In Spanish football culture, quiniela and porra get thrown around almost like synonyms at the bar or in the group chat, but they're not quite the same thing. If you're setting something up with your friend group, it's worth knowing the difference so you don't get confused about the name, or more importantly, about what each one actually involves.
The quiniela, in its strictest and most traditional sense in Spain, refers to the official state-run sports betting game managed by the national lottery board (Loterías y Apuestas del Estado), where you pick 1X2 outcomes for a selection of LaLiga and second-division matches each week. It's a paid, regulated game with betting slips and cash prizes, similar to a football pools system. When someone says "I'm doing the quiniela" in this classic sense, that's what they mean.
A porra is the informal Spanish term, widely used across Spain, for a casual prediction game that a group of friends, family, or coworkers organizes on their own, with no official body involved. Everyone predicts the scorelines they feel like, and earns points based on how accurate they are. There are no official tickets or betting regulations involved, the group makes its own rules. Think of it as the friendly, homemade cousin of a proper sports pool.
Depending on the region of Spain (and even more so across Latin America), "porra" and "quiniela" get used a bit differently, and the lines often blur. In some areas people say "quiniela" to refer to the casual game among friends too, even though the technically correct term for that would be porra. There's nothing wrong with mixing them up in casual conversation, but when you're actually setting one up, it helps to be clear on which type of game you really want.
When a group of friends says they want to "do a quiniela for the Champions League," they almost always actually mean a porra: they want to predict scores, rack up points, and rib each other about it, not handle money, tickets, or cash prizes. A porra fits that goal far better, because it's about football and bragging rights among your friends, not about betting.
Match Prophets is built exactly for that: a porra with no money involved, just predictions, points, and your group's standings. You create the league in two minutes, invite your people with a link, and that's it, no betting slips, no official gambling red tape.