Introduction

Spordle ID is the platform at the heart of your tournament management. This is where you start to configure the essential elements of your tournament management: your organization, your competitions and your registration parameters. Some of the configurations below need to be done once, others for each edition.

Setting up your organization

You now have access to the Spordle ID platform and are ready to start setting up your tournament. Here are the steps to follow.

General and user settings

Whether you are a new tournament or a tournament that has already used the platform, it is important to review your settings for the new edition.

• The general tab shows basic information: legal name, common name, address and merchant account number for payments (explained in more detail later). Review the information on this tab to make sure it's correct. Contact information is essential, as it will be displayed on your federation's website. The organization name should be the legal name of your entity, while the common name could, for example, contain the name of your sponsor for the current edition.
  
  

• The user tab contains the list of users who have access to manage your tournament. Each tournament must have at least one user with the role of registrar or tournament manager, depending on your federation. This user may also have the role of "PAGE administrator" to manage the tournament's PAGE. We'll come back to this later. Each season, be sure to remove access from users who are no longer with the organization.
  
  

• The personal tab contains a list of your contacts. It will be displayed on your tournament page, and your federation will be able to contact you if necessary. You can choose whether or not they should be listed as contacts on your PAGE.

Merchant account (payment processor)

The next step in Spordle ID is to link or verify your Paysafe merchant account.

• If you already have an account in your profile, make sure it's still valid.

• If you already have a Paysafe account and it is not linked to your organization, contact us to link your Paysafe account to your tournament.

• If you don't have a merchant account or would like one specifically for the tournament, click on the link in the general tab and follow the steps.

Make your tournament available to various organizations

The next step is to open up the tournament (make it available for registration) to organizations that can participate, i.e. to whom the tournament is aimed. For example, a provincial tournament organized by a club will be open to all other clubs in the province. Whereas a regional tournament organized by a club would be open only to other clubs in the same region.

• Go to My Tournament and the Competitive Organizations tab.

• You will now have access to the list of organizations and divisions that will be available for registration for your tournament.

• Click on "Add an organization", and select the division(s) you wish to include in your tournament.

• Then, if desired, select the categories associated with these divisions.

• Finally, you'll need to select the organizations to which you'd like to add your tournament. Here you'll see leagues, tournaments and cups, as well as clubs and associations. You can filter one by one to make sure you only have the right organizations. You can also simply choose "all" to allow any organization to register its team. The same principle applies to divisions and categories, so don't bother and open yourself up to "all", as this has no impact on the categories that will be offered in your tournament, which will be created later.

Create competitions

Now that your tournament is open to the clubs and associations of the desired federation, as well as to all the categories concerned, you need to move on to creating the competitions for your sanction request.

In the context of a tournament, a competition refers to a group of teams who compete against each other to choose a champion. These are not yet groups or pools, but rather a category of confrontation. Most tournaments comprise several competitions, each corresponding to a specific category. For example: a U14LDIR-men's competition, a 9UB competition, and so on. Each competition corresponds to a schedule in Spordle PLAY.

Set the parameters for each competition in the tournament

To create a competition in your tournament, start by clicking on the 'Competitions' tab, then on the 'Add' button. You will then need to select the division you wish to include in your tournament, as well as the category. These options correspond to the age, gender and level of competition required. e.g. U14-Regional D2-male. These two values are essential for synchronization between Spordle ID and Spordle PLAY. You can also enter optional details, such as the number of places available, the competition level, the competition format and the registration fees. This information will be displayed on the Spordle Page.

It is important to specify a start date and an end date. These correspond to the desired dates of your tournament. You must not confuse them with the tournament registration end dates.

The next step is to assign a name to the competition. You can do this in the language(s) you've chosen for your tournament. We suggest you use the division, category and gender for the competition name.

You can then add a brief description of the competition. This description can include payment terms, links to various web pages concerning the tournament, etc.

Your competitions must be approved before you can launch registration fees.

