Fantasy Race to Dubai is the official fantasy golf game of the European Tour.
This page tells you everything you need to know about how the game works. Click the headings to open the relevant section that you require information on.
Select a team of six golfers for each week of the 2019 European Tour schedule, starting with the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA (16-19 January 2019). Your team will then accumulate points based on the official Race to Dubai points earned by your players in the 2019 European Tour events.
The game works in the same way as the 2018 game. However, if you last played the game in 2016, please bare in mind a few key updates since the 2016 version of the game.
Key game summary and changes are as follows:
You can make unlimited changes up until 00:00 BST/GMT* on the first day of each tournament in order to make sure you have a team full of players competing in each event.
* Exceptions apply, see Team Changes section.
The game also offers an 'Auto-Replacement' function (switched on as default – this can be changed in your Game Settings here). When enabled, the system will check your team at around midday the day before the tournament starts and will automatically replace any players in your team who are market as not competing in the next tournament at that moment in time (normally midday on Wednesday), with a random players who are. This will reduce your chances of missing out on points even if you're unable to change your team.
As mentioned above, the Cut Replacement fucntionality (which was part of the game in 2016) is not included in the 2019 game. No tournaments will offer this option on the 2019 game.
To play the game you first need to register a My European Tour account. You can do so by clicking Register in the game menu.
This will to take you to the My European Tour registration process and, upon completion of this process, you will be redirected back to the game.
If you already have a My European Tour Account, just click Login in the game menu. This will take you to the My European Tour login page and, after logging into your account, you will be redirected back to the game.
On your first visit to the game, after you have logged in, you will be asked to enter your team.
The process for selecting your team is as follows:
To select your players simply click the ‘+’ icon on the empty spaces in your team.
This will load the list of players who are competing in the upcoming tournament. You can filter this list with the dropdowns and also use the magnifying glass to search for a player by name*.
If you decide you want to remove a player you have chosen and pick someone else, just click the ‘x’ icon next to their name and you will be able to add another player instead.
*Please note: The list of available players will only show European Tour members who are included in the Entry List for the next event of the 2019 European Tour calendar. If you cannot find a player on this list, it means that either they are not in the Entry List for the next event or they are not a European Tour member (and therefore not available to select on the game).
Autocomplete Team
If you want to choose your team quickly, or you don't know which players to choose, you can also click the ‘Autocomplete’ button and your team selections will be generated randomly from the list of available players.
When you are happy with your six players, click the Submit button.
When you enter your first ever team into the game, you will need to give it a name.
Your team can be called anything you like, but please be aware that team names of an abusive or offensive nature will not be accepted and can lead to you being banned from the game completely.
Team names can be changed later by clicking the Edit icon next to your team name on the My Team page, and updated directly in this space.
The final decision to make before confirming your team is to choose your team’s captain.
All points scored by your designated captain will be doubled, so, make sure you pick the right player!
You will be able to change your captain every week when you update your team for the next event.
After you have completed these steps, simply click Submit. This will save your team in the game.
Each user is only allowed to pick ONE team, irrespective of whether you have more than one valid email address. Users found to have submitted more than one team may have all of their teams disqualified from the game.
Please note: For the 2019 game you do not need to select a Vice-Captain. This option has been removed.
In general, team changes can be made from 11:00 GMT/BST on Monday until 00:00 GMT/BST on Thursday* to take effect for that week's event (including unlimited changes to your captain), after which time team changes for that event will be locked.
* The team changes deadline for events commencing before 00:00 GMT/BST on Thursday will be on Wednesday afternoon/evening (e.g. the Shenzhen International and Volvo China Open). For events commencing after 12:00 GMT/BST on Thursday (e.g. Masters Tournament, US Open and US PGA Championship) the team changes deadline will be 12:00 GMT/BST on Thursday.
The team changes deadline will always be clearly displayed underneath the tournament name at the top of the ‘My Team’ page, so please check this space if you are ever unsure of the current week's deadline.
