If you're looking to set up a pickleball tournament, you're in the right place! Running a tournament can be a rewarding experience, bringing players together for fun and competition. Let’s dive into the step-by-step process of creating and running a basic tournament, ensuring you have all the tools and knowledge needed to get started.

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Getting Started
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Create a User Profile and Club on Pickleball.com

Before you can create your tournament, there are two essential components you need: a personal player profile on pickleball.com and a club that will be responsible for running your tournament. These steps are crucial as they lay the groundwork for your tournament's management and operation.

Once you have your profile and club set up, log into pickleball.com and navigate to the Tournaments tab. This is where the magic begins!

Step 2: Tournament Setup

Create Tournament: Once logged in on Pickleball.com, select the Tournaments tab, and then click on “Create a Tournament.”  You will be directed to the tournament creation section and asked to find your Club.

Basic Information: Once the Club has been entered, enter Basic Information of your tournament.  Tournament name, registration start/end date, when the tournament is listed for view are all found in this area. Click Here for help with what selections mean.

Registration Costs: A Registration cost is a fee that is charged to every player that signs up for your tournament. You have a lot of options for what to charge players. Click Here for help. Note: You have the option to add additional fees per event later during the event setup.

Checkout options: You need to select how your players will pay.  For details on options Click here

Add a Logo to make your event stand out.  This is also the place to add a Waiver or Flyer if you have one. Click Here for help.

Discount Codes and Sponsors are not required but can add to your tournament prestige.  Just click on the name above if you want to learn more about it.

The Venue tab pulls the location you listed in your Club to use for your tournament.  If you have more than one location, or want to add a different location for the tournament Click Here

The Amenities tab allows  you to add partnering info for local Hotel you’ve negotiated discounted rates.

Add Manager: The last tab on the Tournament Setup is the Managers tab.  Click Here if you need more information on how to add additional Managers to your tournament.

Step 3: Create Events

When you click on the “Complete Setup” option, you will be informed that creating at least 1 event is required to list the tournament.

Setup the individual events your tournament will have. For detailed information on the event setup Click Here

Complete Setup: Once all events are completed, use the “Complete Setup” option and your Tournament is ready to be listed!

Pay setup fee: Access fee from your tournament dashboard Click Here

Other Setup Questions and Information:

How to create a T-Shirt Registration - Click Here

How to create a Weather Insurance Registration - Click Here

How to use the Simulator to determine maximum number of participants - Click Here

Step 4: Open Registration Period

My Registration is ongoing but I need to make some changes.  How do I:

Move a Player to the waitlist from the main draw Click Here

Move a player/team into a different event Click Here

Register someone myself: If a player isn’t registered and is having a hard time, you can also head to the attendees tab and use the green “Add New Attendee” tab to sign them up yourself.

Step 5: Closed Registration Period

Now that Registration is closed, what do I do?

Review events for players without partners. Players without a listed partner will not be able to participate unless one is added, so this needs to be done first.  If you are not planning to allow the players more time to find a partner, we recommend you either withdraw the players or move them to the waitlist (Withdraw) (Waitlist)

Review events for team count.  If an event doesn’t meet your minimum required teams, you will need to merge the event with another Click Here for how to merge events.

Verify brackets. All events should now be in group sizes that you like.  Once that is complete, we are ready to verify brackets Click Here Each bracket should now be verified and ready to start.

Set start times. Next, use the Daily Planner to set starting times Click Here Starting times are now set and have been emailed out to players.

The events are all set and ready for the day of play. 

What happens if someone loses a partner and needs a replacement or a team drops out between now and the tournament day? Click Here

Step 6: Run Tournament

Start Brackets. Your first step will be to start brackets Click Here Once an event is started it will move to the Running tab on the Live Console.  This will allow you to print scoresheets.

Print score sheets. Click Here Want to print all score sheets at once? Click Here

Assign Courts. Our software offers you the ability to assign courts using Court Desk Click Here If you are using the text messaging, this will send a text to the player when assigned to a court. This is not a requirement to run your event successfully, just an option we offer.

Enter Scores. Once matches are completed, you will need to enter results Click Here.  Once all results are entered, complete the event to see the listed medal winners Click Here

Complete/Finalize Tournament. Once all your events are marked as completed, you are done!  Your tournament will lock 5 days after the last day and an invoice will be generated.

Pay Fees. If any service fees are due that have not been already collected  you will need to visit the tournament dashboard again in the same place you paid the initial setup fee.

We hope your tournament went well and you continue to use Pickleball.com for all of your tournament and league needs!

If you have a question now listed above, feel free to contact us anytime by finding us on chat here or emailing: support@pickleball.com