Social play and round robins
Thursday social night, organised in a group chat and paid for in a biscuit tin
1st month free. A card is required to start, and nothing is charged until your free month ends. The free profile and free tiers never need one.
TL;DR
Social night on a WhatsApp poll and a biscuit tin, or on AllSquads
- The poll tells you who intends to come; the paid social session tells you who has a place and who has paid for it, with a cap so the courts are never overfull.
- A regular social night is a recurring group lesson with a capacity; a one-off event is a social session with a single date.
- A member can bring a partner or a friend on the same booking, name them, and cancel one seat without touching the other.
- A full night queues the next player in join order, and everyone booked gets a reminder the day before and an hour before.
- AllSquads does not generate the round-robin draw or a ladder; the rotation happens on court, and the roster is the list you run it from.
Social play is the format that runs on goodwill: someone posts on Thursday morning, people turn up, the organiser counts heads and makes the numbers work on court. It is also the format that goes wrong most quietly, because nobody notices the biscuit tin is short until the venue invoice arrives. AllSquads takes the entry, the payment and the headcount off the organiser's phone. It does not draw the round robin; you still do that on the night, and the page below says exactly where the line is.
Try it on this term's class
1st month free. A card is required to start, and nothing is charged until your free month ends. The free profile and free tiers never need one.
How most clubs run social play today
Thursday morning, the organiser posts a poll in the group chat. Twenty people say yes, sixteen turn up, three of them brought a friend. Money goes into a tin or is transferred to the organiser personally, sometimes on the night and sometimes never. The organiser pairs people up from memory, works out a rotation on the back of a scorecard, and squares the tin against the venue bill at the end of the month. If it rains, the cancellation is a message and the money already in the tin is somebody's problem.
- Numbers are a poll result, and poll results and attendance are two different things.
- The organiser is the treasurer, the referee, the pairing engine and the person who rings the venue.
- Guests exist only as a name on the night, so they never hear about next week.
Where the poll-and-tin social night breaks
The manual social night depends entirely on the organiser, and organisers burn out. Everything below is a reason the same person eventually stops posting the poll.
- Overfull courts: twenty-two said yes to a night that fits sixteen, and the organiser has to turn people away at the gate.
- The tin is short: the venue invoice is fixed and the takings are whatever people remembered to put in.
- Guests fall through: a member's friend plays three weeks running and is never anyone's contact.
- Rain-outs are a mess: the night is cancelled by text and nobody knows who paid ahead and who owes.
- The waitlist is the thread: when a regular drops out, the first to see the message plays, whether or not they asked first.
- Members and casuals pay the same: the club's own members subsidise visitors because there is no way to charge two rates in a tin.
- The organiser is the single point of failure: on the week they are away, the night does not happen.
Two shapes: a regular night, or a one-off event
A weekly social night is created as a recurring group lesson: set the night, the time, the duration and the capacity, and every week's session generates itself. A one-off round robin, a club open day or a guest-coach evening is a social session: a single date and time with its own capacity and price. Both appear on the club's booking page and on Explore, and a player who has been recently can rebook the next session in two taps from their dashboard without going back through the class page.
Entries, guests and one payment
Players book a place and pay at checkout, so the night's roster is the paid list rather than a poll result. A member can add other people to the same booking: a saved partner or friend from their People I book for list, or a name typed on the spot, with an emergency contact if the club requires one. Each attendee is priced individually, so a guest who is not a member pays the standard rate even on a member's booking, and the roster shows every attendee by name rather than the person who paid. Any single seat can be cancelled later without affecting the others.
Capacity, the waitlist and the rain-out
Capacity is per session and the coach can override it for one night when an extra court is available. A full night opens its waitlist and the next player is notified in join order when a place frees up. If the night is rained out, the club cancels the session and every booked player is notified by email, in the app and by SMS, with credit issued according to the class's own cancellation policy rather than the organiser's memory of who paid.
Members, visitors and the venue
A member price on the social class applies automatically to anyone with an active membership, so the club's members stop subsidising visitors without the organiser charging two rates from a tin. Where the club runs its own courts, assign one to the session and it is blocked for court hire during the night; where the club hires courts elsewhere, the session carries the venue address on every confirmation and reminder. Reminders go out by email and in the app a day before and in the app an hour before, which is what turns a poll's twenty into a night's twenty.