Publish competitions

Once your competitions have been approved by the federation, you can publish them so that they appear on your tournament's public PAGE. Click on the competition in Spordle ID; a side panel opens. In the action menu you'll see publish the competition. Click on this choice; the competition will then appear on your Tournament PAGE. You always have the option of removing the publication if you need to make changes or if the competition no longer has places available.

Add teams to the competition

There are three options for adding teams to a competition.

• By the tournament registrar.

• By a club registrar.

• By a team or a manager, trainer or person in charge.

By the tournament registrar:

If your tournament is not open for registration, i.e. you already know the participating teams and do not wish to allow new registrations, you will need to select your competition by clicking on it. A detailed side panel will open on the right. Then click on "Teams", where you can search for and enter the teams of your choice. Simply type the team name or number to find it. It will appear in the list with the status "pending". We'll explain later how to approve teams.

Which teams are available? These are the teams of the clubs and associations you previously selected in "Competitive organizations" for your tournament when you were logged in as a club registrar.

By a club registrar:

If you are a club registrar, you can enter your teams directly into a tournament via Spordle ID. In the "Team management" menu, access the team profile and click on "Action", then select "Participate in a league-tournament". A box will appear in the team profile indicating the status of the request. This action must be carried out individually for each team; it is not possible to register several teams simultaneously.

By any other person (team manager, parent volunteer, etc.):

Anyone can register a team in a tournament, be it a manager, coach, player or parent. This is done via Spordle PAGE, your tournament's public page. It's important to register the right team. If people are unsure, they could contact their club registrar.

Register a team not in Spordle

If a team comes from an organization outside your federation and they don't use Spordle platforms, they can register via your tournament's public PAGE or you can register them yourself as tournament registrar.

Invoicing a team for its registration

You can send an invoice to registered teams for the desired amount, which need not correspond to the registration fee. You can then manage this invoice. If the invoice is not in draft status, it will be sent to the contact you have added. The e-mail received will contain a payment link, which you can also forward to another person if required. The payment link becomes inactive once payment has been made, facilitating team approval.

Manage approval of registered teams

To manage teams in your tournament, either to accept or reject them, simply go to the Teams module (Management / Teams). You can manage teams in batches or individually.

• To manage teams in batches, i.e. to accept or reject several at once, simply check the box for the teams you wish to manage, then click on the Actions button and on Manage approval. You can select all of them, since approval will take place one team at a time once the process has been launched, so you can accept some and reject others.

• To manage teams one by one, allowing you to view the team profile before approving or rejecting, simply click on the team to open the side panel and use the actions button to manage approval.

Changing a registered team's category

If a team has been entered in the wrong competition, whether by you, the club or the public, or if you decide to create a new competition, it is possible to transfer it to another competition.

A team that is approved or on hold can easily be changed to another competition in the team management table.

In your tournament, go to the Team management module. Click on the team to open the side panel on the right of the screen. You can select the new competition by clicking on change competition. A window opens so that you can change the current competition to another.   

No notification is sent at this time. You will need to contact the teams.

Changing a team

If a team is registered as an external team, but already exists in Spordle, you can replace it while its status is pending.

Simply go to the team management menu. In the side panel, under action, select change team.

Add a line-up for an external team

When an external team is pending or approved, you can add its line-up directly in Spordle ID. Once the team has been approved, the line-up information is synchronized with Spordle PLAY.

You can also link a Spordle account to the external team. An invitation will then be sent to the contact you have created. Once this person has activated their Spordle account, they will be able to manage their team's line-up and make any necessary additions. However, it will be necessary to send them an invitation to create their Spordle PLAY account at a later date.

How do you communicate with your teams?

Each registered team must have a contact, who is the team's contact person. As tournament registrar, you can modify this contact if necessary. It is also possible to send communications directly to team contacts or team members, depending on the type of message you wish to send. For example, you can send tournament rules only to team contacts, while a sponsor's discount offer can be sent to all team members.