World Cup Predictions Game - Terms and Conditions

Last updated: 20th May 2026

1. The Promoter

This free-to-play prediction game (the "Game") is operated by GDC Media Limited, which is a subsidiary of Gambling.com Group Limited (Nasdaq: GAMB) ("we", "us", “our”, "the Promoter"). By entering the Game you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions (the "Terms") and Gambling.com's general Terms of Use and Privacy and Cookies Policy and all other rules or polices that are made available on Gambling.com and on our various websites and platforms.

Please read the Terms carefully prior to participating in the Game. By participating in the Game, you (“you”, Entrant”, and “User”) thereby agree to the Terms. If you do not agree to the Terms, you may not participate in the Game.

We reserve the sole and absolute right, at our discretion, to change, modify, suspend, or terminate any aspect of the Game at any time and without prior notice. This includes, but is not limited to, changes to the rules, gameplay mechanics, eligibility criteria, duration, or other features or functionalities. Such modifications may be implemented for any reason, including operational, technical, legal, regulatory or commercial considerations, and may take effect immediately upon publication or communication through our chosen channels. Users acknowledge and accept that their continued participation in the Game constitutes their acceptance of any such changes.

2. The Game

2.1 The Game is a free-to-play prediction competition based on the World Cup 2026 (the "Tournament"). No purchase, deposit, or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or to win.

2.2 The Game is independently operated by GDC Media Limited and is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by, affiliated with, or in any way officially connected with the organiser of the Tournament, any participating national football association, any club, any player, or any official body connected with the Tournament. No official body has approved or authorised the Game. All names, marks, logos, and intellectual property associated with the Tournament and its participants are the exclusive property of their respective owners, and no claim of right over any such property is made or implied by the operation of this Game.

2.3 The Game opens one (1) week before the first Tournament fixture and closes when the Final kicks off. Winners will be announced within seven (7) days of the Final whistle.

3. Eligibility

3.1 Entry is open to natural persons aged eighteen (18) or older (depending on the applicable jurisdiction legislation) at the time of entry who are legally resident in one of the following territories: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Romania, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, Peru, Greece, or Norway (each a "Permitted Territory").

3.2 Entrants located in or accessing the Game from any other jurisdiction — including, without limitation, the United States, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, and India (“Non-Permitted Territories”)— are not eligible to enter the Game or win prizes. Entries from Non-Permitted Territories will be void.

3.3 The following persons are not eligible to enter:

(a) employees, officers, directors, contractors, agents, or immediate family members of Gambling.com or any of its group companies;

(b) any person professionally involved with the organizer of the Tournament, the Tournament itself, any participating national association, or any team or match official; and

3.4 The Promoter may require any entrant (and in particular any prize winner) to verify their identity, age, and place of residence (including by providing government-issued ID and proof of address dated withing 3 months) before user can access the Game any prize is paid. Failure to provide satisfactory verification within fourteen (14) days of a request will result in disqualification and forfeiture of any prize. The Promoter reserves the right to conduct additional checks, if required by law in the relevant jurisdiction.

3.5 One (1) entry per person. Multiple accounts, syndicate entries, automated entries, scripts, bots, or any other artificial means of generating entries are strictly prohibited and will result in disqualification.

4. How to Enter

4.1 Entrants must visit the Game page at gambling.com, submit predictions in accordance with these Terms, and create or sign in to a Gambling.com account before their predictions lock.

4.2 Predictions submitted before account registration ("Guest predictions") are saved on a provisional basis only. To be eligible to win, an entrant must register and verify a Gambling.com account before the relevant prediction lock time. Guest Predictions that have not been claimed by a registered account at the relevant lock time will be void.

4.3 Each Entrant is responsible for ensuring their predictions have been successfully submitted. The Promoter accepts no responsibility for entries that are incomplete, lost, delayed, corrupted, mis-directed, or not received for any reason, including network or device failure.

