Paid Gaming Competitions: How Prize Pools Really Work
Entry fees, free entries, prize splits, rank tiers, scoring and withdrawals: everything you need to know before your first paid ladder, in plain words.
Paid gaming competitions are simpler than they look: you pay an entry fee (or use a free ticket), play your normal ranked games, and the best scores split a cash prize pool. Here is how each step works on Amber.gg, from the entry fee to the money landing in your own account.
🏆 What is a prize pool?
A prize pool is the total amount of money paid out to the top finishers of a competition. In a paid gaming competition, it is funded by the players' entry fees, and some organizers add a guaranteed amount up front.
The key point: the split is published before the first game. You know in advance what share each place pays, so you know exactly what you are playing for.
🎮 How do paid gaming competitions work?
Classic cash tournaments need a team, a bracket and fixed match times. Ladders are the solo version: competitions that run over a fixed window, with no team and no set match time. Here is the full loop:
- Connect your Riot account, so your matches are read straight from Riot's official API.
- Pick a ladder for your game, your rank and your schedule.
- Join an open ladder with an entry fee or a free ticket. Registering before a ladder starts is a membership feature.
- Play your usual games while the ladder runs. Each game gets a score.
- Climb the standings. When the ladder ends, the final ranking is locked.
- Get paid according to the published split, then withdraw your winnings.
If you want the step by step for one game, our guide on joining LoL tournaments with a prize pool shows it with League of Legends.
Entry fees and free entries
Every ladder shows its entry fee, its number of seats and its prize split before you join. If you registered for a ladder that has not started yet, you can leave it and get your entry back.
Free entries use tickets instead of money. You earn tickets by playing, through the Battle Pass, and spend them on ticket ladders. A free ladder's pool comes from the organizer, not from players, so check what it pays: some prizes are in Amber, the platform's virtual currency, which can be used on the platform but never withdrawn as cash.
Welcome bonus: your first deposit of $20 or more comes with a $5 bonus credit for entries. Deposits and bonus credit are for entering competitions: only winnings can be withdrawn.
A free account can hold two running entries at once. The membership removes that limit.
💰 How do prize pools work?
Every ladder shows its prize pool, the number of places paid and what each place pays, all before you join. No surprise at the end: you see the prize table first, then decide.
Some organizers also add a seed, a guaranteed amount that is there whatever the number of players.
The pool you see on a ladder card is the full ladder, every seat taken. If a ladder starts without its minimum number of players, it is canceled and every entry is credited back in the currency you paid with.
How the prize pool is split
The pool is split by place ranges, each with a percentage. Every place in a range gets an equal share of it: the range percentage divided by its number of places. Take a made-up ladder showing a $70 pool:
- 1st place: 35%, so $24.50
- 2nd place: 20%, so $14
- 3rd place: 10%, so $7
- 4th to 10th: 35% shared by 7 places, so $3.50 each
A seat nobody fills is not paid out to the others, so a place never pays more than its share. The amounts on the ladder card assume a full ladder: with fewer players, the pool and each share are smaller, except for the part a seed guarantees. Real splits vary from one ladder to the next, so read the prize panel before you join.
🎯 Rank tiers: you play people at your level
A ladder can set a rank range, so a Silver player is ranked against players of comparable rank instead of Challengers or Radiants. Winning a ladder is about beating your bracket, not the whole server.
That is why fair rank checks matter so much: we explain the smurfing problem and how it is handled in our piece on running a fair prize pool challenge in LoL.
Includes Riot Games artwork.
How scoring works from your normal games
You do not play special matches. Each ladder picks one queue and scores the games you play in it while the ladder runs:
- League of Legends: Ranked Solo/Duo, Ranked Flex, Normal Draft, ARAM or URF
- Valorant: Competitive, Unrated or Swiftplay
Each game earns points from weighted stats, published before you enter and identical for everyone. A LoL ladder could count, for example, +5 per kill, +3 per assist, -3 per death and +20 for a win. A ladder scores a sample of 5 to 50 games depending on its length, and on many ladders only your best games count toward your total, so one bad game will not sink you.
Some LoL ladders are role ladders: only games on that role count, and a game on another role does not use up one of your slots.
🏦 Getting paid: withdrawals and identity verification
Your winnings land in your wallet when the ladder ends. From there, here are the withdrawal rules on Amber.gg:
- Amounts: from $30 per request, in whole steps of $10 ($30, $40, $50, never $45)
- Fee: $1 on top of the amount, so a $30 withdrawal takes $31 from your balance
- Identity verification: required before any withdrawal, with a passport or national identity card and a recent proof of address
- Your own account only: payouts go to a payment account in your name
- Review: each request is checked before it is paid; the terms allow up to 14 business days, and a refused request is credited back
- Caps: $50 per week and $100 per month on a free account, $100 and $400 with the membership, on rolling windows
Winnings may be taxable where you live, so keep track of what you withdraw.
⚖️ Skill vs chance: why it is not betting
In betting, you pick the outcome of a match someone else plays, and chance or the house decides what you get. In a skill-based competition, you play every game that counts, the scoring comes from official game data, and the rules are the same for every entrant. We compare the two money flows side by side in our guide on esports betting vs skill-based competitions.
Scoring a sample of games instead of one match means sustained performance, not one lucky game, decides the result. That said, you can lose your entry fee: no one can promise you a prize.
Paid entry is for players aged 18 and over, and it is not available in every country. Check the terms and the cash-out policy for the full rules.
Other ways to make money gaming
Ladders are one route among several. Streaming, coaching and content creation can pay too, but they take time to build. We cover every route, ladders included, in our guides on how to make money playing League of Legends and how to make money playing Valorant.
🚀 Before your first paid ladder
- Start with a ticket ladder to learn the format with nothing to lose
- Read the scoring and the prize split before you join
- Pick a ladder whose window fits the time you really have to play
- Complete identity verification early, so your first withdrawal is not held up
Ready to see how you rank against players at your level? Browse the open ladders and join your first one.
