Gaffer on Starknet: fantasy football leagues with friends, free to start, with entry fees and prizes in USDC where paid entry is available

Gaffer is fantasy football with your friends, built on Starknet: Premier League and Champions League leagues where you pick real footballers, and, where paid entry is available, pay the entry and receive the prize in USDC. It is listed in the Starknet dapps directory. If you already hold USDC on Starknet, you have the shortest path into a league: deposit from the wallet you have, create or join a league, pick a squad before the lock. This page covers what runs on Starknet, how to fund the wallet from Starknet or elsewhere, and what Gaffer deliberately does not have.

What runs on Starknet

• Your wallet. A wallet is created for you when you sign up, inside the app. It holds your USDC balance, pays your entries and receives your prizes; you can send from it to any wallet or exchange.
• Each league’s vault. Where paid entry is available, each entry, minus the 5% service fee, is paid at the moment of joining into a vault that belongs to that league. The prize pool locks when the league locks. Nobody holds the pool, not the commissioner and not Gaffer. The commissioner can never move the pool. Gaffer confirms the final standings and triggers the payout; the vault can only pay members of that league or return their entries.
• The payout. When the last round is final, Gaffer confirms the standings and, after a review period of at least 24 hours, the prize pool is paid automatically to the winners’ wallets. The split is the one shown before anyone joined.
• Sponsored actions. Joining is a sponsored action from the wallet in the app, so no network fee comes out of the entry.
• The currency. USDC, a dollar-backed digital currency. USDC is designed to stay at one US dollar, so the prize pool is counted in dollars from the first deadline to the last.

If you already hold USDC on Starknet

Open the deposit screen, choose Deposit from Starknet, and send from Ready, Braavos, Xverse, an exchange or any Starknet wallet: pick the wallet, enter an amount, confirm the transfer. Or scan the QR code with a wallet app. The balance shows in the app once the transfer confirms. From there, create a league and send the invite link, or join one from the public leagues list where the rules and any prize split are shown first.

If your USDC is somewhere else

• Another chain. The wallet’s deposit options connect MetaMask, Phantom, Coinbase or any wallet, and the transfer is bridged and swapped into Starknet USDC.
• An exchange. Withdraw USDC on Starknet to the address on the deposit screen.
• A card. Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and other payment methods, when that option is open; if it is paused, sending USDC still works.
• No crypto yet. You do not need any to play: a free Gaffer game has no entry fee and no deposit.

What Gaffer does not have, on purpose

No token, no points that turn into a token, no player cards and nothing to collect or trade. Prizes come from entry fees only, the service fee is shown before anyone pays, and skill decides every game: your lineup of several real footballers against everyone else’s. There is no game scored on a single match result, on one team or on a prediction, and the only crypto in Gaffer is the currency your entry and your prize are paid in. The terms set out the fee and the paid-league rules.

The games you can enter

You can create a free Gaffer game today for the Premier League or the Champions League in four formats: a Season league over the rounds you choose, a Weekly Cup of five footballers for one gameweek, Elimination where managers go out round by round, and Groups where managers team up. Premier League leagues use the familiar 15-player, £100m format in the Classic rules, and lineups lock 15 minutes after the official FPL deadline. Gaffer games explained helps you choose; the deadline pages list every gameweek.

Eligibility, dropouts and taxes

Paid entry is for players 18 and over (or the age of majority where you live, if higher) in supported locations. It is not available in some US states and Canadian provinces or in a short list of countries, including those under comprehensive sanctions; the terms list them, and the location check runs when you create or join a paid league. Leaving before the lock returns the entry minus the 5% service fee; after the lock a member cannot leave with a refund. Prizes may be taxable income where you live; keep the record of entries and payouts and ask a tax adviser about your own situation.