Feature Summary: Tournaments gives you three ways to build a tournament: answer a few guided questions with Autopilot, copy one of your club's past tournaments, or build every setting yourself. Each option walks through the same setup steps, so you can review and adjust everything before you publish.

Use Cases:

To start a new tournament, navigate to Tournaments in the left navigation menu and click Create Tournament.

You'll see three ways to build, with Use Autopilot selected by default:

Every option moves through the same setup steps: Basics > Divisions > Fees > Courts > Polish & Policies > Review. If you change your mind partway through, click Start over with a different method at the top of the page to choose another option.

Note: If you’ve started answering the Autopilot questions and then click a different method card at the top of the page, you’re asked to confirm before your Autopilot answers are cleared.

Note: A few options on the Create Tournament page are marked coming soon and aren't available in this Beta release, including ready-made tournament Templates, Private (link-only) tournaments, and a simpler Round robin option for small, recurring events.

Why it matters: A first-time organizer can use Autopilot to get a tournament ready to publish quickly, while a club running a repeat event can copy last season's tournament instead of re-entering details they've already set up.

Autopilot asks a few questions across four screens, then drafts every setup step for you to review. The examples in this article follow the Autumn Classic Tennis Invitational at North Star Racquet Club, a one-day tennis tournament with four divisions.

Note: Autopilot prefills the Basics, Divisions, Fees, and Courts steps from your answers, but nothing is saved yet. To keep the tournament and finish it later, click Save draft & exit. The draft is listed under Drafts on the Tournaments page, with the next step to finish.

The Vibe screen also fills in suggested entry fees and prize money, which you can change on the Fees step.

For example: The Autumn Classic used these answers:

After Autopilot builds the draft, you review it in the setup wizard, which has five setup steps and a final review: Basics > Divisions > Fees > Courts > Polish & Policies > Review. The sections below walk through each one.

The Basics step covers the tournament's name, dates, visibility, and organizers.

If you used Autopilot, the step is titled Review your Autopilot draft, and every field Autopilot filled in is marked + AUTOPILOT. Change anything you need, then continue through the steps.

Note: Co-organizers need certain staff permissions to open Tournaments. For details, see Tournament Staff Permissions.

For example: The Autumn Classic runs on 10/24/2026, with registration closing on 10/21/2026, and is set to Public.

The Divisions step sets up each group players register for, such as Men's Singles or Women's Doubles. It has two parts: tournament-wide defaults, and the list of divisions.

These settings apply to every division. Any division can override them in its Advanced division settings.

If you used Autopilot, the divisions it created are listed here, marked + AUTOPILOT.

To add more:

Each division shows its age group, format, and maximum entries. A division that uses the tournament-wide format shows (default) after it, and a division that overrides any tournament-wide default is marked Custom. To change a division, click the edit icon. To remove one, click the delete icon. To start over, click Clear all.

Click the edit icon on a division to change its settings:

Expand Advanced division settings to override the tournament-wide defaults for this division:

Click Save to keep your changes.

For example: Autopilot created Men's Doubles and Women's Doubles for the Autumn Classic, using the default format of round robin with set partners. Men's Singles and Women's Singles were added from Quick add, then edited to use single elimination. Each division allows up to 16 entries, and the waitlist is turned on:

The Fees step sets entry fees, payment rules, membership pricing, and prize money.

Under Pricing structure, choose how players are charged:

Then enter the fee for each division. Fees are charged per player, including in doubles divisions. To use the same fee for every division, enter it in Set all divisions to and click Apply to all. Every division needs a fee before you can publish. Enter 0 to make a division free.

These payment rules apply to everyone, unless a membership type's price group sets its own rule:

Choose Same rates for everyone, or Custom rates by membership type to give specific membership types a different price. Custom rates are organized into price groups. Each price group includes one or more membership types that pay the same adjusted price.

The line below the price groups lists every membership type that still pays the regular price. To remove a price group, click the x in its corner.

To display prize money on the tournament page, select Add prize money. Under Divisions, choose which divisions award prizes, or click Select all divisions. Then enter an amount for each one, or use Set all divisions to and Apply to all. You can also choose No prize money now and add prizes later in Prep.

Tournament fees are recorded in the Tournament revenue category by default. To use a different category, check Override tournament revenue category and choose one. Use Sales tax to apply a tax rate to entry fees.

The Revenue projection estimates the tournament's revenue, costs, and net margin. Drag Expected fill to estimate how full the divisions will be, and enter any Sponsorship intake. Costs include the Swish platform fee and prize money payouts. Break-even fill shows how full the divisions need to be for revenue to cover costs. The projection doesn't include membership-specific pricing.

For example: At the Autumn Classic, singles divisions cost $25 per player and doubles divisions cost $40 per player. Members with an Annual Membership pay 10% less, $22.50 for singles and $36.00 for doubles, and must pay when they register. Each division awards $100 in prize money.

The Courts step blocks courts so members can't book over your tournament. Under Block courts for this tournament?, choose Yes, block courts to reserve courts now, or No, decide later to wait until you know how registrations are filling up. I

If you decide later, nothing is blocked yet, and blocking courts appears as a required item on the tournament’s Prep checklist. Blocked courts show as tournament blocks on the court schedulers and the Events Calendar in the admin panel. To choose their colors, see Scheduler Colors in Polish & Policies below.

When you choose Yes, block courts, a summary under Here's what we'll block shows which courts will be blocked from regular reservations, and when. Courts are blocked from member reservations during each day's time window.

Under Courts and times by day, each tournament day has its own settings:

To block courts outside your club's regular hours, check Override organization working hours.

For example: The Autumn Classic chose No, decide later, so courts are blocked during prep.

