Tiebreakers

When participants finish level on points, Fanzava works down a fixed list of tiebreakers until one separates them. The list is the same for every tipping competition, and it is applied the same way on the overall leaderboard and on each group’s leaderboard.

The tiebreaker order

For a tipping competition, participants are ranked by:

1. Total points.
2. Tiebreaker margin error, smallest first: how far their margin predictions on each round’s tiebreaker fixture were from the real margins, added up across the season.
3. Later-round form, highest first: correct tips weighted by the round they were made in, so a correct tip in round 20 counts for more than one in round 2.

Participants still level after all three share the same place, and the next place is skipped: two participants tied for second both show as 2, and the next participant is 4th.

A competition using the confidence ladder adds two steps after total points: number of correct picks, then head to head on the highest rank that separates the two participants. See Confidence.

Bracket competitions rank differently. See how the bracket leaderboard ranks entries.

The tiebreaker margin

Every round has one tiebreaker fixture: the round’s first game by kickoff time. It is picked automatically when the schedule syncs, and it moves if an earlier game is added to the round later.

On the tiebreaker fixture, participants can enter a predicted winning margin as well as their pick. After the game, their margin error for the round is the difference between their prediction and the real margin, whichever team won. A participant who predicted a margin of 12 when the game was won by 20 has an error of 8.

A participant who enters no margin before the tiebreaker locks is given the competition’s default margin as their error for that round, which is usually more than a genuine guess would cost. If the tiebreaker fixture is cancelled or postponed, the round adds nothing to anyone’s margin error.

Setting the default margin

The tiebreaker margin is switched on in the Scoring section of the create-competition wizard with Tie-breaker margin, and the Default margin is set beside it:

• It can be from 1 to 200, and it starts at a value suited to the competition’s sport.
• It can be changed from the competition’s admin page while the competition is still a draft.
• It is frozen when the competition is activated, because changing it mid-season would re-order standings people have already seen.

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Tip

A default margin larger than a typical winning margin in your sport rewards participants for entering a guess every round, because not guessing then costs more than a poor guess.

Ties on group leaderboards

Each group’s leaderboard applies the same tiebreakers among its own members. Two participants who are level overall are level in any group they share, and their place in the group depends only on the group’s other members.

What you cannot change

The tiebreaker order is fixed platform-wide. It cannot be reordered, and there is no manual override of a participant’s final position. If a competition’s prizes depend on a final placing, decide in advance how you will handle a shared place, for example by splitting the prize, and say so in the competition’s description.

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Note

The order participants joined the competition is used only to list tied participants in a stable order on screen. It never decides a place.