Competition, finally built into the system you already run.

Tournaments and leagues should be growth drivers.

In reality, they’re often an operational tax.

Not because clubs don’t want to run them—but because the tooling has never fit how clubs actually operate.

Most club management platforms stop at sign ups and payments. When operators want to manage tournaments or leagues, they’re pushed into integrations. Another app for players to download. Another interface for staff to learn. Another SaaS bill layered on top of the “core” system. Cheap at first glance. Expensive in practice.

On the flip side are tournament-only platforms. They’re built for events, not clubs. They live outside day-to-day operations, rely on manual workflows, and often charge per-player fees that add up painfully fast. A large tournament can quietly rack up thousands of dollars in software costs—before you factor in staff time. And the platform owns the data not the host club. 

PodPlay Tournaments exists because we rejected both models.

We’re building full-stack.

Full-Stack Beats “Integrated” Every Time

Integration is not the same thing as ownership.

A loosely integrated stack forces context switching. Staff jump between systems. Players juggle apps. Data gets duplicated, delayed, or lost. And every “add-on” turns a simple operation into a fragile workflow.

PodPlay Tournaments is native. It lives inside the same system that already manages your courts, events, payments, players, and ratings.

For clubs on PodPlay Pro or above, it’s included at no additional charge. For clubs on Basic or Basic+ plans it will be available for $100 / month. 

No per-player fees.

No second SaaS contract.

No Frankenstack.

Just more ROI from the platform you’re already paying for.

Digital Scoreboards Change Everything

Here’s the part that fundamentally reshapes operations:

PodPlay is the only platform that connects native tournament and league functionality directly to digital scoreboards.

That connection eliminates entire categories of staff work.

Scores don’t need to be entered manually in another system.

Courts don’t need to be reassigned by hand.

Staff don’t spend nights entering hundreds of matches into rating systems.

When a match ends, the system already knows. The next round can be generated automatically. Courts advance intelligently and players can see where they are playing next and who they are playing with. Standings update in real time.

This isn’t a marginal UX improvement. It’s an operational unlock.

Tournaments stop being labor-heavy events that require extra staffing and become something clubs can run confidently with the team they already have.

Not Just for Tournaments. Built for Everyday Open Play.

Despite the name, PodPlay Tournaments isn’t just about marquee events.

Its real superpower is enabling structured play for your day to day activity—especially Open Plays. During beta testing, one of the most popular use cases for the tournament software has been running private corporate events, where using a rotating partners round robin format or brackets makes a huge difference for players.

You can run classic round-robin formats for singles or doubles. You can layer in elimination brackets when you want clear winners. You can combine group play with playoffs for hybrid events that feel polished without feeling heavy.

And you can do it all on the fly.

Open Play, Finally Done Right

Open Play doesn’t have to mean chaos.

With PodPlay Tournaments, you can choose how structured—or flexible—you want things to be, in real time.

You can run Randomized Play, simply setting a minimum number of matches per player and letting the system generate rounds automatically. Add more rounds whenever you want.

You can designate a Challenge Court, where winners fight to hold their spot as King or Queen of the Court. Choose whether winners stay on indefinitely or rotate off after a set number of wins. The system prioritizes fairness, ensuring teams who haven’t played the challenge court get their turn.

You can extend that into a Challenge Court Ladder, spreading competition across multiple courts. Winners move up. Losers move down. Byes are handled intelligently. No clipboard required.

You can even run MLP-style formats, randomly assigning players into three- or four-person teams on the spot.

All of it works with fixed partners or rotating partners. All of it works without pre-seeding spreadsheets or manual coordination.

Timed Play That Keeps Things Moving

Open Plays can be run with timed rounds.

When the timer expires, players finish the current point and shift to sudden death. If all matches finish early, the system stops the clock and generates the next round automatically.

Play flows. Staff doesn’t hover. Nobody argues about when time was called.

Brackets, Hybrids, and Leagues—Without the Headache

PodPlay Tournaments supports the full range of competitive formats clubs actually run:

Single and double elimination brackets, including consolation and bronze matches.

Hybrid formats that combine round robin play with playoff brackets.

Leagues that span multiple sessions with cumulative standings across a season.

Leagues can be run as weekly schedules, round robin sessions, ladders, or hybrids with championship finals. Players move up or down groups based on performance. Standings update automatically.

It’s the same system, session after session. No resetting. No exporting and re-importing data.

Built for Operators, Not Just Events

The philosophy behind PodPlay Tournaments is simple:

Clubs don’t need more tools. They need fewer tools that work better together.

A stitched-together stack optimizes for feature checklists.

A full-stack system optimizes for operations.

PodPlay Tournaments reduces context switching. Improves the player experience. Eliminates hidden SaaS costs. And turns tournaments and Open Play from occasional operational headaches into everyday engagement and revenue drivers.

Competition, when it’s built into the system, scales.

And that’s the point.