These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and RNKD LLC ("RNKD", "we", "our", or "us") and govern your access to and use of the RNKD mobile app, the RNKD website, and related services (collectively, the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service. The app gates access to users 18 and older. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you are 18 or older and that you have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms.
RNKD is a platform for organizing and competing in in-person sports tournaments. Organizers can create tournaments, and players can discover tournaments, register, pay entry fees, compete in person, and build a competitive ranking. Alongside running events, RNKD provides services such as ranking and competitive-record tracking, leaderboards, and dispute facilitation. Entry fees, service fees, and Organizer payouts are processed through our payment provider, Stripe.
RNKD does not handle prize money. Where an event advertises a prize pool, that pool is offered and paid by that event's Organizer, directly to the winners, by whatever means the Organizer and the winners arrange. RNKD does not fund, hold, escrow, guarantee, or distribute prize money, and is not a party to it. Entry fees RNKD collects are not prize money and are not a source of it. An advertised prize pool is the Organizer's own representation and the Organizer's own obligation (see Section 9).
RNKD facilitates payments between participants and organizers and provides the tools to run tournaments. Most tournaments on RNKD are run by independent organizers. For those events, RNKD is not a party to the tournament itself and is not responsible for how the organizer runs it or for disputes between users (for example, between players, teams, or organizers). Tournaments take place in the physical world, and RNKD does not supervise, host, or guarantee an in-person event run by an independent organizer.
RNKD collects entry fees as the Organizer’s agent. An entry fee is owed to the Organizer of the event you are entering, not to RNKD. Every Organizer appoints RNKD as its limited payment collection agent and authorizes RNKD to accept entry-fee payments on its behalf, so RNKD receives your entry fee for that Organizer. Section 6 explains what that means for you when you pay, and Section 9 sets out the appointment from the Organizer’s side. The service fee described in Section 6 works the other way: it is RNKD’s own charge for RNKD’s own services, and RNKD collects it for itself.
RNKD also runs some tournaments of its own. Where RNKD is named as the organizer of an event, RNKD is that event's organizer and takes on the organizer responsibilities described in Section 9 for it. Every event page names its organizer.
We may change the Service. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the Service, or any part or feature of it, at any time. Where we discontinue the Service entirely, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you beforehand and to settle any funds we hold for you as described in Section 7 (Wallet & Payouts) and Section 9 (Event Cancellation & Organizer Obligations).
RNKD tournaments are contests of skill. They are real, in-person athletic competitions, and their outcomes are determined by the athletic skill and performance of the competitors, not by chance. By paying an entry fee or competing for a prize, you represent that doing so is lawful where you are located. Any prize offered at an event is provided and paid by that event's Organizer, not by RNKD, and is not funded out of the entry fees RNKD collects (see Sections 3 and 9).
The Service is currently offered in the United States, and paid entry and prize play are limited to verified users who are 18 or older (see Section 2). RNKD relies on the representation above and on its age verification to determine your eligibility, and it may — but is not obligated to — apply additional identity, location, or eligibility checks. You are responsible for not paying an entry fee or competing for a prize from, or while located in, any jurisdiction where doing so is not permitted.
RNKD may, at its sole discretion and at any time, restrict or prohibit paid entry, prize play, or specific features in any state or jurisdiction, and may require identity, age, or eligibility verification before you participate in a paid tournament or receive a payout. It remains your responsibility to ensure that your participation is lawful where you live.
You are responsible for the information you provide, for keeping your login credentials secure, and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to provide accurate information and to keep it up to date. Notify us promptly of any unauthorized use of your account. You may delete your account at any time in Settings > Delete Account, subject to the conditions in Section 16 (Termination & Account Closure).
Tournament entry fees purchase your entry to a specific in-person, physical event. When you pay an entry fee, or cash out a balance from your in-app RNKD wallet to your bank, the transaction is processed by Stripe, and you authorize that charge or transfer. You agree to Stripe's applicable terms for these transactions. RNKD collects entry fees only — it does not collect, hold, or pay out prize money (see Sections 3 and 9).