What AllSquads does not do on social night
There is no draw generator, no rotation engine and no ladder. AllSquads gives the organiser a paid roster with every name on it and a headcount that matches the courts; the pairing, the rotation and the scores are still worked out on the night, on court, by the person who has always done it. A club that needs fixtures and ladders generated for it needs a competition tool for that part. What does move across is everything that used to live in the tin and the thread: the entries, the money, the guests, the waitlist, the reminders and the record of who came.
Manual vs AllSquads
| A poll, a tin and the organiser's memory | AllSquads | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting paid | Coins in the tin, transfers to the organiser, and a few who forgot | Every place paid at booking, guests included, before the night |
| The roster | The poll result, minus the ones who did not show | The paid roster for the night with every attendee named, guests included |
| Cancellations | A rain-out text and a tin nobody can reconcile | The session is cancelled once, everyone is notified, credits follow the policy |
| Reminders | A nudge in the thread on the afternoon, sometimes | Email and in-app a day out, in-app an hour out, every session |
| Member pricing | Everyone pays the same because a tin has one price | A member price on the class, applied at checkout to active members |
| Waitlist | First to reply to the drop-out message plays | Opens when the night is full and notifies the next player in join order |
| Payouts | The tin against the venue bill at month end | The night's takings in the club's weekly payout with everything else |
| Records | A scorecard and a memory of who turned up | Attendance marked per player and every guest a contact for next week |
Where the poll and the tin are fine
Eight regulars, one court, a fixed night and a venue the club owns can run on a poll forever; there is nothing to overbook, nothing to chase and nothing to reconcile. The tin stops being fine when the night outgrows the courts, when guests start appearing, when the venue charges per court, or when the club would like the social night to feed players into its coaching and membership rather than drift alongside them.
Which social setup fits your club?
A fixed weekly social night with a mix of members and visitors
Good fitRun it as a recurring group lesson with the capacity your courts hold and a member price on the class. Members pay the member rate, visitors pay standard, both land on the same roster, and the night generates itself every week. The waitlist handles the weeks it fills and the reminders handle the weeks it would not have.
A one-off round robin or club championship day
Good fitCreate a social session for the date, with a capacity and an entry price. Players enter and pay, bring a partner on the same booking if it is a doubles event, and the roster is your entry list. The draw, the rotation and the results are yours to run on the day; AllSquads provides the entries and the money, not the fixtures.
Social hitting where players just want to book a court together
Worth knowingThat is court hire rather than a session: a player books a court for an hour, weekly or fortnightly for up to twelve weeks if they want the same slot, and pays the member or standard rate the club set on that court. Use a social session only when the club is organising the night and capping the numbers.
A ladder or an inter-club competition with fixtures
Worth knowingThe entry and the payment move across; the fixtures do not. AllSquads will take the entries as a social session or a recurring class, cap them, collect the fee and remind everyone, but it does not generate draws or ladders. Keep the fixture side in the tool you use for it and let AllSquads carry the roster and the money.
A social night you want to grow into coaching and membership
Good fitEvery player and every named guest who books becomes a contact, so the social roster is a list the club can message about a beginner course or a membership invite. Reviews are requested after attendance is marked, and the Book again rail puts next week's session two taps away for anyone who came this week.
Choose AllSquads for social night, or keep the poll
Choose AllSquads if
- The night has ever been overfull, or someone has ever been turned away at the gate.
- The tin has ever come up short against the venue bill.
- A guest has played three weeks running and never become anyone's contact.
- One person organises it, and the night does not happen when they are away.
- Members and visitors currently pay the same because there is no way to charge two rates.
Stick with WhatsApp if
- Eight regulars, one court the club owns, and nothing to reconcile.
- The night is free and a headcount in a poll is genuinely enough.
- You need fixtures and ladders generated, and nothing else.
Rather have it walked through?
A free 30-minute call. Two minutes to book, no pitch.
Move social night across before next Thursday
There is nothing to migrate: social night starts again every week. Create the session, post the link where the poll used to go, and run the rotation from the roster.
Import the regulars
Contacts, then Import, with the names and emails from the thread. Anyone who books later is added automatically, guests included once they are named.
Create the night as a recurring class
Set the night, time, duration and the capacity your courts hold. Turn on a member price if members should pay less than visitors.
Set the cancellation policy for rain-outs
A notice threshold and a refund type. When the club cancels a session, credit follows the policy automatically and every booked player is told.
Post the booking link in place of the poll
Players book and pay from their phone, add a friend on the same booking, and the roster fills without a poll or a tin.
