World Cup Mini League is a private prediction game developed by some nerd you may be familiar with. Call the knockout-stage matches of the 2026 World Cup, earn points for how close you get, and climb the leaderboard over the tournament. It’s just for bragging rights — no money, no stakes, only eternal glory (or until everyone forgets about it two days after the World Cup ends).
Predict the score of each upcoming knockout match before it kicks off. Choose how it’s decided (90 min, extra time, or penalties), add a hot take, and spend your once-a-day Confidence 2× on the match you feel surest about. Predictions lock automatically at kickoff. After a match finishes, you can react to the result (VAR robbed me, Called it, Devastated…) right on its card — your reactions feed the Reaction Leaderboard in Fun Stats. A link at the top opens the Group Stage Results (past group games, for reference only — they aren’t predicted).
The league standings — total points per player. Ties are broken by whoever’s predicted scores were closest to the real results. The leader gets a gold marker.
Playful awards from everyone’s predictions: biggest upset callers, shootout psychics, the most delusional scorelines, and a reaction leaderboard.
Pick your display name and a cartoon animal avatar — this is how you show up on the scoreboard and stats.
Here’s exactly how points are awarded:
Predict the fulltime score of each knockout match before it kicks off. Edit it as often as you like until kickoff — it locks automatically when the match starts. Pick how the match is decided (90 min / extra time / penalties); if you call penalties, add a shootout score too. Group-stage games aren't predicted.
| Points | For |
|---|---|
| 7 | Exact fulltime score and exact penalty shootout score (penalty matches only) |
| 5 | Exact fulltime score |
| 3 | Right outcome type (90 min / ET / pens) and right goal difference |
| 2 | Right outcome type and right winner |
| 1 | Got one team's exact goals |
| 0.5 | Wrong otherwise, but correctly called it'd go to penalties |
| 0 | None of the above |
Confidence 2×: once per day you can double the points from a single prediction — use it on your most confident match. It doubles whatever tier you land in (even 0.5 or 0).
Standings: most points wins. Ties are broken by the smallest total score difference — i.e. whoever's predicted scores were closest to the real results.
Match fixtures, scores and final results come from a free public football data API (football-data.org). During the tournament the app checks for updates automatically about every 15 minutes — so when a knockout match ends, its result appears and everyone’s predictions are scored within a few minutes, with nothing to refresh and no scores typed in by hand. It’s not a second-by-second live ticker — think “updated shortly after the final whistle,” not instant.
You sign in with a magic link sent to your email — no password to remember. Once you’re in, you stay logged in: closing the tab or your browser won’t sign you out, and the app keeps your session alive for you.
Heads up: if you click Log out, getting back in means requesting a brand-new magic link by email each time. So during the World Cup, we recommend you don’t log out — just close the tab and come back whenever; you’ll still be signed in.