A college esports club president in Texas wants to run a Valorant tournament for 64 teams. She opens Challonge to create brackets — free but looks like it was built in 2010. Player registration? Google Forms. Payment collection for the $500 prize pool? Venmo requests to 64 team captains. Match results? Players DM her on Discord. Stream integration? Manual. After 8 hours of admin work, she swears never to organize another tournament.
The esports industry hit $1.8 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $5.5 billion by 2030. But while professional leagues have sophisticated infrastructure, the amateur and semi-pro scene — college clubs, local gaming cafes, content creators running community events — is stuck cobbling together free tools. Battlefy is enterprise-focused with opaque pricing. FACEIT is great for CS2/Valorant matchmaking but not tournament organization. Start.gg (formerly Smash.gg) dominates fighting games but is clunky for other genres.
The opportunity is a Stripe-integrated tournament platform at $19-49/mo for community organizers: registration with payment collection, automated bracket management, Discord bot for match reporting, stream overlay integration, and prize distribution via Stripe Connect. Transaction fees on prize pools (2-3%) create additional revenue. The fighting game community alone runs thousands of tournaments yearly — and they're vocal about Start.gg's limitations.
💰 Revenue Blueprint
Three-tier value ladder to monetize from day one
Up to 16 players, single elimination, basic brackets
128 players, payment collection, Discord bot, stream overlays, double elimination
Unlimited players, Stripe Connect payouts, custom branding, season/league tracking, API access
📊 Market Evidence
The Market Gap
Challonge is free but dated. Battlefy is enterprise-focused. Start.gg dominates FGC but clunky for other games. No modern $19-49/mo platform with payments, Discord integration, and stream overlays built-in.
🏆 Competitor Landscape
How existing players stack up in this market
| Competitor | Pricing | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Battlefy | Free / custom pricing | Tournament organization |
| Toornament | Free / €9-299/mo | Esports tournament platform |
| Challengermode | Contact sales | Esports platform + prizes |
| FACEIT | Free / $6.99/mo | Competitive gaming platform |
| Smash.gg (start.gg) | Free | Fighting game tournaments |
Tournament organization
Esports tournament platform
Esports platform + prizes
Competitive gaming platform
Fighting game tournaments
🛠️ Recommended Tech Stack
Suggested tools and technologies to build this idea
Why this stack: WebSocket for real-time bracket updates. Stripe Connect for multi-party prize distribution. Discord integration is mandatory for this audience.
Strengths
- ✓Esports revenue hit $2B in 2025
- ✓Amateur/semi-pro scene is massive and underserved
- ✓Community organizers willing to pay
Score Breakdown
Good market signals with room for growth
Market (20%) + Revenue (20%) + Trend (15%) + Competition (15%) + Build (15%) + Pricing (15%)
🚀 Start Building
Copy a prompt into your favorite AI coding tool and start building this idea right now.
Build a SaaS product called "Esports Tournament Platform". ## Product Overview Create, manage, and stream gaming tournaments with built-in brackets and prize pools. ## Problem Running gaming tournaments requires cobbling together Discord, Challonge, payment tools, and streaming manually ## Solution All-in-one tournament platform: registration, brackets, match reporting, prize distribution, stream integration ## Target Audience indie hackers, small businesses, and solopreneurs ## Tech Stack - Next.js 15 (App Router) with TypeScript - Tailwind CSS v4 for styling - Supabase for auth, database, and storage - Vercel for deployment - shadcn/ui for UI components - Framer Motion for animations ## MVP Features to Build 1. Landing page with clear value proposition 2. User authentication (sign up, sign in, forgot password) 3. Core product functionality based on the solution above 4. Dashboard for users to manage their data 5. Pricing page with at least 2 tiers (free + paid) 6. Basic settings/profile page ## Known Competitors Battlefy, Toornament, Challengermode, FACEIT, Smash.gg (start.gg) ## Key Risks to Address Standard market entry risks ## Deployment 1. Set up Supabase project and configure environment variables 2. Deploy to Vercel with `npx vercel --prod` 3. Set up custom domain 4. Configure Supabase RLS policies for security ## Instructions Start by creating the project structure, then build the landing page first. Use server components where possible. Make it mobile-responsive from the start. Focus on getting the core value loop working before adding polish.