How Playoff Monkey works

For every playoff game, you predict the final regulation-time score — both teams. Closer guesses earn more points. You play in leagues, where the highest total wins.

• No brackets. Brackets bust on day two. Here every game stands on its own.
• No elimination. Miss a pick? You're still in. Bad first round? Crush the Finals and catch up.
• Join late, still win. Stakes get bigger every round, so latecomers can absolutely take it home.

Three independent buckets per game. They stack — you can earn all three:

Only regulation-time scores count. Overtime points are excluded.

Playoff Monkey is always free to play. No subscription, no paywall, ever. The playoffs have already tipped off, but we're holding the official start until Saturday, April 25th to give everyone time to set up private leagues and learn the game. Picks you make on earlier games are practice — they don't count. From the first tipoff on the 25th onward, every pick counts toward your standings.

Every private league lets the admin write house rules — fun real-world stakes like "loser buys dinner" or "winner picks the next group trip". Rules are editable until the league start moment, then locked forever. The Global League has no custom rules.

Every league has a permanent extra player called The Monkey. It auto-picks every game using a deterministic algorithm — higher seeds get a slight edge, home court matters a little, and scores hover around 112. So even if your league is tiny, there's always someone to beat. Or someone you can lose to. Don't lose to The Monkey.

Create an account and you'll be auto-enrolled in the Global League. From there, start your own private league or join one with an invite code.