Who you are paying, and when you have finished paying. A tournament entry fee is owed to that event’s Organizer. That Organizer has appointed RNKD as its limited payment collection agent and authorized RNKD to accept entry-fee payments on its behalf, so paying the entry fee to RNKD is paying the Organizer. Your payment to RNKD discharges what you owe that Organizer for the entry, in the amount you paid, at the moment RNKD receives it — whether or not RNKD has yet remitted it to them. You never owe the same entry fee twice. If RNKD fails to remit money it collected, that is a matter between RNKD and the Organizer, and the Organizer’s claim for it is against RNKD, not against you.
What that appointment does not do. RNKD’s authority is limited to accepting, holding, refunding, and remitting entry-fee payments, and extends to nothing else. RNKD is not the Organizer’s agent for any other purpose, has no authority to make commitments on an Organizer’s behalf, and does not run, staff, supervise, or insure any event by collecting money for it. Being appointed to collect an entry fee does not make RNKD a party to the tournament, the seller of the entry, or a guarantor of the Organizer’s performance (see Sections 3 and 9).
Service fee. A service fee is added to tournament entry fees. This fee is always shown to you before you confirm a payment. It supports the services RNKD provides — including ranking and competitive-record tracking, leaderboards, dispute facilitation, and payment processing. It is included in the amount any refund is calculated on: where a refund is due, the percentage that comes back is a percentage of the total you were charged, service fee included. We may change the service fee from time to time; the fee in effect at the time you pay is the one shown to you at checkout.
What happens to an entry fee. Entry fees are received and held by RNKD, through Stripe, for the event’s Organizer, until they are refunded or remitted to that Organizer. What you are charged is the entry fee plus the service fee: RNKD remits the entry fee to the Organizer after the hold period described in Section 7, and keeps the service fee, which is its own. Entry-fee money RNKD is holding is the Organizer’s money, held by RNKD as its agent — RNKD holds it only to remit it or to refund it as described below and in Section 9, and it is never held, awarded, or paid out as prize money.
Refunds. Refunds are governed by a single withdrawal policy set by RNKD that applies to every event on the platform. Organizers do not set their own refund terms. If you withdraw from an event that is still going ahead, how much comes back depends on how close to the event’s start you withdraw: the full amount up to a cut-off, a set percentage inside that, and nothing once the event is close. The thresholds and percentage in effect are shown to you in the app before you register and again before you confirm a withdrawal. If an event is cancelled, Section 9 governs instead. Because RNKD facilitates payments and is not the organizer, event-related disputes — how an event was run, results, conduct — remain between you and the organizer. Where required by law or where a refund is due under that policy, refunds are returned through Stripe to your original payment method. RNKD applies that policy itself: the amount is worked out from the policy and the timing of your withdrawal, and neither you nor the Organizer has to agree to it first. What comes back is the Organizer’s money — RNKD refunds out of the entry-fee money it holds for that Organizer as their collection agent, so a refund reduces what RNKD remits to them. Applying the policy is an administrative step, not a ruling on the event or on anything between you and the Organizer, and it moves none of the Organizer’s obligations onto RNKD.
Chargebacks. You agree not to initiate a chargeback or payment dispute with your card issuer for a charge you authorized — for example, an entry fee for an event you took part in. If you believe a charge is incorrect, contact us first so we can help. We reserve the right to contest invalid or bad-faith chargebacks, to recover the disputed amount and any related fees from your wallet balance or other funds, and to suspend or terminate accounts that abuse the chargeback process.
Payments between users. RNKD lets you share payment handles and open a third-party payment app (such as Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, or Zelle) to pay another user — for example, to pay your team captain back for an entry fee, or, as an Organizer, to pay a prize. Those payments are made entirely outside RNKD, under that provider's terms. RNKD is not a party to them, does not process, hold, or guarantee them, and cannot reverse or refund them. Check that you are paying the right person before you send money.
