Free Basketball Scoreboard — How to Run a Game

1. Go to the Free Scoreboard page on JudgeMate.
2. Select Basketball from the 15 available sports.
3. Tap "Create Scoreboard".

The system instantly generates two links:

• Admin link (with a secret token) — this is your control panel. Only you can change the score, clock, and fouls.
• Spectator link (no token), this is the read-only view for fans, displayed on phones, tablets, TVs, or projectors.

Important: Bookmark or save your admin link immediately. If you lose it, you cannot regain control of the board. The spectator link can be shared freely — anyone with the link sees the live score.

Before the game starts, you'll see the Setup Screen:

• Team names — type up to 20 characters per team (default: HOME / GUEST). Use the actual team names for the best spectator experience.
• Team colors, choose from 12 presets: red, orange, amber, lime, green, teal, cyan, blue, purple, pink, gray, white. Colors appear on both the admin panel and the spectator view.
• Tap "Start Game" when ready.

While you're in setup, spectators see a waiting screen: "Game Starting Soon — Waiting for the host to start..."

Once you tap Start, the board goes LIVE and spectators see the score, clock, and quarter number in real-time.

Basketball scoring in JudgeMate uses three buttons per team to match real basketball scoring:

• +1 — Free throw (1 point)
• +2, Two-point field goal (layup, dunk, mid-range)
• +3, Three-pointer

Each team also has a minus (−) button to correct mistakes. The score can never go below 0.

Every tap updates the spectator screen instantly — there is no delay. If you accidentally add the wrong points, tap minus to subtract and then add the correct amount.

Tip: During fast breaks and quick possessions, the +2 button is your most-used control. Keep your thumb near it for speed.

Basketball uses a countdown clock — it starts at 10:00 (FIBA) and counts down to 0:00.

Basic Controls

• START (blue button) — starts the clock counting down.
• PAUSE (yellow button), pauses the clock. Use this on every whistle (fouls, out-of-bounds, timeouts, free throws).

Manual Adjustment (When Paused)

When the clock is paused, two adjustment controls appear:

• ±1:00 — add or subtract 1 minute
• ±0:10, add or subtract 10 seconds

Use these to sync the scoreboard clock with the official game clock if they drift apart.

Quick Jump Buttons

When paused, you'll see preset buttons to jump directly to a specific time:

• 10:00 — start of a regular quarter
• 5:00, start of overtime / mid-quarter
• 2:00, two-minute warning
• 0:00, end of quarter

These are especially useful when you take over a game mid-quarter or need to reset after a timing error.

Important: The clock does NOT auto-pause at 0:00 — you should pause it manually when the quarter ends. Then tap "Next Period" to advance to the next quarter.

Basketball games follow a fixed period structure:

Phase	Clock	Display
Q1	10:00 → 0:00	Q1
Q2	10:00 → 0:00	Q2
Q3	10:00 → 0:00	Q3
Q4	10:00 → 0:00	Q4
OT1	5:00 → 0:00	OT1
OT2	5:00 → 0:00	OT2
...	5:00 → 0:00	OT...

Advancing Periods

Tap "Next Period" to advance: Q1 → Q2 → Q3 → Q4 → OT1 → OT2...

When you advance to overtime, the clock automatically changes from 10:00 to 5:00 (the FIBA overtime period length).

What Happens on Period Change

• The clock resets to the period length (10:00 for quarters, 5:00 for OT).
• The quarter label updates on both admin and spectator screens.
• Fouls follow FIBA carry-over rules (see Foul Tracking section below).

There is no limit on overtime periods — you can keep advancing as long as needed until the game is decided.

The shot clock is a separate timer that tracks the 24-second possession limit.

Two Reset Buttons

• 24s — Full reset. Use when possession changes (turnover, made basket, defensive rebound, out-of-bounds off the offense).
• 14s, Partial reset. Use after an offensive rebound or when the defense commits a foul with fewer than 14 seconds on the shot clock.

How It Works

The shot clock runs independently from the game clock. It counts down from 24 (or 14 after a partial reset) toward 0.

In a real game, the shot clock should run whenever the game clock runs and pause whenever the game clock pauses. JudgeMate's shot clock syncs automatically with the game clock — when you pause the game clock, the shot clock pauses too.

Tips for Shot Clock Operation

• Tap 24s after every change of possession — this is the most frequent action.
• Tap 14s after offensive rebounds, don't forget this rule, it's a common mistake.
• The shot clock display is visible to spectators along with the game clock.
• If you miss a reset, you can always adjust manually, the accuracy of the shot clock is a convenience, not a game-breaking issue for recreational play.

JudgeMate tracks team fouls with a single counter per team — one number per side, no foul types and no individual player fouls.

Adding and Removing Fouls

• + button — add a team foul
• − button — remove a team foul (for corrections)

Bonus Indicator

The bonus indicator turns red when a team's counter reaches 5 team fouls in the current quarter. Under FIBA Art. 41 a team is already in the team-foul penalty situation once it has committed 4 team fouls in a quarter, and every foul from the fifth on — even on a player not in the act of shooting — is punished with 2 free throws instead of a throw-in.

Read the light as a confirmation rather than a warning: it appears alongside the foul that has already earned free throws. The team worth watching is the one sitting on 4.

The indicator shows on both the admin panel and the spectator view, so people in the hall can see which team is in the penalty situation.

When the Counter Resets

The board zeroes both foul counters at exactly two moments: entering the second half (Q2 → Q3) and entering every overtime (Q4 → OT1, OT1 → OT2, and so on). Across Q1 → Q2 and Q3 → Q4 the fouls carry over.

