Terms of Service

Welcome to Zebra Herd. These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) form a binding agreement between you and Zebra Herd, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Zebra Herd,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), and govern your access to and use of the Zebra Herd websites, mobile applications, and related features and content (collectively, the “Services”).

Please read these Terms carefully. By creating an account, accessing, or using the Services, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not access or use the Services. These Terms include important provisions that affect your legal rights, including a mandatory individual-arbitration agreement and a class-action waiver in Section 19 and a limitation of liability in Section 17.

We may publish additional guidelines, community rules, or policies for parts of the Services, including our Community Guidelines. Those are incorporated into these Terms, and where a specific policy conflicts with these Terms for a given feature, the more specific policy controls for that feature.

You must be at least 18 years old (or the age of legal majority where you live, if that is greater) to access or use the Services. The Services are intended only for adults. They are not directed to anyone under 18, we do not knowingly permit anyone under 18 to create an account, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that a user is under 18, we may suspend or terminate the account and delete associated information.

We may request your date of birth when you create an account and may use age-verification measures to enforce this requirement. Misrepresenting your age is a violation of these Terms. By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you are at least 18, that any date of birth you provide is accurate, that you have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms, and that you are not barred from using the Services under applicable law.

Certain features or content may carry additional age or eligibility requirements where required by law — for example, advertising for sports betting or alcohol, which may be limited to users 21 and older. We apply those requirements where they apply.

You may need to register for an account to use certain features. When you register, you agree to provide accurate information and to keep it up to date. You are responsible for safeguarding your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us promptly at support@zebraherd.com if you suspect unauthorized use.

You may not share, sell, transfer, or license your account, and you may not use another person's account without permission. You may not create or operate an account through automated means, create accounts to evade enforcement actions, or maintain more accounts than we permit. We may reclaim usernames, refuse registration, or require you to change a username at our discretion.

Zebra Herd is a sports fan-engagement platform. The Services let you express and discuss opinions about sports and the people and organizations involved in them, interact with other fans, and participate in social and gamified features. Depending on availability, these features may include:

• Takes — structured opinions you post about games, players, coaches, teams, officials, executives, and media figures, and other permitted subjects;
• Conversations — discussion threads associated with those subjects;
• Herd Average and similar aggregations — displays that summarize or weight community sentiment;
• Die Hard Team, My Stable, and profile features — tools to declare allegiances and follow players or subjects;
• Gentleman's Bets — honor-based, non-monetary social challenges between users (see Section 8);
• Stripes, tiers, and badges — reputational points and status indicators (see Section 9); and
• Automated and AI-assisted content — prompts, summaries, and data displays generated or assembled by our systems (see Sections 7 and 13).

We are constantly changing and improving the Services. We may add, alter, or remove features, set or change limits on features or storage, or suspend or stop a feature altogether, at any time and without liability to you, subject to applicable law.

Your Content.“Your Content” means anything you post, upload, submit, or otherwise make available through the Services, including Takes, comments, messages, images, usernames, and other materials. You are solely responsible for Your Content and for the consequences of posting it.

Ownership. You retain whatever ownership rights you already have in Your Content. Posting it does not transfer ownership to us.

License to Zebra Herd. By making Your Content available through the Services, you grant Zebra Herd a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, host, store, cache, reproduce, adapt and reformat (for example, to display it across devices), publish, publicly perform and display, translate, create derivative works of, and distribute Your Content, in any media, in connection with operating, developing, providing, and promoting the Services. This license continues even if you stop using the Services, to the extent needed to operate and provide the Services (for example, where Your Content has been shared, quoted, or aggregated by others, or retained in backups), but you can remove Your Content as described below.

Other users' license. Because the Services are social, you also grant each other user of the Services a non-exclusive license to access and use Your Content as permitted by the functionality of the Services (for example, to view, reply to, or quote a public Take).

