How Tickertaka works

A stock market where the companies are Premier League players. Free to play: you start with 10,000 credits, and credits can never be bought, sold or cashed out.

The short version

1. Buy shares in players. Every player has a fixed number of shares, so popular players get pricier as people buy.
2. Own them before kickoff. Trading in a player pauses 75 minutes before his team kicks off, and whoever owns him then is paid for that match.
3. Get paid as it happens: every goal, assist and save pays per share the moment it shows in the live data, and clean sheets, the all-round score and the win bonus at full time.
4. Sell whenever you like. Prices move with trading and with how players actually perform.
5. Win the championship by beating the market index, not just by being invested.

What each share pays

Example: you own 100 shares of a striker who scores once in a win. You receive 100 x 0.1 x 1.25 = 12.50 credits.

The all-round score

Goals aren't the only thing that wins matches. Every player gets an all-round score for each match, from the same Opta data behind FPL's bonus points: passes completed, key passes and big chances created, tackles, interceptions, clearances, blocks and recoveries, dribbles and crosses, minus errors, cards, missed chances and losing the ball. Goals, assists, clean sheets and saves are left out because they already pay on their own, and so are the points for simply turning up.

Each position has a par, the score of a typical starter: 0 for goalkeepers, 4 for defenders, 6 for midfielders and 0 for forwards. Every point above par pays 0.005 cr a share at full time. A midfielder who runs the game with a score of 16 earns 10 x 0.005 = 0.05 cr a share without touching the scoresheet, as much as half a goal. A poor game pays nothing from it, but never takes anything away. Player pages show the score for every match.

Each match has its own pause

There is no weekly deadline. Each player trades freely until 75 minutes before his team kicks off. Then trading in every player at both clubs pauses, and your holdings in them are counted for that match. That is before the team sheets come out, so you are picking on form and fitness, like everyone else, not on who has been named to start.

While the match is on, goals, assists and saves are paid straight into your cash as they appear in the live data. If VAR or the FPL data team takes one away, it is taken back. About 10 minutes after full time the clean sheets, the all-round score and the 1.25x win bonus are paid, the player's price moves to reflect what just happened (a goal lifts it, a quiet afternoon or a missed match lowers it), and trading reopens. Players whose teams are not playing can be traded the whole time, so you can sell one player and buy another mid-afternoon.

72 hours after the match we check the final stats; if FPL corrected anything (an assist reassigned, say) the difference is paid or taken back as a separate line on your statement.

Buying and selling

You always trade with the Tickertaka market maker, so there is always a price. Buying pushes the price up a little and selling pushes it down, in proportion to how much of the player you trade. The only fee is the spread, between 0.3% and 3% depending on how busy the player is. The order ticket shows exactly what you pay or receive before you confirm. If the price moves by more than half a percent while you decide, we show you the new price instead of filling.

Leaderboards

• Championship, the official title: your return minus the Tickertaka index since you joined. The index holds every player in proportion to their market value with dividends reinvested, so you have to pick better than the market.
• Return: how much your credits have grown.
• Income: total dividends received.

Everyone is valued at what their holdings would actually sell for, so buying up a thin player cannot inflate a score. The final table uses your average over the last 5 matchdays, so one lucky weekend can't decide the season. Mini leagues rank you against friends the same way.

NPC funds

A few computer-run funds trade from day one so the market isn't empty. They follow published strategies, use only public information, pay the same spread, and are never ranked. See their holdings.

Season end

After the last match is final, every share is bought back at that player's fair value, and the final standings are locked. Next season everyone starts fresh.

The small print

Tickertaka is a game, not gambling: credits have no cash value and there are no prizes unless we say so. The Terms cover fair play (one account each, no bots) and the Privacy policy says exactly what we store. Questions or ideas? Send feedback.

The full pricing mechanism, published in detail.