Privacy & Sharing
Bracket pools are private by default. You decide who joins.
Private by Default
When you create a pool, it's private. The only way someone joins is with the join code or share link you give them. Pools don't appear in any public listing.
This is intentional — public listings invite spam pools and bracket-farming. We'd rather every pool be a real circle of friends, family, or coworkers.
Sharing a Pool
From the pool detail page, tap Share. You get:
- Join code — a short alphanumeric code (like `5BR8FQJC`)
- Share link — a deep link straight to the pool
- QR code — for in-person sharing
- Native share sheet (mobile) — for iMessage, WhatsApp, AirDrop, etc.
- Copy to clipboard fallback
The QR code only encodes the deep link — never your user ID or any personal information.
How Joins Work
Anyone with the join code can submit one entry per pool. They'll need to sign in (or create a free account, 18+) but the pool itself doesn't require approval — the code is the password.
If a code leaks, the pool creator can rotate it from the pool settings.
Public Pools Are Admin-Only
There's a third pool type — public — that does appear in a discoverable listing. These are admin-only because they're how Bantah Draft hosts official "everyone is welcome" pools (e.g., for launches or community events). Regular users can't create public pools — the toggle is hidden in the create flow.
The reason is the same as private-by-default: we don't want a flood of low-effort public pools cluttering the discovery feed.
Soft Delete
Pool creators can delete a pool from the pool detail page. Deleted pools 404 for everyone, disappear from listings, and stop accepting new joins. Your entries to other pools aren't affected.
What's in a Link Preview
When someone shares a pool link to iMessage, WhatsApp, or Slack, the unfurl preview shows:
- Pool name
- Participant count
- Start time
That's it. Picks, leaderboard standings, and entry details are never exposed in link previews — even if the link is shared publicly.
Privacy in Numbers
Crowd consensus aggregates (the "78% picked Argentina" stat) are gated behind a 3-entry minimum. Pools with fewer than 3 entries don't expose any aggregate, so individual picks can never be reverse-engineered from a small sample.