5. Prediction Mechanic and Lock Times

5.1 The Game consists of:

(a) Match predictions — predicted exact scoreline (full time, excluding extra time and penalties) for each fixture from the group stage through to the Final;

(b) Outrights — predicted Tournament Winner, 2nd place, 3rd place, and Golden Boot winner; and

(i) Main Leaderboard tiebreaker: predicted Total Tournament Goals and predicted Total Tournament Cards (yellow and red, as recorded by the official Tournament data feed); and (ii) Knockout Leaderboard tiebreaker: predicted time of the first goal in the Final (minute and, where applicable, added time), as recorded by the official Tournament data feed.

5.2 Lock times:

(a) Outrights and Tiebreaker lock upon completion of Matchday 1 of the group stage (i.e. once all group stage matches scheduled on the first matchday of the Tournament have been played to full time).

(b) Group stage match predictions lock ten (10) minutes before the scheduled kick-off time of each individual match. Predictions submitted or edited after the lock time will not be accepted for that match.

(c) Knockout round predictions become available for prediction once the bracket for that round has been determined (i.e. once the preceding round is complete and all participants are confirmed) and lock ten (10) minutes before the scheduled kick-off time of each individual match within that round. Predictions submitted or edited after the lock time will not be accepted for that match.

5.3 Predictions may be edited at any time before the relevant lock time. After lock, no changes are permitted for any reason.

5.4 Match results are taken at full time of regulation play (90 minutes plus stoppage time). Goals scored in extra time, penalty shoot-outs, or following a match being replayed do not count toward scoring.

6. Scoring

6.1 Per match:

3 points — correct exact scoreline
1 point — correct result (Win / Draw / Loss) but incorrect scoreline
0 points — incorrect result

6.2 Outrights:

10 points — correct Tournament Winner
5 points — correct 2nd place
3 points — correct 3rd place
10 points — correct Golden Boot winner

6.3 The Golden Boot is awarded in accordance with the official Tournament tiebreaker rules. Where the Tournament Organizer awards the Golden Boot to multiple players (e.g. shared award), the points will be awarded if the Entrant has predicted any one of the joint winners.

6.4 Where a fixture is postponed, predictions remain live for the rescheduled fixture provided the rescheduled fixture is played within the Tournament window. Where a fixture is abandoned, awarded, or otherwise determined off the field of play, the result as officially recorded by the Tournament organizer will be used.

6.5 Where a fixture is voided, cancelled, or not played at all, no points will be awarded for that fixture, and predictions for that fixture will not count toward an entrant's total score.

7. Prize Pool

7.1 The total prize pool is £10,000, funded by the Promoter, and allocated as follows:

Whole-Tournament leaderboard (entrants who submit predictions for both the group stage and outrights):

1st place — £5,000
2nd place — £2,000
3rd place — £1,000

Knockout-Stage-Onwards leaderboard (entrants who first enter from the Round of 32 onwards):

1st place — £1,250
2nd place — £500
3rd place — £250

7.2 Prizes will be paid in GBP (£) by bank transfer to a verified account in the winner's name. Where a winner's local currency is not GBP, the prize will be converted at the prevailing exchange rate on the date of payment; any FX or transfer fees levied by the receiving bank are the winner's responsibility.

7.3 Prizes are non-transferable, non-exchangeable, and no cash or other alternative will be offered.

7.4 The Promoter reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value where circumstances beyond its reasonable control make this necessary.

8. Tiebreakers

8.1 As described in Section 5, the Game operates two separate leaderboards, each with its own tiebreaker mechanism: (a) the Main Leaderboard, covering all predictions across the full Tournament, uses Total Tournament Goals and Total Tournament Cards accuracy as the tiebreaker; and (b) the Knockout Leaderboard, covering knockout round predictions only, uses the predicted time of the first goal in the Final as the tiebreaker. In both cases, if entrants remain tied after the applicable tiebreaker has been applied, a last-resort random draw is used, subject to the jurisdiction-specific skill question requirement delineated below.

8.2 Main Leaderboard tiebreaker. Where two or more entrants are tied on points on the Main Leaderboard, the winner will be determined by the entrant whose combined accuracy on Total Tournament Goals and Total Tournament Cards is closest to the actual figures (smallest combined absolute difference).

