Between the windows: the games football fans play when the transfer market sleeps

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FT Desk

The Premier League's summer transfer window closed at 23:00 BST on Tuesday 1 September 2026. The next one opens on Friday 1 January 2027 and runs to 1 February, which leaves four months without a window to follow.

Free agents who were out of contract by the deadline can still join new clubs, but for most clubs deadline day was the last chance to shape their squads before January. That makes for a long wait for fans who followed every rumour. Many fill it with football games of their own: some free, some paid and one strictly for adults.

Fantasy football: the market that never shuts

Fantasy Premier League is the nearest thing to a transfer market that stays open all season. As of October 2026, the official game listed more than 11 million teams for 2026/27. Each manager picks 15 players on a £100m budget, with no more than three from any one club, and can buy and sell between gameweeks.

Prices move with that trading. The Premier League says Fantasy price changes reflect how much players are bought and sold across the game, and its new Price Change Predictor uses official data to track the transfer activity for every player. Anyone used to arguing over player values will recognise the pattern: demand pushes a price up, and a player nobody wants drifts down.

This season, mini-league tables also update live during matches. A single goal could now reshuffle a league between friends before the final whistle.

Management games: deadline day on demand

Football Manager players have had a gap of their own. Sports Interactive cancelled Football Manager 25 in February 2025, saying it had not achieved what it set out to do in enough areas of the game. Football Manager 26, released on 4 November 2025, is still the current edition.

Football Manager 27 launches from 10 November 2026 on PC, on Xbox and PS5, and on mobile through Netflix. Its makers say cup draws, Transfer Deadline Day and an overhauled news feed will keep players plugged into the world beyond their club.

EA SPORTS FC 27, meanwhile, launched worldwide on 25 September 2026. EA says its Manager Career mode has a rebuilt transfer market with realistic player values and active club bidding, which lets fans run a club's recruitment themselves.

Football-themed slots, for adults only

Football is a familiar theme for online slot games too, and several game studios released football-themed slots in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup. These are gambling products, and in Great Britain the minimum legal age for online gambling is 18. The theme is decoration: it does not change how the games work.

Gambling Commission rules that online operators had to have in place by 31 October 2021 ban autoplay on slots. Games must also show players their total losses or wins and how long they have been playing.

Guides to individual slot games are on fortunegames.com, the site of a UK online casino, along with a section explaining how slots work and the random number generators behind them. Every outcome is down to chance, no strategy changes the odds and nothing guarantees a win. Anyone who plays should set a spending limit first and stop when it is reached.

Predictions and the wait for January

A prediction league costs nothing. Friends call every Premier League score before the weekend and agree a points rule in advance, such as one point for the right result and three for the exact score. Writing every call down before kick-off settles arguments later. Played for bragging rights, a league can keep a group chat busy through the international breaks.

With the January window still weeks away, the latest transfer news, a fantasy team or a save game can fill the gap.

18+ only. Fortune Games is a UK online casino and is not connected to any football club or league. Results are random and nothing guarantees a win. Free, confidential support: National Gambling Helpline, 0808 8020 133.