No draft night.
Some suffering.
Two ways to sit down. Pick one when you create a pool — here's exactly how both work.
Five steps. No app, no tricky bits.
This is the whole process from a blank screen to watching your first result come in — written out in full, assuming nothing.
- 1
One person hosts
Someone in the group goes to “Create a pool.” They give it a name, put in their own name, and pick a game mode (more on the two modes below). That's it — Benched gives them a short code, like BNCH-4492.
- 2
The code gets shared
The host sends that code to everyone playing — WhatsApp, text, whatever's easiest. It's the only thing anyone else needs to join.
- 3
Everyone joins
Each player goes to “I have a code,” types in the code and their own name, and signs in. No app to install — it works in any phone or computer's web browser.
- 4
The host starts it
Once everyone's in, the host presses one button on the pool page — “Deal the teams” for Injured Sub, or “Assign teams” for Active Sub. That's what hands out everyone's teams and gets things moving. Nobody else needs to do anything for this step.
- 5
Everyone just watches
From here there's nothing to click during the week. Real Premier League results feed straight into the pool's table automatically. Open the pool page whenever you like to see where you stand.
No Google account? That's fine.
When you go to join or create a pool, look underneath the sign-in button for “No Google account? Use a username instead.” That sets up a plain username and password — no email, nothing to remember beyond those two things. Struggling to set it up yourself? The host can create the account for you and just hand you the username and password on a piece of paper.
One deal for the whole season. Your teams are fixed from day one — you just watch the table happen to them.
The deal
Twenty Premier League clubs, ranked top to bottom by pre-season odds, dealt out in bands sized to your pool. Four players means band one is the top four teams, one each — then the next four, and so on. Nobody picks. One deal, for the whole season.
The points
Three for a win, one for a draw, exactly as the real table pays. Your score is your clubs' combined points for the season so far.
The house
Whatever an even split leaves over belongs to the house. It sits at the bottom of the leaderboard, collecting points nobody can claim.
Quitting
Walk away and your clubs move to the house from that gameweek on. Points already banked stay on your name — you just stop earning.
Six players
Three teams each, two seats to the house.
Nothing's fixed. Your two teams reshuffle every gameweek, any number of players can join, and three wildcards give you a little say in how it goes.
The weekly deal
No fixed portfolio. Every gameweek, every player gets two fresh random teams — any number of players, since teams aren't scarce here. Someone else can hold the same club as you in the same week.
The cap
No club more than four times across a season, so you're not stuck with the same side on repeat. Pick two favourites when you join and they get better odds of coming up, within that same cap.
The wildcards
Three one-time cards, spent whenever you like before that gameweek's first kickoff: double your points, send someone to zero, or reroll your own two teams. A victim caps out at three zeroes ever — after that they're untouchable.
Starting mid-season
Pick any gameweek to start from when you create the pool. Everything before it gets played out automatically — same weekly deal, just no wildcards for weeks that already happened.
Three wildcards, once each
- 2x points
- Double your own score for one gameweek.
- Zero someone
- Send a rival to nothing for the week. Max three times ever, per victim.
- Reroll
- Don't like your two teams? Get a fresh random pair, once.
Everything else people ask.
- Do I need to download an app?
- No. Benched runs in a normal web browser, on a phone or a computer — there's nothing to install from an app store. If you'd like a shortcut on your phone's home screen that opens straight to it, look for “Add to Home Screen” (iPhone: tap the Share icon, then “Add to Home Screen”. Android: tap the menu, then “Install app” or “Add to Home screen”).
- I don't have a Google account — can I still play?
- Yes. When you join or create a pool, look for “No Google account? Use a username instead” underneath the sign-in button. That gives you a plain username and password, no email required. If that's still fiddly, the host can set an account up on your behalf and just hand you the username and password to type in.
- What do I actually have to do each week?
- Nothing, unless you're playing Active Sub and want to use a wildcard. Real match results feed in on their own and your score updates automatically — the whole idea is that your teams do the work, not you.
- How do I check my points?
- Open your pool's page (bookmark it, or it's the page you land on after joining) — everyone's name and score is listed there, highest at the top, updated as real matches finish.
- Does it cost anything?
- No. Both game modes are free to play.
- What if I want to stop playing partway through?
- There's a “Quit” button on your own row in the pool page. It asks you to confirm first. Any points you've already earned stay on your name — you just stop earning more after that.
- I joined late — do I lose out on points from before?
- It depends on when. Join before the season's very first gameweek finishes and you're backdated to the start, same as everyone else. Join any time after that and you start fresh from whenever you joined — fair to the people who were already there.
- Can I be in more than one pool?
- Yes — join as many as you like with the same account, each with its own code and its own table.
Not sure which
Injured Sub for a set-and-forget season. Active Sub if your group wants something to argue about every gameweek.