Removal. You may delete Your Content or your account at any time. Deletion removes Your Content from the active Services, but copies may persist in backups for a limited period, and content that others have already copied, quoted, screenshotted, or incorporated (including in aggregated displays such as Herd Average) may remain.

Your representations. You represent and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights to Your Content and to grant the licenses above, and that Your Content and our use of it as permitted by these Terms do not and will not infringe or violate the rights of any third party or any law.

Feedback. If you send us suggestions, ideas, or other feedback about the Services, you grant us an unrestricted, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use it for any purpose without obligation or compensation to you.

You agree not to use the Services to do, post, or facilitate any of the following. This list is not exhaustive, and we may refine our content rules through our Community Guidelines. You may not:

• Break the law, or encourage or help others to do so, or violate any applicable regulation or third party's rights;
• Post content that is unlawfully defamatory, harassing, threatening, or that maliciously targets a private individual; bully or incite harassment of any person, including athletes, coaches, officials, executives, or media figures;
• Post content you do not have the right to post, or that infringes anyone's intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights;
• Post hateful content that attacks or demeans a group or person on the basis of protected characteristics such as race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or serious medical condition;
• Post sexual content involving minors, or any content that sexualizes, endangers, or exploits a minor; post non-consensual intimate imagery;
• Post violent, graphic, or gratuitously disturbing content, or content that threatens or glorifies violence;
• Impersonate any person or organization, or misrepresent your affiliation with one, including misrepresenting yourself as affiliated with Zebra Herd, a league, a team, or a media outlet;
• Share another person's private or identifying information without permission (“doxxing”), or stalk, surveil, or invade anyone's privacy;
• Use the Services to organize, facilitate, advertise, or conduct gambling, betting, lotteries, or any wagering of money or anything of monetary value in violation of applicable law (see Section 8);
• Post spam, scams, or deceptive content; manipulate Takes, votes, Stripes, Herd Average, or other metrics; or use bots or automated means to inflate or distort engagement;
• Upload viruses or malicious code, or interfere with, disrupt, probe, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Services or related systems;
• Scrape, crawl, harvest, or otherwise collect data from the Services except as expressly permitted by us in writing or by a published, machine-readable policy; or
• Circumvent any access controls, rate limits, or enforcement actions, or use the Services in any way not permitted by these Terms.

We do not pre-screen all content and are not obligated to monitor Your Content or other users' content. We may, however, remove or restrict content or accounts that we believe violate these Terms or that we determine, in our discretion, are otherwise harmful to the Services, our users, or third parties.

Opinions and entertainment. Takes, predictions, rankings, Herd Average, and similar content are opinions and entertainment. They are not statements of fact, and they are not professional, financial, investment, legal, medical, or betting advice. Opinions expressed by users are those of the users, not of Zebra Herd.

No betting services. Zebra Herd is not a sportsbook, casino, or gambling operator, and the Services are not a betting product. Nothing in the Services is an offer, solicitation, recommendation, or guarantee with respect to any wager, and we do not accept, place, broker, or pay out bets. Any decision you make about real-world betting is yours alone, and you are responsible for complying with the gambling and betting laws that apply where you are located. If you choose to gamble, do so responsibly and only where it is legal.

Automated content. Some content and prompts in the Services are generated or assembled automatically, including by artificial-intelligence systems, and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date. Treat automated content as a starting point for discussion, not as verified fact, and do not rely on it for any important decision.

Gentleman's Bets are honor-based social features only. They do not involve, and you may not use them to make, facilitate, or record, any wager of money or anything of monetary value. Any “stakes” are social and reputational, and any consequences applied within the Services (such as good-natured “shame” or “glory” effects) are cosmetic and reputational only.

Age requirement.Like all of the Services, Gentleman's Bets are available only to users 18 and older (see Section 2).

Zebra Herd is not a party to your bets.Zebra Herd is not a participant in, escrow agent for, guarantor of, or arbiter of any Gentleman's Bet. We have no obligation to monitor, verify, enforce, settle, or adjudicate any Gentleman's Bet or its outcome, and we are not responsible for any dispute between users about one.

