PLAYSPOTS: AN OVERVIEW

We at Playspots,

are passionate about the local sport, whether that means evening knockabouts or competitive matches. As keen footballers – certainly more keen than skilled, few things give us more pleasure during the week than meeting up with friends for kickabouts and sports.

Years of touring the facilities in our hometowns–Kozhikode & Malappuram – have given us our fair share of insight into turf access on a local level, and we know the situation is far from ideal. For sports participation to be high, two things need to come together: high quality and ease of access. A few small barriers are often all that is needed to keep us indoors; the reality is that most people don’t have an hour to spend trying to organize a game of 5-a-side, and no-one enjoys hacking away in a space that just isn’t suitable.

For managers, on the other hand, Turf management strains resources. Turfs may well have booking systems in place, but they often can’t afford to optimize and integrate these systems in the way needed to open their turfs to the widest public possible. For smaller organizations such as local sports clubs, whose administration may well be volunteer-driven, managing facilities efficiently is a huge challenge. Booking systems, if they exist at all, are likely to be inefficient and unreliable, frustrating managers and users alike.

The more convenient facilities we have available to us, the more we play. In turn, the revenue from renting out facilities allows turfs to develop and offer more opportunities to people in their local area.

Having experienced the problems from both sides, we at Playspots finally decided to get together and do something about it.

Our aim is straightforward: we want it to be as easy as possible for people to get out and play sport in their local area.

To achieve this aim, we’ve created a user-friendly online platform, allowing sportspeople to locate and book convenient, suitable facilities, all with a few clicks and in a matter of minutes.

Problems and the solutions we offer,

Below, we look in a little more detail at the challenges facing regular players and managers of sports facilities and the solutions we offer,

The problem for players

If you enjoy sports in your local area, it’s likely you’ll have been disappointed by difficult and unstable booking systems.

Most turfs, provided you can reveal their booking procedures in the first place, require their own combination of phone calls, online accounts, visits and/or payment methods.

It’s a familiar story. After repeated phone calls, you reach a volunteer who regrets to inform you that you’ll need to send in an application form by post before you can be given access. In any case, you’re not going to be dusting off your kit any time soon. You finally do get something arranged, only to show up and find the pitch has been double booked.

This world of confusing, time-consuming booking systems limits sports participation. We need room for tendency if we are to fit sports in around our busy lives. When we arrive at a turf, we need to be absolutely sure we’ll actually be able to get on and play at the right time.

Our solution

Playspots offers a simple platform on which you can locate a wide range of sports facilities in your area, filtering results to meet your specific needs. Each turf is listed under a clear profile which includes pictures, availability and any useful information regarding parking, access and so forth.

Click on a facility to make sure it’s suitable and see all available time slots. All that is left to do is select the best timeslot(s) for you, confirm your booking using a secure, up-to-date method of payment, turn up and play. This end-to-end process takes no more than a couple of minutes and is available 24/7.

The Playspots App platform allows you to make a booking whenever you feel like it, wherever there is availability. Using our simple, integrated service, a few clicks are all you need to turn the impulse to play into something real.

The problem for managers

a) Administration:

Even for large turfs, managing and advertising sports facilities is an awkward administrative challenge which limits their profitability.

It is still common for turfs to register bookings over the telephone or in person. This system has two obvious drawbacks: firstly, it requires the attention of a member of staff or volunteer who could be working more constructively; secondly, it limits the window for potential bookings to standard working hours.

When supervising a network of turfs, each with its own configuration and booking procedure, traditional methods can make for complex and unproductive administration. Spreadsheets or sign-out books need to be carefully, regularly updated and can quickly become cumbersome. Under strain, the administration often becomes personal; procedures gradually fall into place which restricts complexity from a management perspective but creates frustrating restrictions for users.

Similarly, processing and recording payment creates its own set of administrative roadblocks. Turfs are frequently forced to limit accepted payment methods to make the situation manageable. In an age of instant electronic payment, however, potential users will be increasingly discouraged by the need to pay by cash, in person, or give out card details over the telephone. Ease of payment is essential for facilities to be widely used.

b) Advertising:

Effectively advertising facilities is simply beyond the reach of many turfs rather than social media; as such, their customer base is limited to a small pool of regular users. Opening facilities to the wider public is a fantastic way to fulfill their use potential and create extra profits.

Our solutions

a) For administration

Playspots offers a cost-effective online service, saving time for staff or volunteers to work more constructively and bringing under-used facilities into wider circulation. Managers have access to an intuitive, automated platform from which a multitude of bookings across a large network of facilities can be easily administered.

Each facility is hosted under a user-friendly profile offering pictures, a description, availability details, and extra information. Subject to availability, the facilities will be bookable almost instantly via secure online payment 24/7.

b)For Advertising

Hosting facilities on our Application puts them within clicking distance of a wider public of local sports enthusiasts. Our firm commitment is to make sports facilities as easy as possible to access and to manage.

head to www.playspots.in for more info.