NRL tipping

Round one is in Las Vegas, and your leaderboard is live before anyone lands back home.

An NRL tipping competition built for the way the season actually runs: eighteen clubs from 2027, six weeks of Origin chaos in the middle, and a Thursday-to-Sunday round that never quite sits still. Fixtures, scoring and reminders under your brand.

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The 2027 NRL season, at a glance.

Clubs
18. The Perth Bears enter as the competition's 18th team, the first expansion side since 2007 and the first NRL club based in Western Australia.
Season opener
Saturday 27 February 2027 at Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas. Melbourne Storm v Wests Tigers and Parramatta Eels v Gold Coast Titans, with a Super League fixture on the same card.
Magic Round
Nine games across three days at Suncorp Stadium, expanded to fit the 18th club. One venue, one weekend, the entire competition.
State of Origin
Three matches mid-season, and for the first time one of them is played in Auckland. Clubs lose their representative players to camp either side of each game.
Golden point
Extra time is capped at ten minutes, so a regular-season draw is uncommon but entirely possible. Your competition still needs a draw rule.
Finals
Top eight over four weeks, finishing with the Grand Final at Accor Stadium in Sydney.
Time zones
A Perth club means fixtures two hours behind the eastern states, three during daylight saving, and Sunday matches that lock well after the rest of the round is done.

What a round looks like once it's running.

  1. Thursday night fixtures arrive on their own.

    Every match in the round appears in your hub from the live data feed, with kick-off times and lock countdowns attached. Byes, Magic Round and the Las Vegas opener come through the same way, with the right fixtures in the right round.

  2. Tips come in across four nights, not one.

    A rugby league round runs Thursday to Sunday with Friday and Saturday double-headers. Fixtures lock individually at kick-off, so a late Sunday tip is fine and a late Thursday one never happens. Reminders land 24 hours before the first lock and again 75 minutes before.

  3. The ladder moves as the last siren sounds.

    Results score automatically the moment a match ends. Overall standings, group standings and inter-group rivalries all update in real time, and the Monday recap goes out with everyone's score and rank without anyone writing it.

The arguments every NRL tipping organiser has.

Rugby league's scoring problems aren't about the maths. They're about a six-week window in the middle of the year when the form guide stops meaning anything.

State of Origin is the period that decides your competition.

Around each of the three Origin matches, clubs lose their best players to camp, and the sides with the deepest representative contingent are the ones most gutted. Ladder-followers get shredded, upsets cluster, and someone who has been mid-table since March wins the whole thing in June. Decide up front whether Origin-affected rounds carry full weight, reduced weight, or a bonus that rewards people who actually read the team lists. Whatever you pick, publish it in Round 1.

Golden point means you need a draw rule you'll almost never use.

Ten minutes of extra time resolves most matches, but not all of them. A regular-season draw arrives maybe once or twice a season and it will arrive in the round that decides your leaderboard. Set the rule now: a draw pays everyone, pays nobody, or voids the fixture.

Perth pushes your lock times west.

From 2027 the draw includes a Western Australian club, which means fixtures running two hours behind the eastern states, three under daylight saving. A round that used to be finished by Sunday evening now has a game still open. Lock per fixture and set reminders in your audience's time zone, not the venue's.

Magic Round is nine games in three days, and it breaks pacing.

One weekend, one venue, the whole competition playing. It is the single best round of the year for participation and the worst for anyone who tips on Thursday and forgets. Push an extra reminder into Magic Round, or watch a third of your field submit half a card.

Joker and margin do different jobs. Use both.

A Joker multiplier between 1.5x and 3x on one nominated fixture per round keeps people in it after a bad Origin period. Margin prediction on one designated fixture doesn't touch weekly points at all, it settles the season on cumulative accuracy when two people finish level. One is for hope, the other is for the tiebreak.

Formats that suit a rugby league season.

Season-long head to head

Pick a winner in every match from the Las Vegas opener to the final round. Simple enough that people who don't follow the game closely still play through Origin.

Margin tipping

Rugby league scorelines cluster tighter than Australian rules, so margin predictions sit in a narrower band and reward genuine knowledge rather than a lucky blowout.

Survivor

One club a round, no repeats. The Origin period wipes out survivor fields faster than any other stretch of any Australian season, which makes for a short, loud competition.

Final four bracket

Top eight, four weeks, with a double chance for the top four. Tip the finals as they are set, or ask our team for a four-team bracket once the preliminary finals are set.

Why run your NRL tipping on Fanzava.

Your logo, your colours, your domain.

White label on every paid plan. Pro and above add a custom domain and a custom email sender, so your competition lives at tipping.yourbrand.com and the Monday recap arrives from your address.

Four-night rounds handled properly.

Locks are per fixture, not per round, so Thursday night closes on its own and Sunday afternoon stays open until kick-off. Nobody gets locked out of a Sunday game because they missed a Thursday deadline.

Groups that make Origin bearable.

Split your audience into groups by state, office, or the obvious blue-and-maroon line. Group leaderboards run alongside the overall one, and the Banter Board keeps the trash talk out of your inbox.

Set up in one sitting, live the same day.

Create the hub, pick rugby league, set your scoring, add your brand, send a link or a QR code. No developers, no setup fee, no IT ticket.

Questions NRL organisers ask.

How should we handle the State of Origin period?
Decide before Round 1 and tell everyone. The three most common answers: leave Origin-affected rounds at full weight and accept the chaos, reduce their weight so the season isn't decided by team-list roulette, or add a bonus that rewards people for reading the team sheets. All three are configurable. What causes problems is changing the rule halfway through June because the leaderboard turned upside down.
Does the 18-team draw change anything for tipping?
Two things. Byes arrive across more of the season, so round sizes vary more than they used to. And a Western Australian club puts fixtures two to three hours behind the eastern states, which stretches the round and means your reminders need to be set in your audience's time zone.
What happens if a match is a draw?
That's a setting. Golden point caps extra time at ten minutes, so draws are rare but real. You choose whether a drawn fixture pays every participant, pays nobody, or is voided for everyone. Pick one in Round 1 rather than adjudicating it live.
Can we run NRL and AFL at the same time?
Yes, as two competitions on one hub with separate leaderboards. Participants sign up once and can enter either or both. The Free plan covers one competition; Starter at A$39 a month runs three at once, which covers both codes plus a finals bracket.
What does it cost?
Free for up to 25 participants with no credit card. Starter is A$39 a month for 100, Growth A$65 for 250, Pro A$105 for 500 and Scale A$169 for 1,000. All Australian dollars, including GST. Larger organisations run on an enterprise licence with SSO and dedicated support.

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