League standings calculator

How to use it

Enter each game on its own line as Home team, home score, dash, away score, Away team, for example Rovers 2-1 United. Team names can contain spaces and numbers (Under 12s 3-0 Team 2 is read correctly), and capital letters are ignored when matching names, so "rovers" and "Rovers" are the same team. Lines the calculator cannot read are listed under the form rather than silently dropped, so a typo cannot quietly cost a team three points.

Choose Points for a football-style league table, or Winning % for a North American-style standings table where teams are ranked by percentage and the points column is hidden. Custom points values cover leagues that give, say, 4 for a win or 1 for turning up and losing.

The formulas

• Points = wins × win value + draws × draw value + losses × loss value
• Difference = scored − conceded (goal difference, run differential, point differential)
• Winning percentage = (wins + ½ × draws) ÷ games played, shown as .667
• Games behind = ((leader wins − wins) + (losses − leader losses)) ÷ 2

Teams are ordered by points (or percentage), then difference, then scored, then wins. When every one of those is equal the teams share the position, shown by the same number in the first column.

Worked example

Take four results: Rovers 2-1 United, City 0-0 Rovers, United 3-1 City, Rovers 1-1 City. Rovers won one and drew two, so under 3-1-0 they have 3 + 1 + 1 = 5 points, scored 3 and conceded 2 for a difference of +1, and a winning percentage of (1 + 1) ÷ 3 = .667. United won one and lost one: 3 points, difference +1. City drew two and lost one: 2 points, difference −2. United trail Rovers by ((1 − 1) + (1 − 0)) ÷ 2 = 0.5 games, the half game coming from having played one game fewer.

Switch the same results to 2-1-0 and Rovers have 4 points to United's 2 and City's 2. City and United are level on points, and United go second on difference. The system can change the order, which is why it matters to pick the right one.

Common tiebreak rules compared

Where the table stops being the official one

Head-to-head tiebreaks are not applied, because they need a mini-table of only the tied teams and each competition defines that mini-table differently. If two teams are level on points, the table shows them in order of overall difference, which may not match your league's official order. The league manager does apply head-to-head, using the published order for soccer, basketball (FIBA), volleyball (FIVB) and hockey (NHL), because it knows the whole fixture list.

Points deductions, forfeits awarded with a fixed score, bonus points for scoring a certain number of tries and overtime losses worth a point (as in the NHL) are not modelled. For an overtime-loss point you can enter the game as a draw and set the draw value to 1, but that will also give the winner only the draw value; the honest fix is to adjust the points by hand.

Games behind is meaningful only in sports without draws. In a football league the points gap is the figure to watch; the magic number calculator handles the "how many more wins to clinch" question for win/loss leagues.