The Running World Cup is designed so that even those countries with smaller populations can compete fairly against those countries with larger populations.
Participants earn points for their country by running and earning KM Points. This means the number of kilometres that a country runs is divided by the number of potential runners in that country.
However, you need to run with a smartphone (or run tracker) that can measure and record your runs with the Running World Cup app. This means the potential number of runners is not just the number of people in a country but also the number of people who own a smartphone. So, the number of kilometres that a country runs is divided by the smartphone population in that country.
But it’s not enough just to have a smartphone – you also need to be aware of the Running World Cup and this is where the largest countries have a disadvantage. Awareness is harder to measure but we can be sure that with an increasing population size comes an increasing communications challenge. To avoid too many unaware people becoming a drag on a country’s score we adjust a smartphone population down – for each 5m people we reduce by an additional 0.25%. For a country with a smartphone population of 5m this means a reduction of 0.25%, for 50m this means a reduction of 2.5% and for 500m this means a reduction of 25%.
Bonus points are then added to achieve the overall country score. Your country score and any individual bonus points will reset to zero after each round, with the exception of your invite bonus points, which will carry throughout the tournament.