BADEL GROUP

Badel Group – Custom Padel Tournament Platform

Project Overview
Client: Badel Group
Industry: Sports – Padel
Scope: A scalable WordPress-based tournament platform for managing events, registrations, rankings, shop, sponsors, and padel-related media in Oman.

Objective
Badel Group required a robust digital hub to manage and promote their growing padel tournament scene.

Key goals included:
– Hosting and managing upcoming and past tournaments
– Creating a custom registration and approval flow
– Showcasing player rankings, profiles, and bios
– Displaying sponsors, testimonials, galleries, and news
– Ensuring full admin control over content, design, and user experience
– Optimizing for search engines, mobile performance, and high user traffic

The Challenge
No single theme or plugin provided everything out-of-the-box. The project required:
– Manual approval of player registrations before payment
– Support for conditional form fields (e.g. T-shirt size, partner info)
– Player profile pages with rankings, bios, and past match visibility
– Display of brackets, results, and team assignments
– Sponsor tiers per tournament, sorted galleries, and news content
– WooCommerce for payments but without traditional shop-like behavior
– SEO and mobile performance optimization without complex custom code

The Solution
Tech Stack:
– WordPress CMS
– Elementor Pro – page builder
– MetForm Pro – custom registration forms
– WooCommerce – product shop and payment workflow
– SportsPress Pro – tournaments, rankings, match results
– ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) – dynamic form fields
– Custom PHP/JS – for auto-fill, export, and approval logic
– SEO Plugin (Rank Math or Yoast) – on-page SEO and sitemap controls
– PWA Support – via plugin for app-like experience

Note: The Splash Theme was initially considered but replaced with a more flexible layout to maximize speed and customization.

Key Features Delivered

Custom Registration Flow
– Conditional fields (partner info, T-shirt size, photo)
– Manual approval before WooCommerce payment
– Auto-prefill for logged-in users

Tournament Management
– 2v2 tournament structure
– Public tournament pages with brackets, results, and team listings
– Filters by type, date, and level

Player Info & Rankings
– Public player profile pages (photo, bio, rank, history)
– SportsPress-powered ranking system
– All player info pulled dynamically

Content & Media
– Galleries sorted by event
– Testimonials section on homepage
– Padel news section focused on Oman

Sponsor Display
– Tiered sponsors (Platinum, Gold, etc.) linked to each tournament
– Logos and links shown on homepage and event pages

Shop
– Fully integrated WooCommerce store
– Add-to-cart, product filtering, search
– Checkout and order confirmation
– Option to manage stock, variants, and shipping
– Ready for Stripe, PayPal, or Omani gateways (Thawani, Amwal)

Site Infrastructure
– Full menu control via WordPress dashboard
– Unlimited page creation via Elementor
– Template system for new tournaments and events
– Integrated SEO settings and schema markup
– PWA plugin installed for installable app experience

Admin Controls
– Player approval and team assignment
– Manual score input and match updates
– Export player/team/shirt/payment lists to PDF or Excel

Results
– Enabled first fully digital tournament cycle
– Gave Badel full control over tournament setup without developer support
– SEO-ready with structured data and clean site hierarchy
– Optimized for mobile users and installable as a PWA
– Improved transparency of player rankings and match results

Lessons Learned
– WooCommerce + SportsPress can be powerful, but not frictionless — especially for approval/payment flows
– Player dashboards require custom development if private stats are needed (not used in this project)
– Elementor + ACF + MetForm is a powerful trio for dynamic websites with admin-friendly interfaces
– SEO and PWA should be considered from the start — not as afterthoughts

Future Opportunities
– Add Thawani or Amwal Pay for smoother payments
– Integrate SMS or WhatsApp for match alerts
– Implement mobile-friendly booking or RSVP systems
– Enable admin-scheduled push notifications via PWA
– Develop league standings or seasonal point leaderboards

Summary
The Badel Group Padel Tournament Platform is a custom-configured WordPress solution tailored for professional sports events. It combines smart plugin integration, user-friendly registration, dynamic content, and a solid admin backend — all without needing a custom-coded web app.

The result is a branded, scalable tournament engine and e-commerce platform that supports Badel Group’s growing role in Oman’s sports community — both on and off the court.