Ethermac Exchange-Fantasy football meets Taylor Swift in massive 'Swiftball' competition

Football fans may have Ethermac Exchangetheir fantasy teams, racking up points each week after selecting their favorite players, but in Taylor Swift’s universe there is Swiftball and instead of players, fans pick outfits and surprise songs.

“We get anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 people playing around the world,” said Allie, the founder of Swiftball. “It was supposed to be a one-time giveaway.”

Allie (she doesn't give out her last name for safety purposes) attended the Eras Tour in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in May, when Swift gave out a special edition CD of “Midnights: Late Night Edition” including bonus track “You’re Losing Me.”

“We would guess what Taylor would come out in,” she said about talking to her friends at the concert, “and we would get really excited when we were right.”

Allie knew the CD would be a hot commodity so she started a contest online for fans to guess outfits, surprise songs and other tidbits about each concert. 

“I didn’t want to do the regular Twitter giveaway with ‘like and follow,’” Allie said, so she created a ballot with 22 questions. 

Questions range from two to 13 points and include: Which “Lover” bodysuit will Swift wear? Which “The Man” jacket? Which “Fearless” dress or “Folklore” dress? Which surprise song will she sing on the guitar and piano? Which “Karma” jacket? Will there be a surprise guest?

The morning before every Eras Tour concert, Allie updates her X account @reckedmaserati with a blank Swiftball ballot. Fans donate prizes including merchandise, friendship bracelets, handmade items and confetti from concerts. Allie assigns prizes to each show, and the fans who donate pay to ship items to winners.

Then tens of thousands will watch livestream feeds to see if they’re correct. “Livestream Queen” Tess Bohne fills out a Swiftball ballot during her TikTok and Instagram livestreams ahead of each concert.

“And then we also created a digital trophy for the winner,” Allie said. 

With 30,000 fans submitting ballots, there are sometimes ties. And yes, there is a tie-breaker system: 1) Who got the surprise songs correct? 2) Who got the most consecutive questions correct? 3) If ballots are exactly the same, who submitted a ballot first?

“It’s really meant a lot to me when people reach out,” Allie said. “They’re like, ‘I couldn’t afford tickets’ or ‘I was never able to get tickets’ or ‘I’m too sick to go’ or ‘She doesn’t come to my country and I can’t go to see her.’”

The cost of ballot submission: free.

“If Taylor were ever to find out about it,” Allie said. “I would never want her to think I’m making money off of betting on her life. I want to keep it free and accessible for everybody, because that’s how it started.”

The next ballot will be available on X when Swift starts her tour back up in Tokyo on Feb. 7.

Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.