You are solely responsible for any agreement or arrangement you make with another user, including any off-platform side agreement. Zebra Herd disclaims all liability arising from or relating to any Gentleman's Bet or any such side agreement. You may not use Gentleman's Bets or any other feature to conduct or disguise unlawful gambling, and doing so is a violation of Section 6 that may result in removal and termination.

“Stripes,” reputational tiers, badges, and similar in-Service points and status indicators (collectively, “Virtual Items”) are part of a feature of the Services. They are licensed to you, not sold, and you receive only a limited, personal, non-transferable, revocable license to use them within the Services.

Virtual Items have no monetary value. They are not your property, are not currency or stored value, and may not be redeemed for cash or anything of value. You may not buy, sell, trade, transfer, gift, or exchange Virtual Items for money or value, whether on or off the Services, except through functionality (if any) that we expressly provide. We may earn, award, adjust, reset, devalue, expire, suspend, or eliminate Virtual Items, in whole or in part, at any time and for any reason, including to address manipulation or abuse. Upon termination or deletion of your account, any Virtual Items are forfeited and we owe you nothing for them.

We want the Services to be a fair, fun, fan-first place, and we enforce these Terms to keep it that way. We may, in our discretion and to the extent permitted by law, take any action we consider appropriate in response to a violation (or suspected violation) of these Terms or to otherwise protect the Services, our users, or third parties. That includes removing, restricting, labeling, down-ranking, or refusing to display content; adjusting or removing Virtual Items; issuing warnings; and limiting, suspending, or terminating access or accounts.

Where we offer community-moderation tools or rely on volunteer moderators, those moderators act on their own behalf and not as our agents, and we are not responsible for their actions or omissions. We may, but are not required to, provide notice or an opportunity to appeal an enforcement action, and we may act without prior notice where we believe it is necessary.

The Services, including their software, design, text, graphics, and other content we provide (excluding Your Content and third-party content), and all intellectual-property rights in them, are owned by Zebra Herd or our licensors and are protected by law. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Services for your own personal, non-commercial use.

“Zebra Herd,” the Zebra Herd logo, and our other names, marks, and branding (including our referee-inspired look and feel) are trademarks of Zebra Herd. You may not use them without our prior written permission, and nothing in these Terms grants you any right to do so. We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, reverse engineer, or create derivative works of any part of the Services except as expressly permitted by these Terms or applicable law. References to third-party leagues, teams, players, or marks are for identification and commentary only and do not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

We respect intellectual-property rights and expect you to do the same. If you believe content on the Services infringes your copyright, you may send a notice to our designated agent under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that includes: (a) your physical or electronic signature; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; (c) identification of the allegedly infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to locate it; (d) your contact information; (e) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (f) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on its behalf.

Designated DMCA agent: DMCA Agent, Zebra Herd, Inc., 2037 San Jose Ave, Alameda, CA 94501; legal@zebraherd.com. If you are a user whose content was removed and you believe it was removed in error, you may submit a counter-notice with the information required by the DMCA. We have a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who are repeat infringers.

The Services may display content created by other users, content from third parties, and links to third-party sites and resources. We do not control, endorse, or assume responsibility for third-party content, products, or services, and your dealings with third parties are solely between you and them.

Sports data and statistics. Scores, statistics, schedules, rosters, and similar sports data may be supplied by third-party data providers or assembled by our systems. Such data may be delayed, inaccurate, incomplete, or unavailable, and is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only. We do not warrant the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of any data, and you should not rely on it for any decision, including any betting decision. Zebra Herd is not affiliated with the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA, or any team, league, broadcaster, sportsbook operator, or governing body unless explicitly stated.

