Does Fantasy Premier League pay prizes? What the official game gives, and what your mini league can

Yes, the official Fantasy Premier League game awards prizes, to the managers at the very top of its overall table and to its monthly leaders. It pays nothing to the winner of your private mini league. If your group wants a prize for winning, you arrange it yourselves. Here is what each side of that looks like.

What the official game gives

The official game publishes a prize list each season for the overall winner and runners-up and for its monthly leaders: trips, hospitality, merchandise and the like rather than cash to your bank. The list changes every season, so read it on the official site before you count on anything. With more than 11 million teams in the game last season, the overall prizes are a lovely thing to dream about and not a plan.

Can you make money from FPL?

For almost everyone, the only money in Fantasy Premier League is the mini league among friends: a few pounds each in August, paid out by the table in May. A small number of people earn from the game indirectly, by writing or streaming about it for an audience. The official game itself does not pay entrants.

What your mini league can pay

A mini league prize pool is simple: entry fee times players, split by place. Twelve friends at £10 is £120; a 50 / 30 / 20 split pays £60, £36 and £24. The prize split calculator does the sums for any fee, head count and split, and writes the line you paste into the group.

The harder question is who holds the money for nine months and who pays out. There are three ways: one person collects and pays from their own account, a tracker app or spreadsheet records who paid while a person still holds the money, or the league has a vault of its own. The paid mini league guide compares them.

How it works on Gaffer

• The league is its own classic game: same 15-player squad, £100m budget, captain and chips as the official game, scored from licensed match data. The rules are public.
• The entry fee is paid at the moment of joining, so nobody is in the paid table unpaid. A 5% service fee comes off each entry and is shown first; the prize pool is the rest.
• The pool sits in the league's own vault. Nobody holds it, not the commissioner and not Gaffer. It locks when the league locks.
• When the final table is in, the winners are paid automatically by the split the league chose in August.
• Everyone is 18 or over, and paid leagues are not available in every country. Free leagues are, everywhere Gaffer is.