Digital scoreboards are an integral part of professional and semi-professional sporting events. They are essential to help keep students, players, alumni, or audience members engaged and connected.
Broadly speaking, there are 2 types of digital scoreboards:
- video / LED scoreboards or
- Fixed-digit scoreboards
Video LED scoreboards
Of these 2 types, video / LED scoreboards are the more advanced. They look better, are more versatile and are often more expensive. You can basically think of them as a very large TV screen that is capable of displaying anything you want. This versatility does not just have a financial cost, it also means that the complexity of these scoreboards is much higher. Oftentimes they will require sophisticated software and setups to run.
Video scoreboards allow you to do things like live-action replays and monetizing your audience by showing promotions.
Fixed-digit scoreboards
Standard fixed-digit scoreboards are the "old-school" scoreboards. Usually only a part of the scoreboard can be controlled digitally, for instance the actual score itself, and possibly team and player names. Other parts of the scoreboard are fixed. Because of their relatively simplicity, these scoreboards are more robust, easier to control, and cheaper.
How much does a digital scoreboard cost?
The price range of digital scoreboards is huge. A lot depends on whether you are looking for an indoor or an outdoor scoreboard.
If you go for a simple fixed-digit scoreboard that can be used indoors, prices start at 60 USD and quickly enter three figures. Check it out yourself: digital scoreboards on Amazon.
If you are looking for an outdoor scoreboard, then you will be looking at a four figure price. To get an idea, have a look at these fixed-digit basketball scoreboards.
The most expensive scoreboards are large-scale outdoor video scoreboards. These are comfortably in the five figure price range, and some manufacturers and retailers even offer financing to help pay. It's often hard to find prices for these types of scoreboards, instead you have to get a quote off the manufacturer or retailer.
A cheaper solution?
Instead of paying for an expensive hardware scoreboard, you may want to consider a much cheaper solution: a web-based online scoreboard. For this you only need is a device that is capable of showing a webpage (such as a PC, tablet, or smartphone) and a large TV, monitor or projector.
Keepthescore.com is one of the leading solutions for creating online scoreboards. But don't take our word for it, our customers have this to say:
"Wow guys, what a great app, thank you for all your work to get it up and running, I'm using it to stream my son's rugby games in South Africa!" — Lance
We pride ourselves on being very easy to get started with. You can literally be up and running in under 30 seconds, no registration nor payment required. If you don't believe us, give it a try.
What's very convenient is that you can control your scoreboard from anywhere, including a mobile phone. Read on for more details.
How to create the scoreboard
Just follow these steps:
- Click on the button above 👆.
- Congrats, you've now created a new scoreboard and are on the "admin panel". You have the option to carry out some customizations, such as choosing team names and choosing custom colors.
- Click on the orange "GET SCOREBOARD LINK" button.
- You can now copy a link to the "display" scoreboard or open the scoreboard directly.
To find out how to display the scoreboard on a TV, please refer to this separate article.
How much does the scoreboard cost?
The basic scoreboard is free, and you can start using it right away, including embedding it into an online video stream using OBS, vMix or Streamlabs.
Some extra features, such as setting team logos, cost money. You can read more about that on our pricing page.
