Pre-game countdown timer: build anticipation before kick-off
ScoreLayer now shows a live countdown to kick-off in your OBS stream before the game starts. Set the time, flip to Pre-Game mode, and your viewers see exactly how long until game time.
There is a window in almost every live sports stream that nobody quite knows what to do with.
The game hasn't started yet. The teams are warming up. The stream is live, the chat is trickling in, and there's something on screen — but it's just a scoreboard showing 0–0, or a blank holding slide, or a hastily typed "STARTING SOON" graphic someone made in PowerPoint three years ago.
It's a missed opportunity. People are watching. They're there because they care about the game. The question they all have in that moment is the same: how long until we actually get started?
We've shipped a simple answer to that question.
The pre-game countdown timer
ScoreLayer now has a built-in pre-game mode for American Football. Set your kick-off time once, flip a switch in the control panel, and your OBS overlay switches from the normal scoreboard to a countdown — showing your team names, logos, and colours alongside a live timer counting down to game time.
The countdown ticks every second. When it hits zero, the overlay automatically switches back to the live scoreboard. You don't need to touch anything — when kick-off time arrives, the broadcast moves on by itself.
How to set it up
Open your American Football scoreboard in the control panel and find the Game Mode card. Set your Kick-off time using the date and time picker — it reads your local timezone, so no UTC conversion needed. The timezone label underneath confirms which zone is being used.
Then tap Pre-Game. The countdown goes live on your OBS overlay immediately.
When the whistle blows and time runs out, the overlay flips to the scoreboard automatically. Start the game clock and go.
If the game is running late
Grassroots sport runs on human time. The referee is still sorting out substitutions, or the other team's bus was late. No problem — the Delay kick-off buttons in the Game Mode card let you push the time back in 5, 10, or 15 minute increments. One tap, and the countdown adjusts on the overlay instantly. Your viewers never see a frozen 00:00:00.
The control panel shows the live countdown as it ticks, so you can see exactly how much time is left without checking a separate clock.
Why the pre-game window matters more than you think
In professional broadcasting, the pre-game window is filled by someone else — analysts, studio segments, advertisement breaks, pre-recorded packages. The production team has a rundown and people dedicated to filling every second.
In grassroots streaming, you're probably one person with a camera, a laptop, and a game to cover. The pre-game window is yours to fill, or yours to lose.
The thing is, that window is often when your biggest audience peaks. People set a reminder. They share the link in the club group chat. New viewers — parents of players, fans checking it out for the first time — tune in early because they don't know exactly when it starts and they don't want to miss the opening. If the first thing they see is a 0–0 scoreboard with the clock not running, or a static title card, the stream immediately reads as low-effort.
A countdown does something specific and valuable: it tells every viewer they're in the right place at the right time, and it answers the one question they all have. It also creates a shared moment — everyone watching sees the same clock ticking down, the same anticipation building. That's the closest a grassroots stream gets to the stadium atmosphere of watching the big clock above the scoreboard count down to kick-off.
Countdown timers are one of those features that seem minor until you think about what they replace. Without one, you're choosing between leaving the stream on a static graphic, running a scoreboard that says 0–0 for twenty minutes, or cutting the stream entirely and starting it late. None of those are great options.
The clubs and leagues that grow their streaming audiences treat the pre-game as part of the show. Consistent branding — same team colours, same logo placement, same font — before, during, and after the game. A countdown keeps that visual language going from the moment you go live.
It also gives you something concrete to put in promotional posts. Share the stream link before the game with "stream goes live 30 minutes before kick-off" and your audience can tune in, see the countdown running, get comfortable with the chat, and be there for the first whistle. The alternative is a cold start where the link only gets shared after kick-off, and half the first quarter is already gone.
The overlay uses your existing team branding
The countdown display isn't a standalone graphic — it uses your existing team setup. Team names, logos, and colours you've already configured for the scoreboard appear on the countdown too. The visual language is consistent from pre-game through the final whistle.
If you haven't set logos yet, it still works fine — the team name blocks show in your team colours with the name text. Upload logos from the Setup section and they'll appear in both the countdown and the live scoreboard.
Setting up for a multi-device workflow
The control panel works on any device with a browser — your phone, a tablet, a laptop at the side of the field. A common workflow for club streamers: set up the OBS scene on a laptop connected to the broadcast machine before the game, configure the kick-off time, then hand a phone to a second person on the sideline. That person manages the game mode, scores, and any delay adjustments during the match while you handle the camera and commentary.
The countdown runs automatically on the sideline phone without any interaction — the second person only needs to act if the game is delayed. When the game starts on time, the overlay just switches itself and they go straight to scoring.
Everything syncs in real time via WebSocket — there's no polling, no refresh, no delay between tapping a score on the phone and it appearing on the stream. The kick-off time and delay adjustments propagate to the overlay in under a second.
Getting started
The countdown timer is available on all plans, including free. If you're already using ScoreLayer for American Football, it's already in your control panel — no update needed.
Open your scoreboard, scroll to Game Mode, set your kick-off time, and flip to Pre-Game. That's it. The overlay updates immediately, and from that point the countdown runs itself — no further input needed unless you need to delay.
If you haven't set up a scoreboard yet, you can create one for free in a couple of minutes. Pick American Football, name your teams, and you'll have an overlay URL ready to drop into OBS as a browser source.