What Is the Best Mahjong Tournament Software?

The Short Answer

Bam Good Time is the best mahjong tournament software for clubs that need online registration, payment collection, and live scoring in one platform. For clubs focused on player rankings and match tracking, AMR Authority is a capable iPhone and Android alternative.

But tournaments come in all shapes, from a friendly eight-player Saturday to a 60-player, multi-round event with cash prizes. The right tool depends on your size, your budget, and how much you want to automate. Let's break it down.

What Tournament Software Actually Needs to Do

Running a tournament is a different animal than running a weekly game night. You're managing rounds, seating assignments, scoring across tables, standings, and often payments too.

Here's what matters:

• Registration and capacity, Who's in, who's on the waitlist, who cancelled last minute
• Payment collection, Entry fees, refunds, tracking who's paid
• Table assignments and rotation, Seating players fairly so nobody plays the same opponent twice in a row
• Live scoring, Entering scores per round without drowning in paper
• Standings, Automatic calculation so you're not hunched over a calculator at midnight
• Communication, Reminders and results without a flurry of group texts

No single tool does all of these perfectly. But some come a lot closer than others.

How the Options Compare

Let's dig into each option.

Bam Good Time, The All-in-One Tournament Platform

Bam Good Time brings registration, payments, scoring, and communication into a single tournament workflow. No more duct-taping five tools together.

Before the tournament, Create your event, set capacity, and share a registration link. Players sign up and pay online through Stripe Connect, which deposits funds directly into your club's own Stripe account. A waitlist kicks in automatically when you hit capacity.

Day of, Use rotation patterns to assign seating across rounds. No more scribbling table numbers on index cards.

During play, Enter scores round by round. Standings update in real time. Players can check their position from their phone between rounds. For clubs that want to track player performance beyond a single event, see our guide to mahjong scoring apps and rating systems.

After, Results are saved and standings are final. Competitive players also build a portable rating at Mahjic.org, the free ELO rating for American Mahjong that follows them from one club or tournament to the next.

The free tier covers event creation, registration, check-in, and a public club page. Starter ($19/month) adds card payments through Stripe and higher limits. Pro ($49/month) unlocks tournaments, with pairings, live scoring, and standings.

Bam Good Time runs on the web, iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android, your players don't need to install anything.

For a full walkthrough, see our guide to running a modern mahjong tournament.

AMR Authority, Deep Scoring and Rankings

AMR Authority deserves real credit for what it does well. If your primary concern is detailed scoring, player rankings, and historical performance tracking, it's a solid tool, especially for competitive clubs.

The app handles round-by-round scoring with American Mahjong conventions, persistent player rankings across tournaments, and match history so you can look back at who won what and when.

Where it's thinner is everything surrounding the game. The app lists event registration, but its App Store listing doesn't mention payment collection, waitlist management, or table rotation, so plan to handle entry fees separately.

It runs on iPhone, iPad, and Android, but there's no web version, so every player needs the app.

Best for: Clubs that already handle payments elsewhere and want a dedicated scoring and ranking app.

When Spreadsheets Still Work

Let's be honest, for the right situation, spreadsheets are perfectly fine. If your tournament is one or two tables (4-8 players), a Google Sheet handles scoring without much fuss. Columns for each round, manual entry, formulas for totals. Free, flexible, familiar.

Here's where they crack:

• Three or more tables, Scores across 12+ players per round get slow and error-prone. One mistyped number throws off everything.
• Rotation management, No built-in way to generate fair seating assignments.
• No registration or payments, RSVPs through one channel, payments tracked in another (or your memory).
• No real-time access, Players can't check scores unless you share the sheet, and then someone accidentally edits a cell.

Some organizers use printed rotation charts that tell players which table and seat to move to each round. It works for seating logistics, but doesn't connect to your scoring or communication.

Best for: Small tournaments (1-2 tables) where you don't need registration, payments, or historical tracking.

Making the Choice

Here's the honest breakdown:

• You want one platform for everything, registration, payments, scoring, standings, communication, and a club website? Bam Good Time is the clear choice. Start on the free tier and upgrade if you need more.

• You already handle payments elsewhere and just want a polished scoring and ranking app? AMR Authority does that well.

• You're running a small, informal tournament (8 players or fewer)? A spreadsheet is totally fine. Don't overcomplicate it.

Most clubs outgrow spreadsheets faster than they expect. The jump from "friendly game" to "20 people want to come and I need to collect $15 from each of them" happens quickly, and that's when a real platform saves you hours.

Whatever you choose, the fact that you're organizing a tournament is a gift to your community. The tiles don't shuffle themselves. We just want to make the organizing part easier so you can focus on the playing part.

New to the game or running a tournament for beginners? Make sure your players know the rules of American Mahjong before tournament day. And if you need more players, here's how to find mahjong players near you.

Create your free club on Bam Good Time and move to Pro when you're ready to run your first tournament.