# World Cup 2026 Live-Ops Calendar

This calendar turns Fan Passport into a daily live product during the 2026 World Cup window and a bridge into future football passports. It is intentionally fixture-slot based: exact team fixtures, kickoff times, and venue assignments should be sourced from the product's existing football content model and fixture feed, while the operating themes below define the daily experience.

## Calendar assumptions

- Tournament window: **11 June 2026 through 19 July 2026**.
- Format assumption: expanded 48-team World Cup with group stage, Round of 32, Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, third-place match, and final.
- The daily schedule file is `data/live-ops/daily_challenge_schedule_2026.csv`.
- Team-specific prompts should be personalized using user-selected followed teams.
- Country, match, and stadium names must be resolved from the authoritative content model, not manually typed into push copy.
- If the official fixture timeline changes, keep the same operating pattern and shift affected daily records to the relevant match slots.

## Campaign phases

| Phase | Timing | Fan promise | Primary live-ops objective | Key outputs |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Foundation | T-180 to T-121 | "Your World Cup journey is coming." | Lock operating model, sponsor categories, analytics taxonomy, moderation policy, and seasonal content structure. | Live-ops owner roster, sponsor inventory, event taxonomy, first campaign calendar, legal review brief. |
| Content build | T-120 to T-91 | "Start choosing your path." | Prepare evergreen challenge families, collection sets, onboarding, team-follow flows, and waitlist growth. | Challenge templates, quiz bank, team/stadium collection pages, referral mechanic, pre-registration share cards. |
| Reward setup | T-90 to T-61 | "Rewards are attached to your fandom." | Finalize reward budgets, redemption rules, fraud controls, and partner approval process. | Reward catalog, sweepstake terms, coupon flow, sponsor creative specs, support macros. |
| Countdown | T-60 to T-31 | "Build your passport before kickoff." | Drive account creation, country selection, early prediction capture, squad creation, and notification opt-in. | Countdown badges, bracket prediction prompt, squad leagues, pre-tournament trivia streak. |
| Launch ramp | T-30 to T-8 | "Your daily streak starts soon." | Load the first 10 days of scheduled content and test fixture-driven personalization. | Published content queue, CRM tests, analytics QA, leaderboard dry run, moderation coverage schedule. |
| Final readiness | T-7 to T-1 | "Kickoff is tomorrow." | Freeze opening week content, rehearse incident response, verify notifications and reward inventory. | Opening-day daily brief, go/no-go checklist, notification kill-switch verification, reward redemption smoke test. |
| Opening day | 11 Jun 2026 | "Open your passport." | Create first-day activation spike and teach the daily loop. | Opening stamp, first trivia, first prediction, first share card, first sponsor placement. |
| Group stage | 12-27 Jun 2026 | "Every day changes your passport." | Build habits through daily stamps, group completion, stadium collection, team-follow challenges, and prediction streaks. | Daily challenges, group set progression, match check-ins, upset watch prompts, sticker drops. |
| Round of 32 | 28 Jun-3 Jul 2026 | "The bracket is alive." | Reframe from breadth to stakes: knockout predictions, comeback memories, penalty prompts, squad competition. | Bracket builder, knockout badges, match memory cards, elimination collection. |
| Round of 16 | 4-7 Jul 2026 | "Only contenders remain." | Focus on elite team narratives, goalkeeper/hero moments, tactical trivia, and prediction accuracy. | Elite Sixteen badge, hero vote, save streak challenge, last-eight prediction. |
| Quarter-finals | 9-11 Jul 2026 | "The final four are close." | Heighten competition and reward scarcity while protecting fairness. | Quarter-final stamp set, sponsor bounty, final-four founder badge, leaderboard audits. |
| Semi-final build | 12-13 Jul 2026 | "Complete what you missed." | Use rest days for catch-up, collection completion, squad invites, and sponsor reward redemption. | Catch-up packs, tournament memory museum, final predictor setup, dormant-user reactivation. |
| Semi-finals | 14-15 Jul 2026 | "Make history part of your passport." | Turn high-stakes matches into shareable identity moments. | Road to Final check-ins, finalist prediction, match memory cards, rare badge drops. |
| Final build | 16-17 Jul 2026 | "Prepare your final page." | Push completion, recap building, awards voting, and final-day notification opt-in. | Golden awards votes, final passport audit, completion offers, recap pre-generation. |
| Third-place match | 18 Jul 2026 | "Honor the journey." | Celebrate eliminated teams and keep activity alive before the final. | Bronze memory badge, underdog tribute, collection catch-up, squad challenge. |
| Final | 19 Jul 2026 | "Seal your World Cup passport." | Peak engagement, final predictions, live check-ins, recap generation, and transition CTA. | Final Day legacy stamp, champion page, tournament recap, Premier League/Champions League waitlist. |
| Post-final recap | 20 Jul-18 Aug 2026 | "Your tournament story is ready." | Convert tournament users into long-term football identity accounts. | Personal recap, completion certificates, sponsor fulfilment, survey, referral for next passport. |
| Season bridge | 19 Aug-31 Oct 2026 | "Your passport continues." | Launch Premier League and Champions League waitlists, migrate social graph, and test weekly cadence. | Club pledge, matchweek preview, UCL league-phase collection, rewards wallet beta. |

