The core formula
Start with your total available minutes: the time from your first scheduled match to your last, in minutes. Divide that by the length of one match slot — match length plus changeover time — to get how many match slots fit on a single court. Multiply that by the number of courts you have, and you get the total number of matches your whole event can fit.
- Total match slots = (available minutes ÷ (match length + changeover)) × number of courts
Worked example 1: a short club evening
Say you have 3 courts for 2 hours (120 minutes), with 12-minute timed matches and a 3-minute changeover between them. Each match slot takes 12 + 3 = 15 minutes. Over 120 minutes, that's 120 ÷ 15 = 8 match slots per court. With 3 courts running in parallel, that's 8 × 3 = 24 matches across the evening — enough for a League only format with up to around 7 teams playing everyone once, or a Groups then Main knockout with a modest field.
Worked example 2: a longer weekend session
Now say you have 4 courts for 4 hours (240 minutes), with 20-minute matches and a 5-minute changeover. Each slot takes 20 + 5 = 25 minutes. Over 240 minutes, that's 240 ÷ 25 = 9.6, which rounds down to 9 match slots per court — you can't schedule a tenth, as it wouldn't finish in time. With 4 courts, that's 9 × 4 = 36 matches total, which comfortably supports Groups then Main and Plate knockouts for a larger field, with room for a third-place match too.
Worked example 3: fitting a fixed number of teams
Sometimes you're working backwards: you know how many teams are coming and need to check they'll fit. Say 12 teams want a League only format where everyone plays everyone once — that's 12 × 11 ÷ 2 = 66 matches in total. If you have 3 courts and 3 hours (180 minutes) with 15-minute matches plus a 3-minute changeover (18 minutes per slot), you get 180 ÷ 18 = 10 slots per court, or 30 matches total across 3 courts — far short of 66. In that case you'd need to shorten matches, add courts, add time, or switch to a format with fewer total matches, such as Groups then Main knockout instead of a full round robin.
Changeover time matters more than people expect
It's tempting to ignore changeover time when planning, but a 3–5 minute gap between matches adds up quickly across a long day. In worked example 2 above, dropping the changeover from 5 minutes to 0 would let you fit 240 ÷ 20 = 12 slots per court instead of 9 — a big difference. Building changeover into your plan up front, rather than hoping it works out, is what keeps a tournament running close to its advertised finish time. iTournee's scheduler builds changeover time and scheduled breaks into the plan automatically, along with a shared round clock and a 'Running late' option if a match overruns.
Try it yourself
Rather than doing the arithmetic by hand every time, use the calculator below. Enter your courts, available time, match length and changeover, and it will show how many match slots you can fit. Once you're happy with the numbers, the calculator's Build this schedule button opens the tournament wizard with those same settings already filled in, so you can go straight from planning to a real draw.
For help choosing a format that matches your match count, see the formats guide, or read the full how-to-run guide for everything else involved in organising the day.