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Brackets overview

A bracket competition asks participants to predict the outcome of a single-elimination tournament — such as the AFL finals series, the World Cup knockout stage, or March Madness.

Participants fill out their bracket before the tournament starts, picking winners for each matchup all the way to the final. Points are awarded for each correct prediction, with later rounds typically worth more.

How it works

Section titled “How it works”
  1. You create the bracket — define the tournament structure: teams, seeds, and round names
  2. Participants fill their bracket — before the entry deadline, each participant picks a winner for every matchup, all the way to the final
  3. The tournament plays out — as real results come in (automatically from the data feed, or manually entered), Fanzava scores each round
  4. Points accumulate — a participant whose bracket is still alive after three rounds is leading; one whose champion was eliminated in round one is catching up on points alone

Supported tournaments

Section titled “Supported tournaments”

Fanzava has built-in bracket templates for:

  • AFL finals (8-team, 4-round)
  • NRL finals (8-team, 4-round)
  • EPL knockout cup rounds
  • NFL playoffs (12-team, 4-round)
  • NBA playoffs (16-team, 4-round)
  • NCAA March Madness (64-team, 6-round)
  • FIFA World Cup knockout stage (16-team, 4-round)

You can also create a custom bracket for any tournament structure.

Key difference from tipping

Section titled “Key difference from tipping”

In tipping, participants make predictions round by round. In brackets, they make all predictions upfront. This means:

  • A participant whose early picks were wrong is out of contention for perfect-bracket prizes, but still scores points for later-round correct picks
  • Bracket competitions create a natural narrative — “my champion is still alive” — that tipping doesn’t have
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