How do you organise a basketball tournament?

Article 8 gives the fixed part of a game. Four quarters of 10 minutes, a 2-minute break after the first and third quarters, a 15-minute half-time and a 20-minute interval before the scheduled start. That is 79 minutes before the clock has stopped once, and in basketball it stops for every foul, free throw, time-out and ball out of bounds. A level game also adds overtime: Article 8.7 provides 5-minute periods, each after a 2-minute break, until there is a winner.

A practical budget for a full FIBA game on a club court is around 1 hour 45 minutes per slot. Over a 10-hour hall booking that is five games per court, which is why one-day tournaments shorten the game in their own rules.

A common school or amateur setup is 4 x 8 minutes with a 10-minute warm-up and 2-5-2 minute breaks. That is 51 fixed minutes; with about 15 minutes of stoppages, plan a 65-minute slot. Six teams in one round robin play 6 x 5 / 2 = 15 games. On two courts that is eight slots, so the day runs 8 hours 40 minutes before any overtime.

In JudgeMate the basketball scoreboard starts at 4 x 10 with 5-minute overtimes. You can change the quarter length and the number of periods (1, 2, 3 or 4) for the whole draw or for one game, for example to give the final full-length quarters.

Article 46 names two groups. On the court: a crew chief and one or two umpires. At the table: the scorer, the assistant scorer, the timer and the shot clock operator, plus a commissioner where the competition has one. Four table officials is the full crew. A school event usually has two adults, so decide early who covers which job.

A phone running the JudgeMate basketball scoreboard covers several table jobs on one screen:

• game clock counting down each quarter, with overtime
• shot clock at 24 and 14 seconds, paused together with the game clock
• score in 1, 2 and 3 points, optionally tied to a player's number
• personal fouls with the 5-foul limit, team fouls per quarter and the penalty marker at the 5th team foul
• time-outs: 2 in the first half, 3 in the second, 1 per overtime
• the alternating possession arrow

It does not replace the FIBA scoresheet with its running score, signatures and foul codes. The board has a single personal foul button, so a technical foul, a disruptive foul, a flagrant foul or a disqualifying foul is not recorded as such, and it does not apply the limit of 2 time-outs in the last 2 minutes of the fourth quarter. If your league needs an official scoresheet, keep the paper one next to the phone.

Article 4.2 allows up to 12 team members entitled to play, plus a head coach and up to 8 accompanying delegation members such as an assistant or a physio. Five play at a time. A team that does not have 5 players ready 15 minutes after the scheduled start loses by forfeit (Art. 20.1), so ask coaches for a roster of at least 7.

Put two rules in the invitation: the roster limit and whether a player may play for two teams in different age groups. Collect the rosters before the draw, because a player listed for two clubs is easier to settle on paper than at the table.

In a JudgeMate club tournament each team is a club entered by name with a squad of up to 12, and players need no accounts. When the squad is filled in, the scoreboard shows player tiles so points and fouls go to a number.

Appendix D of the 2026 rules gives 2 classification points for a win, 1 for a loss (a loss by default included) and 0 for a forfeit. Basketball has no draws, so a team's points are wins plus games played, minus any games lost by forfeit. A football-style 3-1-0 table counts the same results differently and can change who goes through.

When teams finish level on points, D.1.3 looks first at the games between them, in this order:

1. classification points in those games,
2. point difference in those games,
3. points scored in those games,
4. point difference in all games of the group,
5. points scored in all games of the group,
6. for national teams the FIBA ranking, for everyone else a drawing of lots.

D.1.4 adds one more step. As soon as one team is separated, the procedure starts again from step 1 for the teams still level. In the worked example below, that step decides who wins the group.

In JudgeMate a new basketball draw and a new basketball league start with the standings rules FIBA (2026 Rules, Appendix D): 2-1-0, 0 for a forfeit, steps 1 to 5 with the restart. The table does not draw lots. When no criterion separates two teams, it marks the tie and you set their order. If your league uses its own points, choose Custom points when you create the category or later under Edit category.

The rules have two endings for a game that is not finished normally.

Forfeit (Art. 20). A team that refuses to play, prevents the game from being played or does not have 5 players ready 15 minutes after the start time loses 20-0 and gets 0 classification points.

Default (Art. 21). A team left with fewer than 2 players on the court loses by default. If the opponents are ahead, the score stands; if not, the result is 2-0 for them. The defaulting team still gets 1 point, as for any loss.

JudgeMate enters a basketball walkover as 20-0 by default, and the FIBA standings rules give the forfeiting team 0 points. You can change the walkover score in the draw settings. A default has no separate button: enter the final score, or 2-0, as a normal result, and the table gives the loser 1 point.

A basketball category in JudgeMate runs as a club tournament with three formats:

• Round robin: every team plays every other once. The usual choice for 4 to 6 teams.
• Knockout, with an optional third-place game and a consolation round.
• Groups plus knockout: 1 to 4 groups. With one group, 2, 4 or 8 teams advance; with two or four groups, 1 or 2 from each. With three groups, either the top team from each plus the best runner-up, or the top 2 from each plus the 2 best third-placed teams. Ranking teams across groups needs groups of equal size.

Two formats used in FIBA competitions are not in the product. A two-game aggregate tie (Appendix D.6) treats both games as one 80-minute game and goes to overtime only in the second; JudgeMate has no home-and-away pairing for basketball. A play-off series to 2, 3 or 4 wins is not there either. For both, play each game as a single match on the scoreboard and keep the aggregate or the series count yourself.

Print the bracket and the match slips the evening before. Every game gets its own referee QR code. Whoever runs the table scans it on a phone, and the scoring for that game opens.

The board's viewer link can go on a TV or a projector in the hall. Text size can be set remotely from 50 to 300 percent, which helps when the screen has to be read from the far bench.

The referee keeps the score on the board; that does not enter the result in the table. When the game ends, the board shows it as ended and you confirm it, one by one or with Confirm from board. Group and round-robin games can also be entered by team managers if you allow it. Knockout, consolation and third-place games are confirmed by you only.

1. Open Create with basketball selected and create the event. A basketball category runs as a club tournament.
2. Choose who enters the clubs: you, each team manager, or the players.
3. Pick round robin, knockout, or groups plus knockout.
4. Check the standings rules (FIBA by default), the quarter length and the walkover score.
5. Add your courts, set the start time and slot length, and let the auto-schedule place the games and flag clashes. For a printable fixture list without an account, use the schedule maker.
6. Decide who enters results. By default you do; you can let team managers enter and confirm group games.
7. Print the slips and the bracket, and hand each table its QR codes.

A season of weekly games fits leagues better. A league also starts with FIBA standings, and results there are entered by you and your co-organisers. JudgeMate does not take entry fees or send notifications. For the rules of play, see how basketball scoring works and the basketball referee guide.