May has been an interesting month at RackEmApp. It seems more often than not that what I plan to do ends up taking a few twists and turns along the way… but all for the right reasons!
Following a massive push in in-venue technology throughout May, we started talking to 6 leagues about implementing RackEmApp which is the most exciting part about doing what I do. Whilst some of the ‘fun stuff’ we’ve added recently for venues and competition organisers has been great to add, it’s the local leagues and interleague conversation that are the grass roots of the game.
Pool players start playing in pubs and clubs casually and then join teams to socialise with other pool players and learn to get themselves to the next level.
Whilst it’s impossible to deny that there is a wealth of opportunity for pool players nowadays – with competitions, flyers and money matches running all days of the week, the players in those competitions all need to learn the game somewhere, and the feeder system has been from their local leagues.
That’s why we always focus on league pool first. Making it easier for leagues to run, and offering tech that engages players is essential to growing the game particularly in the younger generation. Tools like our social media generation can really help to drive that.
League pool is also where we really excel against our competition. League Republic is the #1 used league management solution for pool leagues in the UK by volume. Everyone I speak to and that has moved from League Republic has talked glowingly about how superiror a product RackEmApp is. Both for product functionality, but also for customer service. I’ll not pretend it’s a secret that League Republic is directly in my sights as the top competitor I want to replace.
Thats why this month we’ve added some features that we were missing when compared to them. And every time we we fill in those gaps in we take a step forward on our path to becoming the primary platform for 8-ball pool. I’m confident that come July there will be no reason for pool leagues to stay on League Republic at all. What we offer in so many areas is so game changingly better and improving all the time, and I am committed to getting as many pool leagues off of league republic as I can.
Growing the platform drives me and consumes me. The more leagues we have the more worthwhile it is to keep working so hard at it. To give you all some context, I spend probably 4-5 hours a day on RackEmApp, on top of my full-time job, to bring to life the features that will make the platform succeed. So the more feedback we get the more the platform improves for every one who uses it. It’s a symbiotic ecosystem I’m proud to have pulled together and make a reality.
It’s not all about the here and now though. I’m working on our long term strategy and business plan to ensure we can sustainably grow the platform and our ability to service a client base 20 times as big as we have currently. I want us all to work together as long as possible, in a true partnership – as I very much consider all of our users partners. Next month I will share with you all where we are going over the next 3 years and the reasons why as I’d love to keep you on this journey with us for 3 years and beyond.
Showcase
Sets Matches
We’ve invested a lot of time this month in building functionality to support matches that can be played as a race to a number of sets, with the number of frames in those sets configurable. Supported for all competition formats including groups (for singles leagues) and fully support across our venue technologies!
Reducing Shot Clocks
We’ve added a fully integrated remote timing system that supports a reduced shotclock that kicks in when there are a configurable number of minutes remaining – meaning we can now fully support all the formats that Ultimate Pool currently offer and make them available in your competition or venue.
Data Import
In order to make it easier for leagues to onboard with RackEmApp, we’ve added a Data import facility that will create your teams, players, venues and tables when you populate our template with your data, potentially saving you hours of data input.
API
A vital component in the world of the cloud, the API will eventually allows 3rd parties to utilise data from your league for various different purposes. Currently, the API can be used to drive matches remote, for example for streaming purposes in a way that is unique to the pool industry and is a potential game changer for streamers.
Tournament Director Role
We’ve added a new role for Tournament Directors, which means you can assign a permission to someone who then only has access to their defined tournaments rather than the entire backend. Great for venues and for larger leagues who want to delegate our toutrnament responsibilities.
Handicap Improvements
We’ve completely overhauled the Handicaps to ensure they are compatible across all match types and venue technologies. We also now utilise the calculated difference between handicaps to assign the right “start” for the players.
Venue Profile Pages
Venues now have their own profile page on your website, showing their address details, a google map with “directions” button, and also a list of fixtures and matches that are due to be played there. This is useful for the venues to know who to expect and when, and for players to see when certain tables might be in available for practise. We have a lot of fucntionality planned for venues, so watch this space in te coming months!
Jokers
A special requirement from a few leagues, they like to be able to play a “joker” when a team is short of players. Selecting “Play Joker” will randomly select a player that has already played, but never the same player twice. Joker frames do not contribute to player rankings.
Venue Sharing
Added a facility for venues who run their own leagues to “Share” their venue with other leagues, which will allow leagues using that venue the opportunity to piggy back off of their streaming and tablet scoring capabilities
It’s the little things…
Heres a roundup of all the small features we’ve released recently that might be interesting
- Scoreboards now show “Frame X of Y” so you can see what frame you are playing
- Added support in Group stages of competitions for a group size of 2, which will allow for 2 legged finals to take place.
- Added the ability to email captains automatically when posting a new article, driving engagement to your site and ensuring no-one misses a communique
- Replaced our content editor to one with better formatting options so you can more accurately edit your content pages and news articles
- Added a Combined player rankings page that takes into account all frames (singles and doubles+)
- Draws are now allowed in Group stage matches (were previously “Race To” only
- Rather than spending ages jigging around team numbers when creating fixtures to avoided table clashes, we’ve added a button that will automatically assign these taking the hard work away
- Added outstanding/back matches to the league table so it is clearer
- We’ve added a setting to make mobile numbers compusory if needed
- Added a new sort method for League Tables to utilize head to head as a differentiator
- Added a “play all frames” option which means all frames in a race must be played, useful when you are awarding points per frame
- Added a “Stream immediately” option when a match is being assigned to a table
- Finally fixed a long running issue with resetting passwords
- Added accellerator points as a reward option for group stages in competitions
- Added a quick filter in competitions to search for matches by a player name to make it easier to find their matches
- Added a “No Doubles” setting to league settings to hide doubles player rankings for leagues that don’t play doubles.
Roadmap