## Tournament day-level operating plan

The detailed day-level content schedule is stored in `data/live-ops/daily_challenge_schedule_2026.csv`. Operators should load it into the CMS or scheduling tool as the baseline plan, then enrich each day with fixture-specific team and venue data.

| Date range | Days | Live-ops mode | Daily emphasis |
| --- | ---: | --- | --- |
| 11 Jun | 1 | Opening | Onboarding, first stamp, first prediction, first share. |
| 12-17 Jun | 2-7 | Early group stage | Team following, stadium collection, prediction habit, group set education. |
| 18-22 Jun | 8-12 | Group stage momentum | Giant killing watch, sticker trades, clean sheet and goal challenges. |
| 23-27 Jun | 13-17 | Group stage climax | Complete all groups, qualification math, emotional elimination memories. |
| 28 Jun-3 Jul | 18-23 | Round of 32 | Bracket picks, penalty prompts, knockout check-ins, elimination badges. |
| 4-7 Jul | 24-27 | Round of 16 | Elite team narratives, goalkeeper moments, tactical trivia, last-eight race. |
| 8 Jul | 28 | Rest day | Catch-up, collection completion, squad invites, sponsor redemptions. |
| 9-11 Jul | 29-31 | Quarter-finals | Scarce badges, high-confidence predictions, leaderboard integrity checks. |
| 12-13 Jul | 32-33 | Rest and semi-final build | Memory museum, awards voting, final predictor setup. |
| 14-15 Jul | 34-35 | Semi-finals | Finalist identity, live check-ins, rare match memories. |
| 16-17 Jul | 36-37 | Rest and final build | Passport completion, awards voting, recap prep, dormant reactivation. |
| 18 Jul | 38 | Third-place match | Tribute content, bronze badge, final collection catch-up. |
| 19 Jul | 39 | Final | Final Day legacy stamp, champion prediction, recap, next-passport conversion. |

## Daily content slots

Every live tournament day should contain the following content slots. On rest days, match-driven slots are replaced with catch-up, recap, and social challenges.

| Slot | Required every day | Purpose | Expiry rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Daily stamp | Yes | Creates the simplest return ritual. | Expires at local midnight unless a streak freeze is consumed. |
| Daily trivia | Yes | Low-friction engagement and sponsor inventory. | Available for 24 hours; answer locked after submission. |
| Primary challenge | Yes | Gives the day a clear mission. | Runs for the configured day or fixture window. |
| Secondary challenge | Yes | Provides an alternate path for fans without relevant matches. | Runs for 24-48 hours depending on phase. |
| Prediction prompt | Yes during matchdays, recap prediction on rest days | Drives pre-match engagement and return after resolution. | Locks before relevant fixture kickoff or configured award deadline. |
| Collection drop | Yes | Sustains album completion pressure. | Drop remains visible; first-claim bonus expires daily. |
| Share hook | Yes | Turns progress into acquisition. | Share card is generated from user's completed action. |
| Reward placement | If sponsor or reward active | Creates sponsor value and fan excitement. | Must follow campaign terms and inventory limits. |
| Leaderboard feature | Yes | Reinforces competition and social comparison. | Snapshot refreshes at least daily; more often for high-stakes days. |
| Moderation watchlist | Yes | Protects leaderboard and community integrity. | Reviewed at each daily close. |

## Standard tournament day rhythm

All times are local to the primary operating team and should be adjusted for match kickoff clusters.

