Private contest rooms are the most under-used feature on the current free-to-play fantasy cricket product. Most users assume the operator only runs public rooms with thousands of entries, but the same product also lets a user create a small, private room and invite a handful of friends. The mechanics are simple, the room shape is fully under the creator’s control, and the social side of the feature is what makes it useful for casual play. This guide walks through the create flow, the invite flow, the room settings that matter, and the matchday management that turns a private room into a fun weekly habit.
When a private room is the right shape
A private room makes sense in three situations:
- A small group of friends wants to play the same match without competing against a large public field.
- A workplace or college group wants a low-pressure leaderboard for the cricket calendar, with a fresh room per match.
- A new player wants to test team-building logic against a known group before joining a public room for the first time.
Private rooms do not make sense for users who want to compete against the strongest possible field. That is what public rooms, including mega rooms, are for. A private room is a social room, not a competitive one, and the room settings should reflect that.
How to create a private room
The create flow on the current free-to-play product is short:
- Open the contest lobby from the home screen, then look for the create-room option. On the latest version of the app, it sits at the top of the lobby under a label such as “create your own room”.
- Pick the match. The room will lock when the match locks, regardless of whether the room is full, so pick a match with enough time before the lock timer for invites to circulate.
- Set the room size. Most private rooms are between three and twenty entries. Setting a smaller room than the invite list will lock the room early; setting a much larger room than the invite list will leave the room looking empty on the lobby.
- Set the rank cut-off. On a free-to-play product, this is the rank at which non-monetary rewards, leaderboard credits or badges are distributed. A generous cut-off, say fifty per cent of the field, rewards consistency and is a better fit for casual play.
- Review the room settings and confirm. Once the room is created, the lobby will generate a room code and an invite link that can be shared through messaging apps.
The whole flow takes a minute once the match and size are decided. The longest part is usually choosing the match, because the calendar moves quickly during the cricket season.
How invites work on the current product
Private rooms use two invite mechanisms. Understanding both is the difference between a room that fills in an hour and a room that never fills:
- A room code. A short alphanumeric string that other users can paste into the join field in the app. Codes work without any messaging app dependency, which is useful when the invite list mixes iPhone, Android and browser users.
- An invite link. A deep link that opens the product directly into the room join screen. Invite links are convenient on mobile but require the recipient to have the product installed. Browser users without the product will land on the web version of the product.
For a small private room, the room code is the more reliable invite mechanism. For a larger private room, sharing both the code and the link, and asking invitees to use whichever works on their device, is the practical approach.
Room settings that actually matter
Most users leave the room settings at default, which is fine for a casual room. Three settings are worth changing for a more polished experience:
- The room name. Most users leave the room name as the default match name. A short, recognisable name, such as the group nickname plus the match, makes the room easier to spot in the lobby.
- The entry visibility. Some rooms hide the team list until the lock timer reaches a defined point. For a competitive private room, hiding team lists until lock prevents late entrants from copying the early leader’s team.
- The chat visibility. Some rooms allow chat between members during the match, others mute it until the result. For a casual room, leaving chat on adds to the social feel. For a competitive room, muting chat removes the temptation to over-react to a single over.
None of these settings affect the underlying scoring. They affect only the social experience, and that is the part a private room is really for.
Managing the room through matchday
Once the match has started, the private room behaves like any other contest, with the difference that the creator has a small set of management options:
- Watching the leaderboard. Most private rooms display the leaderboard in real time. Watching the leaderboard while the match is on is half the fun of a private room.
- Handling a no-show. If an invitee does not join by the lock timer, the room continues without them. The leaderboard will simply show fewer entries than the invite list.
- Replacing a member. Most rooms do not allow mid-match member changes. The cleanest fix for a missing member is to recreate the room for the next match with the corrected invite list.
- Reviewing the result. After the match, the room will display a final leaderboard and any non-monetary rewards. Most groups use the post-match review to start the next week’s discussion.
A weekly private room is a habit, not a one-off event. The first room is the hardest to fill, because the invite list is being asked to try something new. By the third or fourth week, the room is a routine, and the leaderboard becomes part of the group’s cricket calendar.
How this connects to the rest of the blog
The contest selection piece explains how to read public rooms before joining them. The invite and referral codes piece covers how the invite flow on the operator’s product interacts with codes and referrals. The safety piece covers how to keep the account secure when invites are arriving in messaging apps. The three pieces together describe the full lifecycle of a private room from creation through to recurring play.