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Creating a paid league

A paid league works exactly like a free league, with the difference that participants must pay an entry fee in order to submit photos. To publish it you need the association to have Stripe connected and to pay the salon license when you publish.

Prerequisites

Stripe connected — the association must have its Stripe account connected before publishing. If it isn't, a notice will appear when you try to publish, with a direct link to the Payments screen. How to connect it (it's one click, no keys needed): Billing and payments.

Salon license — paid at the moment of publishing, choosing the tier based on the authors you expect. Tiers and the end-of-contest settlement work the same as for contests: explained in Creating a paid contest.

Step 1 — General information

  • Name — e.g. League 2026
  • Description — free-form text explaining the league. The detailed rules will go in a separate PDF.
  • Poster — the league's poster image, shown on its public page, in any proportions
  • Start of entries — date on which users can start submitting photos
  • Verdict — end date of the league (e.g. December 31)
  • Price — entry fee amount (e.g. €10). The form will show a notice: when you publish, you'll be asked to choose the salon license tier and complete the payment at that moment.
  • League rules — PDF file with the official rules

Step 2 — Scope

  • Social — association members only
  • National — any user of the platform
  • International — open to international users

If you choose Social, the "Only visible to the association" switch appears, restricting the league to members and administrators. This is explained in Creating a league.

Step 3 — Sponsors (optional)

Add sponsors by entering a name and description. As many as needed can be added.

Step 4 — Themes

Create one theme for each month of the league. For each one, specify:

  • Theme name — e.g. April theme
  • Number of photos each participant can submit
  • End date — last day to submit photos to that theme

Step 5 — Voting

  • Salon chairman — manages the league, oversees the voting and assigns the awards. Cannot also be a juror.
  • Jury — one or more users. Search for them by email, nickname or name.
  • Mode: remote or in-person

Step 6 — Awards

Add the awards by entering the Type (Award or Honorable mention), name, description and amount. An honorable mention carries no prize money, so it has no amount, and it is always listed after the awards. They can be edited or removed while the league is in draft.

Publishing

When everything is ready, click Publish: the Salon license dialog appears to choose the tier and complete the payment on Stripe. When you return, the league is published automatically.

⚠️ Once published, the league cannot be deleted, and the only settings you can still change are the poster, the sponsors, the jury, the salon chairman and which themes are active. See Creating a league for details.

How users participate

When they open the league and click Participate:

  1. The entry fee and taxes (if applicable) are shown
  2. The user accepts the terms and conditions
  3. They are redirected to Stripe to complete the payment
  4. Once paid, they're registered and can submit photos once the league starts

The payment goes directly to the association's Stripe account, with Picstar's 6% commission already deducted (on the base amount excluding VAT). From My associations → Contests the administrator can see registered participants and revenue in real time.