| Time | Operation | Owner | Output |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 07:00 | Overnight metric and incident review | Live Ops Lead, Analytics Lead | Daily metric snapshot and risk list. |
| 07:30 | Fixture and data reconciliation | Football Data Editor | Confirmed match slots, kickoff locks, venue IDs, team IDs. |
| 08:00 | Content QA | Content Lead, QA delegate | Daily stamp, quiz, collection, prediction, and push copy approved. |
| 08:30 | Moderation readiness | Community Lead | Report queue cleared, high-risk match windows assigned. |
| 09:00 | Daily content publish | Live Ops Lead | Content visible in daily feed and passport. |
| 09:15 | Notification smoke test | Growth/CRM Manager, Engineering On-call | Test user receives correct deep link and localized copy. |
| 10:00 | Morning notification send | Growth/CRM Manager | Daily active ritual prompt sent within frequency rules. |
| 30 min before each fixture | Match lock check | Football Data Editor, Engineering On-call | Predictions locked, check-in window open, challenge state correct. |
| During fixture | Live watch | Content Lead, Community Lead | Incident monitoring, reactive content candidates, abusive content review. |
| 15-45 min after final whistle | Result resolution | Football Data Editor, Engineering On-call | Scores verified, predictions resolved, achievements awarded. |
| 60-120 min after final whistle | Memory content publish | Content Lead | Match memory card and share assets live. |
| 21:00 | Daily close | Live Ops Lead | Performance note, next-day changes, unresolved issues. |

## Matchday playbooks by type

### Opening day

- Treat as a product tutorial day.
- Keep the primary challenge simple: open, choose teams, claim stamp.
- Do not require complex match knowledge for the first reward.
- Run one broad push notification and one segmented prediction reminder.
- Feature a universal share card so every user can post their first passport page.
- Monitor onboarding drop-off, push opt-in, and first challenge completion hourly.

### High-volume group-stage day

- Use fixture personalization to reduce noise: followed teams first, then host city or group completion prompts.
- Cap non-essential push notifications to prevent fatigue.
- Rotate collection drops by group and venue.
- Use final whistle events to resolve predictions in batches.
- Audit prediction lock timestamps and check-in eligibility after every match block.

### Rest day

- Reframe the product around completion, squad competition, and recap.
- Offer catch-up mechanics that do not erase the value of daily participation.
- Promote sticker trading, group completion, stadium album progress, and reward redemption.
- Send one dormant-user reactivation message with a concrete completion opportunity.
- Publish tournament memory content from previous rounds.

### Knockout matchday

- Reduce the number of active challenges and increase their emotional weight.
- Make prediction lock times highly visible.
- Run leaderboard integrity checks before and after each fixture.
- Prepare reactive content for penalties, extra time, upsets, red cards, and comeback scenarios.
- Make share cards more personal: "I backed them", "I called the upset", "My passport survived".

### Final day

- Freeze non-critical product changes.
- Run a final-day command room across live ops, engineering, community, analytics, support, and partnerships.
- Make the Final Day legacy stamp available to every legitimate user who opens during the window.
- Pre-generate recap previews before kickoff where possible.
- Resolve final predictions only after score and competition result are verified.
- Immediately bridge users into post-tournament recap and next-passport waitlist.

## Content inventory targets

These targets give the content team enough inventory to operate without improvising under pressure.

| Inventory | Pre-tournament target | In-tournament refill rule |
| --- | ---: | --- |
| Evergreen trivia questions | 600 approved questions | Add 30 reactive or topical questions per week. |
| Daily challenge templates | 80 approved templates | Add or adapt 5 per knockout phase. |
| Sticker art and metadata | All teams, stadiums, groups, hosts, trophy, and generic moments | Add reactive moment stickers within 12 hours of major events. |
| Badge definitions | 120 approved badges | Add rare knockout badges after legal and QA review. |
| Share card layouts | 20 reusable layouts | Add 1-2 high-stakes layouts per round. |
| Sponsor reward units | 120% of planned inventory | Reconcile daily against fraud holds and support cases. |
| Support macros | All common account, reward, leaderboard, and moderation scenarios | Update daily if new confusion appears in tickets. |

## Post-final transition calendar

| Window | Product action | Growth action | Content action | Commercial action |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Final + 24 hours | Publish personal tournament recap and champion passport page. | Send recap ready notification and share prompt. | Publish final quiz and tournament awards. | Begin sponsor recap reporting. |
| Final + 3 days | Open next-passport preference capture. | Segment users into Premier League, Champions League, country-only, and rewards-only interest groups. | Publish "best moments you collected" memories. | Reconcile reward fulfilment and fraud holds. |
| Final + 7 days | Award completion certificates and late recap shares. | Run squad invite to keep group graph alive. | Publish tournament stat packs. | Present campaign performance to sponsors. |
| Final + 14 days | Launch club pledge and European competition interest flows. | Send first bridge campaign by declared interest. | Publish off-season trivia and collection catch-up. | Package Premier League and Champions League sponsor inventory. |
| Final + 30 days | Convert World Cup season into archived passport. | Begin weekly cadence for next passport beta. | Release "World Cup vault" for memories and collections. | Close World Cup campaign reporting and renew partners. |