How much your club can save with AI4Padel
In this post we go through the numbers of a club with about six courts: what its players pay today in Playtomic fees, what AI4Padel would cost and, at the end, what the club could earn if it charged that fee itself. With the real rates of a Santander club, every figure sourced.
The maths almost nobody does: what the booking toll costs a club’s community over a year.
The club in the example
A real six-court club in Santander, with bookings operated through Playtomic. We don’t name it because the maths is not against the club, and its rates are public (checked 4 August 2026). The price per player and session:
| Slot | Per player | The court, with four |
|---|---|---|
| Mornings (9:30 to 16:00, weekdays) | €5.75 | €23 |
| Evenings and weekends (16:00 to 23:00) | €6.75 | €27 |
Almost exactly the national average: a 90-minute court runs about €24 in Spain (Global Padel Report 2025). In other words: whatever happens to this club happens, more or less, to any six-court club in the country.
What each player pays on Playtomic
Playtomic Spain’s player fees, per its own help centre (read 2 August 2026), applied to this club:
| Item | Playtomic fee | At this club |
|---|---|---|
| Joining an open match | 20% of your share, capped at €0.99 | €0.99 per player (the cap, in every slot) |
| Booking the court by card | 4% (min €0.29, max €1.99) | €0.92 mornings, €1.08 evenings |
| Cancelling | €0.50 | €0.50 |
Why does the cap kick in? 20% of the morning share is €5.75 × 0.20 = €1.15, and the evening one €6.75 × 0.20 = €1.35: both are above €0.99, so everyone pays €0.99. The full match:
€0.99 × 4 players = €3.96 in fees per open match.
In percentage terms: the morning player’s share gets 17% more expensive; the evening player’s, 15%. Every time they play.
The yearly maths
Not every club moves the same volume of open matches: some barely close 1 per court a day, others with more turnover reach 5. Across six courts open all week, that ranges from 42 to 210 matches a week going through the toll (1 or 5 × 6 courts × 7 days). The formula is simple:
Fees per year = €3.96 × open matches per week × 52 weeks.
Even at the low end, 1 match per court a day: 3.96 × 42 × 52 = €8,649. The full table, raising the bar:
| Open matches per week | The maths | Your players’ fees, per year |
|---|---|---|
| 42 (1 per court a day) | 3.96 × 42 × 52 | €8,649 |
| 126 (3 per court a day) | 3.96 × 126 × 52 | €25,946 |
| 210 (5 per court a day) | 3.96 × 210 × 52 | €43,243 |
And that is only the players’ side. The club also pays Playtomic a commission on its online payments that is set by contract and not public, so we leave it out: the table above is the floor, not the ceiling.
The hypothetical that shows the scale
What if every match at the club went through that toll? Step by step:
| Step | The maths | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 90-minute slots per court per day (9:30 to 23:00) | 13.5 h ÷ 1.5 h | 9 |
| Club slots per week | 9 × 6 courts × 7 days | 378 |
| Matches at 70% occupancy (a well-run club) | 378 × 0.70 | 265 a week, ~1,150 a month |
| The foursome toll, per month | 1,150 × €3.96 | ~€4,550 |
| Per year | × 12 | ~€54,600 |
Not every match goes through there, which is why this is a hypothetical and we say so. But look at the gap: even the high end of the table above, 210 matches at 5 per court a day, is already 79% of those 265 weekly matches. You don’t need to stretch far to get close to the full toll.
What AI4Padel would cost
AI4Padel’s Pro plan, for clubs with 5 to 8 courts, costs €149 a month: €1,788 a year, flat. No commissions per booking or per match, and your players pay €0: no fees, no app, no account. On the founder price, €900 a year for good.
Compare with the tables above: AI4Padel costs less than what this club’s players leave in fees even at the most conservative scenario, 1 open match per court a day. And against the full-toll hypothetical, over 30 times less. If we charged like Playtomic, this club would pay us over €50,000 a year. We charge €1,788, and it is all laid out here.
And that comparison is only about money: it doesn’t count the hours you stop losing building matches by hand and chasing confirmations through the group. That, hour by hour, is told in the demo in writing.
One last scenario: that fee, charged by you
Today, every player who joins an open match at this club pays €0.99 that goes to Playtomic. With AI4Padel that toll disappears, and the decision becomes yours:
- Lower the effective price. Your players pay €0.99 less to play at your place: a direct gift to your community, and that money often stays at the club, at the bar or the restaurant, instead of going to a platform. It’s also the difference between building a club with members you know and filling courts with strangers who have no connection to your facilities.
- Charge it yourself. Quality has a price: you keep the price your players were already paying, fee included, only now it stays at the club.
- Charge half. You add €0.50: your player pays less than before and you earn more than before.
The maths for the last two, same formula (fee × 4 players × matches × 52 weeks):
| Open matches per week | Charging €0.99 | Charging €0.50 |
|---|---|---|
| 42 (1 per court a day) | €8,649/year | €4,368/year |
| 126 (3 per court a day) | €25,946/year | €13,104/year |
| 210 (5 per court a day) | €43,243/year | €21,840/year |
Even charging just half, and at the most conservative scenario, 1 match per court a day, you already cover more than double AI4Padel’s yearly bill. We leave this as a scenario, and at the end, on purpose: some clubs don’t want to raise prices, and that is as legitimate as the opposite. The difference is who decides: today that surcharge exists anyway, but somebody else sets it and collects it.
The honest fine print
- Playtomic does a job AI4Padel does not do: bringing you players who didn’t know your club. That has value and we say so plainly. This maths is about something else: what it costs for your own community to pass through a toll to play at your place.
- Fees only apply to what goes through the app: card bookings, open matches and cancellations. That is why the scenarios come in tiers and the hypothetical is presented as exactly that.
- AI4Padel fills courts with your members, through their everyday WhatsApp, with the criteria in plain sight and charging them nothing. The two tools can coexist; your community’s money is better off in your community.
Want this same maths with your real rates and occupancy? Book a 15-minute demo and we’ll run it with you, number by number.