Official Rules & Regulations

The VYBB Awards recognise excellence across entertainment, nightlife, live performance, venues, events and the wider industry. The Awards operate on fairness, transparency, verification, professional recognition and audience participation.

These rules govern nominations, eligibility, voting, judging, result verification, conduct, disputes and winner selection across every VYBB Awards season. A season may publish additional category-specific conditions; where they conflict, the season's published conditions apply to that season only.

Nominees must be real, identifiable individuals, groups or organisations active in the relevant category during the eligibility period. Each category publishes its own eligibility description, age requirement, geographic eligibility and required evidence. Voters must hold a verified Vybb account in good standing and meet any age requirement.

Only work, performances, events and activity carried out within the eligibility period published for the season may be considered. Activity outside that period is not counted.

Categories are organised into groups: DJs; MCs & Hosts; Live Performance; Venues; Events; Industry; and Special Recognition. Categories may be enabled or disabled for each season.

Nominations are submitted through the VYBB Awards nomination flow: category selection, nominee information, supporting evidence, rules acceptance, review and submission. Nominations are accepted only while nominations are open for the season.

A nomination must contain accurate information and supporting evidence of activity in the category. Private contact details and documents are used for verification only and are never displayed publicly. False or misleading information may lead to rejection or disqualification.

Self-nomination is permitted where the category allows it. Self-nominations receive no advantage or disadvantage compared with public nominations.

The verification team reviews identity, category suitability, evidence, professional activity, duplicates, eligibility period, age and rule compliance. It may verify, request more information, move category, reject, flag for review or disqualify. Every action is recorded in the audit log.

Verified nominations may be scored on quality, category relevance, professional activity, achievements, audience impact and evidence before finalists are published. Shortlist size is set per category, and shortlist decisions are documented. Where the same nominee is nominated more than once in a category, nominations are merged into one candidate.

Public voting is open only to verified accounts and only between the published voting open and close times. Unless a category states otherwise, each verified account may cast one vote per category every 24 hours. All votes are validated by Vybb's systems, not by the voter's device.

Voting is free. Paid voting is not offered. If paid voting is ever introduced it will only follow legal review, payment-provider approval and published pricing, vote quantities, refund rules and terms, and paid votes will be subject to the same audits as free votes.

Each category states whether live vote totals are shown. Totals may be hidden close to the end of voting; when hidden, the same rule applies to every nominee in that category.

Votes received after the published close time are not counted. Voting may be extended only for a documented reason, such as a technical failure, announced publicly.

Judges are appointed per season and category based on professional experience. Each judge must declare any conflict of interest. A judge with a conflict may not score the affected nominee or category.

Unless a category publishes different criteria, judges score each finalist from 1 to 10 on: Professional Excellence (25%), Creativity / Originality (20%), Audience / Industry Impact (20%), Quality & Consistency (15%), Professionalism (10%) and Industry Contribution (10%). Scores are locked when judging closes; any later change requires a recorded reason.

Bots, scripts, multiple or fake accounts, vote buying, proxy abuse and any other attempt to manipulate results are prohibited.

Suspicious votes are quarantined and reviewed before results are calculated. A nominee is not disqualified solely because of suspected voter behaviour without investigation.

Votes used in results are never deleted. Invalidated votes are excluded from totals but kept in the record. Results are audited before they are made final.

In performance categories, unless stated otherwise, the final score is 60% judge score and 40% normalised public vote. Public votes are normalised within the category (top nominee = 100, others proportional) before weighting. Where a category has no accepted judge scores, the normalised public vote alone decides the ranking. Each category publishes its own weighting.

Ties on final score are decided by: (1) the higher public vote count; (2) a documented decision of the judging panel. Joint winners may be declared where approved.

Results may be announced only after voting has closed, fraud review is complete, judge scores are locked, disqualifications are resolved and results have been verified. Winners are published on the VYBB Awards results page.

Winners receive VYBB Awards recognition and a dated digital badge. Any prizes are as announced for the season and cannot be exchanged for cash unless stated.

Sponsors may receive branding, category naming rights, event visibility, content placement and hospitality. Sponsors have no ability to edit scores, change votes, select winners, remove nominees or alter audit records.

Nominees may encourage people to vote fairly. Offering money, gifts or rewards for votes, coordinating fake accounts, or misleading voters is prohibited.

Nominees keep ownership of media they submit. By submitting, they permit VYBB to use it for the Awards profile, promotion, the ceremony, social media, press and post-awards coverage.

Private emails, phone numbers, identity documents, payment details, admin notes, fraud scores and judge notes are never published. Personal data is handled under the Vybb Privacy Policy.

Participants must not harass, threaten, discriminate against, defraud or abuse others, including nominees, voters, judges and staff. Breaches may lead to removal or disqualification.

A nominee may be disqualified for false information, ineligibility, fraud, vote manipulation, bribery, hacking, serious misconduct or material rule violation. Every disqualification records the reason, evidence, reviewer, date and rule relied on. No silent disqualifications.

Complaints about eligibility, voting, category placement, judge conflicts, result calculation, rule violations or fraud may be submitted with evidence, ideally within 72 hours of the disputed decision or result. Each complaint receives a reference.

A decision may be appealed once. Appeals are reviewed by an authorised reviewer who did not make the original decision, and the full decision history is kept.

If a technical failure affects nominations, voting or results, VYBB may extend deadlines, discount affected votes or re-run a stage, and will explain any such action publicly.

A category may be cancelled, merged or suspended, with a public reason. A sole remaining nominee does not automatically win.

Nominees may be moved to a more suitable category before voting starts, or afterwards only to correct a serious eligibility or classification error. Every move is recorded.

A nominee may appear in more than one category if eligible for each, but may not appear twice in the same category.

Audience Choice categories are decided 100% by valid public votes. Judges cannot override a legitimate result except for fraud, ineligibility or rule violation.

Rising categories are for nominees early in their professional career, as defined in the category's eligibility description.

Most Booked categories use verified booking data, not public voting. Only completed, legitimate bookings count; cancelled, refunded, test, fraudulent and duplicate bookings are excluded. External bookings count only if verified under published rules.

Data-driven categories publish their data source, eligibility window, minimum sample size and excluded data. A snapshot of each calculation is kept.

Only verified reviews from genuine completed bookings or attendance may be used. Fake, incentivised or manipulated reviews are excluded and may lead to disqualification.

Official VYBB Awards communications come only through the Vybb platform and official VYBB channels. VYBB will never ask for passwords or payment in exchange for votes or nominations.

There is no fee to nominate or be nominated unless a season clearly publishes one in advance.

Results are determined only by valid votes, independent judging and verified data under these rules. Sponsors, partners and staff cannot influence outcomes.

Winners may accept or decline an award. Accepting confirms the winner has followed these rules.

An award may be revoked if it is later found that it was obtained through fraud, false information or a material rule violation. Revocations are recorded with reasons.

These rules are administered by Vybb Technologies Ltd and are read together with the Vybb Terms and Privacy Policy. Questions may be sent to support@vybb.africa.

Anyone nominating, being nominated, voting or judging accepts these rules. Nominators must confirm they have read and accepted the Official Rules before submitting. If the rules materially change, re-acceptance may be required.

Recognition should be earned — never bought. VYBB commits to fair verification, independent judging, audited results and clear explanations for every important decision.