Bracket Maker
Runs on our server, not on your device.
Type in the players, get a knockout bracket, and share one link everyone follows as the rounds are played.
- Type in the players, one per line. Four to sixty-four of them, in any order.
- Choose seeded or shuffled, give the tournament a name, and press Make the bracket.
- Share the link. Fill in each result as it is played and everyone holding the link sees it straight away.
Save this tool
Keep Bracket Maker handy
Use your browser's Share menu, then “Add to Home Screen”.
About this tool
A knockout tournament is simple until you try to run one. Eight names is fine on a whiteboard; sixteen with a bye in the first round, played over three evenings, with somebody asking who they play next — that is when it turns into a photograph of a whiteboard in a group chat. This is a bracket maker for exactly that. Type in the players, choose whether to seed them in the order you entered or shuffle them, and you get a tournament bracket generator's output: the whole ladder drawn, byes worked out, and every round waiting for a result. Then you get one link. Everyone you send it to sees the same bracket, updated the moment you fill in a score, so nobody has to ask who won or when they are next on. It handles any number of players from four to sixty-four. If that is not a power of two — thirteen for a padel club, eleven for a FIFA night — the first round gets byes and the tool places them where they belong, which is the part people get wrong by hand. Use it for an office sweepstake, a club tournament, a school sports day or a games night; the bracket stays up until you delete it.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I do not have 8 or 16 players?
The first round gets byes, and they go where they should. Thirteen players means three byes: the top three seeds sit out the first round and come in at the second, which is what keeps the bracket balanced. Doing that by hand is the step people get wrong — byes dumped at the bottom of the ladder put two of them against each other and leave one side of the draw playing an extra round. Any number from four to sixty-four works, and you do not have to think about it.
What is the difference between seeded and shuffled?
Seeded keeps the order you typed, and treats the first name as the strongest: the first and second seeds can only meet in the final, the top four cannot meet before the semi-finals, and byes go to the top of the list. That is the right choice for a club ladder where the rankings are known. Shuffled ignores the order and draws at random, which is what you want for an office sweepstake where seeding would just start an argument. Either way the bracket is fixed once it is made, so nobody can claim the draw changed.
Who can change the results?
Only you. The link you share is read-only — everyone can see the bracket and follow it, but the results are filled in from your account. That is also why the tool asks you to sign in to make one: a tournament runs over days or weeks, and if the only record were a link in your browser history, closing the tab would lose the thing other people are relying on. Signing in means it is on your account page, next to anything else you have made here, for as long as you want it.
Can people see it without an account?
Yes. Anybody with the link sees the bracket, on a phone or anything else, with no account and nothing to install. That is the whole point of sharing it — the players should not have to sign up to find out who they play next. Only making and updating the tournament needs an account.
Can I record the scores, not just who won?
Yes. Each match takes a result like 21-18 or 3-1 beside the winner, and it shows on the bracket. It is optional: tap the winner and move on if the score does not matter, which for a sweepstake it usually does not. Nothing is calculated from the score — the winner is whoever you say won, so a walkover or a retirement is recorded by picking the winner and leaving the score blank.
Is this a league table as well?
No, and that is deliberate. This draws a knockout bracket, where losing once puts you out. A league where everybody plays everybody is a different shape with different arithmetic, and squeezing both into one page would make both worse. If you want a round robin, say so and we will build it — it is on the list.
Help improve this tool
Found a bug, want a change, or need a tool we don't have?
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