Your in-app RNKD wallet holds a U.S.-dollar balance made up of amounts RNKD owes you — principally Organizer payouts of entry fees RNKD collected from participants as your agent for events you ran, together with any refunds or adjustments RNKD credits to you. Prize money does not pass through the wallet. Prizes are paid by the event's Organizer directly to the winners and are never held or distributed by RNKD (see Sections 3 and 9). You can withdraw ("cash out") your balance to your bank account; withdrawals are processed through Stripe and require you to complete Stripe's onboarding and connect an eligible payout account, after which transfers typically arrive within 1–3 business days. Where the feature is available, you may also be able to apply wallet funds toward future entry fees.
How your funds are held. Your wallet balance is a record of funds that RNKD holds for you, together with our payment provider (Stripe), until you withdraw them. Entry fees you pay are likewise received and held by RNKD, through Stripe, as collection agent for that event’s Organizer, until they are refunded to you or remitted to that Organizer (see Section 6). Your wallet is not a bank or deposit account, is not FDIC-insured, earns no interest, and is not a general-purpose stored-value or money-transfer service — it can be used only within the Service or withdrawn to your connected payout account. You must withdraw any remaining balance before deleting your account (see Section 16).
Payout hold. An Organizer's payout is not released the instant an event ends; it is held for a period after a tournament completes and can be frozen if a dispute is filed (see Sections 9 and 17). We may also pause or withhold a payout where required for identity, eligibility, tax, dispute, or fraud-prevention reasons (see Sections 4, 8, and 17). This hold reaches only funds RNKD holds; it does not reach prize money, which RNKD never holds.
You are responsible for determining and paying any taxes that apply to entry fees you pay, payouts you receive, or prizes you win. Where required by law, RNKD or Stripe may request tax information from you (such as a Form W-9) and may issue a tax form (IRS Form 1099-K) reporting the entry-fee payments RNKD settled to you as an Organizer. RNKD does not pay prize money and does not report it: a prize paid to you by an Organizer is a payment from that Organizer, and any reporting or withholding it calls for is between you and them. We may pause or withhold a payout until you provide any tax information we are required to collect.
If a tournament is cancelled, RNKD will facilitate the return of collected entry fees through Stripe in accordance with the applicable tournament and refund policy. To protect participants, an Organizer's payout of the entry fees collected for an event is not released the instant that event ends: it is held for a period after the tournament completes and can be frozen if a dispute is filed (see Section 17).
If you create or run tournaments ("Organizers"), you additionally agree to: provide accurate event details; actually hold the events you publish; honor the entry terms you advertise; comply with all applicable laws, venue rules, and these Terms; and address participant disputes in good faith. Organizers are responsible for their own events.
You appoint RNKD to collect your entry fees for you. By publishing an event with a paid entry on RNKD, you appoint RNKD as your limited payment collection agent and authorize it to accept, hold, refund, and remit entry-fee payments for that event on your behalf. You agree that a participant’s payment of an entry fee to RNKD is payment to you, and discharges what that participant owes you for the entry in the amount paid, whether or not RNKD has yet remitted it — so you will not seek that amount from the participant a second time. RNKD remits what it collected for you, less any refunds, adjustments, or amounts withheld under these Terms, after the hold period described in Section 7; the service fee participants pay on top of your entry fee is RNKD’s own and is not part of what it collects for you.
The limits of that appointment. It covers entry-fee money and nothing else. It gives RNKD no authority to act for you in any other matter or to make commitments in your name, does not make RNKD the host, operator, supervisor, or insurer of your event, and does not move any obligation in this Section from you to RNKD. It applies to each paid event you publish and continues, as to any entry-fee money RNKD is already holding for you, until that money has been remitted or refunded.
