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AUN is the real-time player coordination platform for padel clubs — replacing WhatsApp group chaos with a clean, structured community layer. Free for clubs. Freemium for players. Built to scale across all racket sports.
Every padel club in Europe runs its community through WhatsApp. Not because it works — because there's been no alternative. A typical club manages 3–4 WhatsApp groups for different player levels and regulars. The result is a daily moderation burden that has nothing to do with padel.
Clubs are not losing revenue from cancellations — courts are generally well-booked. What clubs are losing is time, attention, and community quality. Club staff spend hours each week moderating a messaging app they never chose, instead of building the padel community they wanted to create. New and visiting players have no structured way to find a match at the right level. The community degrades quietly — and no one has built a tool to fix it.
Padel is not a niche sport. It is the fastest-growing racket sport in Europe by participation and infrastructure growth — and the community tooling layer has not kept pace with the physical build-out.
AUN is a two-sided platform: players post open spots or find existing ones in real time. Clubs get a clean, structured community space that replaces their WhatsApp groups — at zero cost, with zero integration required.
AUN complements booking tools like Playtomic. A club uses Playtomic to manage court reservations and uses AUN to manage their player community. These are different problems requiring different tools.
Club joins AUN — free, zero friction
Club shares AUN with all its players
Players join, post slots, fill courts
Club recommends AUN to other clubs
Network grows. CAC → 0.
AUN does not compete head-to-head with booking platforms. It occupies a distinct, currently unoccupied layer of the padel technology stack: real-time community coordination. Padellink is the closest conceptual overlap — see notes below.
| Dimension | Playtomic | Padellink | Padel Mates | AUN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core focus | Court booking & reservations | Community, match organizing, court availability | Player matchmaking | Real-time community layer for clubs |
| Revenue model | Commission per booking | Player freemium | Freemium | Player subscription · No transaction fees |
| Club relationship | Vendor (charges commission) | Platform partner | Neutral | Distribution partner · Free forever |
| Replaces WhatsApp groups? | ✗ No | ◑ Partial | ◑ Partial | ✓ Designed for this |
| Real-time slot filling | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Requires booking system? | Yes (it is the booking system) | ✓ Works standalone | ✓ Works standalone | ✓ Fully standalone |
| Club pays? | Yes (commission) | No | No | Never. |
AUN follows a platform freemium model: clubs are permanently free and act as zero-cost distribution partners. Monetization happens entirely on the player and optional club-upgrade side. There are no transaction fees — a deliberate strategic decision that keeps AUN distinct from booking platforms and removes friction at the moment of play.
Comparable model: Strava — a free sports community platform with a paid Pro subscription — generated $415M revenue in 2025 on 180M registered users (Source: Business of Apps / Bloomberg, March 2026). AUN targets a more focused, higher-intent sports community, suggesting comparable or higher willingness to pay per active user.
| Feature | Free | AUN Pro · €6.99/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Browse open matches nearby | ✓ | ✓ |
| Claim match spots per month | 3 | Unlimited |
| Post open matches per month | 1 | Unlimited |
| Priority slot claiming | — | ✓ |
| Match history & level tracking | — | ✓ |
| Full player profile & level badge | Basic | Full |
| Annual plan (2 months free) | — | €59.99/yr |
| Early access to new features | — | ✓ |
Pricing context: A single padel session typically costs €10–25. AUN Pro at €6.99/month costs less than one match fee — the value-to-price ratio is intentionally immediate and tangible.
| Metric | Conservative | Base Case | Optimistic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active players (End of Year 1) | 2,000 | 5,000 | 12,000 |
| Pro (paid) conversion rate | 8% | 10% | 12% |
| Pro subscribers | 160 | 500 | 1,440 |
| Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) | €1,120 | €3,500 | €10,080 |
| Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) run rate | ~€13K | ~€42K | ~€121K |
At 50,000 active players (realistic 3-year target for DACH + Benelux with club flywheel): 10% Pro conversion × €6.99/mo × 5,000 subscribers = ~€419K MRR / ~€5M ARR from subscriptions alone — before Club Pro tiers or brand partnerships.
Conversion rate benchmark: Freemium sports apps with strong community features typically see 7–15% conversion of active users to paid tiers. Source: internal benchmark analysis against Strava ($415M rev, 180M users — Business of Apps / Bloomberg 2026) and Duolingo (comparable freemium mechanic).
