For Tournaments, Quiz Nights & Contests

Free Tournament & Competition Leaderboard

Track scores for quiz nights, hackathons, esports tournaments, trivia, and any contest. Display live rankings on a TV or projector, update from your phone, and let everyone see the competition unfold in real time.

Free forever on the starter plan. Upgrade anytime.

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Why Every Contest Needs a Live Leaderboard

Think about the last time you watched a close competition. The scoreboard is what made it exciting. A live leaderboard does the same thing for any event you run. Pub quizzes, hackathons, esports tournaments, trivia nights, spelling bees. When participants can see where they stand, they push harder. When the audience can watch positions shuffle in real time, they stay engaged.

MakeTheBoard lets you set up a competition scoreboard in under a minute. Display it on a TV or projector, update scores from your phone between rounds, and let everyone follow along. No app to install, no accounts for participants. Want more detail on scoring formats? Read our full guide.

How to Set Up a Tournament Leaderboard in Under a Minute

No app to install. No accounts for participants. Just create, add competitors, and display.

Step 1

Create Your Competition Board

Pick a leaderboard or scoreboard format and give it a name like "Trivia Championship" or "Friday Quiz Night." Choose your colors and you're live.

Step 2

Add Competitors & Scores

Enter team or player names. Update scores after each round and rankings auto-sort instantly. Or share a signup link so contestants add themselves before the event.

Step 3

Display on the Big Screen

Open the shareable link on a TV, projector, or stream overlay. Update from your phone and every screen refreshes instantly. No manual refresh needed.

Live Rankings on the Big Screen

Open the leaderboard link on a projector, smart TV, or venue screen. As you enter scores, rankings shuffle in real time. The crowd watches positions change, and that is what makes competitions exciting.

Create a free leaderboard
Tournament leaderboard displayed on a big screen showing live competition rankings

Multi-Round Scoring That Auto-Calculates

Add scores round by round and MakeTheBoard auto-calculates cumulative totals and re-sorts the rankings. Perfect for trivia nights, quiz bowls, and multi-stage tournaments where the lead changes every round.

Explore the scoreboard maker
Multi-round competition scoreboard with cumulative scoring

Share a Link or Embed Anywhere

Every leaderboard gets a public link and an embed code. Share it in Discord, post it in your Twitch stream, paste it on your event page, or text it to participants. It updates in real time wherever it's viewed.

Learn about sharing & embedding
Competition leaderboard shared via link and embedded on event page

Competition Leaderboard Ideas for Every Event

Pick a format, add your competitors, and go live in seconds.

Quiz Night Scoreboard

Trivia & quiz nights

Track team scores across multiple rounds of trivia. Display the live scoreboard on the bar TV or projector. Update between rounds from your phone.

Hackathon Leaderboard

Hackathons & coding challenges

Score teams by judges' ratings, demo quality, or code challenge completions. Display live standings on a screen at the venue or share the link in Slack.

Esports Tournament

Gaming & esports

Track wins, kills, or tournament points across an esports event or LAN party. Share the link in Discord or overlay it on your Twitch stream.

Sports Day / Field Day

Schools & community sports

Track points across events at a school sports day or community field day. Rank teams or individuals and display on the field scoreboard.

Company Game Night

Team building & corporate events

Run a company trivia night, board game tournament, or team-building competition. The live leaderboard keeps energy high and gives everyone something to rally around.

Spelling Bee / Academic Bowl

Academic competitions

Track elimination rounds, cumulative scores, or head-to-head matchups at spelling bees, science olympiads, and academic decathlons.

How to Run a Quiz Night with a Live Scoreboard

A step-by-step guide to running a trivia night that participants actually remember. Works for pubs, corporate events, schools, and private parties.

1

Before the event

Set Up the Board

Create a leaderboard on MakeTheBoard and add team names (or let teams self-register with a QR code). Set round scoring to track cumulative totals.

2

During each round

Update Scores Live

After each round, enter scores from your phone. Rankings re-sort instantly on the big screen. The crowd watches teams jump and fall in real time.