An advertised prize pool is your promise, and yours to pay. If you advertise a prize, a prize pool, or a prize distribution for an event you run, you represent and warrant that you have both the funds and the intention to pay it, and you agree to pay it in full — in the amounts and to the placements you advertised, directly to the winning participants, and promptly after the event concludes. How you pay is for you and the winners to arrange. That obligation is yours alone: RNKD does not fund, hold, escrow, guarantee, or distribute prize money, is not a party to it, and owes no prize to any participant. The entry fees RNKD collects are not prize money and are not a source of it, and RNKD's payout to you is not conditioned on your having paid a prize. You are also responsible for any tax reporting or withholding your prize payments require. RNKD may show you the payment handles a winning captain has chosen to share, and let you record that you paid. That record is informational: it is not proof of payment, RNKD does not verify it, and it does not change your obligation to pay the advertised prize in full.
Advertising a prize pool you do not pay is a breach of these Terms and a misrepresentation to the participants who entered on the strength of it. Where an Organizer fails to hold an event, or fails to pay an advertised prize pool, RNKD may — to the extent it still controls the relevant funds — hold, reverse, refund, or redistribute those funds, and may suspend, remove, or decline to list that Organizer. Those remedies reach only funds RNKD holds: RNKD cannot recover a prize it never held. RNKD's role is limited to facilitating entry-fee payments and providing tournament tools; it is not a guarantor of any Organizer's performance, and a participant's claim for an unpaid prize is against the Organizer who advertised it.
RNKD may remove or cancel an event. We may remove, delist, suspend, or cancel any tournament on the Service at any time and at our sole discretion — before or after registration opens, and whether or not its Organizer agrees. That includes, without limitation, an event we believe violates these Terms or the law, an event that poses a risk to participants, an event we cannot reasonably confirm will actually be held, and an event we are required to stop by a court, regulator, venue, or payment provider. Where we cancel an event for which entry fees were collected, we will facilitate their return through Stripe as described above. This is a right, not an obligation: RNKD does not pre-screen the tournaments Organizers publish, and nothing in this Section requires us to remove or cancel any particular event. Reports of objectionable content are handled as described in Section 11.
RNKD tournaments are in-person athletic competitions that involve physical exertion and contact and carry inherent risks — including the risk of bodily injury, illness, permanent disability, or death, as well as damage to or loss of property. These risks can arise from your own actions, the actions of other participants, the conduct of organizers or venues, the condition of the playing surface, facilities, or equipment, weather, travel, or other causes, and they cannot be eliminated.
By registering for or taking part in any tournament, you voluntarily and knowingly assume all such risks, whether known or unknown. You confirm that you are physically fit to participate and have no medical condition that would make participation unsafe, and you are responsible for obtaining any health, accident, or other insurance you consider appropriate.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you release, waive, and discharge RNKD and its officers, employees, and agents from any and all claims, liabilities, demands, and causes of action for personal injury, death, or property damage arising out of or related to your participation in, travel to or from, or presence at any tournament or event discovered or accessed through the Service — including claims based on ordinary negligence. Responsibility for the safety and conduct of an event rests with that event's organizer, the venue, and the participants; where the organizer is someone other than RNKD, RNKD does not host, supervise, staff, or provide medical or safety services at that event. This release does not apply to any liability that cannot be waived under applicable law.
You are solely responsible for any content you submit or display through the Service, including your display name, team names, and tournament titles and descriptions ("User Content"). You must not post content that is unlawful, harassing, hateful, threatening, sexually explicit, discriminatory, or otherwise objectionable, and you must not impersonate others or infringe anyone's rights.
There is no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. RNKD will remove offending content and may suspend or terminate accounts. Reports of objectionable content will be reviewed and acted upon within 24 hours.
You can report objectionable content or abusive users from within the app. We may remove content or restrict, suspend, or terminate accounts at our discretion to enforce these Terms and keep the community safe.
Content license. You keep ownership of your User Content. You grant RNKD a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, display, and distribute your User Content in connection with operating, promoting, and improving the Service — including your display name, team names, tournament results, rankings, and the leaderboard, results, and shareable cards generated from them. The RNKD name, logo, software, and content are owned by RNKD or its licensors and are protected by intellectual-property laws; these Terms grant you no rights in them except to use the Service as permitted.
Photographs, video, and audio are sometimes captured at RNKD tournaments — by RNKD, by people acting on our behalf, or by the event's organizer. If you take part in a tournament, you may appear in them.
