Comparison

ESPN Tournament Challenge vs Ace Referee

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ESPN Tournament Challenge

Create and manage brackets for college basketball tournaments. Compete with friends and experts for prizes, utilize prediction tools, and track your bracket's performance in real-time. Offers quick fill options and team insights to help you make informed picks.

Highlights
  • Create multiple brackets
  • Compete in groups
  • Predictor and Analyzer tools
  • Quick Bracket auto-fill
  • Finish My Bracket option
  • Real-time score tracking
  • Perfect Bracket Tracker
Read full description

The #1 bracket app is back and better than ever for the 2026 NCAA Men’s and Women’s College Basketball tournaments! Compete against friends, ESPN personalities and celebrities to see who finishes with the best bracket. It’s completely free to play with over $370K in total prizes across all four bracket games! - In each bracket game (Men’s, Women’s, Men’s Second Chance and Women’s Second Chance) create up to 25 brackets and enter each bracket in up to 10 different groups to play against friends, celebrities, ESPN personalities, and fans across the nation. - Use ESPN Bracket Predictor and Bracket Analyzer to take your bracket experience to the next level with the tools and data you’ll need to gain an edge on your competition. - Use Quick Bracket to auto-fill a bracket in seconds with top seeds, random teams, Smart Picks powered ESPN Analytics, and more! - Short on time? No problem. Pick from a few simple options in the ‘Finish My Bracket’ menu and ESPN will automatically complete your bracket. Unsure about a game or two? You can also import a bracket that you’ve already filled out in the app, make some tweaks and submit it again to increase your chances of winning. - Make picks directly from Matchup Preview screens, with key stats, information, and historical insights for each team to help you make the most informed selections. - Use the Bracketcast tab once games tip off to follow scores and your bracket's performance in real time, all in one view. - Check out the ESPN Perfect Bracket Tracker to see how many perfect brackets remain in both the Men’s and Women’s tourneys as the upsets start rolling in. Before you download this app, please consider that it includes advertising, some of which may be targeted to your interests. You may choose to control targeted advertising within mobile applications by using your mobile device settings (for example, by re-setting your device’s advertising identifier and/or opting out of interest based ads). Please note: this app features Nielsen’s proprietary measurement software which will allow you to contribute to market research, like Nielsen’s TV Ratings. Please see www.nielsen.com/digitalprivacy for more information. You may also visit Settings in the app to opt out of Nielsen measurement. - Terms of use - https://disneytermsofuse.com/ - Privacy Policy - https://www.disneyprivacycenter.com/ - Your US State Privacy Rights - https://privacy.thewaltdisneycompany.com/en/current-privacy-policy/your-us-state-privacy-rights/ - Do Not Sell My Personal Information - https://privacy.thewaltdisneycompany.com/en/dnsmi - Children’s Online Privacy Policy - https://privacy.thewaltdisneycompany.com/en/for-parents/childrens-online-privacy-policy/

About

Ace Referee

This app assists referees in handball, racquetball, squash, and RoundNet by tracking scores, servers, and timeouts. It offers live score updates for spectators and integrates with tournament software for seamless data management.

Highlights
  • Score tracking
  • Server management
  • Timeout tracking
  • Live score updates for spectators
  • Integration with tournament software
  • Barcode scanning for match data
Features
Read full description

Ace Referee is a companion app for handball, racquetball, squash and now RoundNet/SpikeBall referees. It can be used in stand-alone mode or in conjunction with the Bracket Ace tournament software. Ace Referee eliminates the referee's need for pencil and paper. It keeps track of score, server and timeouts on your iPhone, iPad or the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch version allows you to score a game locally or take over a match from the iPhone. All referee features available in the iOS version including the live scoring feature. Ace Referee's live score feature allows spectators to view real-time score updates for any match where the referee is using the app. Via the view scores screen users can simultaneously monitor match scores on both the iPhone and iPad. When Ace Referee is used in conjunction with the Bracket Ace tournament app, all ongoing tournament match scores can be displayed simultaneously, users can jump to the event in the Bracket Ace app, and live video or other media can be displayed when made available by the tournament hosts. Ace Referee can be launched by other apps such as Bracket Ace so that the match data is populated automatically for the referee. Ace Referee can also scan a barcode on a Bracket Ace scorecard. All match data will be populated and the match result will be reported to Bracket Ace.

Screenshots

ESPN Tournament Challenge4 screens
Ace Referee1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Ace Referee at 100% against ESPN Tournament Challenge's 34%. Ace Referee also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 11) and ads (none vs shown). ESPN Tournament Challenge's advantage is ratings volume (44K vs 2) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 6 weeks). On price there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. ESPN Tournament Challenge sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $10.99 per month. Ace Referee asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ESPN Tournament Challenge holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ESPN Tournament Challenge has 44K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 34% of ESPN Tournament Challenge's written reviews are positive against 100% of Ace Referee's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ESPN Tournament Challenge ships an update every 9 days, Ace Referee every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 1 level
ESPN Tournament Challenge versus Ace Referee: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterESPN Tournament ChallengeAce Referee
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (44K ratings) — better4.5 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews34.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings44K — better2
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB12 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperDisneySoftCP Inc.

Customer experience

ESPN Tournament Challenge

All ratings43,949 ratings
Positive93.8%
Neutral2.1%
Negative4.1%
Written reviews252 reviews
Positive34.1%
Neutral11.9%
Negative54.0%

Ace Referee

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

ESPN Tournament Challenge

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Brackets getting wiped
  • Compatibility issues with older devices
  • Frequent app crashes
  • Login and sign-up problems

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to save and resume brackets
  • More customization options
  • Improved group management tools
  • Better analytics and scoring features

Ace Referee

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

ESPN Tournament Challenge

Subscriptions10
  • ESPN+ 90 Day Trial (Monthly)3 Months trial$10.991 Month
  • ESPN+ Monthly2 variants$13.991 Month
  • ESPN+ 7 Day Trial (Monthly)7 Days trial$13.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • ESPN+ (Monthly)$13.991 Month
  • Tournament ESPN+ Monthly 2024$13.991 Month
  • ESPN+ (Yearly)$139.991 Year
  • ESPN 7 Day Trial (Yearly)7 Days trial$139.991 Year
  • ESPN+ 14 Day Trial (Yearly)14 Days trial$139.991 Year
  • ESPN+ 30 Day Trial (Yearly)$139.991 Year
  • ESPN+ 90 Day Trial (Yearly)3 Months trial$139.991 Year
None

Ace Referee

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ESPN Tournament Challenge free?
ESPN Tournament Challenge is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ace Referee free?
Ace Referee is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ESPN Tournament Challenge or Ace Referee?
ESPN Tournament Challenge is rated higher. ESPN Tournament Challenge averages 4.7 out of 5 from 44K ratings, while Ace Referee averages 4.5 from 2 ratings.
Do ESPN Tournament Challenge or Ace Referee have ads?
ESPN Tournament Challenge shows ads; Ace Referee does not.
Which is updated more often, ESPN Tournament Challenge or Ace Referee?
ESPN Tournament Challenge ships an update every 9 days, and Ace Referee every 6 weeks. Most recently, ESPN Tournament Challenge was updated on September 26, 2026 and Ace Referee on September 10, 2026.

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