What is Sportmeets about?

In a nutshell, Sportmeets is an online application that connects people that love playing sports so that they can meet, organise their teams and events, have fun and compete offline.

Why do I need Sportmeets?

Ever tried to organise a regular sporting activity? Looking at the 40 members on the mailing list, people coming and leaving all the time, you had to get 12 reliable people for Thursday afternoon - an amazingly time-consuming thing to do for the guy who also books the hall, collects the money for the booking and makes sure that all goes smoothly. And frustrating, too, if people in the end don't even turn up on time or take like 6 months to pay off their share.

How did it all start?

Something had to be done with this and here begins the story of Sportmeets. At university, Miro had some time and started developing the idea that sporting should be fun for the players as well as for the organiser. And then, together with Peter, they realised that Sportmeets could be a pretty cool project to work on. We hope you like the fruit of our efforts!

How does it help the organiser?

If you are lucky enough to be the one in charge, as an organiser you can now enjoy some really nifty tools, like 2-way SMS and email RSVPing, debt tracking and online payments, attendance list updated in real time, and a state-of-the-art dashboard to manage all the groups you'll ever want.

Is it more than a practical management tool?

That's a good one. Obviously, in order to administer a group of sporters one actually has to find somebody to play with in the first place. We know it's a nice feeling to finally find some great folks to play beach volleyball if you are new to Los Angeles and don't know a single soul there. We also know that it can be even more difficult in Glasgow (Scotland is not exactly a very beach-volleyball friendly place), but you get the point. So, to make the search for the right people as straightforward as possible, Sportmeets developed into a location-based sporting community where people of all abilities can find suitable groups or players and get sporting in no time!

So it's a search tool for local recreational sports, too. Anything else?

Of course! To make it a bit cooler, we added a cheeky hint of competition with our fancy custom ladder tool, a bit of self-indulgence in the form of achievement badges you can collect, and topped it all up with a whole load of social-network thingies so now you can share your real sporting life with friends on Facebook & Twitter as well!

We could go on and mention the local sporting-venue database where you can even add your own backyard pitch if you want, or how easy it is to spread the word and promote your group... but then again, you might want to get that warm and fuzzy feeling of finding out for yourself!

If it's so cool, it will probably be expensive, right?

Nope. Sportmeets is a student's dream and a treasurer's best friend. It's completely free to join and use while we are in Beta. There may be a small charge for some of the fancy features later on but we'll let you know well in advance.

There are 3 groups to choose from. How do they differ?

Rather than calling everything a group we'd like to put the right label on whatever you consider yourselves to be. So when you are creating a new Sportmeets group you can choose to call it a group, team or club. This will make it clear for others who look at your group's profile. And then, casual football groups have different needs than established football clubs so making clear which is which will allow us to add new tools and options specifically for each category.

In any case, Sportmeets works great for sports groups, clubs and teams of any size, 5-a-side football games or tug o' wars, leisure centres and sports associations, university campus sport, hiking and outdoor pursuit groups, as well as less-than-conventional sports like beer running or chessboxing. What - never heard of chessboxing?

What is the 'group compatibility' thing and why should I care?

Well, that basically tells you how the group you're checking out corresponds to your interests and abilities. So, when you come to the actual game, you won't end up playing with guys that are waaay better than you. Unless you want to, of course. The compatibility rating is also determined by your gender and location, so if it's a 'girls only' team or it takes a 2-hour train ride to get there, you'll notice. You can improve the rating by adding more sports to your interests, or adjusting your skills!

What is a meet?

Meet is derived from 'meeting' in case it wasn't completely obvious. There are different kinds of meets and you choose the type when you're creating one. Different types of meets give you access to different options which we think might be relevant. For example, when you schedule a competitive match against another team or challenge a higher-ranking player, you might want to be able to save the results for the posterity. Likewise, you won't be asked to record the result if you just schedule a simple meet for a laid-back volleyball game or a social meet for Friday night out (in which case you probably don't feel like editing results in the morning).

Who can schedule a meet?

Anyone can be a meet creator with Sportmeets and be in charge of everything without the hassle. On your group homepage choose 'New meet', choose the type, name, date and place and you're all set up to send out invitations to all other group members. You can also make it free or set attendance fee per person. You can specify how many players can show up, track who's coming, and create a waiting list if you feel that this meet might be a bit too popular.

What if somebody didn't show up?

After the game the organiser can access the meet details again, review the attendance list, add extra players or mark players that did not show up or that changed their RSVP from 'yes' to 'no' too late. We know they can be annoying and give you the option to charge them the full fee or be gracious and let them get away with it this time.

How do I get my money back from other people?

That's when the fun part for most organisers used to begin. OK, chasing people around the showers for 50p each is fun only the first time around, but it can get pretty annoying.

Sportmeets allows you to track who owes you money as well as whom do you owe to. You can check your balance in the 'Payments' section in your Profile. Debts can be settled online using PayPal with no extra charge, or if you prefer hard cash, just pay or collect the money and settle the debts online. In any case, you always know whether being an organiser costs you more than time.

Why is my activity not listed?

If you're one of them chessboxers or you play a fairly civilised sport and we kind-of forgot about it, request your activity to be added.

What is a Ladder Competition?

A ladder is a simple and useful tool that adds a bit of competitive spirit to the game. Ladders are ideal for individual sports, such as squash and tennis, and since you're the boss, you can customise each ladder to fit your rules. Use a ladder to track your performance and see your ranking go up as you win matches. Set one up for a longer time period and provide a prize for the winner. It can be a great way of getting people to play more.

How do I start a ladder?

You start a ladder the same way as you would create a standard group, just select a ladder when asked for the type on the first page. You can also create a ladder within an existing group and link it to it. Then just choose a sport, level and how long will it run for, set the rules and invite players to join.

How do I promote my group?

If you feel lonely in your new group and could do with some more people, contact people in your mailing list, post an announcement on Facebook, tweet it on Twitter, or add several simple web snippets to your blog or website (coming soon!).

How do I cancel a group?

For whatever reason (but it better be a good one!) you'd like to cancel your existing group, just tell us and we will do it for you.