Well, summer is finally here, and anyone thats tried to play in some of the sweatbox venues that are about will probably be cursing it as mush as I am. But to paraphrase Chris Melling on Ultimate Pool Commentary this month, I’d still rather lose than wear a glove.
We’ve been really busy this month and are currently working with 5 new leagues who are currently taking the plunge with RackEmApp. Every league brings its own quirky take on what we have available, and so far we’ve not reached the stage with any league that we have a perfect fit for their unique requirements. But that has to come eventually right?!
As such we’ve spent a lot of time aiding the onboarding leagues and adding some features in. But that said, we still released some really big stuff. Most notably, our Competition Series/Tour functionality and Online Entry for Competitions. Both of which big gaps filled compared to our competitors as we continue our misson to become the only platform pool needs.
Also this month, I was invited to Wellingborough Cue Sports. Lee is one of the most innovative people I know and his venue is first class, with live streaming wired in on evey table. We’ve been working together for a few months to add some more advanced competition functionality and in-arena technology. We held a test event which will go down as a “successful failure”, but without it we wouldn’t have been able to drive the improvements. We’ll be looking to get a follow up test soon and I’m hoping to shoot some footage that will show the full breadth of what we can do at RackEmApp in partnership with some of the awesome leagues, venues and promoters that already work with us.
Meanwhile, check out our round up of all the cool stuff we’ve added this month, and have a great July!
Yours in pool,
Matt Warr
RackEmApp Founder
Welcome Aboard!
Since the last newsletter the following organizations have joined the family and gone live with RackEmApp.
– Wellingborough Cue Sports Singles League
– Wellingborough International Rules Pool League
With a few more working away on trials in the background!
New Feature Showcase
Competition Series/Tours
![Image](https://api.smtprelay.co/userfile/3d51c390-5ef0-41a5-aaa5-13aab4b11575/image-5-1024x512.png)
You can now operate a series of events, commonly referred as a tour, which you can enter online, enter some or all events, and also automatically maintain a ranking list based upon point awarding parameters that make sense to you. Each competition and round is fully and independently configurable.
Online Competition and Series Entry
![Image](https://api.smtprelay.co/userfile/3d51c390-5ef0-41a5-aaa5-13aab4b11575/image-14-1024x837.png)
You can now accept entries online via our supported payment methods (Bank Transfer, Card via Stripe and TBD…) to your competitions and series. This massively reduces the amount of admin you need to do. it will maintain a paid/unpaid list and also allow you to issue eReceipts for entry.
Rearrange Fixtures
![Image](https://api.smtprelay.co/userfile/3d51c390-5ef0-41a5-aaa5-13aab4b11575/355662781_235051832622905_5088183062938537074_n.jpg)
You can now assign new dates to fixtures for postponed matches so they correctly appear on the website and in the various dashboards in use by Payers and Captains.
Pay By PayPal
We can now offer a “Pay By Paypal” option anywhere you need to accept payments. Leaguue, competition or series entries. This is not an integrated solution, but it does allow you to add your paypal account details to invoices and screens so your members can pay by “Friends and Family”, which is the only wasy PayPal allows you to utilise the “Friends and Family”
Pay Invoices By Card
We’ve added the ability for any invoice generated by the system to be paid by card, securely, thanks to our partnership with industry leading payments provider, Stripe. This allows you to quickly and easily get paid for your entries, and supports Apple, Google and SamsungPay for device native payments.
It’s the little things…
Heres a roundup of all the small features we’ve released recently that might be interesting
- Promotion and Relegation lines can now be added to group stages in competitions, which is beneficial for Singles leagues
- New bonus points method can now be used where the winning team in a given match section of frames can be awarded points
- Added a new description field for venues to allow you to pulish special information specific to a venue, like opening times, dress codes etc
- Added a new option for match formats to randomize a match section on lockin
Roadmap Update
We review our roadmap every month, so if you think there is something else we should/could focus on let us know!