3x3 basketball rules, scoring and officiating
One hoop, 10 minutes, 21 points and a 12-second shot clock
3x3 basketball is one 10-minute period on one hoop between teams of three. Baskets count 1 inside the arc and 2 behind it, free throws count 1. The first team to 21 points in regular time wins at once; a tie leads to an untimed overtime that the first team to score 2 points wins. Teams have 12 seconds per possession, team fouls bring two free throws from the 7th and the ball as well from the 10th, and each team has one 30-second time-out.
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3x3 Competition Formats & Officiating
Competition Formats
Pools, knockout and the FIBA 3x3 World CupA 3x3 event is a one-day or weekend tournament: teams play short pool games, usually every 15 to 20 minutes on the same court, and the best advance to a knockout bracket. Games last 10 minutes or until 21 points, so an organiser can fit dozens of games into a single court in an afternoon.
A 3x3 event is a one-day or weekend tournament: teams play short pool games, usually every 15 to 20 minutes on the same court, and the best advance to a knockout bracket. Games last 10 minutes or until 21 points, so an organiser can fit dozens of games into a single court in an afternoon.
The FIBA 3x3 World Cup for national teams is played every year, and continental Zone Cups such as the Europe Cup and the Asia Cup follow the same pool-then-knockout format. In FIBA 3x3 official competitions a team must be on the court with three players at the scheduled start, or it loses the game by forfeit, marked w-0 on the scoresheet.
The World Tour and the Women's SeriesThe FIBA 3x3 World Tour is the professional circuit for men's club teams, usually named after their home city. Teams qualify through Challengers and Masters events and the season ends with a World Tour Final. The FIBA 3x3 Women's Series is the equivalent circuit for women's national teams.
The FIBA 3x3 World Tour is the professional circuit for men's club teams, usually named after their home city. Teams qualify through Challengers and Masters events and the season ends with a World Tour Final. The FIBA 3x3 Women's Series is the equivalent circuit for women's national teams.
In these competitions the full FIBA 3x3 court is mandatory: 15 m wide and 11 m long, with the arc at 6.75 m, the free-throw line at 5.80 m and the three-colour floor markings from the rulebook. At grassroots level 3x3 can be played on any half court, with markings or without.
How 3x3 Is Officiated: the Table's Toolkit
A 3x3 game is controlled by up to two referees and the table officials who keep the score, the game clock and the shot clock. The rulebook makes everyone responsible for the scoresheet: anyone who notices a correctable error in the score, the fouls, the time-outs or the clocks is expected to tell the referees at once.
The referees call the fouls and violations; the table applies the counters that decide what a foul is worth. Five numbers carry the game.
- clock
- The game clock — one period of 10 minutes, stopped during dead balls and free throws. Regular time ends when the clock signal sounds or when a team reaches 21 or 22 points, whichever comes first. Where no game clock is available, the organiser sets the length and the target together, and FIBA recommends keeping them in line: 10 minutes with 10 points, 15 with 15, 21 with 21.
- scoring
- Scoring values — a free throw and a basket from inside the arc count 1 point, a basket from behind the arc counts 2. A goal accidentally scored by a defender counts for the attacking team's player who last had control of the ball.
- shotClock
- The 12-second shot clock — a team must attempt a shot that leaves the hand before the signal and then touches the ring or enters the basket. It restarts when a player gains control of a live ball, when the ball is in the offensive player's hands after a check-ball and after every made basket, when the defending team takes the ball.
- teamFouls
- Team fouls — every contact foul is charged to the offender's team and the count never resets. From the 7th team foul the opponents shoot two free throws; from the 10th they shoot two free throws and keep the ball. Players are not excluded for a number of personal fouls, but a second unsportsmanlike foul disqualifies the player from the game.
- timeouts
- Time-outs — each team has one time-out of 30 seconds, requested when the ball is dead before a check-ball or a free throw. An unused time-out carries over to overtime. In FIBA 3x3 official competitions the organiser may add two 30-second TV time-outs at the first dead ball after 6:59 and 3:59 on the game clock.
The rulebook assumes a game clock and a shot clock with a backstop signal at official level and nothing more than a scorer at grassroots level. JudgeMate's free 3x3 scoreboard sits in between: one phone runs the 10-minute clock, the 12-second shot clock, the +1 and +2 buttons, the team-foul thresholds and the single time-out, and it closes the game by itself at 21 points or at 2 points in overtime. Spectators follow a link or a QR code on any screen. It is a scoreboard for a court, not a federation-certified results system.
