Event Information

This Timer Tip Tuesday takes a focused look at how to use RaceDay Scoring for Series Scoring. RaceDay Scoring enables comprehensive series scoring by aggregating results from multiple events to determine standings based on total time, position, or points. It offers automated participant matching across races and supports complex rules like double-dipping (age group + overall awards). The system syncs directly with RunSignup for real-time results. This session will walk you through the setup.

We’ll cover:

• How to configure series scoring, including event setup, age group definitions, and scoring rules
• Scoring options — total time, position-based, or points — and how to apply complex rules like double-dipping for age group and overall awards
• Automated participant matching across races and how the matching algorithm works
• Syncing series results directly with RunSignup for real-time standings

Whether you’re setting up your first series or refining an existing workflow, this session will help you get the most out of Series Scoring in RaceDay Scoring.

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Webinar Summary

Overview

This Timer Tip Tuesday introduces the Series Scoring feature in RaceDay Scoring — a new system designed to handle the more complex parts of series management that the RunSignup platform alone cannot. The two systems work together: RaceDay Scoring handles custom point calculations and participant matching within each individual race, while RunSignup handles cross-race point accumulation, age group breakdowns, and hosting the public standings dashboard.

The session walks through the full setup process from creating a series on RunSignup to publishing standings, including a detailed look at each point calculation method, how participant matching works, and what is coming next as the feature continues to develop.

What You’ll Learn

• How RaceDay Scoring and RunSignup divide responsibilities in a series
• How to create a series dashboard and year on RunSignup
• How to link individual race events to a series using event sharing tokens
• How to sync participants and manage participant matching
• What the five available point calculation methods are and how to customize them
• How to add a points field to a report and configure series publish settings
• How to publish series standings to RunSignup
• How to enable age group breakdowns on the series dashboard
• What is coming next for series scoring

How the Two Systems Work Together

Series scoring is a team effort between RaceDay Scoring and the RunSignup platform. Understanding which system is responsible for what will make the setup process much clearer.

RunSignup is responsible for:

• Hosting the series dashboard where participants, races, and results are managed
• Managing series participants (uploaded from RaceDay Scoring)
• Adding up points across all races in the series for each participant
• Applying series-level settings like minimum qualifying races and max races to score
• Performing age group breakdowns using a single unified age group definition
• Hosting the public series standings page

RaceDay Scoring is responsible for:

• Syncing and merging participant data from each individual race into the series
• Resolving participant matching scenarios (e.g., Matt Avery vs. Matthew Avery)
• Calculating series points within each race using customizable formulas
• Publishing each race’s point results up to the series standings on RunSignup

The key distinction: RaceDay Scoring calculates the points per race. RunSignup adds them up across races.

When to use this integration: This integration is designed for series that require complex, custom point calculation methods. If you are running a simple time-based series (e.g., adding up finish times across a set of 5Ks), it is recommended to use RunSignup’s built-in series functionality without the RaceDay Scoring integration.

Step 1: Create a Series Dashboard on RunSignup

Navigate to runsignup.com/myraceseries and click Create a New Race Series. Fill in the basic details including name and description.

A few important notes:

• Use Private Mode to create test series without making them publicly visible — highly recommended for getting familiar with the system before going live
• Races are not exclusively tied to a series — you can link any race you have access to for testing purposes without affecting anything permanently

Once the series is created, add a new year for each season of the series (2025, 2026, etc.).

Key settings to configure when adding a year:

• Minimum number of races to qualify — how many races a participant must complete to appear in the standings
• Maximum number of races to score — how many of a participant’s best results count toward their total
• Age calculation date — the single date used to determine everyone’s age group across the entire series. The most common choice is the last day of the current year or the date of the final race. This is critical — without it, participants can shift age groups between races.
• Scoring method — select the point calculation option to enable the RaceDay Scoring integration

Step 2: Link Race Events to the Series

Each individual race event must be linked to the series using an event sharing token. This token grants the series secure access to participant data from that race.

To get the token:

1. Go to the race dashboard for each event in the series
2. Navigate to Info Sharing > Advanced Settings
3. Copy the event sharing token and paste it into the series year setup on RunSignup

Note: RaceDay Scoring includes a direct link to the Info Sharing page to make this step easier to find. If you do not have access to a race, you will need to ask the race director to provide the token.

Step 3: Sync Participants in RaceDay Scoring

Once the series is set up on RunSignup and your events are linked, open the race in RaceDay Scoring and go to Sync Settings. Click Save Sync Settings to begin syncing participants.

After the first sync cycle (about 30 seconds), a popup will notify you that a new race series year has been downloaded. Click View to go directly to the Series Management page, or navigate there via Reports > Series Management.

On the Series Management page, under Events to Sync, check the boxes for each event you want to include in the series. This tells the system which events should push participant data to the series standings. You may have events — such as a virtual race or kids run — that you intentionally want to exclude.

Step 4: Configure Participant Matching

Because participants may register slightly differently across multiple races (different name spellings, missing email addresses, etc.), RaceDay Scoring includes a matching system to handle these scenarios automatically.

A participant is flagged as a possible match based on:

• First name + last name
• Plus either email address or date of birth

If only one clear match is found, it resolves automatically. If there are multiple possible matches, you can configure how the system handles them:

Manually review unresolved matches under Participants > Actions > Manage Series Participants. You can merge two records by selecting which data to keep and clicking Merge.