The Polish & Policies step covers how the tournament page looks, the rules for refunds and withdrawals, and the information players see before they register.

Tournament Banner

An optional image shown on the tournament page and on the tournament’s card on the Tournaments page. Click Upload an image, or paste a link to a hosted image in Banner image. The recommended size is 1600 x 600. After uploading, you can Replace image, Crop / edit, or Remove it.

Here’s an example of a banner image on the share a tournament page:

Here’s an example of a banner image on the mobile app:
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Sponsors

Optional sponsors to feature on the tournament page.

To bring in a sponsor you’ve used before, click Reuse from a past tournament. To add more, click + Add another sponsor.

The tier decides where the sponsor appears on the tournament page. Presenting sponsors get top billing in the tournament header, Gold and Silver sponsors appear in the sidebar, and Supporting sponsors appear in the footer. To preview placement, expand Where do sponsors show on the member page?

Here’s an example of a sponsor logo on the mobile app:
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Scheduler Colors

Optional colors for this tournament’s blocks on the court scheduler and the Events Calendar in the CourtReserve admin panel. Choose a Scheduler background color and a Scheduler text color. If you don’t choose colors, tournament blocks are purple with white text.

For example: The Holiday Classic Tennis Invitational uses a dark green background (#056110) with white text, so it stands out on the court scheduler and the Events Calendar.

Refund Policy

Check Set a refund deadline earlier than the tournament start to give players a full refund until a specific date and time. Enter the Refund deadline and Time. After the deadline, you decide on refunds through Pending Refunds.

Player Withdrawal

Check Players can edit or withdraw their registration to let players change or withdraw on their own. Refunds follow your refund policy and auto-refund settings. To stop changes after a certain point, check Set an edit and withdrawal deadline. Otherwise, players can edit or withdraw any time.

Registrant Approval

Choose Instant registration to confirm players as soon as they register, or Manual approval required to approve each entry yourself. Players awaiting approval see Awaiting club approval. They pay after you approve their entry, when the entry fee is added to their account as a balance due.

Online Registration

Check Hide online registration to stop players from registering themselves, so only organizers can add registrations. Leave it unchecked to let players register while the registration window is open.

Contact Info

The contact shown to players on the tournament page. Choose Default contact info, or choose Add different contact info and enter a Name, Email, and optional Phone.

Waiver

Optional waivers players sign when they register. To create a new waiver, use Manage Disclosures, and it appears here.

Disclosure

Optional disclosures players sign when they register. To create a new disclosure, use Manage Disclosures, and it appears here.

Registration Questions

Optional questions players answer once per tournament, not once per division, such as T-shirt size. Select existing questions from the list, or create a new one:

Anything Else Players Should Know

Optional details for players, such as parking, the check-in desk, or what to bring.

Additional Documents

Optional files for players, such as rules or a court map. Files can be a PDF, DOC, or image, up to 6 MB each.

For example: The Autumn Classic uses a fall tennis banner and lists North Star Tennis Pro Shop as its Presenting sponsor. Players get a full refund until 10/17/2026 at 11:59 PM, can withdraw on their own at any time, and are confirmed as soon as they register. Questions go to the North Star Racquet Club Front Desk. Players sign the club's Event Waiver and Event Disclosure and are asked for their T-shirt size.

The Review & publish step summarizes your setup in cards for Basics, Divisions, Fees, Courts & Scheduling, and Polish & Policies. To change something, click Edit on that card. Above the cards, the step lists anything that needs attention:

To publish:

For example: The Autumn Classic's Review step flags that 10/24/2026 has no courts blocked yet. Since courts were left for prep, the Courts & Scheduling card shows Saved for Tournament prep, and What happens when you publish notes that no courts are blocked yet and can be picked during prep.

Note: Tournaments appear for players only in the new member portal and the new mobile app experience. If your club still uses either classic experience, see Introducing Tournaments to turn on the new experiences before you publish.

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Under What happens when you publish, the step explains what changes once the tournament is live. Members can register in the member portal right away, any courts you chose are blocked from regular reservations, and the tournament shows on the Tournaments overview as Reg open. You can still edit divisions, fees, and most settings until registration closes.

After publishing, a How did setup go? window may ask for quick feedback. Choose an answer, or click Not now to skip it.

If you hand a tournament to Swish to run its bracket, your club is billed a platform fee of $5 per player, per division. The fee applies only when a division starts with the player in it, so divisions that never run are never billed. The fee appears monthly in arrears on your CourtReserve subscription and is not taken from your tournament payout.

After you publish, the tournament's Overview page opens with a banner confirming the tournament is live. To spread the word right away, click Announce to members or Share. From this page, you can manage registrations, prepare for tournament day, and sync brackets to Swish. For details, see Managing a Published Tournament.

Copy a past tournament to reuse its divisions, format, fees, and policies.

When you copy a tournament:

Note: Before you publish a copied tournament, check the Fees step to make sure membership price groups and their payment rules carried over the way you expect. Prize money, sponsors, waivers, and registration questions aren’t copied, so add them again on the Fees and Polish & Policies steps.

To copy a different tournament instead, click Choose another at the top of the Basics step.

Build a tournament with nothing prefilled when you want to set every detail yourself.

The steps and fields are the same as those described in Creating a Tournament with Autopilot above. The only difference is that every field starts blank, except Registration window, where Opens defaults to today's date.

Tournaments gives you three ways to build a tournament: answer a few questions with Autopilot, copy a past tournament, or start from scratch. Every option moves through the same setup steps, where you set up divisions, fees and membership pricing, courts, and the policies players see. The Review step flags anything that needs attention before you publish, and nothing goes live until you confirm. Once published, members can register right away or once registration opens, based on your settings, and you can manage the tournament from its Overview page.