3

Between rounds

Build Suspense

Display the leaderboard on the projector between rounds. Call out the biggest movers. Tease how close the top three are. This keeps teams engaged during breaks.

4

Final round

Reveal the Winner

Enter the last round's scores and let the leaderboard do the dramatic re-sort. The winning team sees their name rise to #1 in real time on the screen.

Live Leaderboard vs. Spreadsheets & Whiteboards

See why event organizers are switching from manual score tracking to a live digital scoreboard.

FeatureMakeTheBoardSpreadsheet / Whiteboard
Real-time updates on big screen
Auto-sorted rankings
Multi-round cumulative scoring
Update scores from your phone
Contestant self-registration
Embed on website or stream
No software to install
Setup time< 1 minute10–30 minutes

Built for Competitions and Live Events

Fast setup, real-time updates, and a TV-ready display that makes any contest feel professional.

Real-Time Updates

Scores update instantly across all viewers the moment you make a change. No page refreshes needed. Everyone sees the latest rankings simultaneously.

Built for Every Team

Used by teachers, coaches, sales teams, nonprofits, and event organizers to track progress and motivate their teams.

Embed on Any Website

Drop a single iframe code into your website, blog, WordPress, Notion, or LMS. Your board updates in real time right on your page.

Budget Friendly

Free forever for up to 2 boards. No credit card required to start. Affordable Premium and Team plans when you need more.

Fully Customizable

Custom colors, logos, backgrounds, and themes. Match your board to your brand or event for a polished, professional look.

Participant Signup

Share a signup link so participants can add themselves to your board. No back-and-forth. They join and you stay in control.

What Our Users Say

We run a weekly pub quiz and MakeTheBoard replaced our messy whiteboard completely. Teams love watching the leaderboard shuffle between rounds. It has become the highlight of the night.

RO

Ryan O'Brien

Pub Quiz Host

We used it for our company hackathon and it was perfect. Judges entered scores from their phones and the live leaderboard on the big screen kept all 20 teams engaged until the final reveal.

PS

Priya Sharma

Engineering Manager

I organize a monthly gaming tournament at our local game shop. Having the live leaderboard on the TV screen makes it feel like a real esports event. Setup took 30 seconds.

ML

Marcus Lee

Tournament Organizer

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. The free plan lets you create up to 2 leaderboards with 20 participants each, no credit card required. That covers most tournaments and quiz nights. Upgrade to Premium ($9.99/mo) for up to 25 boards and 500 participants, or Team ($24.99/mo) for unlimited boards and multi-organizer collaboration.

Absolutely. Create a leaderboard, add team or player names, and update scores after each round. Display the live scoreboard on a TV or projector so everyone can see the rankings change in real time. No app install needed for viewers.

Yes. MakeTheBoard works for any competition with a score: esports tournaments, LAN parties, online gaming leagues, and streaming events. Share the live link in your Discord or Twitch chat and viewers see rankings update instantly.

Yes. Add scores round by round and the cumulative total auto-calculates and auto-sorts. Perfect for quiz bowls, trivia nights, and multi-stage tournaments.

Yes. Open the shareable link in any browser on a smart TV, projector, Chromecast, or wall-mounted monitor. The responsive layout fills the screen and updates in real time as you enter scores from your phone.

Yes. With the Team plan, invite other judges or organizers as collaborators. Everyone can update scores from their own device (phone, tablet, or laptop) and the leaderboard updates instantly for all viewers.

Yes. The public link is view-only, so anyone can check the rankings without creating an account or installing an app. Share it in chat, post it on social media, or display it on a screen.

Yes. Every leaderboard gets a unique embed code. Paste it into your event page, Discord server widget, WordPress site, or any page that supports HTML embeds. It updates in real time.

A spreadsheet doesn't auto-sort, doesn't look good on a TV, and requires viewers to refresh. MakeTheBoard auto-ranks participants, updates every screen in real time, and has a clean, TV-ready display designed for competitions.

Ready to Run Your Next Competition?

Create a free tournament leaderboard in under a minute. No credit card, no app installs.