The Complete Guide to Round Robin Tournaments

A round robin is the simplest tournament format to understand: every player (or team) plays every other player exactly once. No eliminations, no seedings, no byes that let someone skip a tough opponent. The person who wins the most matches wins the tournament.

The math is straightforward. With n players, you get n−1 rounds and n(n−1)/2 total matches. So 6 players means 5 rounds and 15 matches. 8 players means 7 rounds and 28 matches. The numbers grow fast. 16 players produces 120 matches, which is why large round robins usually split into groups.

This format is the default at most tennis and pickleball clubs for social play, and for good reason. Everyone gets equal court time. There's no first-round exit where someone drives 30 minutes to play one match and go home. Players at different skill levels still get competitive games because the final standings reflect cumulative performance, not a single unlucky draw. Round robins also let organizers predict exactly how long an event will take, which matters when you're booking courts by the hour.

How to Set Up a Round Robin

The first decision is format. Singles is the obvious choice when you have individual players. Fixed doubles works when people arrive as established pairs, like club league nights where Team Smith plays Team Johnson every week. Rotating doubles (where partners shuffle each round) is the format to pick for social events. It's especially popular in pickleball, where mixing partners keeps things casual and lets newer players learn from stronger ones.

Next, figure out your group size. A single pool works fine up to about 10–12 players. Above that, you really should split into groups. Here's why: 12 players in one pool means 66 matches. On 2 courts at 20 minutes each, that's 11 hours. Split those same 12 players into two groups of 6, and you're down to 30 matches total, about 5 hours on 2 courts. The tradeoff is that not everyone plays everyone, but for a social event or a weeknight league, shorter is almost always better.

Do the time math before you commit. Take the number of matches, divide by the number of courts you have, multiply by your estimated match length. For tennis, figure 20–25 minutes for an 8-game pro set. For pickleball, 12–15 minutes per game to 11. If the total exceeds your venue window, add groups until it fits.

Handling Odd Numbers and BYEs

A BYE is a free pass. When a player is scheduled against BYE, they sit that round out. The generator handles this automatically: if you enter 5 players, it internally pads to 6 and assigns one BYE per round. That means 5 players actually produces 5 rounds (not 4), because the schedule needs the extra round to give everyone equal playing time while each player sits out exactly once.

Three-player round robins technically work but they're over fast, with just 3 matches, done in under an hour on a single court. If you have 3 players and more time to fill, consider playing the round robin twice or using longer match formats. For 7 players, the same logic applies as 5: the generator pads to 8, creating 7 rounds where each player gets one BYE. To keep idle players engaged, have the BYE player referee, keep score, or warm up on a side court. Nobody wants to sit around watching for 20 minutes with nothing to do.

For scoring, keep it simple: track wins and losses. When two players finish with the same record (and this will happen), break ties with head-to-head result first, then game differential. Game differential is the total games you won minus the total games you lost across all your matches. It rewards consistent play rather than a single blowout.

Schedules by Player Count

Here's a quick reference for how round robins scale. The time estimates assume 2 courts and 20-minute matches played sequentially. Your actual time will vary with match length and court count, but the ratios hold.

That time column is why groups matter. Look at the difference: 8 players in a single pool is 28 matches and nearly 5 hours. Split them into 2 groups of 4 and you're down to 12 matches in about 2 hours. The savings get more dramatic as numbers grow. 12 players in 3 groups of 4 produces 18 matches, roughly 1.5 hours when groups play in parallel on separate courts. 16 players in 4 groups of 4 is just 24 matches, about 2 hours with parallel play. You sacrifice the “everyone plays everyone” guarantee, but you gain a tournament that actually finishes before dark.

How Long Will Your Tournament Take?

Tournament duration depends on three things: how many players you have, how many courts are available, and how long each match takes. Use the calculator below to estimate total time for your round robin, including when you split into groups.

Find Your Ideal Group Setup

Not sure how to split your players into groups? Enter your constraints below and the recommender will find the group size that maximizes everyone-plays-everyone while fitting your available time and courts.

Round Robin vs Elimination Brackets

Round robins give every participant more games, fairer results, and predictable schedules. There's no bad draw that sends someone home in the first round. The final standings reflect overall performance across many matches, which reduces the randomness of a single off game. For social play, leagues, and club events, round robin is almost always the better format. People came to play, not to watch.

Elimination brackets have their place, though. They're dramatically faster for large fields: a 32-player single elimination bracket needs just 31 matches and 5 rounds, versus 496 matches for a full round robin. They also build tension in a way round robins don't: every match is win-or-go-home, which makes for better spectating. The honest take: if you have the time and fewer than 16 players, go round robin. If you have 32 players and 3 hours, elimination is your only realistic option. A common compromise is group-stage round robins feeding into an elimination playoff, giving you the fairness of round robin qualifying with the drama of a knockout finish. Try our free Bracket Generator to create seeded single elimination brackets.

Round Robins by Sport

Tennis

Most club tennis round robins use 8-game pro sets, which are long enough to be meaningful but short enough to keep things moving. At 20–25 minutes per set, an 8-player round robin on 2 courts takes about 3.5 hours, which fits neatly into a Saturday morning. Some clubs prefer timed matches (30 minutes, most games wins) to keep the schedule predictable. For social events, consider no-ad scoring (deuce point is sudden death) to speed things up. The key thing with tennis round robins is court rotation: post the schedule where everyone can see it, and assign specific courts to each match so people aren't standing around wondering where to go.

Pickleball

Pickleball round robins almost always use the rotating partners format, and for good reason: the pickleball community skews social. People show up to meet other players, not just compete. Games to 11 (win by 2) with rally scoring take about 12–15 minutes, so an 8-player rotating round robin finishes in under 2 hours on 2 courts. For larger groups, the “paddle stack” system (where players place paddles in a queue and rotate onto the next open court) is common for casual play, but a generated schedule is better for organized events because it guarantees equal playing time and avoids the problem of faster courts monopolizing play.

Badminton

Badminton games to 21 with rally scoring typically take 15–20 minutes, making the timing similar to tennis pro sets. Singles round robins work especially well because each court only needs 2 players, so you get maximum court utilization. Doubles round robins are common in club settings where people arrive as established pairs. Most clubs run best-of-one for round robin events to keep the schedule tight. Best-of-three is reserved for knockout stages or finals.

Table Tennis

Games to 11, best of 5, and fast. A table tennis match typically takes 15–20 minutes. That speed is why round robins are the standard format for table tennis leagues. Even 8 players can finish in a few hours on 2 tables, which makes a full single-pool round robin practical at sizes that would be unmanageable in tennis. Groups of 4 are the classic table tennis pool format, used everywhere from local leagues to World Table Tennis events. If you're running a ping pong tournament at your office or club, a round robin of 4–6 players per group is the format to use.