How to add a live scoreboard to your YouTube stream (OBS)

Get the stream link from your match's Stream tab and add it in OBS as a Browser Source sized 1920 x 1080, over your camera. The scorebug, a lower-third for every goal and wicket, and the break cards update on their own as the match is scored, so YouTube receives them as part of your video.

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Useful for tournament organisers and local streamers.

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A scoreboard in the corner of your stream, updating by itself.

LIVE148 watching
Full timeFalcons won 3-2
FAL31 at the break
ROV21 at the break
Full scorecard at scoremymatch.com/match/FALC42
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Full time, 3-2

The real stream overlay, playing a scripted match over a drawn picture of the ground.

6 steps

In short

  1. Create the matchScore it on your phone as normal. The overlay reads the same live score everybody sees.
  2. Get the stream linkOn the Stream tab, tap Get the stream link and set a delay to match your stream's.
  3. Add it in OBSAdd a Browser Source with the link, 1920 wide and 1080 high, and stretch it over your camera.
  4. Go liveThe scorebug, a lower-third for every goal and wicket and the break cards update on their own.
  5. Send viewers to the matchAdd the stream under Stream links, and the match page gets a Watch live card that plays it.
  6. Line up the goalsAfter the match, tap Line up the stream and find one moment. Every moment then gets a Watch button.
Before you go live

What you need

A computer running OBS Studio, which is free, streaming to YouTube, Twitch or Facebook. A camera on the pitch. And somebody at the side of the pitch scoring the match on their phone. That is the whole graphics team.

The overlay is a web page. OBS draws it on top of your camera like any other layer, and the video that reaches YouTube already has the score in it. Nothing is installed on YouTube's side.

Five minutes, once

Set it up

  1. Create the match

    Create the match on your phone as normal. The overlay reads the same live score everybody else does, so the scorer does nothing extra.

  2. Get the stream link

    On the scorer page, open the Stream tab and tap Get the stream link. Under Overlay settings, pick a delay to match your stream's and check the team codes, then copy the link or send it to whoever runs the stream.

    The link is yours to hand out: anybody holding only the match link cannot put these graphics on their own stream. Close it after the match, or replace it if it reaches the wrong person.

  3. Add a Browser Source in OBS

    In your scene, add a Browser Source, paste the URL and set the width to 1920 and the height to 1080. Everything around the graphics is transparent, so only the graphics show over your picture.

  4. Go live

    Stretch it over the whole scene. The graphics already sit where broadcasts put them: a scorebug top left for football, a ticker along the bottom for cricket, a lower-third for every goal, wicket and six, and a break card with a QR code at half time and full time. Nobody touches OBS again.

    When a prediction opens on the match page, the overlay puts the question up for a few seconds with the address and a QR code, and shows how the crowd called it once it closes. At full time, if the scorer asks for player of the match, the break card asks too, and then names whoever the scorer picks. A match in a series gets the table and the next game beside the break card.

Pro

The overlay is Pro. A match pass opens it for one match, and a Pro club opens it for every game started from one of its fixtures. Scoring the match, sharing its link, stream links and Watch links are free either way. See Pro for what a plan includes.

Free, whatever the plan

Send viewers to the match

  1. Fill in the stream's title and description

    On the Stream tab, tap Stream title and description and copy both into YouTube. The description links to the match page, which is where people go for the full scorecard.

  2. Link the stream on the match page

    On the Stream tab, add the stream's own link under Stream links. Everybody following the match page gets a Watch live card that plays the stream when they tap it. YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Instagram links work, up to three.

Watch the goals again

After the match

YouTube keeps the recording at the same address, so the match page can send people straight to the moments that mattered. On the Stream tab, find Watch links on the moments under Stream links and tap Line up the stream: pick a goal or wicket, play the video to it, and tap This is the moment. Every other moment lines up with it, and each one on the match page gets a Watch button that plays it full width, with a link to open it on YouTube.

One moment is usually enough. If a few links are still a little off, tap Find another moment and find one more: every moment you find makes the rest more exact, and the card says how many it is lined up from.

Moments that look typed in after they happened, like three goals entered at half time, get no link rather than a wrong one. Every moment is listed under the stream, with the ones that need a look first: those, and any a viewer says opens at the wrong time. Tap one and the video opens where it most likely happened, worked out from the moments around it. Find it there and only that link moves, so a goal entered late never drags the others with it. You can also show it at the time it was entered, or hide its link. The stream's description also gains a chapter for every linked moment, ready to paste into YouTube.

Things that catch people out

On the day

  • Test it before kickoff. Start the stream privately or unlisted, check the scoreboard shows the two team names, then go public.
  • Your video is late, not the score. YouTube delays a stream by several seconds. Set the overlay's delay to about the same, so a goal appears with the video rather than before it.
  • If the connection drops, the overlay keeps the last score on screen and catches up on its own. It never puts an error message on your picture.
Need to know

Questions people ask

About live scoreboard on a youtube stream.

Does it work with Twitch or Facebook Live?

Yes. The overlay lives in OBS, not in YouTube, so anything OBS can stream to carries it the same way.

Does somebody have to run the graphics?

No. Whoever scores the match on their phone is running the scoreboard. The overlay follows every tap on its own.

Why is there a delay between the pitch and the scoreboard?

Usually there is the opposite: the scoreboard updates within a moment of the tap, while YouTube delays your video by several seconds. Set a delay under Overlay settings to about the same, and a goal appears with the video rather than before it.

Can I change the colours or the layout?

No. Team colours come from the match itself, and the layout is fixed so it stays readable over video. You can change the three-letter team codes, the delay and whether break cards show a QR code.

Can viewers watch the goals again after the match?

Yes, from a YouTube stream. Add it on the Stream tab and find one goal or wicket in the recording, and every moment on the match page gets a Watch button that plays it there. Each moment you find makes the rest more exact. It is free.

Does streaming need Pro?

The overlay does. A match pass opens it for one match, and a Pro club opens it for a match started from one of its fixtures or kept at full time. Scoring and sharing the match link stay free.

What else it does for you

Keep exploring

Try it on your next match

Create your match

Score the match on your phone and the overlay follows it.

Create your match