Scoring & Bankers Explained (kind of....)

This is an update from the original post way back in July '24, explaining the above, well hopefully explaining the above. And. I'm going to use a World Cup '26 example to highlight what the hell I'm going on about, and how points are awarded for guessing correctly, or wrongly, and then ‘Banking’ on it

Strap in.

Let's start with what points are on offer every game.

• A win for a team is worth 10 points PLUS the margin of the win

• A loss carries a penalty of the margin of the loss

• A draw is worth 4 points PLUS the goals For

Straight forward so far.

So if a team wins 3-1 they get 12 points for winning by 2 goals, the losers get -2 points, for losing by 2 goals, and if they drew 1-1 then both would get 5 points for scoring 1 in the draw,

With me so far 👍👍👍

But, that's not how things work in my head, see I don't see how a France 3-1 over Qatar could be considered even remotely as impressive as a Qatar 3-1 win over France, so why should the points awarded be the same, and not reflect the real difference between them. 🤷

That's why, in my world, the points are then adjusted by the club coefficients, which have been set by FIFA. In my world that has the following effect on the points above.

• France FIFA coefficient at time of writing is 1.00, Qatar's is 1.29

• A France 3-1 win, instead of being worth 12 points, would be worth 9.30 points (12 * (France Coeff/Qatar Coeff))

  • If you predicted a France 3-1 win you'd get 9.30 points for getting the score correct.

• A Qatar 3-1 win, instead of being worth 12 points, would be worth 15.48 points (12*(Qatar Coeff/France Coeff))

  • If you predicted this, you'd get 15.48 points for the correct score.

• The defeat for France would increase from MINUS 2 to MINUS 2.58, but decrease for Qatar from -2.00 to -1.55

• A 1-1 draw, instead of being worth 5 points for both, would be worth 3.88 for France and 6.45 for Qatar

  • If you predicted 1-1, you get the sum of both teams points, so worth 10.33 points.

If you don't get the score correct, but you do get the result correct, then you still get points. There's 4 points, plus the win margin awarded, if your prediction isn't the correct score, but the margin of the victory is the same. So instead of saying 3-1 you'd said 2-0, or 4-2, to France you'd get 6 points, but, adjusted by the coefficients. So 4.65 for a France 2 goal victory, 7.74 for a Qatar 2-0 win.

Predict a draw, but not 1-1, and each team will score you 3 points. Of course, adjusted by coefficients.

Get the result right, but not the margin, you went for France 5-0, then you pick up 2 points, of course, adjusted. So 1.55 points (but better than nothing, or a negative points total).

Keep reading

Should I Bank

And then you can 'Bank' on games if you want to.

You have a limit on how many Banker points you can use per set of predictions you send in, and you can use all, some, or none of them, it's your choice.

The normal allowance is 6 points per set.

There are three Banker options

• The Enhanced Banker costs you 1 Point, and doubles any points you win

• The Guaranteed Banker costs you 2 Points and trebles any points you win

• The Immune Banker costs you 4 Points and also trebles any points you win

You can use a combination of the bankers but the total points you spend can't exceed 6.

BUT (its's bold and underlined so therefore it's a big BUT)

Get your bankers wrong, and penalties kick in.

Narrowly miss, you go home win and it's a draw, then the penalty will be smaller than getting it completely wrong, and, wrong Guaranteed Bankers will be punished harder than wrong Enhanced Bankers.

An Immune Banker doesn't carry the penalties the other two do, but, it does obviously cost you 4 points.

So make sure you get them right.

Of course that doesn't always happen, there are always a few big upsets in the season that end up with loads of points being lost, and in Season 25/26 our Banking History has been pretty abysmal with close on 50% of all bankers placed, being WRONG!!!

Actually, this season, a Guaranteed Crystal Palace win away to Macclesfield in the FA Cup 3rd Round would have cost you 47.24 points (😳🙄😳) and quite a few of us got stung on that one.

I’m going to use the France v Qatar example above again, and confirm what a Banker would do to the points you would win or lose below for a France win, a draw, or a Qatar 3-1 win if you had predicted 3-1 to France

You Predict France 3-1	No Banker	Enhanced (cost 1 point)	Guaranteed (cost 2 points)	Immune (cost 4 points)
3-1	9.30	17.60	25.90	23.90
2-0, 4-2, 5-3	4.65	8.30	11.80	9.80
France Win	1.55	2.10	2.65	0.65
Draw	0	-3.58	-9.74	-4.00
Qatar Win	-2.58	-8.74	-17.48	-4.00

The Simple explanation is, brilliant if you get them right, but get them wrong and they are going to hurt.

AND FINALLY

There's going to be 10 sets of fixtures in The World Cup, the first 6 sets containing 12 group games each, and unlike the Premier League season there’s NO Immune option on the Banker

Once we get into the knock out stages, the points will increase as the rounds increase.

So for the Round of 32 games the points won (or lost) will be worth 2 X the normal. For the Round of 16, 3 X the normal, for the Quarter-Finals, 4 X, Semi-Finals 5 X, Play-Off Final 6 X and Final 7 X.

Beware though, as the points on offer for winning increase, so does the cost of bankers and the price for getting them wrong 😉

Hopefully you’re up to speed now. If not. Just message me. I’m always happy to have a chat about these things 🤔