How to get people to join your FPL mini league, and keep them playing until May

Most mini leagues fill from three places: the group chats you are already in, a workplace or club, and players who are looking for a league to join. Post the invite code where the conversation already happens, give people one clear reason to join (a table worth winning, a prize, a format nobody else runs), and fix the rules before the first deadline. Then keep the league alive with a short weekly update: a league that goes quiet is the one people stop picking a team for.

Inviting someone to an FPL league

In the official game, whoever creates a private league gets a unique code to send to friends, and anyone with the code joins from the leagues page. One team can be in up to 30 private leagues and a private league has no limit on its number of teams, so nobody has to leave another league to join yours. Send the code and the joining deadline in the same message ("join before Friday 18:30 UK time"), so nobody has to ask.

Where commissioners find players

• The group chats you already have. Friends, family, five-a-side, old school and university groups. One message with the code and the deadline beats ten private asks.
• Work and clubs. An office or club league fills quickly because everyone sees the table on Monday morning. Ask for a channel or a noticeboard post.
• FPL communities online. Reddit, Discord servers and FPL accounts on X are where many players talk about the game. Read each community's rules before posting a league code.
• Your own audience. If you write or post about FPL, a league for your followers is the simplest thing to share every week.
• A public league listing. A public Gaffer league appears on the public leagues page, where anyone can join, with the rules and any prize split shown before they do.

Give people a reason to join

• A prize worth the table. A trophy, a shirt, the loser's forfeit, or an entry fee and a prize pool. The prize ideas guide has a list.
• Something to play for all season. Monthly winners or a cup run give the managers in mid-table a reason to keep picking a team in February.
• A format nobody else runs. A weekly cup, an elimination game or groups that end in a knockout. On Gaffer these are free to set up for the Premier League and the Champions League, and for MLS during its regular season.

Keep them playing until May

• One weekly message. Top three, bottom three, the best captain pick. Two minutes after the last match, every week.
• Rules written down before the first deadline. Ties, late joiners, prizes, payment. Pin the message; the mini league rules guide has eight to copy.
• Monthly or half-season prizes, so a bad start does not mean a dead season.

If the league has an entry fee

Collecting the money is where commissioners lose time and friends: chasing late transfers, holding the pool for nine months and paying out in May from memory. You can create a free Gaffer game. Where paid entry is available, a league with an entry fee collects each entry at the moment of joining, so nobody is in the paid table unpaid. A 5% service fee comes off each entry then and is shown before anyone pays; the rest is the prize pool, which sits in the league's own vault: nobody holds it, not the commissioner and not Gaffer, and the final table pays the winners automatically. 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 league locks returns the entry minus the service fee. The paid mini league guide covers the setup.