How to play SportStake 13
SportStake 13 is now MatchPlay 13. Same game, new name since 1 June 2026.
13 matches. You pick one of three results in each match. The National Lottery runs this pool, not TAB, and since 1 June 2026 the operator calls it MatchPlay 13 rather than SportStake 13.
Every line on this page shows where it came from. Some lines are what the operator states on its own pages. Some are what this site checked against published data. Some are things nobody publishes at all. Checked Wednesday 29 July 2026.
SportStake 13 in four numbers
- Matches on the card
- 13
- Picks per match
- 3
- Payout levels published
- 4
- Settled pools on file
- 27
These four are counted from the operator's own published data. Nobody types them in, so they follow the product if it changes.
Want to bet on one match on its own?
A pool ticket and a bookmaker bet are different products. If what you want is a bet on one of these matches on its own, at a price you can see before you stake, that is a licensed South African bookmaker rather than a pool.
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That button is a paid link, and this site can earn a commission when you use it. It changes nothing above. The fixture lists, results and dividends all come from the pool operator's own feed. Easybet is licensed in South Africa. Read their offer terms before you put money in. 18+ only.
The operator states
The operator says this on their own how to play page, read Wednesday 29 July 2026. This site has not checked it.
- The name changed, the game did not
- Sizekhaya Holdings replaced Ithuba as the National Lottery operator on 1 June 2026 and renamed the SportStake pools to MatchPlay. SportStake 13 is now MatchPlay 13, on the same 13 match card. SportStake 4 is no longer offered at all. This page keeps the SportStake name because that is still what people search for. It prints the new name too, so you are not hunting for a product you cannot find.
- MatchPlay 8 is a different shape and has its own pages
- The operator also runs MatchPlay 8, 14, 9/14 and 14 Omnisports. MatchPlay 8 publishes sixteen symbols against an eight-match card, a first-half and a second-half forecast on each match, which this site measured before printing a word of it. It is covered at /sportstake-8/.
Checked here
This is worked out from the operator's own published data. The check is a script in this site's repository, so anyone can run it again.
- What the symbols on a winning combination mean
- Here 4 is a home win, 2 is a draw and 1 is an away win. That is not a typo. The TAB pools use 1 for a home win and 3 for an away win, so the two operators use 1 to mean opposite things. Read a combination with the wrong key and you get it exactly backwards. We checked every published symbol against the published score of the match in that position, across every settled draw on file.
- Which levels pay
- Four, published as DIV 1 to DIV 4, for 13, 12, 11 and 10 correct. We read these off the settled draws we collect rather than off a rule book. The operator feed sends the amounts in cents, and we convert them to rand.
- When the pool closes
- Every draw carries its own sale end time in the operator feed, and we read that rather than assume a weekday. The operator publishes those times in UTC, so we convert them to South African time. That is what the fixtures page shows.
Here is the count behind that check, for SportStake 13 alone: 27 settled pools and 341 comparisons. Each one puts a published symbol against the published score of the match in that spot. Every one agreed. Another 10 matches were published as void.
Not published anywhere
Things you would want to know that no public source states. They are written down as gaps rather than filled in with something that sounds right.
- What a ticket costs
- The public feed this page reads carries the card, the close time, the jackpot and the settled payouts. It carries no ticket price. A price from before the change of operator may no longer hold. So we leave the price blank and point you at the operator.
Before you enter
A pool ticket is a game of chance. Most tickets in every pool win nothing. No amount of form study changes that a pool pays out of a shared pot, not at a price you agreed. Decide what you are willing to lose before the pool closes, and stop there.
If betting has stopped being fun, the National Responsible Gambling Programme is free and confidential on 0800 006 008. More on staying in control.
This week's card is on SportStake 13 fixtures. What the last pools paid is on SportStake 13 results and payouts.
Questions
How does SportStake 13 actually work?
13 matches. You pick one of three results in each match. The National Lottery runs this pool, not TAB, and since 1 June 2026 the operator calls it MatchPlay 13 rather than SportStake 13.
What does a SportStake 13 ticket cost?
The public feed this page reads carries the card, the close time, the jackpot and the settled payouts. It carries no ticket price. A price from before the change of operator may no longer hold. So we leave the price blank and point you at the operator.
Do you have to get every SportStake 13 result right to win?
No. Across 27 settled pools on file, SportStake 13 paid at 10/13, 11/13, 12/13 and 13/13 correct. The amount at each level changes every pool. It depends on the size of the pot and on how many tickets got to that level.
Is a pool bet the same as a bet at a bookmaker?
No, and the difference matters. In a pool bet every stake goes into one pot, and the pot is shared between the winning tickets. So nobody knows what a ticket pays until the pool closes and the matches finish. A bookmaker prices each match on its own and shows you that price before you stake. A cheap pool ticket needs a lot of results to go your way. A single match bet at a known price is a different product with a different risk.
Where can you actually enter a SportStake 13 pool?
With the National Lottery, which runs the pool. You can enter at its outlets, on its telephone service or on its own website. SoccerBetting SA is not the pool operator, takes no bets and holds no money. This page tells you how the game works and what this week's card is. You place the entry with the operator.