What's required from the Padel Centre / WhatsApp Group Admin?

• Changing the Group WhatsApp profile pic to our branded sponsor partners on a monthly basis

• Posting a single sponsored post from a relevant padel brand sponsor in the group - this will be a couple of sentences, no more, which should be "pinned" to the group

  Updating the Group's 'Description' to a sentence of our recommended 'Opt in' wording* (see below)

• Receiving a monthly payment for your collaboration

That’s all.

What’s the business model?

• Top Padel brands spend around 5-15% of their annual revenue on brand marketing, which can reach millions of euros per year. This is typically via influencer marketing, outdoor advertising (tournaments and padel centres) and digital advertising.

• The landscape for Padel sponsorship is currently fragmented. The star players do not have the following of the likes of Alcaraz or Djokovic in tennis. For example, Juan Lebron and Ale Galan each have around 600k followers on Instagram. As a point of reference, Alcaraz has 7m and Djokovic 16m followers on Instagram respectively.

• The global number of Padel players is around 35m vs 70m tennis players - so double for tennis - however the number of social media followers of the top tennis players is 10-20 times more than Padel. This is a challenge for sponsors.

• Clearly, Padel is still very much a developing sport and because of this it lacks traditional media exposure. The sport has yet to secure broadcast deals with major networks like ESPN, Sky Sports or DAZN.  

• Our partnerships with Padel WhatsApp Groups across the globe, in different geographies all comprising of active padel players - no bots, no spam accounts, people who actually play and spend money on Padel every week - gives brands the opportunity to reach their target audience directly, in a “warm” environment of private WhatsApp groups.

• Sponsorship will be light, subtle and relevant to the purpose of the Group: Padel 

• From a sponsor perspective, click through and conversion rates are expected to be extremely high, as members will receive the messages on their smartphone, a likely medium for buying consumer products.

• From a member perspective, we will keep the posts sporadic (once per month), relevant and  will work with sponsor brands to ensure they are being offered unique and beneficial opportunities that the general public won’t (e.g. discount codes) 

• Individually each WhatsApp Group has small intrinsic value - around 300 members is obviously a small audience for a global sponsor - however working together in collaboration with our other Group partners, there are many members which represents great value.

Does this contravene WhatsApp / Data Protection rules? 

• The short answer is no. We have checked - it is permitted. First let’s tackle the WhatsApp guidelines:

WhatsApp 

• The guidelines differ slightly according to the region, however are regionally unanimous on this issue. 

• In UK, as long as the content is relevant, admin-approved and infrequent, does not involve automated, bulk or unsolicited messaging, then it is permitted. To mitigate risk, we would suggest that you add a sentence to the Community guidelines blurb in the WhatsApp Group to the effect of “The Admin of the account may send occasional, Padel-relevant sponsored messages that we think may be of interest to the members of the Group. If you have an issue with this, please contact the admin directly to discuss. Do not raise this in the Group conversation to avoid spamming others”. This provides members with the required transparency and consent. 

• In the EU / EEA,  the ePrivacy Regulation (Article 16) provides the following conditions for direct marketing - members must i) be made aware that the Group may be used for occasional marketing, ii) he message must be clearly labelled “ad” or “sponsored message” and iii) members must have the right to opt out / Object - which they can do by contacting the admin and ultimately opting to leave the Group if necessary. 

• We recommend writing the following paragraph in the Group description so that it will be seen by all new joiners: “This group is occasionally supported by a relevant sponsor, who may post up to one promotional message per month relating to Padel products. By staying in this group, you agree to see these occasional sponsored messages. If you prefer not to receive them, please message the admin and we can discuss alternative options. Thank you for helping us keep the group running! 🎾".

  To ensure that existing Group members see this, once we have commenced our partnership, we recommend posting a notification (and "Pinning" it), to the effect of “we’ve updated our guidelines and by remaining in the Group, you agree to follow them” for existing members

•  Following the abovementioned steps keeps it transparent (clearly identifies it’s an ad and the sponsor is an external party, is low frequency (once a month), simple for members to understand, provides implied consent (in a closed group, members choosing to stay in after notice is posted is generally seen as consent) and is eligible for Opt out - (ability to leave the Group / not join meets GDPR/ePrivacy direct marketing requirements in EU/EEA).

Now let's look at the Data Protection side (in addition to the steps above).

Data Protection: How can we ensure members’ data is secure and not being shared with sponsors / other Groups? 

• Data protection regulations clearly prohibit the sharing of personal data and we also have an agreement which we will sign with you stating that we will not share any names or numbers of members with the sponsor client (or any third parties). Besides, keeping this data secure with the rightful Group owners is in our interest too

• We may use AI in future to monitor the popularity of promo codes amongst certain Groups, so we can learn what works best and where. 

• We may use AI to monitor levels of membership in each Group as a gauge to see where Padel is growing and where it isn’t 

• As per article 8d of the agreement we sign with you, we may share aggregated or anonymised information with sponsors, such as the Group’s general geographic region, average activity level, or demographics of the area where a linked padel centre is located — solely to assist sponsors in targeting their campaigns. This data will never identify individual members.

What would the ad / post look like?

Here’s an example of what one of the sponsorship messages might look like: 

"🎾 Heads up, everyone — exciting announcement!

The [insert WhatsApp Group name] Group has partnered with XXXX to share an update on their sale of Padel equipment — they’ve just announced their summer sale with some great offers. Pls visit their website and quote code July26 to redeem 30% discount on selected items 🎉😊 "

Short, relevant to the Group’s purpose and of benefit to its members.

How will you know what to post? 

We will coordinate this with the sponsor and work closely with you to provide the copy of the content to share, the date and time at which to post.

How will we ensure that some WhatsApp Groups won’t go direct to sponsors and cut you out? 

• Firstly, the real value proposition is the scale of the partnership. One single Group has little value to a sponsor.

• Secondly, we have an exclusivity agreement which gives precludes the WhatsApp Groups from dealing directly with sponsors, new or old. 

What if there are other sponsors at your centre which might represent a conflict of interest? 

You’d need to check the terms of any existing sponsorship agreement - it’s likely it will just refer to the physical courts / building itself and would not extend to digital / the WhatsApp Group, however if in the unlikley event that it does, that would unfortunately exclude you from eligibility as a Partner. 

What if Group members see the posts as licence to post about a friend’s business or selling an old racket, for example? 

As members of several Padel WhatsApp groups, we know how frustrating spammy messages can be and have witnessed how often the groups need to be guided to stay “on track”. As a member of all of the Partners’ groups, we also see best practices (and worst!) for fostering and maintaining a positive whatsapp group environment. We can share these best practices to help you.

We see no change to the normal rules and etiquette of the WhatsApp Group - posting about relevant content should be allowed if that was the case before, however the Group description should provide Community Guidelines which prohibits the use of the Group for sale and marketing of personal businesses. The Group Admin, is different however, and has the authority (and right) to do so.

What language will the sponsor message be? 

Whatever the language of the Group is - we cover English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian .