How to create a SpotGuesser league that keeps your friends playing

SpotGuesser once had one-off challenges you could send to a friend. They have been replaced by something much better at bringing people back: leagues. A league is a private table for a group of friends, a family or an office. Everyone plays the daily matches whenever they like, the scores line up side by side every day, and every week has a winner.

Setting one up takes a minute. Setting one up that is still lively in a month takes a little thought. Here is how.

1. Start it in a minute

You need a free account to run or join a league. Start a league and give it a name of 3 to 40 characters. Only its members see the name, so it can be an inside joke.

A free account can be in two leagues in all, yours and friends' together, and a league you run holds eight players: you and seven more.

2. Compare what your group actually plays

The most important choice on the form is What we compare: which of the three daily topics count, Football, Formula 1 and Landmarks.

Count only what everyone plays. A five-a-side team might compare Football alone. A family that likes a mix might compare all three. If you count a topic only half the group plays, the table rewards whoever has the most free time rather than whoever knows the most.

You can change it later from the league's settings, and a change counts from the next day, so nobody's score shifts under them halfway through a day.

3. Invite people who will play

Add up to seven email addresses and each person gets an invitation email, good for a week. Or leave the list empty and share the league's link instead, from its Members page: it works for a week, you can make a new one at any time, and whoever opens it signs up or logs in, and joins. Their daily scores line up in the league from the day they join, and nothing else changes for them: they play the daily matches exactly as before.

Start with the people you already talk to every day. A league of four who all play beats a league of eight where half have forgotten it exists. You can always invite more later, up to the eight a league holds.

4. Make Monday the moment

A league week runs Monday to Sunday, each player's days by their own clock, and the table starts again every Monday. Most points wins the week. If two players are level on points, the better average decides, and if that is level too, they share the place.

On Monday, every member who keeps it switched on gets a recap email: the league's week, its winner and their own place. It is the natural moment for a little trash talk, and the reason a league survives its second week.

5. Use the Today tab

The Today tab shows each member's score in each topic you compare, best total first, filling in as the day goes on. Once you have finished a topic yourself, you can also see where everyone else pinned in it. That is the best part: you see who was nine miles off and who was on the wrong continent, without spoiling a match you haven't played yet.

6. Let the nudge do the nagging

Nobody wants to be the friend who nags. SpotGuesser does it, gently. At 6 p.m. their own time, a member who hasn't played today or yesterday, but has played in the last six days, gets a short note on a day when two or more league mates have played, along the lines of "3 of 5 in Office Champions have played today", with where they stand this week.

It goes at most once a week, only to the ones drifting away, never to the regulars, and every member can switch it off in their email settings.

7. Keep the conversation going

When you finish, Share my score sends your score and the date with a link, and gives no answers away. Post it in the group chat on the day and it is a reminder, a dare and a spoiler-free brag at once.

What counts, and what doesn't

Leagues count the daily matches only, played on their day. The Playground never counts, so you can practice there as much as you like. And every score in the league is a real one: the same five questions for everyone, one try each.

Seven rules for a league that lasts

1. Name it something only your group would get.
2. Compare what everyone plays, and nothing more.
3. Invite the regulars first, then grow.
4. Make Monday the moment: the winner, the recap, the chat.
5. Check the Today tab once you have played.
6. Let the nudge nag for you.
7. Share your score on the day, spoiler-free.

Start a league, or play today's matches first and see where you would stand.