Automate and optimize sports league scheduling
Every league knows who plays whom. Deciding when each game is played, so that every team gets a fair run of home and away games, travel stays short, and rivalry games draw a full house, is where the season is won or lost. Let's solve that.
One solve places every game of the season
Timefold assigns every game to a round as one optimization problem. One game per team per round, no streaks of four or more home or away games, and no instant rematches are enforced as hard constraints, so every schedule is fair before it is published. Within those rules, the model minimizes travel along each team's route and puts marquee games on weekend and holiday rounds.
Where Timefold goes beyond manual season schedules
Four things decide whether a season schedule works. Timefold bakes them into the model.
Fair by construction
Home and away streaks and instant rematches are hard rules, checked for every team across the whole season.
Travel along the real route
Distance is counted the way teams actually travel, including straight trips between consecutive away venues.
Marquee games where the crowds are
Rivalries and other marquee games go to weekend and holiday rounds whenever the rules allow.
Every trade-off explained
Each remaining violation names the teams, games, and rounds, so the league office can see why.
A season schedule has to work for every team, every week
Teams, venues, broadcasters, and fans all depend on the season schedule. Every round ties into the next, so a single change can ripple through the whole season.
Depends on the rounds around it
Moving one game changes the streaks and travel of both teams and everyone they play next.
Need to stay balanced
Long runs of home or away games feel unfair to teams and fans.
Adds up across a season
Poorly ordered away trips mean more distance, cost, and fatigue.
Deserve the best dates
Rivalries and marquee matchups draw the largest crowds on weekends and holidays.
Constraints the model expresses today
One game per team per round
A team never plays two games in the same round, at home or away.
No long home or away streaks
No team plays four or more consecutive rounds at home, or four or more on the road.
No instant rematches
The return game between two teams is never played in the round right after their first meeting.
Every game placed in a round
The model decides in which round each home and away game is played, for the whole season at once.
Shortest travel across the season
Travel is counted along each team's real route: from home to the opening game, between consecutive away venues, back home between away and home games, and home after the last one. The model keeps the total distance as low as possible.
Marquee games on weekends and holidays
Rivalries and other marquee games go to weekend or holiday rounds, where they draw the biggest crowds, and each one that misses carries a heavy penalty.
Every broken rule explained
When a schedule still breaks a rule, the score names the teams, the games, and the rounds involved.
FAQ
Do you have questions? We have answers.
A round-robin tells you who plays whom. It doesn't tell you in which round, so that no team has long home or away streaks, no pairing meets twice in a row, travel stays short, and rivalry games land on weekends. Move one game and it shifts the travel and streaks of both teams and everyone they play next. That is a constraint problem, not a table.
Fairness and feasibility come first and are never traded away: one game per team per round, no streak of four or more home or away rounds, and no rematch on the next round. Within that, the model minimizes total travel distance along each team's route through the season, and gives every marquee game that misses a weekend or holiday round a penalty of 1,000 points, so rivalry games take priority over small travel savings.
It follows each team through the season. A team travels from home to its first away game, straight from one away venue to the next when it plays away twice in a row, back home before a home game, and home after its last away game. The distance between every pair of venues comes from your data, so the model works with kilometers, miles, or travel time.
The model still returns its best schedule, and the hard score counts every remaining violation. Each one is explained with the team, the games, and the rounds involved, so the league office sees exactly which streak or rematch to resolve, for example by adding a round.
Yes. You flag any game as a marquee game and mark which rounds fall on a weekend or holiday. The model then puts flagged games in those rounds wherever the hard rules allow.
No. Timefold sits as an optimization layer next to the system your league uses to manage teams, venues, and results. It reads the games, teams, distances, and rounds, and returns a round for every game. Your existing system stays the place where the schedule is published and run.
When scheduling works, everything works.
Less waste. More control. Teams that trust the plan.