Direct onboarding of 10–20 clubs at the Summit. Each club rolls AUN out to its 200–500 player base on day one. Target: 5,000 registered users, 3–5 active partner clubs. Zero paid acquisition.
Focus on 3 cities for critical mass. Network effects compound when density is high: slots fill faster → more players experience value → more clubs join. In-app referral: "Invite 3 friends, get 1 month Pro free." Target: 15,000 users, 25 clubs.
Expand to Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium. Launch Club Pro tier for large venues. Explore sport adjacency (see Section 8). Target: 50,000 users, 150 clubs, €5M ARR run rate.
AUN's core infrastructure — real-time player-to-slot matching, club community management, level-filtered discovery — is sport-agnostic. Padel is the beachhead because it has the fastest growth, the clearest WhatsApp problem, and no dominant community tool. But the same problem exists across every recreational sport that organizes in clubs and groups.
42,000+ courts in Europe. 3–4 WhatsApp groups per club. No community tool. AUN's launch market.
Fastest-growing sport in the US, now accelerating in Europe. Identical structure: clubs, casual players, WhatsApp groups. AUN adapts directly.
87M players worldwide. Club community management is equally broken. AUN's product fits with minor adaptation.
Indoor racket sports with strong club communities and identical coordination pain points. High overlap with padel player demographics.
The largest recreational team sport in Europe. "Someone dropped out, need a player for tonight" is the exact use case AUN solves — at massive scale.
Recreational team sports with identical substitute-player coordination problems. AUN's model extends naturally to any sport played in groups of 2–12.
The long-term vision: AUN becomes the infrastructure layer for recreational sport community management — the platform where any player, in any sport, finds their next game. Starting with padel. Growing into the full recreational sports stack.
| Metric | Definition | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| WAU/MAU Ratio | Weekly Active Users ÷ Monthly Active Users | Engagement depth. Target: >40%. Low WAU/MAU = low stickiness. |
| Slots posted per club/week | Match slots published on AUN per club | Proves clubs actively use AUN, not just registered. |
| Time-to-fill | Minutes from slot posted to slot claimed | Core product health KPI. Falling time = growing network density. |
| Pro conversion rate | Free users → paying Pro subscribers | Primary revenue driver. Target: 8–12% of WAU. |
| Club NPS | Net Promoter Score from club admins (0–10 likelihood to recommend) | Distribution quality. High NPS = organic club referrals. |
| WhatsApp groups replaced | Self-reported at onboarding by clubs | Direct problem validation — strongest narrative data point. |
| LTV:CAC Ratio | Lifetime Value ÷ Customer Acquisition Cost | Target >3:1 for a healthy SaaS business. Club flywheel keeps CAC low. |
| Organic % of signups | % of new users from club referrals vs. paid channels | Flywheel health indicator. High organic % = model is working. |
| Annual plan adoption rate | % of Pro subscribers choosing yearly plan | Reduces monthly churn. Improves cash flow predictability. |
| Risk | Honest Assessment | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Padellink adds real-time slot feature | Realistic risk given product overlap. Their community positioning is real and funded. | Speed to market. Club network depth. WhatsApp-replacement as explicit positioning. First-mover club relationships are the moat. |
| Clubs don't migrate from WhatsApp | Behavioral inertia is high. "Good enough" is the most common startup killer. | AUN runs alongside WhatsApp initially — no forced migration. Gradual value demonstration. Club staff become internal champions. |
| Low Pro conversion early | Recreational players are price-sensitive. 8–10% conversion is optimistic pre-product-market fit. | Annual plan (€59.99/yr) incentive. Referral program. Feature gating that creates felt need. |
| Seasonal usage drop (winter) | Padel has mild seasonality in northern Europe — relevant for DACH expansion. | Annual plans smooth revenue. Indoor padel growth reduces seasonality. Sport adjacency (squash, tennis) is a natural hedge. |
| Playtomic adds community features | Less likely — community is structurally misaligned with their transaction-based model and incentives. | AUN's club partnership model and community-first architecture is a structural advantage Playtomic cannot easily replicate without changing its revenue model. |
AUN is launching at the Padel World Summit, May 26–28, 2026. We'd love to explore this together.
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