Roll out ePegboard to your club

Run your first club night shows you how to run the night itself. This page is the other half: how to introduce ePegboard to a club that is used to doing things another way, so it takes hold and your players actually engage with it rather than it living on one organiser’s tablet.

It is a short loop - something before the session, something on the night, something after - run the same way every week. None of it is clever; the value is in doing it consistently.

The fuller story

This is the practical how-to. For the reasoning behind each step - why it works and where it came from - see the rolling out ePegboard playbook on the main site.

Start from a problem your members already feel

A change that answers a complaint people already have is welcomed; one that appears out of nowhere is resisted. Before you introduce anything, be clear what you are fixing - games that do not rotate, uneven court time, the same four always together, no record of who played whom. Pick the one your members actually grumble about, and lead with that.

Before the session

A day or two before, post in whatever channel your club already uses - a WhatsApp or Facebook group, wherever the chatter happens. Two short things:

• Why we are changing. Name the problem above. “We have all felt the rotation going stale, so we are trying something that sorts it.” This does the heavy lifting - it frames the change as a fix, not a fad.
• How it will work. A sentence on what to expect: there will be a tablet, you still just turn up and play, the app sorts the games. Nothing to download or set up beforehand.

You are not explaining the whole app - just removing the surprise, so the tablet on the night is the thing they were told about.

On the night

Have the tablet out and accessible - somewhere people naturally gather and wait, not tucked away at the desk. That is most of the work. Players get curious about a screen showing courts, names and who is up next, and they wander over and look. Run the night as normal (see Run your first club night); the aim tonight is simply to let the club see it work and feel that it is fair.

After the session - the step that matters most

When the session ends, ePegboard gives you a shareable recap of the night. This is the highest-value step, and the one most clubs get slightly wrong:

1. Test it with a few people first. Send the recap link to a handful of keen members before anyone else.
2. Then post it to the whole club - and lead with what they can see, not with a request. Something like: “Here is tonight’s session, and if you claim your spot you can see your own games, results and rating from the night.”

Leading with the player’s own stats is the actual hook. Claiming a profile is optional and happens off the back of curiosity about their own results - a far stronger pull than being told to register. It is what lets the night keep giving a player something after they have gone home, and it is what keeps them coming back. Sharing with a few first means that when the link hits the main group it reads as “look what you can see” rather than “please sign up”.

Repeat it, identically

This is not a one-off launch. Run the same three steps next session and the one after: a message before, the tablet accessible on the night, the recap shared afterwards leading with the stats. Each week a few more players claim their spot and it becomes simply how your club night runs.

Choose how hands-on you want to be

You do not have to hand the whole night over to the app on day one. It runs in three broad styles, and a club used to a pegboard can start at the gentle end and move along as trust builds.

• Fully automated. The picker builds each game and you tap Start. For this, leave the Auto-Pick constraints off so it has the freedom to make the fairest, most varied games.
• Organiser-led. The picker suggests each game and you review it - swap a player, lock someone in, change the format - before starting. The hands-on middle ground, and where most organisers begin. See The game picker.
• Traditional, pegboard-style. The closest to the board people already know. In the session settings, turn on Force include first queue player and Limit to first N players in queue, then hand the tablet to the player at the front of the queue and let them pick their own game from the next few waiting - swapping the suggestion around if they want different players. It is assisted picking: like taking the top peg and choosing your four, but the app keeps it fair and keeps the record.

Players enjoy being handed the pick

Clubs that let the front player choose their own game and swap the suggestions around have found it genuinely popular - it gives players a sense of control and makes the wait part of the fun. Many pegboard clubs start here and drift toward fully automated over a few weeks, once people trust the balanced games it makes.

A device split that works well: run the shared tablet in kiosk mode so it can be passed safely between players - they can check people in, run games and enter scores - while the controls that need sign-off (manual overrides, voiding a game, settings) stay behind your organiser PIN. Keep those on your own phone, which steps into admin mode with the same PIN. The tablet lives with the players; you hold the few controls that need you.

Players do not have to crowd the tablet either. Anyone can follow the night from their own phone by typing the code on the club’s screen - the live board, who is on and up next - and once checked in they see their own running total for the evening. No account is needed to follow along; claiming a profile is what turns it into a rating and history they keep.

Give the ratings a good start

ePegboard builds its balanced games from player ratings, so the better your starting ratings, the better the games from the first night.

You can leave everyone on the default (1500, Intermediate) and let the system work each player out - it will - but the first few sessions will be more hit-and-miss while it does. Better is to give each member an approximate starting rating when you add them - a rough tier is plenty - on import or on the member form. Even loose guesses make the opening games noticeably closer.

Expect movement early. A new player’s rating swings around for their first couple of dozen games while the system learns where they sit, then it settles. During that period, keep half an eye on the suggestions and override any that look lopsided - swap a player, or build the game by hand.

Overriding a pick does not slow the ratings down

The system learns each player’s level from the game results, not from who chose the game. So overriding the picker while ratings are still settling just smooths the games on the night - underneath, the ratings still hone in on the right numbers.

Answer the questions members will ask

A few come up almost every time. Have answers ready and point people at the material rather than fielding each one:

• How does it work? Send them Getting started or the For players section.
• Why is it free? The more clubs that use ePegboard, the better it gets for everyone - more inter-club play, more shared ideas, more feedback, more improvements - so growing the community matters to us more than charging for the club night. It is free for clubs, with no card and no paywall on the basics; point members at the fuller answer if they want it.
• Will it keep being updated? Yes - it is actively developed and updates ship regularly. A good share of them come straight from what clubs ask for, so if something about your setup is clunky, telling us is the fastest way to see it change.

Getting help

You will not be on your own. If a member asks something you cannot answer, or something in the app looks wrong or is missing, email support@epegboard.com - we normally reply within 24 hours. A lot of what ships comes straight from these messages, so flagging a rough edge is also the fastest way to get it fixed or added.

Next

• Run your first club night - the mechanics of running the night itself.
• Claim your spot - what your players get when they claim, so you can describe it.
• Recaps and your history - the session recap you share after each night.