FIBA counts differently, and the gap matters if you are keeping the score for an official game.

Correction (27 August 2026): earlier versions of this guide presented the board's reset pattern as the FIBA rule. It is not. Under FIBA Art. 41 the team-foul count resets at the start of every quarter, and fouls committed in an overtime are treated as fourth-quarter fouls, so overtime carries the Q4 count forward instead of clearing it. If you are running a FIBA-rules game, tap − down to zero at the start of Q2 and Q4, and re-enter the fourth-quarter total when overtime begins.

Why this matters: a team on 4 fouls late in a quarter is one whistle from giving away free throws on every contact. Under FIBA that pressure is released at the next quarter break; on the board, unless you clear it manually, it survives into Q2 and Q4.

On 1 October 2026 the FIBA Official Basketball Rules 2026 replace the 2024 edition worldwide. For the person running a scoreboard the scoreline is untouched — a free throw is still 1 point, a field goal 2 or 3, and the penalty situation still arrives with the fifth team foul of a quarter. What changes is the foul log: which fouls exist, what they are called on the scoresheet, and which of them can end a player's game.

The Unsportsmanlike Foul Is Gone

FIBA has removed the unsportsmanlike foul and split it in two. The disruptive foul (Art. 37) covers tactical contact — a defender who is not legitimately playing the ball stopping a transition attack, killing the clock at the end of a quarter, or hitting an opponent from behind on a clear path to the basket. The flagrant foul (Art. 38) covers contact that is not a legitimate basketball play, is reckless, violent or dangerous, or is excessively hard.

Both are charged to the offender and both count as one of the team fouls, and their free-throw penalties are word-for-word the old unsportsmanlike penalty: 2 free throws on a player not in the act of shooting, the goal plus 1 free throw if the basket counted, and 2 or 3 free throws if it did not. Your score column therefore behaves exactly as it did before.

Two Categories of Technical Foul

Technical fouls are now graded by severity. Category 1 covers behaviour — dissent towards officials, taunting an opponent, blocking an opponent's vision, swinging elbows without contact, faking being fouled. Category 2 covers administration — delaying the game, hanging on the ring, or goaltending the last free throw, where the offensive team is awarded the point before the technical penalty is applied.

Only category 1 counts towards game disqualification. A player is disqualified for the rest of the game on two category 1 technicals, two flagrant fouls, or one of each — a deliberately looser threshold than the old rule, which ejected a player for any two technicals or unsportsmanlike fouls in combination.

What Actually Touches Your Counter

A technical foul charged to a player counts as one of the team fouls. A technical foul charged to anyone on the bench goes to the head coach and does not count as a team foul (Art. 36.3.1). That one line decides whether your team-foul counter should move at all.

The scoresheet markings are new as well: DI for a disruptive foul, FL for a flagrant foul, T for both technical categories, C and B for coach and bench technicals, and a new BD for a disqualifying foul against an accompanying delegation member — with the principle that any foul counting towards game disqualification is circled.

JudgeMate's free scoreboard deliberately keeps one number per team, so the DI/FL/T distinction lives on the official scoresheet rather than on the board. Track it on paper anyway: it is what tells you when a player is out. Appendix A of the OBR 2026 already carries new referee signals for the disruptive foul, the flagrant foul and delay of game, and FIBA publishes the OBR 2026 Official Interpretations in September 2026.

For the officiating side of the same change see the basketball referee guide, and for how these free throws land on the score see how basketball scoring works.

Tap the "Share" button in the top bar to open the share modal:

• QR Code — spectators scan it with their phone camera. Perfect for gyms and venues where fans are physically present.
• Link, copy and send via WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, email, or any other channel. Works for remote spectators too.
• Native share, use your phone's built-in share sheet (if supported by your device).

The spectator link looks like: judgemate.com/{language}/scoreboard/live/basketball/{boardId}

Font Size Remote Control

As admin, you can control the text size on spectator screens:

• A− / A+ buttons or a slider
• Range: 50% to 300% of the default size
• Perfect for adjusting readability on big screens, projectors, or gym scoreboards

Spectators can also tap their screen to reveal a local font slider (70%-160%), but the admin's setting takes priority.

No Login Required

Neither you (the admin) nor the spectators need an account, app download, or login. Everything works in a standard web browser on any device.

Ending the Game

1. Tap "End Game" in the top bar.
2. A confirmation dialog appears: "End game? This will freeze the score for all spectators."
3. Tap "Yes, End Game" to confirm, or "Keep Playing" to cancel.

Once ended:

• The score is permanently frozen — nobody can change it.
• Spectators see the final score with an "ENDED" label.
• The clock is automatically paused.

Post-Game Stats

After ending, the admin panel shows a match summary:

• Duration — total time played
• Total points, combined score of both teams
• Total fouls, combined fouls of both teams

Post-Game Actions

• "New Game — Same Teams", creates a new board with the same team names and colors. One tap, instant rematch. Perfect for tournaments, practice sessions, or pickup games.
• "New Game, Change Sport", takes you back to the sport selection screen if you want to switch to football, ice hockey, or volleyball.
• "Share Final Results", opens the share modal again so you can send the final score to fans, team chats, or social media.

Board Expiration

Completed scoreboards remain accessible for up to one week. After that, the board expires and spectators see a "Session Expired" message. Save your final score screenshot before the week is up if you need a permanent record.