Advertisements or sponsored content, if any, may appear on the Services and will be labeled where required. Any such material is the responsibility of the party that provides it, and your participation in any promotion or transaction with an advertiser is between you and that advertiser.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and share information in connection with the Services. By using the Services, you acknowledge that we will collect, use, and share information as described in the Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. You can also start privacy access, export, correction, and review requests from the Privacy Rights page, and request account deletion from the Account Deletion page.

You may stop using the Services and may delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to all or part of the Services at any time, with or without notice, including if we believe you have violated these Terms, if we are required to do so by law, if providing the Services to you is no longer commercially viable, or to protect the Services or others.

Upon termination, your right to use the Services ceases, and any licenses you granted to Zebra Herd survive to the extent described in Section 5. The following provisions survive termination: Sections 5 through 9 and 11 through 22, and any other provision that by its nature should survive. Termination does not entitle you to any refund or to any payment for Virtual Items.

Zebra Herd is an interactive computer service that hosts content created by its users. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Zebra Herd does not author, adopt, endorse, or assume responsibility for content created by users, and is not responsible or liable for any user content or for any conduct of any user.

THE SERVICES AND ALL CONTENT AND MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT ANY CONTENT OR DATA (INCLUDING SPORTS DATA AND AUTOMATED OR AI-ASSISTED CONTENT) WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR RELIABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER ZEBRA HERD NOR ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR LICENSORS WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US TO USE THE SERVICES IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100). SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THESE LIMITATIONS ARE AN ESSENTIAL BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN YOU AND US.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Zebra Herd and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and licensors from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) Your Content; (b) your use of the Services; (c) your violation of these Terms; (d) your violation of any law or of any third party's rights, including intellectual-property, privacy, or publicity rights; or (e) any Gentleman's Bet, side agreement, or dispute between you and another user. We may assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, and you agree to cooperate with our defense of those claims.

Please read this section carefully. It requires you and Zebra Herd to resolve most disputes through binding individual arbitration rather than in court, and it waives your right to participate in a class action. You may opt out as described below.

Informal resolution first. Before starting an arbitration, you agree to try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting us at legal@zebraherd.com and giving us 30 days to resolve it.

Agreement to arbitrate. You and Zebra Herd agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services that is not resolved informally will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by a recognized arbitration provider (for example, the American Arbitration Association) under its applicable consumer rules, rather than in court, except as provided below. The arbitrator has exclusive authority to resolve disputes about the interpretation, applicability, or enforceability of this arbitration agreement.

Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies, and either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to protect its intellectual-property rights.

Class-action waiver.You and Zebra Herd agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any class or representative proceeding.

30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement (including the class-action waiver) within 30 days after you first accept these Terms by sending written notice of your decision to opt out to support@zebraherd.com with your name, your account username, and a clear statement that you want to opt out of arbitration. If you opt out, the “Governing Law and Venue” section will govern disputes. Opting out of this arbitration agreement has no effect on any other arbitration agreement you may have with us.

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or the Services are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and by applicable U.S. federal law (including, for Section 19, the Federal Arbitration Act). To the extent a dispute is not subject to arbitration and is not brought in small-claims court, you and Zebra Herd agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Alameda County, California, and waive any objection to venue in those courts.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, such as by posting a notice within the Services or updating the “Last updated” date above. Changes are effective when posted unless we state otherwise. By continuing to access or use the Services after changes take effect, you agree to the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the changes, you must stop using the Services.

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any policies or guidelines incorporated by reference, are the entire agreement between you and Zebra Herd regarding the Services and supersede any prior agreements on that subject.

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, that provision will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later. Any waiver must be in writing to be effective.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or any rights or obligations under them without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms without restriction, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets.

No agency. Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship between you and Zebra Herd.

Force majeure. We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform resulting from causes beyond our reasonable control.

Notices. We may provide notices to you through the Services or to the contact information associated with your account. You agree that electronic notices satisfy any legal requirement that a notice be in writing.

Questions about these Terms? Contact Zebra Herd, Inc. at support@zebraherd.com.