To be able to participate in the Prediction League you need to create a user profile. This is created by selecting the New User link from the right hand column.

In order to ensure that you are able to take full advantage of all features of the league, please ensure that cookies are enabled for your browser. If you find that some features of the league are inaccessible to you, it is because cookies are disabled in your browser.

Select a Username to identify yourself in the prediction league. This can be anything you like as long as it is not already taken by another user.

Enter a password (twice). This is to ensure no-one else can change your predictions.

You must enter a valid email address to join the prediction league. This is used to have your password mailed to you should you forget it.

The Predict the Premiership scoring system works as follows:

• 3 points for predicting an exact score
• 1 point for predicting the correct result (ie. you correctly predict the winner, or you correctly predict a draw, but by the wrong number of goals).
• 2 point bonus for predicting the correct result if that result was predicted by less than 20% of your competitors.
• 2 point bonus for predicting the exact score if that score was predicted by less than 5% of your competitors.

The following examples show the points you would score in a theoretical game between Manchester United and Wigan Athletic. The bonuses would depend on how other people in the league predicted - but almost everyone would normally predict a United win. Notice how the number of bonus points you score rises if you correctly predict unlikely scorelines.

actual score:	you said:	exact score bonus	correct result bonus	base points:	bonus points:	total points:
Man Utd 2 Wigan 0	2-1			1	0	1
Man Utd 2 Wigan 0	2-0			3	0	3
Man Utd 1 Wigan 1	2-2			1	2	3
Man Utd 5 Wigan 0	5-0			3	2	5
Man Utd 1 Wigan 3	1-3			3	4	7

If two people are level on points their position in the table will be determined by goal difference

• For each incorrect number of goals you predict per team, you lose the difference in goals. e.g. you predict 3 and the team scores 2, you get -1 goals.
• For each correct teams number of goals you score, you receive a positive goal difference based on the following scale:
• You predict 0 or 1 goals and the team scores 0 or 1, you receive +1 goal difference.
• You predict 2 goals or more and the team scores that number, you receive double the number of goals predicted, ie. you predict 3 and the team scores 3, you get +6 goal difference.

In a normal month, the top 140 predictors in each division will be promoted to the next division, and the bottom 140 will be relegated.

Predict the Premiership may also decide to increase or decrease the size of the divisions, depending upon the total number of people predicting in the league at that time. Should this be necessary, then promotion and relegation issues could be effected. As a rule, we aim to have no more than 30% of current predictors in non-league.

The messageboard is a place for friendly rivalry between users, and we cannot tolerate messages that are abusive or insulting towards other users. Users who break this rule will be given a one month ban from the messageboards, a second offence will result in a permanent ban.

We regret that we have had to take these measures, but we want the messageboard to remain a friendly place for users.

We will always attempt to ensure that all kick-off times are correct, and all other information is as accurate as possible. However, if any player attempts to profit from an inaccuracy by altering predictions after a game has begun, their prediction for that game will be declared null and void.

Please be aware that all prediction times are logged - so we will always be able to tell if you have changed a prediction after a match has begun.