Your permission. You give RNKD permission to use your name, likeness, image, voice, and competitive results as they appear in media captured at an event, in any medium, worldwide, and without payment to you. That includes using them to operate, promote, and advertise RNKD and its events — for example on our website and in the app, on social media, in event recaps, and in marketing and app-store materials. This permission is irrevocable and sublicensable, so that an event's organizer or venue may use media from their own event, and it continues after your account is closed as to media already captured.
This is not the same as your User Content. Section 11 covers content you submit through the Service and that you own. This section covers media that RNKD or an organizer captured and owns — you are giving permission for your likeness to appear in it, not transferring anything of your own.
If you would rather not appear. Because the permission above is irrevocable, we are not obliged to remove media in which you appear. You can still ask — email support@rnkdapp.com with enough detail to identify the photo or video — and we will consider it, but whether to remove it is our decision. Even where we do remove something, we may be unable to recall material already printed or shared onward by other people, and removing media never changes tournament results, rankings, or any other competitive record.
RNKD does not control what other participants or spectators photograph at an event.
The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. RNKD does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, and does not guarantee the conduct or quality of any tournament, organizer, or other user.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, RNKD and its officers, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising out of or related to your use of the Service or your participation in any tournament. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of the amounts you paid to RNKD in the twelve (12) months before the claim or one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these limitations may not apply to you.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless RNKD and its officers, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to: your use of the Service; your User Content; your participation in or hosting of any tournament; your violation of these Terms; or your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time if you violate these Terms or to protect the Service or its users. You may delete your account at any time in Settings > Delete Account. For your protection, you cannot delete your account while you hold a wallet balance (withdraw it first), while you are running a tournament you created that is open for registration or in progress, or while you are competing in a live tournament (you can delete once these are resolved).
When your account is closed, pending tournament entries may be cancelled and refunded in accordance with the applicable policy, and certain records are retained as described in our Privacy Policy. If we suspend or close your account while you hold a wallet balance, we will return the remaining balance to you, less any amounts you owe us and subject to any hold or deduction required for fraud, chargeback, dispute, tax, or other legal reasons; we may withhold funds connected to fraud or other unlawful activity to the extent permitted by law. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination — including payment obligations, the service-fee and tax terms, the assumption of risk and release, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, dispute resolution, and governing law — will survive.
Disputes between users. Tournaments, results, and prize entitlements are primarily a matter between players, teams, and organizers. You agree to first attempt to resolve any tournament or results dispute directly with the other participants and the organizer in good faith. A claim for an unpaid or underpaid prize is a claim against the Organizer who advertised it: RNKD does not hold prize money and cannot pay a prize on an Organizer's behalf, though it may act on the funds it does control as described in Section 9.
RNKD-facilitated disputes. The Service provides tools to raise and facilitate certain disputes (for example, a disputed result or payout). Where a dispute concerns funds that RNKD still controls, you may submit it through the in-app dispute process within the window shown in the app, and in any event before the affected funds are released. RNKD will review timely submissions and may hold, reverse, refund, redistribute, or release the affected funds. Any determination RNKD makes regarding the disbursement of funds it controls is final and binding as to those funds. RNKD acts only as a neutral facilitator in this process; it is not an arbitrator of, and is not responsible for resolving, the underlying dispute between users, which remains between them.
Good-faith decisions. To the maximum extent permitted by law, RNKD is not liable for any decision made in good faith in facilitating a dispute or in determining how RNKD-controlled funds are disbursed. Any dispute you have with RNKD itself is governed by Section 18 (Governing Law).
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. You agree that any dispute relating to these Terms or the Service will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Michigan, except where applicable law provides otherwise.
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and RNKD regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements on the subject. If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. There are no third-party beneficiaries to these Terms. Section headings are for convenience only.
We may modify these Terms from time to time. Changes are effective when we post the updated Terms on this page and update the "Last updated" date above. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms.
If you have any questions about these Terms or need support, please contact us:
RNKD LLC
Email: support@rnkdapp.com