Please note:
The game also offers an ‘Auto-Replacement’ function to reduce your chances of suffering from a missed opportunity to score points.
This function is a great tool to have switched on if you are worried about forgetting to update your team for each tournament.
Here’s how it works:
Please Note:
If you receive an email to say that auto-replacements have been made to your team, please make sure you check your team BEFORE the week's team changes deadline (this deadline - date & time - is specified on the My Team page).
If you are not happy with the Auto-Replacement selections made by the system, you are free to make as many additional changes as you require before the team changes deadline to ensure that you are 100% happy with your team.
We cannot help users who are unhappy with their replacements and have missed the deadline for making further changes, and will not respond to queries of this nature.
Late Withdrawals
Please note: The Auto-Replacement process runs only once - normally at midday GMT the day before the tournament.
However, it is still possible that players can withdraw between this time and the team changes deadline for the tournament. As such, you will not get auto-replacements for players who withdraw after the auto-replacement process has run.
To be absolutely clear, for any withdrawals that are announced after the auto-replacement process has run, it is the sole responsibility of the user to stay up to date on withdrawals and make changes to their team before the team changes deadline.
Likewise, if a player withdraws after the team changes deadline, users will not receive a replacement for this player.
Turning off Auto-Replacements
The ‘Auto-Replacement’ function is switched ON as default, but you can switch it 'Off' in your game Game Settings here if you do not want to use it.
The game’s scoring system is simple.
Each week, your team of six golfers will score points in the game based on the official Race to Dubai points they earn in the 2019 European Tour tournaments (not prize money – which differs in certain matchplay events and the Final Series), starting with the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA on 16 January 2019 (16-19 January 2019).
Plus…
Private Leagues are leagues that you create just for you and your friends, so that you can have your own mini competition and leaderboard.
To create a league, simply click ‘Private League’ in the Game Menu. You will then see a section called ‘Create Leagues’.
Type a name for your league in the text area for this section and, when you are happy, click the ‘Create’ button.
This creates your league. You are then referred to as the ‘League Chairman’.
When you have created your league, you will automatically land on the Promote section of your league.
From here, you can either invite your friends directly using the form provided - entering their first name and email address before clicking ‘Email PIN’, which will send them a personalised email with a link to join your league - or click the social links to share your league on Facebook or Twitter.
Your league has a unique PIN, which appears in a green box on your league page.
If you want to share your league in another way (i.e. send it to some friends by text or WhatsApp) then you will need to give them a link to the game and this PIN, so that they can find your league.
When someone joins your league, you will receive an email and a notification on the website.
Click the notification and it will take you to the league page (the ‘Join Requests’ tab) where you can either accept or reject that person into your league.
There are a number of ways you can change the settings for your league, as follows:
New application alerts
By default, when a user applies to join your league you will receive an email to alert you. If you turn this ‘Off’ you will not be notified when someone joins your league.
League open?
You can close your league to new entries (i.e. no more people will be able to join your league) by switching this setting to ‘Off’. By default the setting is ‘On’, which means people will still be able to join your league.
Approve join requests?
By default, you will need to accept or reject an application to join your league, meaning that you can make sure that only people who you know are in your league.
However, there may be occasions where you want a more open league, allowing anyone in the game to join, even if you don’t know them. In this case, you might want to switch this setting to ‘No’. This would mean that if someone joined your league you would not need to approve them, they would just instantly become a league member.
Allow members to send invites
By default, this setting is switched to ‘Yes’, which allows members of your league to invite their friends to join, too, via the ‘Promote’ section of the league.
If you want to be the only person allowed to use the ‘Promote’ section of the league, then switch this setting to ‘No’.
If you want to apply to join another league then simply click ‘Private League’ in the Game Menu. You will then see a section called ‘Find League’.
Joining a Private League with the PIN
If you already have the league PIN, then choose the ‘By PIN’ tab and enter the PIN into the search area. If the PIN is recognised you will see the league in the results underneath.
To join a league, click the league in the search result.
