Terms of Service

Who we are

Circled Hoops (“Circled Hoops”, “we”, “us”) is run by Purplelink LLC, a Georgia limited liability company in the United States. You can reach us at [email protected].

Who can use it

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. League chat puts you in conversation with people you may not know, and the iPhone app may show ads, so we set the bar above the minimum many laws allow. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you confirm that a parent or guardian has agreed to these terms for you.

You can’t use Circled Hoops if the law where you live forbids it or if we have closed an account of yours before for breaking these terms.

Free to play, no prizes

Circled Hoops is a free game of skill played for fun and bragging rights. We don’t run real-money contests, we don’t charge entry fees, and we don’t award prizes.

• We never hold league money. A commissioner can record an optional league buy-in so the league can track who has paid. Any money moves directly between league members through services like Venmo, Cash App, PayPal or Zelle, under those services’ terms. We are not a party to those payments, don’t see or touch them, and can’t refund or recover them.
• Whether a private league buy-in is legal where you live is up to you and your league to check. Don’t use Circled Hoops for anything that is illegal gambling where you are.

Your account

• Give us a real email address you control. One person per account.
• Keep your password, authenticator codes, backup codes and passkeys to yourself. You are responsible for what happens on your account. If you think someone else got in, sign out other devices under Account and tell us.
• Your name and team names are visible to the members of your leagues. Don’t impersonate anyone.

Leagues and commissioners

Every league has a commissioner: the person who created it, or someone they hand it to. By joining a league, you accept that its commissioner can:

• set and change the league’s settings, scoring, schedule, trade and waiver rules, and playoff format;
• run the draft, including pausing it, undoing the last pick and picking for any team;
• approve or veto trades when the league uses commissioner review;
• delete any chat message in the league, and hide or dismiss messages members report;
• close a season, correct it afterwards (every correction is marked and logged) and start the next one, including picking keepers for teams over the limit;
• mark dues paid, unpaid or waived, send reminders, and, if the league turns it on, block an unpaid team’s lineup changes after the due date;

Commissioners should use these powers fairly and in good faith. Disputes inside a league are for the league to settle; we don’t referee them, reverse a commissioner’s decisions or restore results, except where we choose to in order to fix a bug or enforce these terms.

Chat and conduct

Trash talk is part of fantasy. Abuse isn’t. When you use Circled Hoops, don’t:

• harass, threaten, bully or stalk anyone, or target people for who they are (race, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality or similar);
• post sexual content involving anyone under 18, sexual content aimed at people who didn’t ask for it, or graphic violence;
• post someone’s private information (address, phone number, payment details) without their permission;
• spam, run scams, or post links to malware or phishing;
• post anything illegal, or that infringes someone else’s rights;
• use bots, scrapers or scripts against the app, try to get around security, rate limits or league rules, probe for vulnerabilities without our written permission, or overload the service;
• create accounts to manipulate a league (for example, to collude in trades or votes).

In league chat, Report message tells us and the league’s commissioner, and Block hides someone’s messages from you. You can also email [email protected] with the league name and what happened. We aim to act on reports within 24 hours. We may remove content, limit features or close accounts that break these rules, with or without notice.

What you post

You own what you post: chat messages, team names, league names and the like. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, copy, display and send it as needed to run Circled Hoops for you and your league (for example, showing your messages to league members and keeping league history). The license ends when the content is deleted from our systems, except for copies other members already have and the league records described in our Privacy Policy.

You confirm you have the right to post what you post. We don’t review content before it appears and aren’t responsible for what other members say.

Stats and projections

NBA schedules, box scores and injury reports come from third-party data providers. They can be late, wrong or corrected after the fact, and a correction can change scores, results and records. Projections are our estimates, not something to rely on, and nothing in the app is betting or financial advice. If a data problem affects a result, we may fix it, but we don’t promise to.

Not affiliated with the NBA

Circled Hoops is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the National Basketball Association, any NBA team, the National Basketball Players Association or any player. Team and player names are used only to identify them. All trademarks belong to their owners.