8.3 Where Main Leaderboard entrants remain tied after applying clause 8.2, the tiebreaker is the entrant whose Total Tournament Goals prediction is closest to the actual figure.

8.4 Where entrants remain tied after the provisions of clause 8.3 are implemented, the Promoter will, as a final tiebreaker of last resort only, determine the winner by random draw, conducted under independently auditable conditions, and the decision will be final.

8.5 Where a winner is determined by random draw under clause 8.4 and that winner is resident in a jurisdiction where a random-draw tiebreaker is not permitted under applicable law (including without limitation Belgium, where chance-based promotions are prohibited, the following applies: (a) before any prize is paid, the winner will be required to correctly answer a time-limited mathematical skill-testing question (the “Tiebreaker Skill Question”) administered by the Promoter; (b) the Tiebreaker Skill Question will be provided to the winner within seven (7) days of the draw outcome being determined and must be answered correctly within seven (7) days of receipt; (c) failure to correctly answer the Tiebreaker Skill Question within the time allowed will result in disqualification and prize forfeiture, in which case the Promoter will repeat the process with the next tied entrant; and (d) the prize will only be paid once a winner has correctly answered the Tiebreaker Skill Question, satisfying the requirement that the prize is awarded on the basis of skill.

9. Winner Notification and Prize Payment

9.1 Winners will be notified by email to the address registered to their Gambling.com account within seven (7) days of the Final whistle.

9.2 Winners must respond to the notification email and complete identity, age, and residency verification within fourteen (14) days. Failure to do so will result in forfeiture of the prize, and the Promoter reserves the right (but is not obliged) to award the prize to the next eligible entrant.

9.3 Prizes will be paid within thirty (30) days of successful verification, subject to clause 9.4.

9.4 The Promoter may withhold payment of any prize where it has reasonable grounds to suspect a breach of these Terms, fraud, collusion, or any other irregularity, pending investigation.

10. Private Leagues (if launched)

10.1 Where the Private League feature is made available, registered users may create a league with a custom name and invite others via a shareable link. League leaderboards are for entertainment only and do not affect prize allocation, which is determined solely by the global leaderboard.

10.2 League creators are responsible for the conduct of their league and the content of any league name. The Promoter reserves the right to remove any league or league name that is offensive, infringing, misleading, or otherwise inappropriate.

11. Tax

11.1 All prizes are stated as gross amounts before any applicable tax deductions. Each winner is solely responsible for reporting and paying any and all taxes (including without limitation income tax, withholding tax, gift tax, or any other levy) arising from receipt of a prize, under the laws of their jurisdiction of the Entrant’s residence. The Promoter strongly recommends that winners obtain independent tax advice before accepting a prize.

12. Disqualification and Cheating

12.1 The Promoter reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any entrant and void any prediction or prize where it has reasonable grounds to suspect:

(a) the entrant has breached these Terms;

(b) the entrant has used or attempted to use any automated system, bot, script, or other artificial means to enter or influence the Game;

(d) the entrant has engaged in collusion with other entrants;

(e) the entrant has tampered with the entry process, the scoring system, or any other part of the Game; or

(f) the entrant has provided false, inaccurate, or misleading information.

12.2 The Promoter's decision in all matters relating to the Game is final and binding, and no correspondence will be entered into.

13. Personal Data

13.1 Personal data submitted in connection with the Game will be processed in accordance with the Gambling.com https://www.gambling.com/uk/privacy-policy. Personal data will be processed on the lawful basis of contract performance (to administer the Game and issue prizes) and, where applicable, legal obligation (to comply with tax reporting requirements in relevant jurisdictions). Entrants may exercise their data subject rights as set out in the Privacy Policy.

13.2 The Promoter is required to publish the names of prize winners in order to comply with consumer protection expectations and to demonstrate the integrity of the competition. The Promoter will publish entrants and winner's first name, last initial, and country of residence on the leaderboard and in winner announcements. This processing is carried out on the basis of the Promoter’s legitimate interests in operating a transparent and verifiable competition. Winners who object to this publication on grounds relating to their particular situation may exercise their right to object by contacting the Promoter. The Promoter will consider any such objection and will not publish details where it determines the objection is well-founded. Any use of a winner's name, image, likeness, or personal data for promotional or marketing purposes beyond the winner announcement is voluntary and will take place with the winner's freely given and informed consent.