Frequently Asked Questions About 3x3 Basketball
Primary Sources
More about 3x3 Basketball
4 sections · 3x3 — the game that ends at 21 · The Biggest 3x3 Competitions · 3x3 Equipment · The History of 3x3
More about 3x3 Basketball
4 sections · 3x3 — the game that ends at 21 · The Biggest 3x3 Competitions · 3x3 Equipment · The History of 3x3
3x3 — the game that ends at 21
3x3 basketball is played by two teams of three on one basket, with at most one substitute each, and it is governed by its own FIBA rulebook rather than a shortened version of the 5v5 rules. The current edition was approved by the FIBA Central Board on 4 December 2025 and applies from 1 January 2026.
The game is one period of 10 minutes, and the clock stops during dead balls and free throws. What makes 3x3 different is that the clock is not the only way a game ends: the first team to reach 21 points in regular time wins on the spot, a rule the rulebook itself calls sudden death. A tie at the end of the 10 minutes leads, after a one-minute interval, to an untimed overtime that the first team to score 2 points wins.
Scoring is lower than in 5v5. A basket from inside the arc and a free throw count 1 point, a basket from behind the arc counts 2. The 12-second shot clock keeps the game moving, and after every made basket the defending team simply takes the ball and clears it behind the arc, with no inbound and no stoppage.
The Biggest 3x3 Competitions
3x3 runs two calendars at once: national teams in the World Cup, the Zone Cups and the Olympic tournament, and city-named club teams on the professional World Tour.
Olympic Games
The IOC added 3x3 to the Olympic programme in June 2017. It debuted at **Tokyo 2020**, where Latvia won the men's and the United States the women's tournament, and returned at **Paris 2024** with the Netherlands and Germany taking the titles. 3x3 stays on the programme for **Los Angeles 2028**.
FIBA 3x3 World Cup
The annual national-team championship, played in pools followed by a knockout round. The first edition was the 2012 FIBA 3x3 World Championships in Athens; the event has carried the World Cup name since 2014 and is played by men's and women's teams at the same venue.
FIBA 3x3 World Tour
The professional club circuit, running since 2012. City-named teams qualify through Challengers for the Masters events, and the season ends with the **World Tour Final**. The rulebook's mandatory court colours and dimensions apply to every Masters.
Zone Cups and the Women's Series
Continental championships for national teams — the **Europe Cup**, Asia Cup, Africa Cup and Americas Cup — plus the **FIBA 3x3 Women's Series**, the women's professional circuit, with its own handbook published each season.
3x3 Equipment
3x3 needs one hoop and little else, but the rulebook is specific about the three things that change how the game is scored: the ball, the court and the clocks.
The 3x3 ball
FIBA's official 3x3 basketball has the circumference of a size 6 ball and the weight of a size 7, so it handles like the smaller ball and shoots like the bigger one. The rulebook requires 3x3 basketballs at official competitions.
The court
A regulation 3x3 court is 15 m wide and 11 m long, measured inside the boundary line, with the 2-point arc at 6.75 m, the free-throw line at 5.80 m and a no-charge semi-circle under the basket. The restricted area and the 2-point area are painted in one colour, the rest of the floor in another, and the out-of-bounds area in black.
Game clock and shot clock
Official competitions need a backstop unit with a shot clock and a game clock that shows tenths of a second: a shot released with 0:00.3 or more on either clock can still count. Where there is no clock at all, the rules let the organiser play to a score alone.
The History of 3x3
From the playground to a rulebook
Half-court three-on-three is as old as the playground: one hoop, make it take it, play to a number. Streetball tournaments formalised it in the 1990s, but every event had its own rules on the score cap, the shot clock and the fouls. FIBA's contribution was to write one rulebook and to keep the parts that made the street game fast: a low target, short possessions and no stoppage after a basket.
FIBA takes it to the Youth Olympics
FIBA tested the format at the 2007 Asian Indoor Games in Macau and staged the first official 3x3 tournament at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. The first 3x3 World Championships followed in Athens in 2012, the same year the World Tour began. The 10-minute, 21-point, 12-second frame has been the core of the rules ever since.
An Olympic sport since Tokyo
The IOC Executive Board added 3x3 to the Tokyo 2020 programme on 9 June 2017, making it the first basketball discipline alongside the 5v5 tournament. The current rulebook, approved by the FIBA Central Board on 4 December 2025 and valid from 1 January 2026, keeps the same frame: 21 points to win in regular time, 2 points to win the overtime, 12 seconds per possession.
Start a Free 3x3 Scoreboard
Streetball night, club tournament or a company league: JudgeMate runs the 3x3 clock, the shot clock and the score from a phone and ends the game at 21. Free, no sign-up, built on the FIBA 3x3 rules.
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