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Let Your Referees Enter Tournament Results From Their Phone

· 6 min read
Score7 Team
Score7 Team

You're running a Sunday league. You have three referees on three courts. They finish their matches, walk over to you with a scrap of paper or a text message, and you type the score into the tournament. By the time you've caught up, the next round is already starting.

Score7 lets your referees enter results themselves, from their phones, with no login and no app to install. Each referee gets a personal link and QR code. They open it, see the matches you assigned to them, and enter each score as the match ends. The result counts straight away: standings, brackets and the public page update without you touching anything.

What's Premium​

Referee result entry is a Premium feature. On Premium you can:

  • turn on Allow referees to enter results
  • add, rename, reorder and remove referees
  • open Referee QR codes and export the printable QR sheet

Referees keep entering results only while the tournament owner is on Premium. If the plan lapses, their submissions are refused until it's back.

Step 1: Turn on referee result entry​

  1. Open your tournament and go to Access.
  2. In the Self-service result entry section, click the edit icon next to Allow referees to enter results.
  3. Choose Enabled and save.

You can flip the same switch from the Scheduler too: open the Referees tab, then Manage, then Allow referees to enter results.

While it's off, a referee can still open their link and see their matches, but Score7 refuses any result they try to save.

Step 2: Add your referees​

  1. Open Scheduler and go to the Referees tab.
  2. Click Add Referee, type the name and save.

That's all it takes: every referee gets their own personal result-entry link the moment you add them. Use the pencil (Rename referee) to fix a name, or the bin (Delete Referee) to remove someone. Removing a referee cancels their link for good, so it stops working on their phone.

Step 3: Assign referees to matches​

A referee sees, and can enter results for, only the matches assigned to them. You assign them in the Scheduler:

  • Auto tab: tick the referees to use in a scheduling run, and the scheduler spreads them across the matches it plans.
  • Manual tab: drag a referee from the Referees panel onto a match.

Change an assignment later and the referee's list follows it: the match moves to the new referee's link and drops off the old one.

In the Referees tab, open Manage and choose Referee QR codes. Each referee has two codes:

  • View link is read-only. It shows the referee's matches and can't enter results.
  • Edit link (enter results) is the referee's personal link for entering results. It appears once referee result entry is on.

Next to the edit link you'll find:

  • Copy result link copies the link so you can paste it into WhatsApp, SMS or email. Score7 doesn't send it for you.
  • Regenerate link cancels the old link and gives that referee a fresh one in one step. Use it if a link ends up in the wrong hands.
  • Revoke link switches the link off. The next time the referee opens it, they see "This link is no longer valid. Contact the tournament organizer for a new link." Results they already entered stay.
  • Generate and copy link appears when a referee has no active link, for example after you revoked it.

At a busy event, Export access QR codes (PDF) puts every referee on one printable sheet: one card per referee, each with the QR code of that referee's personal link. Print it, cut it into slips, and give each slip only to the referee named on it. Never post the sheet publicly: anyone who scans a card can enter results as that referee. A referee with no active link (say, after you revoked it) gets a card with their read-only view link instead. More on this in how to hand out access QR codes.

What the referee sees​

The referee scans the code or taps the link. No login screen, no app to download.

They land on a page with their name at the top and every match assigned to them, each with its date, location and the two sides. A Refresh matches button pulls in the latest changes. If nothing is assigned yet, the page says "No matches currently assigned to you."

To enter a result, they tap the pencil on the match, enter the score (set by set if your sport plays sets), pick the winner and tap Save Result. If a match ends level, they can pick X (the draw, between the two names) in a round-robin or Swiss stage with Allow Draws switched on, and on each leg of a knockout tie played over more than one leg. A single-leg knockout match needs a winner. If the legs leave a tie level, you choose who goes through. They can come back later and correct their own result.

Who has the final say​

  • The organizer always wins. Once you, or someone you gave access to, enters a result on a match, the referee's page shows Locked by organizer on it and the pencil disappears.
  • The referee comes next. Their result counts at once, and it replaces any report participants have sent for that match and not yet had confirmed.
  • Participants come last. Once a referee has entered a result, participants can no longer report on that match.

Participants can report too​

Referees are one way to take score entry off your plate. The other is letting teams report their own results: turn on Allow participants to report results in the same Self-service result entry section (it reads "teams" in a team tournament). Both can run side by side, and the referee's result always takes priority over a pending participant report. The full walkthrough is in let participants report their own match results.