Client: Tour Time Golf LLC (Owned by CollectDev LLC)
Project: Tour Time Golf – An End-to-End Tournament Management Platform
Status: Dissolved
Timeline: 2022–2024
Overview
Tour Time Golf was a proprietary product developed to modernize the organization, scoring, and settlement of amateur golf tournaments. The platform allowed players to register, pay, and participate in events with real-time scoring, accurate handicaps, and transparent payouts. With a patent pending on its scorecard and financial handling system, the platform showed significant promise in addressing pain points for casual and competitive golfers alike.
Despite the innovative features and strong initial feedback, the project was eventually sunset. While the technical execution was successful, structural and operational challenges hindered its growth.
Key Features Delivered
- Custom scorecard and live leaderboard with proprietary handicap adjustment
- Event registration and payment processing
- Admin tools for setting rules, payouts, and tee time logistics
- Transparent player wallets with payout automation
- Scalable backend with support for multi-day, multi-flight tournaments
- Patent-pending scoring algorithm tailored to recreational tournament play
What Went Wrong
- Lack of a Founders Agreement – The absence of a formalized founders’ agreement early in the project led to misalignment regarding responsibilities, equity ownership, and decision-making. Without clearly defined roles and mechanisms for resolving disputes, internal tensions emerged that ultimately derailed collaboration.
- Poorly Drafted Contracts and Equity Promises – In the early stages, several contributors joined under informal understandings rather than formalized agreements. Equity discussions were casual and often undocumented, with no vesting schedules or clear legal framework. When the company later made the difficult decision to wind down, one contributor challenged the proposed payout, claiming an exaggerated valuation and pursuing legal action. What began as a goodwill effort to compensate fairly evolved into a costly dispute that drained resources and ultimately pushed the company into insolvency. The experience underscored the critical importance of clear founder agreements, written equity terms, and enforceable contracts from the outset.
- Payment Gateway Challenges in the Gaming Sector – Although the platform was not a betting product, its use of entry fees and payouts raised red flags with major payment processors. Stripe, Square, and others classified it as high-risk “gaming,” blocking onboarding or imposing costly compliance requirements.
As a U.S. company with Canadian ultimate beneficial owners, options were further constrained. We learned that maintaining a compliant and stable payment solution would require a 50-state legal opinion, formal AML/KYC policies, and a dedicated compliance officer, an unrealistic burden for a startup.
Beyond payments, operating in a space adjacent to skill-based gaming brought unforeseen regulatory scrutiny. Legal guidance revealed a patchwork of state and provincial rules governing entry fees, prize pools, and contest structures. The cost and complexity of compliance across multiple jurisdictions made expansion impractical, reinforcing the importance of early legal planning when building products that touch financial or gaming-adjacent systems.
Key Takeaways
- Formal agreements matter, even with trusted collaborators. Drafting and signing founders’ contracts at the outset can prevent misunderstandings down the line.
- Always use a lawyer to write and review your contracts.
- Equity should always be granted with clear vesting terms, preferably via structured contracts. Informal promises create risk and dissatisfaction.
- Fintech and gaming-adjacent apps should vet payment processors early. Even a hint of “gambling” mechanics can derail payment setup.
- Legal due diligence is not optional. Emerging in a regulated space, even tangentially, requires upfront legal investment.
What’s Next
The lessons from Tour Time Golf have deeply informed how CollectDev approaches future product launches. From legal scaffolding and team alignment to payment architecture and compliance planning, we now place equal importance on legal, operational, and technical execution.
Although the platform didn’t scale as intended, the IP, learnings, and technology developed through Tour Time Golf remain a valuable part of CollectDev’s foundation and will guide our next ventures.