How to use the tournament prize payout calculator
- Enter the prize pool and any share to hold back for fees or costs.
- Choose how to split: each place a share of the one above, a 1, 1/2, 1/3 pattern, equal payouts, or your own percentages.
- Enter the places paid (or your own percentages, which must add up to 100) and the share ratio for the falling split.
- Choose the amount to round payouts to, such as $1 or $5, and read the table of prizes.
Formula
pool after holdback = pool x (1 - held back %)
falling split weights: 1, r, r^2, r^3 ... harmonic weights: 1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 ...
prize = pool after holdback x weight / sum of weights, rounded to whole steps by largest remainder
Each prize is first computed exactly and then rounded to whole steps of the size you chose. The leftover steps go to the places with the largest fractional parts, so the total is exact and no place can get more than the place above it.
A $1,000 pool paid to five places
With each place getting 60% of the one above, the weights are 1, 0.6, 0.36, 0.216 and 0.1296. The prizes are $434, $260, $156, $94 and $56, adding up to exactly $1,000. The 1, 1/2, 1/3 pattern gives $438, $219, $146, $109 and $88.
With your own percentages of 50, 30 and 20 on a $1,000 pool rounded to $5, the prizes are $500, $300 and $200. Holding back 10% of $1,000 and paying 3 equal places leaves $900 to share, so each gets $300. A pool of $1,003 paid to two equal places in $5 steps pays $500 each and leaves $3 over.
Choosing a shape
A steep split rewards first place heavily; a flat one spreads the money. The falling ratio lets you set the steepness with one number: lower ratios pay first place more. The harmonic pattern is a middle path, and equal payouts suit an event where the aim is simply to pay everyone who qualifies.
Rounding to larger steps gives cleaner numbers but moves a little money between places. A step larger than the smallest prize would round that prize to nothing, and the page warns you.
What it does not cover
The page only divides the money. Rules about entry fees, prizes, taxes and reporting depend on what kind of event it is and where it takes place, and they are not covered here. To split tips or a pool by hours worked, use the Tip Pool Calculator; for drawing a bracket, the Tournament Bracket Generator.
More sport and game tools
For pairings, swimming and music, try the Swim Critical Speed Calculator, Musical Interval Calculator and Swiss Pairing Generator.
Assumptions and limits
- The pool is a single amount of money in one currency; the dollar sign is only a label.
- Prizes are multiples of the rounding step, and any remainder smaller than one step is left over.
- The falling split needs a ratio from 1% to 100%; custom percentages must add up to 100.
- The holdback is a share you choose, not a rule or a rate the page knows about.
- The example pool and places are an illustration. Replace them with your own.
Frequently asked questions
Why do the prizes add up exactly?
The calculation works in whole steps and shares the steps by largest remainder, so no cents are lost or invented. The total of the prizes plus any stated leftover equals the pool after the holdback.
What ratio gives equal payouts?
A ratio of 100% makes every weight 1, so every place gets the same prize. The Equal payouts option does the same without a ratio.
Can I pay more places than the pool can support?
Only if each place can get at least one rounding step. Otherwise the page asks for a larger pool, fewer places or a smaller rounding step.
What if two players tie?
Add the prizes of the places they share and split that amount between them. The page does not do that automatically.