How to Run a World Cup 2026 Mini-League With Your Friends

Predicting the World Cup on your own is fine. Predicting it against your group chat is what makes it actually fun. A good mini-league turns 104 matches across 39 days into a low-stakes ongoing argument that you all check on your lunch break.

Here is how to set up a World Cup 2026 mini-league with your friends on ScoreBadger and keep it lively for the full tournament.

Step one: create your league

Head to /leagues and tap Create league. You will be asked for:

• A league name. Make it specific. "Lads WC 2026", "Mum vs Sons", "Office Predictor Cup". Generic names get lost in everyone's account once you accumulate a few leagues.
• A competition scope. Pick World Cup 2026. This restricts league scoring to WC matches only, so PL predictions do not interfere with the leaderboard.
• Maximum members. Default is 10, which suits most casual groups. You can bump it higher for office-wide leagues.

Hit Create and you are done. The league exists. Now you need to fill it.

Step two: invite your people

Every league has a unique 6-character invite code and a shareable link. From the league page, you can:

• Copy the invite link. One tap. Paste it into your WhatsApp group, iMessage, Slack, or wherever the people live. They click, sign up if they need to, and they are in.
• Share the invite code. Useful for in-person settings ("join with code FOOTY1"). Less friction than a URL for some people.
• Use the share popover. Tap the share icon and the system share sheet opens with a pre-written message you can send to anyone.

Aim for 4-10 members for a casual league. Below 3 it starts to feel pointless. Above 12 it gets hard to keep track of the chat. Six to eight is the sweet spot for sustained banter without anyone going quiet.

Step three: get everyone to lock in their tournament winner

Before the opening match on 11 June at 20:00 BST, every member should lock in their . This is the single biggest difference-maker in a 39-day league. Members who forget their bonus pick are giving up 5-10 potential points immediately, and you do not want to spend the tournament listening to them complain about it later.