Run a basketball tournament,all in the same playing schedule
Four quarters of ten, the eight-period format for the youngest age groups, two halves of ten when the day is full, or 3x3. You pick per category and the schedule spreads the pools across your courts with that match length built in. The table moves while matches are still being played.
What makes a basketball tournament different
Three things that make a basketball tournament awkward, and how PlayTour solves them.
The hall empties on time
The playing time belongs to the event rather than to the day, so the under-10s can play eight periods of four while the seniors run four quarters in the next hall. What you pick is what the schedule reserves for that fixture.
- A full game of 4 x 10 minutes, as the FIBA rules prescribe
- Mini-basketball of 8 x 4 minutes for the youngest age groups
- Two halves of 10 minutes when a lot has to fit into one day
- 3x3 as one period of 10 minutes, under its own rulebook
The table is right while play goes on
A free throw counts one, a shot inside the arc two and one from behind it three. So the sheet carries a points total rather than a count of baskets, which is exactly the word the scorer at the table uses.
- One, two or three points per score
- Scores entered at the table, the pool table keeps up
- Points difference and points scored as tiebreaks
- Corrections stay visible in the log
Two teams level? Settled up front
In basketball the head to head sits at the top of the tiebreaks, which is the reverse of football. FIBA looks first at the games between the tied teams and only then at the whole-group figures, and that is how PlayTour has it set.
- The games between the tied teams come first
- Then points difference across the whole group
- Then points scored across the whole group
- The order is yours to change per event
Setting up a basketball tournament
Four decisions, and PlayTour does the sum behind each of them.
- 1
Pick the format and the playing time
Four quarters of ten minutes, eight periods of four, two halves of ten, or 3x3 in a single period of ten. You set it per event, so the youth and the seniors can run their own clocks on the same day.
- 2
Let teams enter themselves
The team manager enters the team and invites the players, who confirm for themselves. You set the minimum and maximum squad size per event, so a 3x3 group of four and a full roster both fit.
- 3
Draw the pools across your courts
Pools, pools into a knockout, or a straight elimination draw. The schedule is laid across every court at once, inside the hall hours you gave, and flags a clash before you publish.
- 4
Play, count and decide
The table enters the points and the pool standings keep up. If two teams finish level, the order you set decides it, starting in basketball with the games those teams played against each other.
Basketball tournament questions
How much hall time does a 4 x 10 game take?+
Far more than forty minutes. The time PlayTour reserves is playing time, and the clock stops at every whistle, so forty minutes of play is about an hour and a half in the hall. Add the interval and the turnaround as changeover time, so your schedule does not pretend a game is done in forty minutes.
Can we run 3x3 alongside the five-a-side game on the same day?+
Yes. 3x3 is an event of its own: one period of ten minutes at a single basket under FIBA's separate 3x3 rules, with a twelve-second shot clock and one point inside the arc and two outside. It sits beside your other events in the same schedule. One thing the score sheet cannot do: a 3x3 game also stops the moment a team reaches 21 points, and that limit is for the table to watch.
What happens when two teams finish level in a pool?+
The order of tiebreaks decides, and in basketball it starts with the games between the tied teams: who won them, then the points difference in those games, then the points scored in them. Only after that come points difference and points scored across the whole pool. That is the FIBA order and you can change it per event.
Can a game end level in our tournament?+
In PlayTour it can, and that is deliberate. FIBA plays five-minute overtimes until somebody is ahead, while the NBB lets a draw stand in the early rounds of its cup. The system accepts both results and cannot insist, round by round, that a winner comes out. If you play an overtime, you enter the score after it as the final result.
We run under-10s. Can the sheet freeze the score at a fifty-point margin?+
No, and we would rather write that down than leave it out. The NBB freezes the score of an under-8 to under-12 game the moment one side leads by fifty: the children play on and nothing more is recorded. PlayTour has no ceiling on the margin at all, so the table keeps that rule itself and enters what the rule says the sheet should read.
Put your basketball tournament up and let the teams come in
A free account, your events each with their own playing time, and the link shared with the clubs around you. Entries arrive without you keeping a list. Publishing and taking entries are part of the free plan; the draw, the playing schedule and live results come with a paid plan.