A fan community lives on a weekly rhythm. There is a match, a show, a result, an argument about the result. An app for that community has one job: give fans a reason to open it every match week, and a reason to pay for more.
We built apps for two Danish football communities: PL Showet, the Danish Premier League clubhouse, and Redmen Family, a Liverpool supporters' club. Different audiences, many of the same lessons.
Give fans something to do on matchday
Content brings fans in. Participation brings them back.
- PL Showet has Power Fixtures: predict each round's results, lock in your guesses and score points for exact results and correct outcomes.
- Friend leagues show your total points, ranking and round score, and where you sit in your friends' table.
- Redmen Family shows a live countdown to the next match, with date, kick-off and opponent.
- After each game, Redmen Family fans rate the players, guess the result and score the Man of the Match.
Predictions and ratings cost a fan a minute and give them a stake in the next match. Friend leagues add the strongest reason to come back: beating your friends.
Put the content where the fans are
PL Showet is built around its podcasts: Transfer Showet, PL Showet Clubhouse and PL Showet On Tour. The player switches between audio only and video only, because some fans listen on the move and some watch at home. Redmen Family carries news, analysis and members-only podcasts.
Having every show in the app, not only on podcast platforms, gives the community one home. It is also where membership becomes possible.
Membership people understand
Both apps sell a membership, and both make the offer concrete:
- PL Klubben, PL Showet's membership, has member benefits and a prize draw among paying members every Friday.
- Redmen Family membership starts from DKK 25 a month and includes local departments, discounted trips to Anfield and hotel stays, 20% off in the Redmen Shop, members-only podcasts and a weekly prize draw with a live countdown.
A weekly draw with a visible countdown fits a weekly sport: it gives paying members something to look forward to every week.
Payments: let the stores handle it
Selling digital memberships inside an iOS or Android app means using the stores' in-app purchases. Both apps use RevenueCat on top of them. It handles subscriptions across platforms and who has access to what, so the app only has to ask one question: is this person a member?
The stack behind each
The two apps took different routes:
- PL Showet is an iOS and Android app built with Expo and React Native, backed by Supabase, with a separate Next.js admin dashboard for the team.
- Redmen Family is a native iOS app in Swift, backed by Firebase, alongside the website at redmenfamily.dk.
We wrote about how to choose between the two in Expo or native Swift?
Building for a community?
Clubs, creators and podcasts all share this weekly rhythm. See our mobile app development work, or tell us about your community.