WC26 Picks ⚽

A dead-simple World Cup 2026 prediction site for a group of friends.

• Shared group code gates access; players register with just a name + PIN
• Pick winners (and draws in the group stage) — no score predictions
• Picks lock at kickoff; once locked, everyone's picks are revealed
• Results auto-sync from football-data.org
• Scoring: each match is a pot (1 point per player who picked it), split equally among everyone who picked the correct result — rarer correct calls pay more

Deploy (≈10 minutes)

1. Get a free API key at football-data.org/client/register.

2. Push this folder to a GitHub repo, then import it on vercel.com/new.

3. Add a database: in your Vercel project → Storage → Create Database → Neon (Postgres). This auto-sets DATABASE_URL. Tables are created automatically on first use.

4. Set environment variables (Project → Settings → Environment Variables):

   Variable	Value
   SHARED_CODE	the code you give your friends (e.g. golazo2026)
   SESSION_SECRET	any long random string (openssl rand -hex 32)
   FOOTBALL_DATA_TOKEN	your football-data.org key
   CRON_SECRET	(optional) random string to protect the cron endpoint

5. Deploy. Visit the site — fixtures sync automatically on first page load.

How syncing works

• Any page view triggers a sync if data is older than 10 minutes (well within the free tier's 10 req/min limit).
• A daily Vercel cron (vercel.json) acts as a backstop.
• Want fresher live scores? Just reload the leaderboard — it re-syncs when stale.

Rules baked in

• Group-stage matches: pick home win / draw / away win.
• Knockout matches: pick a winner (extra time / penalties count — no draw option).
• Matches with TBD teams can't be picked until teams are decided.
• Picks can be changed any number of times until kickoff.
• A correct pick (home / draw / away) shares that match's pot with the other players who got it right; a wrong pick scores 0. There is no separate bonus for draws — they simply tend to be rarer picks, so they pay more.

Local dev

cp .env.example .env.local   # fill in values
npm install
npm run dev

Tests

npm run test:unit   # vitest — pure scoring / token / live-window logic
npm run test:e2e    # playwright — login + remember-code flows

The remember-code e2e specs launch their own dev server with fixed SHARED_CODE/SESSION_SECRET. If you already have npm run dev running on port 3000, Playwright reuses it and those env values won't apply — stop that server first, or run the e2e suite with CI=1.