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Furbol — How It Works

My host earnings look lower than I expected

My host earnings look lower than I expected

You hosted an online-paid game. You had a full line-up at kick-off. You expected roughly fee × players to land in your wallet — but the number you’re looking at is smaller. Or: you tried to cash out and the amount that hit your bank is lower than what you withdrew.

There are a few legitimate reasons for the shortfall, and they happen at different points in the flow. This page walks through them in the order they can actually bite you.

What you think you should see

Back-of-envelope: if your game is $10/player and 14 people booked, you expect $140 in your wallet, cashable three hours after the game ends.

That expectation is correct until one of the reductions below kicks in. None of them involve Furbol taking a commission on the player-to-host transfer itself — that transfer is moved across in full. The shortfall is always one of: a reversal (money going back to a player), or the payment-system fee you pay when you move money out of Furbol into your bank.

Reason 1 — a player unbooked before the window closed

A player can unbook all the way up to the end of the feedback window — that’s the 3 hours after the game’s scheduled end time. When they unbook, their fee goes back to their wallet and their pending entry disappears from yours.

If three people unbooked the morning of the game, that’s three fees gone from your pot. The line-up at kick-off might still have been full (other players took their spots), but the money follows the person who paid for the seat, not the seat itself.

Reason 2 — a player tapped “I didn’t play a game” after the game

This is the one most hosts don’t see coming.

During the 3-hour feedback window after the game ends, every player who booked gets a “How was the game?” dialog. Below the star-vote buttons there’s a text button labelled “I didn’t play a game.” Tapping it reverses that player’s fee out of your wallet, back to theirs. No approval from you, no support ticket — it’s a single tap on their side.

Why this exists: so players who booked, paid, and then legitimately missed the game (illness, traffic, plans fell through) can claw back their fee. The system trusts them to self-declare. See I was charged for a game but didn’t show up for the player-side framing.

What you’ll notice:

  • A row in your wallet flips from pending and disappears before the 3-hour lock lifts.
  • Your total balance ticks down by the fee amount.
  • It’s not noisy — no notification, no marker. You just see less money than you expected.

Important distinction — this is only the player’s own “I didn’t play a game” button. The per-teammate star votes (including their “didn’t play” option) are peer ratings; they feed Solidity and don’t move money.

Reason 3 — the game was cancelled or didn’t reach quorum

If the game was cancelled, or if it never reached quorum (the minimum player count), every player’s fee goes back to their wallet. From your side, those rows are gone too. You earned $0 from the game, not a partial amount.

This is usually obvious — you generally know if you cancelled, and a quorum-failed game is flagged in the app — but it’s worth naming because it’s the maximal version of “my earnings are lower than expected.”

Reason 4 — payment-system commission at cash-out

The first three reasons are about the wallet. This one kicks in when you move money out of the wallet into your bank.

When you cash out, the payment system (Stripe, or whatever processor is routing your payout) charges a commission — usually a percentage plus a small fixed amount. That commission is deducted from the amount you withdraw; the bank receives the net.

So if you withdraw $140, the amount that lands in your account is something like $140 minus a few percent and a fixed cent amount. This is not a Furbol cut — Furbol doesn’t add its own fee on top of the processor’s cost. See Cashing Out (rules) and I can’t cash out for the full picture.

A useful way to think about it: the wallet number is the gross, the bank number is the net. If you want to predict the bank number, apply your processor’s fee schedule to the withdrawal.

What doesn’t reduce your earnings

A few things that look like they might shrink the pot but don’t:

  • Furbol’s cut on the game fee. There isn’t one. The player’s fee moves player-to-host in full.
  • A bad game rating from players. Reputation, not earnings. Your host stats take a hit, your wallet doesn’t.
  • A teammate peer-rating another player “didn’t play” on the per-teammate stars. That’s a reputation signal for the rated player’s Solidity; it doesn’t touch any wallet.
  • A player no-showing but never opening the feedback dialog. If they didn’t tap “I didn’t play a game” themselves, within the window, their fee stays with you. The roster spot stays booked; the money stays booked.

How to diagnose your specific case

If your earnings are lower than you expected, work through this order:

  1. Compare roster at kick-off vs. roster in the wallet rows. If players are missing from the wallet but were on the pitch, unbookings or self-declared “didn’t play” taps are the culprit. (Both show up as missing rows, not as deducted rows — so you’re looking for absence.)
  2. Check the feedback window. If you’re looking within 3 hours of the game ending, the rows are still pending and still reversible — the number can still shift downward. Wait until the lock lifts to see the final figure.
  3. If the wallet total matches expectation but the bank deposit doesn’t, the gap is the payment-system commission at cash-out.
  4. If none of these explain it, contact support via the account screen. Something may genuinely be miscounted.