How to set up a padel league in Padeliga

Before you start

You need the app and about ten minutes. On iPhone, Padeliga is on the App Store. On Android, open the app in Chrome and it installs in one tap, with its own icon and notifications. It is free for clubs and players.

Step 1: start a new league

Choose Start a new league from the home screen. Club staff do the same from the club console. You name the league at the end, so think of something people will recognise, such as the night it is played or the group it is for.

Step 2: answer six questions

The first screen asks six quick questions. Rough answers are fine, and nobody has to have signed up yet.

1. How many players? From 8 or fewer to 40 or more.
2. How long should it run? A few weeks, a couple of months, or a long season.
3. Competitive or casual? Proper results and a winner, or meeting people and mixing it up.
4. How do people sign up? As pairs, on their own (Padeliga finds them partners), or singles.
5. How often do they play? A match a week, a match every two weeks, or whenever suits, with one finish date for every match.
6. Something to play for at the end? Just the table, a finals night, or a knockout.

Padeliga then suggests a structure in plain English: the shape, the dates, how it is scored and who it is best for. The suggestions are:

• Americano league: a new partner every matchday, drawn by the app, and one table per person.
• Americano league in divisions: the same in divisions of 4, 8 or 12, where the top go up and the bottom come down.
• League with a finals night: the top of each division play one more division at the end.
• Champion of champions: groups, then a knockout.
• Classic league: fixed pairs, everyone plays everyone.
• Box league: divisions of fixed pairs.
• Seeded club championship: a knockout of fixed pairs, drawn when you press Draw. On the Club plan the admin seeds it, so the top seeds cannot meet before the final.
• Singles league: one against one, everyone plays everyone.

Step 3: make it now, or change something

Make it now takes you to the entry fee, the WhatsApp group and the name, then a last check of every choice before you create it. Change something opens the ordinary steps with the suggestion filled in, so every setting is still yours to edit. If you would rather choose yourself, skip the questions and pick one of the five styles; padel league formats explained compares them.

• Classic: fixed pairs, everyone plays everyone, one table.
• Social: the Americano league, over a season. A new partner every matchday, drawn by the app, and a table per person, so your points follow you.
• Box league: divisions, with Division 1 at the top. Play everyone in yours, then the top go up and the bottom come down, with fixed teams or a new partner every week. Inside the league it is called Divisions.
• Champion of champions: a few small leagues, then the top two of each pair up for a knockout.
• Knockout: lose once and you are out. It can draw itself the moment the last place is taken.

Step 4: set the dates

Pick the start date and how often a matchday falls, for example every seven or fourteen days. The app shows how many matchdays that makes and roughly when the season ends. The first matchday can have extra days, which helps while people are still joining.

A Classic league, or a Social league that ends on the table, can use Play whenever, one finish date instead: every match is due by that date, played in any order, whenever suits, and reminders count down to it. Knockouts keep a deadline a round, and box leagues a round at a time.

Step 5: choose the extras

• Scoring: best of three sets, a match tie-break to 10 as the decider, Fast4 short sets, or points, one score a match, like 16 to 8, the way an Americano is scored.
• Phone numbers: ask for one, so every match gets a one tap WhatsApp button. Only people in the league can see them.
• Playtomic level: an optional question at sign up, 0.0 to 7.0. Divisions and Champion of champions can be seeded by it.
• Entry fee: an amount and how to pay it (a payment link, bank details or a note). The money goes to you or your club, never to Padeliga.
• WhatsApp group: paste the group’s invite link and members get a Join the WhatsApp group button.
• Player limit, and whether names must be full names.

Step 6: share the code or the poster

Every league has a six character join code. Share the link in your group chat, read out the code, or print the A4 poster, which has a QR code and the code printed large. Players scan or type it, then pick a name and a PIN.

Step 7: let it draw

On the start date the fixtures are drawn automatically and every player is told who they play first and by when. You can draw earlier from the Admin tab if everyone is in. Drawing locks the pairs and closes joining.

Step 8: run it from the Admin tab

The Admin tab opens on a dashboard of what needs you, and usually nothing does. From there you can move a deadline, answer a request for more time, sign off a score the other pair never confirmed, award a walkover, add or pair players, reset a forgotten PIN, post an announcement and, at the end, start the next season with the same players.

How Padeliga does it

This whole guide is Padeliga. For a club running several leagues, the club console is a separate website for staff, who log in with their work email. It starts a league with the same six questions, and adds every league on one screen, one Needs an answer list, a club board members see on their home screen in the app, entry fees paid straight to the club, posters with QR codes and exports. It is free for clubs and players, and we’ll set up your first league with you.

Running leagues at a club? See padel league management for clubs, what to compare in padel league software and how to run a padel league.

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