Stop collecting fees through PayPal and bank transfers. Escrow protects everyone.
The safest way to collect tournament entry fees online is through a platform that places funds into escrow automatically — so players know their money is protected and organizers aren't personally liable for holding it.
No buyer protection. No refund mechanism. Violates PayPal's terms of service for commercial use. One chargeback and your account is frozen — with the prize pool still in it.
Irreversible once sent. No dispute mechanism for the player. Creates personal financial liability for the organizer holding the funds.
Only works for local events. No audit trail. No recourse if the organizer doesn't pay out.
Sending money links in a Discord channel offers zero protection for anyone. No escrow, no verification, no accountability.
Every one of these methods puts the organizer in a position of personally holding other people's money. That's liability, not infrastructure.
Escrow is simple: a neutral third party holds the funds until predefined conditions are met. In tournament terms:
Nobody is personally holding anyone's money at any point. The funds are secured from the moment the first player registers to the moment the last winner is paid.
When you create your tournament on the Rivals Organizer Dashboard, you set the entry fee per player or per team. This is visible to all players before they register.
Your rake is your earnings — between 0% and 30% of total entry fees. Set it before the tournament opens. It's locked and visible to players on the listing.
Rivals generates one link. Players register and pay through that link. The Discord bot can post it directly in your server.
As players register, entry fees go into secured escrow automatically. You can see the total in your Organizer Dashboard — registrations, total collected, and projected rake earnings — but you cannot access the funds.
Results are verified. Winners are paid from escrow. Your rake is processed separately to your account. Nobody chased anyone for money.
| Teams | Fee/Team | Total | Rake (10%) | Prize Pool | Rake (20%) | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | $5 | $80 | $8 | $72 | $16 | $64 |
| 32 | $10 | $320 | $32 | $288 | $64 | $256 |
| 64 | $10 | $640 | $64 | $576 | $128 | $512 |
These are illustrative examples. Start lower to build community trust. Raise your rake as your events grow.
Collecting entry fees through personal payment apps puts the organizer at risk and gives players no reason to trust the prize pool. Escrow-based collection removes that risk entirely. Players pay into a secured system. Winners get paid from it. Organizers earn their rake without ever touching the prize pool directly.