Prizes & Payouts
A funded purse
On a Sponsorship tournament a sponsor funds the whole purse into escrow in one prize token before registration opens — the tournament only appears once the money is there — and the ticket is free, so nobody pays in. On a paid tournament 70% of every ticket goes into the purse. The minimum pool is what a minimum field pays in (15 riders × $5 × 70% = $52.50); every ticket above that adds a bonus on top. A paid tournament that doesn’t reach its minimum riders is canceled before it starts and every entry is refundable — you either race for the purse or you get your money back. It is not wagering. You never bet against other players; you race, and skill decides the outcome.
How the purse is split
A crypto purse pays the top 20% of finishers — never fewer than 3 places, never more than 10 — on a fixed curve: first place takes the largest share and each place below takes the same or less. A bigger field pays more places. A place that would be worth less than $1 is not paid; its share goes to the places above it.
A paid tournament holds two funds — the USDG and the ETH riders paid with — and nothing is converted: each paid place gets the same share of each fund. If the purse holds 15 USDG and $20 of ETH and first place is worth $30, first place receives 30/35 of the USDG and 30/35 of the ETH. The dollar value of an ETH prize moves with the ETH price until you claim it.
The tournament page shows the prize grid — every paid place and its amount for the current field and purse — and updates it as riders join, so you always see what each place pays before you race.
What you can win
| Prize | Where |
|---|---|
| USDG | Sponsorship and real-money tiers |
| Sponsor tokens (e.g. PONS, CASHCAT) | Sponsorship only — only tokens we have approved on the escrow contract |
| ETH | Real-money tiers |
| GEARS | Every tier — and the only season-close prize |
| EXP | Every tier |
| NFT bikes (Rare and above) | Tournament tiers |
NFT bike prizes are the higher-rarity, minted bikes (Rare, Epic and up); Common bikes are store-only and never awarded as NFT prizes. Bike prizes are drawn with published odds — no hidden randomness. The free season pays its TOP-10 purely in GEARS — see Seasons & Rewards.
What each tournament pays
Every tournament shows its full prize table before you enter, place by place.
- A GEARS tournament pays GEARS, EXP and bikes — never crypto.
- A crypto tournament pays each paid place its share of the purse — in USDG and ETH — and may add EXP and GEARS on top.
GEARS and EXP tables are written for a full field, so a small field pays a proportional share of them. EXP is shown as a share of a level (+½ LV) because it is measured against your own level: one tournament never raises it by more than one. Tournament GEARS and EXP have a weekly limit per player; anything above it is not paid and the receipt shows CAP.
GEARS never cashes out, whichever tournament it was won in.
Where the money sits
A crypto purse lives in an escrow contract, not in a company account. Before registration opens, the purse is funded into it; on a paid tournament every ticket goes into it too, and the purse can be topped up at any time before results are published — it never goes down. The contract itself enforces the split between the purse and the house share — the terms are fixed when the tournament is created and visible on-chain, so they can’t be changed after the fact.
If a prize place goes unfilled — fewer finishers than paid places, a tie that splits an amount that can’t be divided exactly, or a winner with no linked wallet — that part of the purse returns to the house when results are published. Nobody else’s prize changes because of it.
How you’re paid
Prizes are published only after the tournament’s results are verified. Real-money prizes may also wait for a manual approval of the final table before anything is paid.
EXP and GEARS prizes are credited the moment the tournament closes.
A crypto prize is claimed by you. Smaller recurring tournaments publish their results to the escrow contract automatically after a review window; larger tournaments are published by hand after review. Once the results are published, a Claim button appears with your exact amount and a live countdown of the 30 days you have to claim. You sign one transaction that pays every token of the prize — USDG and ETH together — and the contract pays your wallet directly; you pay the network fee. A prize not claimed in time returns to the house. There is no internal custodial balance and no “withdraw” step — the platform never holds your crypto for you. The next time you sign in after winning, a celebration shows your place and prize, and your profile keeps a receipt of every prize with an explorer link.
Pacers never receive a prize; the prize places are ranked over players only.
If a tournament never settles
The escrow is not a promise, it’s code. If a crypto tournament is canceled, or if the house never settles it within its deadline, anyone can open refunds on the contract and every ticket holder pulls their money back themselves — without our servers being involved at all. A refund still unclaimed 30 days after the cancel is sent back to the holder’s wallet by us.
Every finisher also earns GEARS and EXP just for completing the trails. The purse is the additional reward for those who place in the paid places.