Looking for the BBC Predictor you remember?

BBC Sport runs a Predictor game for the 2026/27 season. It works like this:

• Six selected matches a week, drawn from across the British leagues — not only the Premier League, so a Scottish Premiership tie can turn up in your six.
• You pick a winner, or a draw. There are no scorelines.
• One deadline a week, usually on the Friday.
• A streak, which goes up every round you play and resets to zero if you miss one.

That is a perfectly good game, and if a quick weekly pick is what you want, it is the one to play. It is just not the game a lot of people mean when they go looking for “the BBC Predictor”.

What people remember is harder than picking a winner. You put a number on both teams, for every match, and you live with it.

PLPredictor is that game. Every gameweek you predict the exact scoreline of all ten Premier League fixtures.

Once a gameweek you can play a joker on one match, which doubles whatever it scores. A season is 38 gameweeks and the points run all the way through — there is no streak to lose, and a bad week is a bad week rather than a reset.

The full rules

Both games are free and both are worth a go — they are just aimed at different things. If you want one pick a week, the BBC's is lighter. If you want to argue about scorelines with the same eight people until May, that is this one.

The part people actually miss is not the predicting. It is the league — the work one, the family one, the one with a trophy nobody has ever seen and a forfeit everybody remembers.

Make a league, send the invite link, and anyone who follows it joins automatically. No codes to retype. Leagues are free, there is no size limit, and you can be in as many as you want — the office one and the group chat one at the same time.

You can see your league's predictions live during the match, which is where most of the shouting comes from.

A prediction league only survives if people trust the table. If results go missing, or a week scores wrong, or predictions do not save before kickoff, the league quietly dies — because the whole thing runs on bragging rights, and bragging rights need a table nobody disputes.

So, the commitments here:

• Points land within about five minutes of the last final whistle of a match day.
• Every fixture is open to predict from the moment the gameweek is published until that match kicks off.
• A missed prediction is void, not a 0-0 you never chose.
• The site is monitored, and problems are posted on the updates page rather than left to be noticed.

Is this the BBC Predictor?

No. PLPredictor is an independent game with no connection to the BBC. BBC Sport runs its own Predictor, which is a different game: you pick a winner or a draw in six selected matches each week. PLPredictor is the exact-scoreline game - every Premier League fixture, every gameweek, all season.

What is the difference between the two games?

The BBC game asks who wins. PLPredictor asks what the score will be. You predict the exact scoreline of all ten Premier League matches in a gameweek, score 10 points for getting the result right and 40 for an exact score, and play one joker a gameweek to double what a match is worth.

Can I run a private league with my friends?

Yes, and it is the point of the game. Make a league, send the invite link, and everyone who follows it is added automatically. Leagues are free, there is no limit on size, and you can be in as many as you like.

Is PLPredictor free?

Yes. The game is free, there are no ads, and no feature is behind a payment. Running costs are covered by voluntary donations.

When do I have to make my predictions?

Any time up until a match kicks off. There is no single weekly deadline - each match locks on its own kickoff, so a late Monday fixture can still be predicted on the Monday.

What happens if I miss a gameweek?

A missed prediction is void and scores nothing. You are not given a 0-0 you did not choose. This was put to a player vote, and voiding was judged the fairer of the two.

When do points and tables update?

Within about five minutes of the last final whistle of a match day. Points move once per match day rather than after each individual match, so a full Saturday is scored together once the last game that day has finished.