14. Changes, Suspension, and Cancellation

14.1 The Promoter reserves the right to amend these Terms at any time. Material changes — including changes to eligibility, the prize pool, scoring rules, or permitted territories —will be communicated to entrants via the Game page and/or email.

14.2 The Promoter reserves the right to suspend, modify, or cancel the Game (in whole or in part) where it is necessary to do so for reasons outside its reasonable control — including, without limitation, where the Tournament itself is delayed, suspended, abandoned, or materially altered by the Tournament organizer. In such circumstances the Promoter will, acting reasonably, determine an equitable means of distributing the prize pool among eligible entrants based on scores accrued to the point of suspension or cancellation.

14.3 The Private League feature is not guaranteed for launch and may be added, removed, or modified at the Promoter's discretion.

15. Liability

15.1 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits the Promoters liability for death or personal injury caused by its negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

15.2 Subject to clause 15.1, the Promoter is not liable for any indirect, consequential, or special loss, or for loss of profits, business, goodwill, opportunity, or data, arising from or in connection with the Game. Without limiting the foregoing, the Promoter is not liable for: (a) errors or delays in third-party data feeds used to determine match results, Golden Boot awards, or Tournament Cards totals; (b) technical failures, interruptions, or errors in the Game platform caused by circumstances beyond the Promoter’s reasonable control; (c) any failure by an entrant to submit or lock predictions before the applicable lock time; or (d) any loss arising from an entrant’s reliance on unofficial results or data sources.

15.3 Subject to clauses 15.1, and to the extent permitted by applicable mandatory law in the entrant's jurisdiction of residence, the Promoter's total aggregate liability to any one entrant in connection with the Game (whether in contract, tort, statute, or otherwise) is limited to the value of the highest prize tier for which that entrant was eligible at the time the relevant claim arose.

16. Governing Law

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them are governed by the laws of Ireland, and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Ireland, save that: (a) consumers resident in a Permitted Territory retain the benefit of any mandatory consumer protection provisions of their local law that cannot be contractually excluded; (b) nothing in these Terms affects the statutory rights of any consumer under applicable mandatory local law; and (c) where an entrant’s local mandatory law requires disputes to be resolved in the courts of their country of residence, that requirement shall take precedence over this clause to the extent required by applicable law.

17. Nature of the Game — Skill Competition

17.1 The Game is a competition of skill. Winners are determined solely by the accuracy of their predictions as measured by the scoring methodology in clause 5. No element of chance is involved in determining winners from eligible entrants, except where the last-resort tiebreaker in clause 8.4 is applied after all other tiebreaker criteria have been exhausted.

17.2 Entry is entirely free. No purchase, payment, deposit, or other financial consideration of any kind is required or accepted to enter the Game or to win a prize.

17.3 The Game is not a lottery, sweepstake, or gambling product. The prize pool is funded entirely by the Promoter and is not derived from, or supplemented by, entry fees or player contributions.

17.4 The scoring methodology in clause 5 is fixed, published in full within these Terms, and applied consistently to all entrants.

18. Responsible Gambling

18.1 The Game involves no financial risk to participants. However, the Promoter is a gambling affiliate and is committed to responsible gambling. If you or someone you know is experiencing difficulties with gambling, free confidential support is available from: GamCare (www.gamcare.org.uk | 0808 802 0133); BeGambleAware (www.begambleaware.org); and Gambling Therapy (www.gamblingtherapy.org).

19. Complaints and Dispute Resolution

19.1 Any complaint or dispute regarding the Game — including in relation to score calculations, eligibility determinations, or winner selection — should be submitted in writing to competitions@gambling.com within fourteen (14) days of the relevant event. The Promoter will acknowledge receipt within five (5) business days and provide a substantive response within fourteen (14) days.

World Cup 2026 Predictor — Terms & Conditions