Official rules

This contest is operated by [Sponsor legal name — to be confirmed], [registered address — to be confirmed] (the “Sponsor”). Questions may be sent to [contact email — to be confirmed].

The Sponsor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, any member club, any player or any broadcaster. No league, club or player marks are used anywhere in this contest.

• Open to legal residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. Void where prohibited. No state is presently excluded; if a contest period ever offers a prize, any exclusion that prize requires will be published in these rules before that period opens.
• Employees of the Sponsor and their immediate family members and households are not eligible.
• One account per person. Operating more than one account is grounds for disqualification of every account involved.
• Entry is free. There is no stake, no wager, no deposit and nothing of value is risked by entering.

Create a free account and submit a predicted final score for any game on the published slate. A prediction may be changed any number of times until that game locks, which is five minutes before its scheduled start time. After lock, the prediction is final.

Predictions are not revealed to other entrants until the game locks. Entries submitted by automated means, scripts, or any method other than the published interface are void.

Entries are scored by a published, deterministic formula applied identically to every entrant. The formula rewards accuracy of judgement about a sporting event: whether the predicted scoreline identifies the correct winning side (2 points), how close the predicted margin is to the actual margin (up to 4 points), how close the predicted combined total is to the actual total (up to 4 points), and an exact match of both scores (an additional 10 points, for a maximum of 20 on a single game).

No element of the scoring depends on chance, randomisation or a draw. The complete method is published at nailthepick.com/rules and applies to every entrant equally.

Each contest period runs from 00:00:00 ET on the first day of a calendar month to 23:59:59 ET on the last day of that month. Points accumulated during a period count only toward that period and reset when the next one begins.

The entrant with the highest point total at the close of a contest period is that period’s winner and is awarded the GOAT rank.

If two or more entrants finish a contest period level on points, the winner is determined by the following criteria, applied in order until the tie is broken:

• The greater number of Perfect Calls (games where both scores were predicted exactly).
• The greater number of games scoring the standard maximum or better.
• The lower cumulative deviation — the sum of all margin and total errors across the contest period.
• The earlier first submission timestamp within the contest period.

These criteria are themselves measures of skill and are sufficient to produce a single winner in all cases.

No prize is offered at present. The winner of a contest period receives the GOAT rank and the position on the board that goes with it, and nothing else of monetary value. Entry is free, nothing is risked and nothing is awarded.

If a prize is introduced, this clause will be rewritten to describe it in full — what it is, its approximate retail value, how it is claimed, who is excluded and who bears the tax — and published here before the first contest period it applies to opens. No prize will ever be awarded under rules that do not already describe it.

If a game is postponed, cancelled, abandoned or otherwise not completed, no prediction on that game scores for any entrant. If a published final score is later corrected by the data provider, the Sponsor may rescore affected predictions.

The Sponsor may disqualify any entrant who tampers with the entry process, operates multiple accounts, uses automated entry, or acts in a manner the Sponsor reasonably determines to be unfair to other entrants.

Except where prohibited, entry constitutes consent to use the winner’s display name and rank for announcement of results without further compensation. Personal information is handled as described in the Privacy Policy.

These rules are governed by the laws of [governing state — to be confirmed], without regard to conflict of law principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to this contest is to be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts sitting in that state, and each entrant consents to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.