Random draw, Pick Win/Place/Show, or a 400-square grid. One invite link, picks that close before post time, payouts figured from the finish order. Free under 15 entrants.
At lock the field is sorted by morning-line odds and the top N horses are taken, where N is the number of paid entrants. The entrants are shuffled and paired with them, so the randomness is which contender you get. Everyone is emailed the horse they drew. If there are more entrants than horses, the extras double up starting back at the favourite and split that horse’s share of the pot.
At the lock time the commissioner sets. The default is 20 minutes before post for Random Draw and squares, 10 minutes for Pick Win/Place/Show, and it can never be set later than post time. A job runs every 30 seconds: it fires the draw, shuffles the squares numbers, freezes picks and emails everyone what they hold.
No. Before lock the pool returns only your own three picks. After lock it returns everyone’s, with the points each one earned once results are in.
The grid is 20 by 20, 400 squares, up to 10 per person unless the commissioner changes the cap. At lock every row gets the post position of a possible winner and every column the post position of a possible runner-up, drawn from the horses still active. Three squares win: first with second, second with third, third with fourth, which is why squares results need four finishing positions. The default split is 60 / 25 / 15.
Nothing under 15 entrants. Above that the commissioner pays one flat fee for the pool: $20 up to 40, $40 up to 80, $65 up to 150, $99 up to 250. Entrants never pay TourneyRun. Buy-ins go straight to the commissioner’s Venmo, Zelle or PayPal, and the pot never touches us.