Ads, Ad-free, sponsors and tips

• Every feature of Circled Hoops is free for every league. The one thing for sale is Ad-free, which hides ads and nothing else. Nothing you or anyone else pays changes how a league plays or who wins.
• We pay for the service with ads in the iPhone app, one Google AdSense ad on a few web pages, a few links marked Sponsored on the web (for example tickets or trophies), and optional tips through Buy Me a Coffee. We earn a commission when you buy through a sponsored link, at no extra cost to you. Ads and sponsors never appear next to a lineup or a lock, and we block betting, sportsbook and pick’em ads. You may use an ad blocker.
• Ad-free is an optional subscription in the iPhone app ($0.99 a month in the U.S.; the App Store shows the price where you are). It turns off the app’s ads and the web’s ads and sponsored links on every device where you sign in to the same account, and helps pay for the servers. Apple sells it and charges your Apple ID. It renews each month until you cancel in Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions, at least 24 hours before it renews; cancelling keeps it on to the end of the month you paid for. Refunds are handled by Apple under its terms. Deleting your Circled Hoops account doesn’t cancel it with Apple, so cancel it first.
• A tip is a gift to help cover the server bills. It is processed by Buy Me a Coffee under its own terms, unlocks nothing, and is not refundable by us. Purchases from a sponsor are between you and that sponsor.
• How ads use data is in our Privacy Policy.

The iPhone app

If you use Circled Hoops from Apple’s App Store, these points also apply:

• These terms are between you and Purplelink LLC, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app and its content.
• Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app. Questions and claims about the app (including product liability, legal or regulatory compliance, and intellectual property claims) go to us, not Apple.
• If the app fails to meet a warranty that applies by law, you may notify Apple, and Apple may refund the purchase price (if any). Apple has no other warranty obligation.
• You confirm you are not in a country under a U.S. government embargo and are not on a U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.
• You must also follow the App Store’s usage rules.

Availability and changes

Circled Hoops is new, and we change it often. We may add, change or remove features, and the service may be down or slow at times, including on busy game nights. We don’t guarantee it will be available at any particular time or that it will keep working the same way.

We may update these terms. If a change matters, we’ll tell you by email or in the app at least 14 days before it takes effect, unless it is needed sooner for legal or security reasons. If you keep using Circled Hoops after that, the new terms apply. If you don’t agree, stop using it and delete your account.

Ending your use

You can stop any time and delete your account under Account → Delete account (see your rights). We may suspend or close your account, or remove you from a league, if you break these terms, if the law requires it, or if your use puts others or the service at risk. If we shut down Circled Hoops entirely, we’ll give at least 30 days’ notice where we can.

Sections that by their nature should last after your account ends (including what you post, disclaimers, limitation of liability and governing law) keep applying.

Disclaimers

Circled Hoops is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and accuracy of stats, scores and projections. Some places don’t allow these disclaimers, so some of them may not apply to you.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Purplelink LLC and its members, employees and contractors won’t be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, lost bets, or disputes between league members, arising from your use of Circled Hoops.

Our total liability for any claim about Circled Hoops is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or US$50.

Nothing in these terms limits liability that can’t be limited by law, such as for fraud, or rights you have as a consumer that can’t be waived.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Before filing a claim, please email us and give us 30 days to try to resolve it. Any claim that isn’t resolved goes to the state or federal courts located in Georgia, and you and we agree to their jurisdiction. Either of us may instead bring a claim in small-claims court if it qualifies.

If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country and can bring a claim in your local courts.

The rest

• These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about Circled Hoops.
• If a part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies.
• If we don’t enforce a term right away, we haven’t given up the right to enforce it later.
• You can’t transfer these terms to someone else. We may transfer them as part of a merger, sale or reorganization, and the new owner will be bound by them.
• Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by events outside our reasonable control.

Contact

Purplelink LLC, Georgia, USA. Email: [email protected].