Run the rotation from the roster
Open the session on the night, mark attendance as people arrive, and pair up from the list in front of you rather than from memory.
What to try before the first online social night
Each step is inside the free trial and ends with something on screen you can show the regulars.
Create a recurring Thursday session with a capacity of sixteen and a member price.
The next Thursdays are generated and bookable, with two prices shown depending on membership.
Book as a member and add a friend by name on the same booking.
The roster lists both attendees by name, the friend at the standard rate, on one transaction.
Cancel just the friend's seat from the booking.
The friend comes off the roster with credit per policy; the member's own place is untouched.
Fill the session to sixteen and book a seventeenth player.
The night shows as full and the seventeenth is on the waitlist in position one.
Cancel the whole session as the club.
Every booked player is notified, credit is issued per the policy, and the roster is closed.
Got a question right now?
Instant answers, in the page, without leaving it.
Why clubs and coaches run on AllSquads
One platform for the whole operation: bookings, payments, courts, members and messages, built for racquet clubs and the coaches who run them.
Every class type on one timetable
Group classes, terms, camps, private lessons, socials, court hire and retreats all live on one schedule, with one roster per session.
Every way to pay
Upfront, weekly or monthly subscriptions, drop-ins, memberships, session packs and term instalments, collected online and paid out to your club every week.
Court hire with cost splitting
Players book one court or several in a single checkout and split the cost between up to eight people, so nobody chases anyone for their share.
A CRM with every channel
Every player and parent has a contact record, and you reach them by email, in-app message, push notification or broadcast. Paid plans add SMS for cancellations, reminders and payment requests.
Team scheduling
Coaches set their availability, you assign a head coach to each class, and a substitute takes a single session without rebuilding the class.
Admin that runs itself
Reminders go out before a session and before every subscription charge, the waitlist tells everyone waiting the moment a place opens, and cancellations turn into account credit under your own policy.
Promo codes and a pro shop
Discount codes at checkout, and a pro shop with member pricing and online or cash sales that land in the same weekly payout.
An AI agent on both sides
The Club Agent answers questions about your bookings, members and money from the dashboard, and the Concierge helps players find and book the right class.
Analytics you can act on
Revenue, bookings, attendance, court use and member trends, with weekly, monthly, quarterly and financial-year reports you can drill into.
Coming soon: Competitions: leagues, ladders and tournaments; The AllSquads app on the App Store and Google Play.
What AllSquads is
AllSquads is booking, payments and admin software for sports coaches and clubs. Players find your classes, book and pay online, and get reminded before every session. You get the roster, the money and the contact record in one place, with a payout to your bank every week. It runs term programs, casual classes, camps, private lessons and court hire side by side, so the whole operation is in one system rather than a booking tool plus a spreadsheet plus a payment app.
- Over ten thousand
- bookings taken
- Thousands
- of players
- Hundreds
- of classes live
- A growing group
- of Australian clubs
Less admin
Automated booking confirmations, 24hr and 1hr reminders, waitlists, credits, and cancellation management. Stop chasing people.
Get paid weekly
Players pay online at booking, via payment links, or you manage payments manually. Payouts are paid weekly, for the week ending Sunday, direct to your bank account.
Player contacts & CRM
Every booking adds a player to your contacts automatically. Import your existing list via CSV. Track membership, booking history, and notes.
Messaging & group chats
Message players one-on-one or in groups. Class group chats created automatically. Broadcast announcements to all followers.
Analytics built in
Track revenue, bookings, and player retention over time. Coach view, club view, and court hire stats — all in one dashboard.
“I had all of term 1 paid in the first week. 75% less admin, 100% fewer late cancellations, and 80% fewer emails and phone calls.”
Talk to a person
Two minutes, no pitch.
Founding rate locked for life
First 100 paying signups lock the founding rate, no matter what we change later.
Frequently asked questions
Where this comes from
- Social sessions are one-off; recurring classes generate weekly sessions
- Help centre: Class types
- Guests and saved people on one booking, priced per attendee
- Help centre: Player guide
- A single attendee can be cancelled without affecting the others
- Help: Cancellation policy
- Session cancelled by the club notifies players by SMS, email and in-app
- Help: Notifications
- Recurring court bookings weekly or fortnightly for up to twelve weeks
- Help centre: Court hire
- Attendance marked per player from the session roster
- Help centre: Coach guide
Put your first class online tonight
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