Step 5: Set Up Point Calculation Methods

This is the core of what RaceDay Scoring brings to series scoring. There are currently five point calculation methods available, with a sixth coming soon. They fall into two categories:

Position-Based Methods

• Overall Place — Points awarded based on finishing order overall. Default: 10 points to the winner, decrementing by 1 per position for the top 10; no points beyond 10th place.
• Gender Place — Same as overall place, but scored separately by gender. First male and first female each receive top points.
• Age Place — Points based on finishing order within age groups. First in your age group receives top points.

Time-Based Methods

• Percentage of Leader — Points awarded as a percentage of the winner’s time. Example: if the winner ran a 20-minute 5K and scores 1,000 points, someone who ran 22 minutes would score roughly 909 points (winner’s time ÷ your time × 1,000).
• Percentage of Gender Leader — Same calculation as Percentage of Leader, but compared to the fastest finisher of your gender.
• Percentage of Average Top X Leaders (Coming Soon) — Points based on how your time compares to the average of the top X finishers (e.g., the average time of the top 100 finishers).

Customizing Point Calculation Methods

All five methods come with preset default values that can be fully customized. To create a custom version:

1. Go to Series Management > Manage Report Custom Fields
2. Find the method you want to modify and click Copy
3. Edit any of the variables — starting point value, decrement per position, participation points for non-scorers, etc.
4. Give it a descriptive name so you can identify it when adding it to a report

Example customization: Instead of starting at 10 points and decrementing by 1, you could start at 10,000 points and decrement by 10 per position. You can also add a participation point (e.g., 1 point) for anyone who finishes but does not place in the scored positions.

Step 6: Add a Points Field to a Report

Point calculation methods only activate when added to a report. To do this:

1. Open the report you plan to publish for series standings
2. Click Actions > Edit in the report builder
3. Type “points” in the field search — the five default methods and any custom ones you created will appear
4. Select the appropriate points field and add it to the report

Once added, a Series Publish Settings panel will appear. You must:

• Select the series year you are publishing results for
• Map to a series points field at RunSignup

Important: For the first race in a series, create a new points field at RunSignup. For every subsequent race in the series, select that same existing field — do not create a new one each time. RunSignup accumulates points by adding to the same field across races. If you create a new field for each race, the totals will not add up correctly.

Step 7: Publish Series Standings

Series standings publishing is a manual process — it does not publish automatically, even if you have auto-save enabled for your race results.

Once your report is configured with a points field and the series publish settings are complete, a Publish Series Points button will become available. If the button is grayed out, a tooltip will tell you exactly which step is missing.

To view the standings after publishing, go to Reports > Series Management and click the Standings button to open the RunSignup series standings page.

Note: Publishing series standings is separate from publishing individual race results. Both must be done — auto-save handles the race results; you must manually click to publish the series standings.

Age Group Breakdowns

Age group breakdowns are configured on the RunSignup series dashboard, not in RaceDay Scoring. This is intentional — individual races in a series may use different age group structures, so the series itself needs one unified definition.

To set up age group breakdowns:

1. Go to the series year settings on RunSignup
2. Add age group bands manually or use the quick setup option to generate them
3. At the bottom of the age group setup, you will see a list of all point calculation fields uploaded from RaceDay Scoring — check the box next to the one you want age group breakdowns enabled for

This tells RunSignup to take the existing points and display them broken down into separate age group leaderboards (e.g., Female 20–24, Male 25–29) in addition to the overall standings. The point values themselves do not change — they are simply categorized into additional tables.

Important: Age group breakdowns do not update automatically once enabled. If you add or change age groups after the fact, you must republish results from RaceDay Scoring for the new breakdowns to appear.

A few current limitations to be aware of:

• Age group point calculations cannot currently be set differently from overall calculations in the RaceDay Scoring integration
• There is no current ability to prevent double-dipping (a participant qualifying for both an age group and a masters category)
• Custom breakdowns by division type (Clydesdale, Athena, Masters) are not yet supported in the integration — this is on the development roadmap

Race Drops and Qualifying

Race drops and minimum qualifying rules are managed entirely on the RunSignup side. If a participant drops a race and is not a finisher, that race will count against their total completed races. If they do not reach the minimum qualifying threshold, they will not appear in the standings. This logic does not need to be configured in RaceDay Scoring.

What’s Coming Next

Series scoring is still in beta and actively being developed. Planned improvements include:

• Percentage of Average Top X Leaders point calculation method (coming very soon)
• Series standings reports inside RaceDay Scoring — the ability to view and print series standings directly within a race, rather than only on RunSignup
• Custom division breakdowns — the ability to create series breakdowns based on custom computed fields or question responses (e.g., Masters, Clydesdale, Athena categories)
• Updated series website on RunSignup — a modernized look and feel for the public-facing series dashboard, which has not been updated in some time

Key Takeaways

• Series scoring is a joint effort: RaceDay Scoring calculates points per race; RunSignup accumulates them across races and hosts the standings
• This integration is designed for complex point calculation systems — use RunSignup’s native series tools for simple time-based series
• Set your age calculation date at the series level to prevent participants from shifting age groups mid-series
• Always reuse the same RunSignup points field across all races in a series — creating a new one each time will break the accumulation
• The participant matching system uses first name, last name, and either email or date of birth — review flagged possible matches before publishing
• Series standings publishing is always manual — auto-save for race results does not trigger series standings to update
• The feature is in beta — feedback is welcomed and actively shapes future development; reach out to racedayATrunsignup.com