A tennis ball on the line of an empty court at dusk, the draw not yet played.

Bracket challenge

A bracket challenge is a free prediction game on a knockout draw.

Everyone fills in the same tournament bracket before it starts, and points follow the real results. Fanzava runs yours under your own brand: our team builds the bracket and records every result. After the official draw instead? The links are just below.

Free to start. No credit card.

NRL finals

The NRL finals as a bracket: how it works.

The NRL season finishes with a finals series people call a bracket. It is not a simple knockout tree, and that decides what you can run.

The top eight.

Week one has qualifying finals, first v fourth and second v third, and elimination finals, fifth v eighth and sixth v seventh. The top four get a double chance: lose a qualifying final and you still play a semi-final. Then the semi-finals, preliminary finals and grand final: nine matches over four weeks.

Why the whole series is not one bracket.

A team that loses a qualifying final drops into a semi-final instead of going out, and a bracket only follows winners forward. Fanzava brackets are single elimination, so the full series cannot be one of them.

What to run instead.

Tip each week's games through the finals as the matchups are set. Once the preliminary finals are set, the last four sides are a true four-team knockout: two matches, then the grand final. Our team can build that as a bracket, locked before the preliminary finals.

The arithmetic of a knockout bracket.

Matches
Field size minus one. Every entrant but the winner loses exactly once, so 64 teams is always 63 matches.
Sizes Fanzava runs
4, 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 teams, with no byes. Play-in games can fill the last slots and are settled before the bracket locks.
Scoring
One point times the round number for each correct pick, plus 10 for the right champion. It is the same for every bracket.
Brackets each
One by default, or up to five if you allow it. A tipper's best bracket ranks on the leaderboard.

How a bracket challenge runs.

  1. The tree is published, and our team builds it.

    Seeds, first-round pairings and the shape of the draw go up at once. Everyone picks every match through to the final in one sitting, rather than being chased round after round.

  2. Picks lock together.

    One deadline, usually minutes before the first match. Nobody sees anyone else's picks before then, so there is nothing to copy. After lock, pick percentages show how the field split.

  3. Results are recorded, and every bracket rescores.

    Each result is recorded as its match is decided: from Fanzava's results feed where it carries the match, and by our team where it does not. Correct later-round picks are worth more, so a bracket that looks dead after one upset can still win.

Decisions that shape a bracket challenge.

A bracket has one deadline and almost no admin. What it has instead is scoring design.

Single elimination, always.

Double elimination gives every entrant a second life but doubles the matches and produces a tree most people cannot read at a glance. For prediction, single elimination is almost always right, and it is the only kind Fanzava runs.

Linear weighting, not doubling.

Fanzava scores one point in round one, two in round two and so on, with ten more for the champion. Doubling weights make every round worth the same in total. Linear keeps the opening round meaningful and lets the champion pick swing the comp.

No upset bonus.

Some comps pay extra for correctly picking a lower seed. Fanzava does not: points follow the round, not the seed, and the weighting is not set per competition.

Tournament bracket challenges you can run.

NRL final four

Tip the early weeks of the finals, then a four-team bracket once the preliminary finals are set.

Football World Cup

The knockout rounds of the world's biggest tournament, filled in before the first knockout match.

Why run your bracket challenge on Fanzava.

Shipped, not on a roadmap.

Knockout brackets run on Fanzava today, scored round by round, with results recorded for you. Our team builds the draw and records every result the feed does not carry.

Your brand all the way to the final.

Paid plans and a Bracket Pass ship full white label. Pro and above add a custom domain and a custom email sender. Groups let an office floor or a club run a league inside your challenge.

Running it for one event? Bracket Pass.

Brackets start above the Free plan. Run them on Starter or higher, or pay once for a Bracket Pass that covers a single knockout event with no subscription. Included: Full white label · Fanzava watermark removed · Brackets.

  • A$309 Up to 100 tippers
  • A$519 Up to 250 tippers
  • A$839 Up to 500 tippers
  • A$1,349 Up to 1,000 tippers

All prices in Australian dollars. See Bracket Pass →

Questions bracket challenge organisers ask.

What is a bracket challenge?
A free prediction game on a knockout tournament. Everyone picks the winner of every match before it starts, points follow the real results, and a leaderboard ranks the brackets. Fanzava runs one under your own brand, so it is your challenge and not ours.
What if our field is not a power of two?
Fanzava brackets run 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 teams with no byes. A field in between uses play-in games to fill the last slots, settled before the bracket locks. Picks on a slot a play-in changes are cleared and people are told.
Can we run the NRL finals as a bracket?
Not the whole series. The top four get a double chance, so a team that loses a qualifying final plays on, and Fanzava brackets only follow winners forward. Tip the earlier weeks, then ask our team for a four-team bracket once the preliminary finals are set.
Who enters the results?
You do not. Each result is recorded from Fanzava's results feed where it carries the match, and by our team where it does not. Best-of-seven series and two-legged ties are recorded by our team once decided.
Can I print a bracket?
Yes. The free bracket maker prints a clean blank bracket for any field from 2 to 128 names, with byes handled and no signup.
What does it cost?
Brackets are not on the Free plan. Run one on Starter or above, or buy a one-off Bracket Pass for a single event. The prices are in the Bracket Pass panel on this page, in Australian dollars.
Does money change hands?
No. Entry is free and Fanzava never handles entry money. It is a free social game where people make predictions and a leaderboard ranks them.

Ready to run your bracket challenge under your own brand?

Free to start. No credit card.

Want a different format? See every competition →