you draft whole Premier League or Champions League teams once, and every real result they get all season counts toward your score automatically. There's nothing to manage week to week.
Do I need to make transfers every week?
No transfers, no weekly lineup decisions, no waiver wire. You draft your teams once at the start of the season and every result they get - win, lose, or draw - counts automatically for the rest of the season.
How many people can play?
A Rivalry is invite-only and works for any group size your friends, family, or colleagues can fill with a snake draft - there's no fixed player minimum or maximum built into how the game works.
Is there real money involved?
Rivalry itself never holds or moves money - it's a scoreboard and tracker, not a betting or payments product. If a group wants to add a wager, that's entirely optional, agreed between the players themselves, and settled directly between them outside the app.
What are power-ups and shock results?
Power-ups are cards you choose to play - Double or Nothing doubles your points from one fixture, Steal takes points directly from whoever's in first place, and others target a rival's team or bet on a specific scoreline. Shock results are different: they fire automatically based on what actually happens on the pitch, like Giant Killer (a bonus for beating a team well above you in the table) or Banana Skin (a penalty for losing to a team nobody drafted) - nobody chooses these, they just happen.
Which competitions can I play?
Rivalry currently supports the Premier League and the Champions League.
For a full, feature-by-feature comparison, see Rivalry vs FPL Draft.
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