This will take you to the league page, where you will see the ‘Join League’ button.
Click this button and you will then be re-directed back to the Private League Dashboard, where you will see the league you have applied to join under ‘My Leagues’.
If the Chairman has set the league as open, then you will now be a member (and will see a green ‘Member’ sign under Status).
More likely, though, is that you will need to wait for the League Chairman’s approval before you become a member. In this instance you will see a ‘Pending’ message under Status.
When the League Chairman accepts your application, you will receive a notification by email and also in the main website menu. You are now a member of the league.
Joining a league without the PIN
If you don’t have the PIN or can’t remember it, then you can try searching for your friend’s league by using their name.
To do this, choose the ‘By Username’ tab and enter your friend’s name into the search area. If the name is recognised you will see the league in the results underneath.
To join the league, click the league in the search result. This will take you to the league, where you will see the ‘Join League’ button. Click this button.
The rest of the process is the same as described in the above section (‘Joining a Private League with the league PIN’).
As a League Chairman, you might find times when you want to send a message to everyone playing in your league - to stoke up the competition, encourage banter, praise the best teams in the league or maybe even remind your friends of any prizes that you might be offering.
Within the league, there is a tool that allows you to do this.
When on your league page, click ‘League Options’ and under ‘Message Your League’ write your message to your league members. Then click ‘Email League’.
Your message will then be emailed to all the members in your league, and they will also be able to read it in the Notifications area of the website.
League members can stop receiving emails from the league Chairman by going to ‘League Options’, changing the setting for ‘League Chairman Emails’ to ‘Off’ and then clicking ‘Update’.
With Head-to-Heads, you can play against individual friends in a tournament-by-tournament contest where your team plays their team.
If you score more points than them in a given week, you win, and you will go 1-0 up against your friend.
The aim is to have a weekly challenge with individual friends and then see who has won more weeks at the end of the season.
To set-up a Head-to-Head (often you will see this described as H2H) against a friend, first click the ‘H2H’ option in the Game Menu.
To set up a Head-to-Head (often you will see this described as H2H) against a friend, first click the ‘H2H’ option in the Game Menu.
Then click the ‘Set-up’ option in the H2H menu and then you will be given the option to set up a ‘Series’, or a ‘One-Off’ challenge.
So, if you want to play your friend more than once, we recommend choosing a ‘Series’ challenge.
Once you have chosen the type of H2H game you want to play, you can challenge a friend to accept the challenge in a number of different ways, including:
Please note: You can challenge multiple friends to play in this process and you do not have to repeat these steps for each friend you wish to challenge.
When you have sent your challenges, each user you have invited will receive their challenge invitation via an on-site notification and an email.
From there, they can choose to accept/reject the challenge.
If they accept, the challenge begins!
‘My Challenges’ shows all of your ‘active’ challenges for the current week (i.e. all challenges that have been accepted), while ‘Pending Challenges’ shows any challenges that are waiting to be accepted before you can begin.
If you click the view icon (it looks like an eye) on an individual challenge in your Active Challenges list, you will be able to see the current tournament your score versus your opponent’s team.
‘Challenge History’ shows you all of your challenges and the score (i.e. tournaments won, lost or drawn) overall and for each person you have played against.
If you click the individual challenge on the 'Challenge History' page, you will who is winning and also see a breakdown of who has won each tournament.
Whenever someone challenges you to a Head-to-head, you will receive a notification in the site menu to tell you about it, and you must approve all challenges you receive on the ‘Challenge Requests’ page before the challenge will begin.
If you receive a challenge that you do not want to play, click ‘Reject’. There is also a ‘Block User’ button if another user is persistently sending you challenges that you do not want to play.
You can stop a H2H Series, but cannot do this once a tournament is in progress. To stop a series click the ‘X’ icon on the challenge, either in ‘My Challenges’ or ‘Challenge History’.
If you want to change any of the email notifications you receive from the game about Head-to-Heads, please do so in your Game Settings.