01 The tiers
Three tiers, cut where the paper is.
Christmas · until December 31
Give a year of The Playbook.
The first year is full price and every extra gift year is half price: Premium for CA$36 instead of CA$72, the middle tier for CA$27 instead of CA$54. Give up to three gift years.
Buy them with a yearly plan for yourself (pick it below), or buy just the gifts: then the first gift year is full price and each extra one is half price. We email you a link for each gift to pass on. They start it whenever they like, with no card, and after a year it simply stops unless they choose to subscribe.
Or choose a yearly plan below and the gifts are added to it.
The Brief
Free
Two teams. Both, every morning.
The daily paper, at the width of a short read. Every new signup starts with 7 days of Premium, free, on every team they pick.
- Follow 2 teams, any leagues we cover
- Both in the paper, every day
- The lead story and a daily brief on each team
- Standings, form and next fixtures
- The paper marks its own calls — when one lands or misses, the writing says so
- No Analyst's Desk
No card, nothing charged when the week ends. Unsubscribe from any edition.
The Daily
CA$5.99 per month incl. applicable taxes
or CA$54 a year — CA$4.50 a month
Five teams. All five, every morning.
A real roster, comfortably inside what one edition can hold. Nothing waits for tomorrow.
- Everything in The Brief
- Follow 5 teams
- All five in the paper, every morning — no rotation
- The Analyst's Desk — the longer read, on every team in season
- Tactical context, statistical depth, editorial framing
- The Playbook app: your papers by day, the Ledger and Manage, with push when your paper lands
- The daily Editor's Column, app-only
Secure checkout by Stripe. Prices in CAD. Cancel anytime from your account page — you keep access to the end of the period you paid for; no partial refunds.
Premium
CA$7.99 per month incl. applicable taxes
or CA$72 a year — CA$6.00 a month
Thirty teams. Ten a day, rotating. Nothing forgotten.
For following more than fits — a club, a franchise, a national side, a driver — without the paper thinning out.
- Everything in the tier below
- Follow up to 30 teams
- Ten in the paper every morning, chosen on the day's news
- Every team you follow appears at least every third day
- The Analyst's Desk on every team in season — all ten, not a selection
- The deepest layout we render, on every team in the paper
- The Playbook app: your papers by day, the Ledger and Manage, with push when your paper lands
- The daily Editor's Column, app-only
Secure checkout by Stripe. Prices in CAD. Cancel anytime from your account page — you keep access to the end of the period you paid for; no partial refunds.
Paid plans aren't open yet.
We haven't switched payments on. Nothing was charged and nothing was stored. The free tier is live today and is the same paper — start there, and you'll be among the first told when the paid tiers open.
Ten teams is as many as we put in one morning's paper.
That is a limit, not a feature. One edition is one email, and an email has a hard size limit before Gmail clips it. The arithmetic runs out somewhere past a dozen teams — but we stop at ten well before the wall, because an edition that stays comfortably inside the limit is the one we can render at full depth. Push more teams into it and every team gets a thinner piece. We would rather rotate than run every team short.
The ladder is about how many of those ten are yours. The middle tier is everything you follow, every morning — five teams, all five in the paper, no rotation, nothing waiting for tomorrow, on an edition with room to spare. Premium is for following more than fits: thirty teams, ten rendered each day, rotating on the news so nothing you follow is forgotten.
02 How Premium works
Rotation is why Premium's paper is good.
The obvious worry about rotation is that you are getting less. The opposite is true, and we can show it. An edition that tries to carry a big roster all at once spends its whole size budget on thin coverage: the long reads get clipped to make room, and every team ends up worse served. Capping the render at ten moves that reader onto a better layout entirely.
From the desk · delivered editions
Measured
Two editions, same morning, 20 August 2026
| Teams followed | Analyst's Desks | Depth per team | Brief depth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 teams | 8 | 6.75 KB | Multi-paragraph |
| 23 teams | 3 | 3.59 KB | One paragraph, clipped |
From our own delivered editions, not a projection. The reader following more than twice as many teams got fewer than half the long reads. Rotation is how a thirty-team reader gets the ten-team edition's paper.
25
Teams followed
Your whole roster, across every league we cover. Set it once and change it whenever.
10
In the paper each morning
Selected on the day's news and on how recently each team last appeared.
3
Days, at the outside
Every team you follow gets its brief at least this often, whatever your roster size — and its Analyst's Desk whenever that team is in season.
Why does the paper only carry ten teams a day?
Partly because of size, and mostly because of depth. An edition is one email with a hard size limit before it is clipped, and the arithmetic runs out somewhere past a dozen teams. But we stop short of that: the deepest layout we render is only offered to an edition that measures comfortably inside the limit, so a paper packed to the wall is also the thinnest one. Ten is where a full roster still gets the good layout. We could print more teams by cutting sentences out of each one; we would rather carry ten properly and rotate. It is also why there is no unlimited tier — thirty teams really would exceed the whole budget in briefs and furniture alone, so selling it would be selling something that does not arrive.
What actually is the Analyst's Desk?
The brief tells you what happened and what is next. The Desk is the longer piece underneath it — the tactical read, the numbers that matter, and where the paper commits to a call it will later have to grade. It is the part that takes a position, and it runs on every team in the paper that is in season.
You say you grade your own calls. Where can I see the record?
In the writing. A piece that goes back to an earlier call names it, gives the number it was made at, and says whether it landed — inside the same brief or Analyst’s Desk that makes the next one.
And on the Ledger page, which lists every graded call that appeared in print, misses included. It counts only calls a reader could have read in the paper; a prediction that was made and never printed is not on the record.
Can I read one before deciding anything?
Yes — real published editions are on the site with subscriber names removed, and the archive carries recent days.
Can I try Premium before paying?
Yes. Every new signup gets 7 days of Premium free on the teams they pick, with no card and nothing charged at the end. When the week is up you keep your two starred teams free, or choose a plan above to keep the rest.
Start with a free week.
Pick your teams and your first 7 days are Premium, the Analyst’s Desk included, on every one of them. After that the two you star stay free, every morning, for as long as you want them. No card.
Pick your teams