Growing your padel club community
The padel industry is experiencing rapid growth, with investors and club managers making crucial decisions on how best to position clubs for success. But should they join an existing booking app or build their brand and community? Gilles Verbraeken, of Braekie Padel Solutions, discusses.
I’ve seen both approaches – signing up with a booking app or building your own platform – succeed in different scenarios but there are pros and cons to each. Let’s explore strategies, benefits and how you can leverage expertise to make the best decision for your club.
Joining an existing platform
Pros:
* Instant exposure: marketplaces like Playtomic and Matchi give your club immediate access to a vast network of players. This visibility is crucial for new clubs to build a customer base quickly. For example, a club in Sweden saw a 40% increase in bookings within three months of joining Matchi.
• Streamlined management: built-in bookings, payments and customer management features significantly reduce administrative work. This allows club managers to focus on enhancing player experiences instead of operations.
- Lower initial investment: integrating with an established marketplace saves you from investing in developing a custom platform, allowing clubs to allocate resources to other areas such as facility upgrades or marketing.
Cons:
• Brand dilution: your club becomes part of a more extensive directory. While you gain exposure, your brand’s unique atmosphere might get overshadowed. A tip here is to work with experts to optimise your marketplace profile for better brand recall.
- Limited marketing control: marketplaces own customer data, limiting your ability to run direct marketing campaigns or retarget customers. However, you can maximise marketing tools within marketplaces to strengthen your club’s community presence.
- Service fees: marketplaces often charge booking commissions, ranging from 3% to 10%. These fees are not only for you as a club but also for the player, which can significantly impact your profit margins over time. Mitigation: Consider price adjustments or value-added services to offset these costs, for example club credits that don’t apply a transaction fee.
Building your own platform
Advantages:
• Complete brand control: creating your app or using a white-label platform allows you to control branding, pricing and customer experience. You can design an interface that mirrors your club’s culture and values, offering a more personalised experience for your players. A white-label solution is an excellent middle ground for clubs needing more time to invest in a fully custom platform. It allows them to maintain brand identity while leveraging the technology and infrastructure of an established booking system.
• Ownership and control of data: owning your platform means full access to customer data, which is invaluable for understanding player preferences, booking patterns and peak usage times. This data can be leveraged to create tailored marketing campaigns, personalised offers and targeted loyalty programmes that directly address your club’s unique audience. Unlike marketplace platforms, where data access is often restricted, owning your data enables more effective decision-making and fosters more robust relationships with your members.
• Direct marketing: your own platform allows you to run targeted marketing campaigns, implement retargeting strategies and develop loyalty programmes. For instance, one club I consulted for implemented a member-only portal that increased repeat bookings by 28% – a level of customisation generally unattainable with marketplace tools.
• Diverse revenue streams: your platform can support additional revenue-generating services like coaching, merchandise sales, memberships and exclusive events, giving you flexibility.
• Community building: An independent platform fosters a sense of community. Integrate features such as player profiles, social feeds and event calendars to transform your club into a dynamic sports hub.
Challenges and in-between options:
• Higher initial costs: building a custom platform can be costly, with tailored systems often requiring significant investment in development. However, if this investment seems out of reach, a white-label platform offers an affordable, branded alternative. White-label options allow you to customise an existing booking system with your branding and features, reducing costs while providing your members with a personalised experience.
• Maintenance: managing your platform requires regular updates, security measures and technical support. Select a white-label option and the platform provider often handles technical maintenance and updates, alleviating the club’s operational burden.
- Marketing: without automatic exposure, a significant investment in marketing is necessary to drive traffic to your site. White-label platforms may come with built-in marketing tools to help bridge the gap as you develop your club’s marketing strategy.
Why not combine?
• Start with marketplaces: use established marketplaces to build your club’s reputation and gain early bookings. This provides immediate exposure while you focus on enhancing your club’s experience and building your brand.
• Transition to your platform: As your club gains a loyal customer base, gradually introduce your branded platform. Encourage members to transition by offering loyalty programmes, exclusive benefits or early access to events through your app.
• Cross-promotions: utilise the marketplace’s customer reach to promote your platform. Run unique campaigns to draw attention to exclusive perks available only through your club’s site.
Conclusion
The padel market is booming globally. Countries such as Spain, Sweden and Italy remain leaders, but emerging markets in the UK, Germany, US and Latin America are experiencing explosive growth. The padel industry is expected to grow to €6 billion by 2026. This rapid expansion presents unique opportunities. Whether your club joins a marketplace, builds a platform or adopts a hybrid model depends on its vision, resources, and market positioning. You can align your strategy with your business goals by weighing the pros and cons. 🎾
