Club Branding and Customization

Once you've created your club on ServeLeague, the next step is to make it yours. Your club's settings page gives you control over everything from the name and logo your members see, to the timezone used for scheduling and the colors that appear in emails. This tutorial walks through every customization option so your club looks professional from day one.

Opening Club Settings

From your club dashboard, click the gear icon or go to Settings in the sidebar. The settings page is organized into tabs across the top. The two tabs we'll focus on in this tutorial are General and Branding.

The club settings page showing the General tab selected

Who can access settings? Only club Owners have full access to all settings. Admins can manage day-to-day operations like leagues and players from the admin dashboard but cannot change club-level settings such as branding or privacy.

General Tab

The General tab is selected by default when you open settings. It contains several cards, each covering a different aspect of your club's identity and configuration.

Club Details

The first card lets you edit three core fields:

  • Club Name: The display name shown on your dashboard, public page, and in all emails. Pick something recognizable to your members.
  • Description: A short summary of your club. This appears on your public club page and helps potential members understand what you offer.
  • Logo URL: Paste the URL of your club's logo image. ServeLeague shows a live preview so you can confirm it loads correctly before saving. The logo appears in your club header, public page, and branded emails.

Club details card with name, description, and logo URL fields

[!TIP] Host your logo on a reliable image service (e.g., Imgur, Cloudinary, or your own website). If the URL breaks later, the logo will disappear from your club page. The preview will show an error message if the image can't be loaded.

Click Save Changes after editing any of these fields.

Sport Type

Below the club details you'll see your club's sport displayed with its icon (for example, 🏓 Table Tennis or 🏸 Badminton). The sport type is set during club creation and cannot be changed once your club has active data, so it is shown here for reference only.

Club Configuration

This card contains scheduling and regional settings that affect how ServeLeague operates for your club.

Competition Year End

Set the month and day your competition year resets. This controls when annual statistics and leaderboards roll over. Most clubs use December 31, but you can set it to match your organization's fiscal or sporting calendar, for example, March 31 for a club that follows the UK financial year or September 30 for a club aligned to the school year.

[!TIP] Choose your year-end date carefully. Changing it later does not retroactively recalculate stats. Set it before your first season begins.

Club Week

Configure which day and hour your club's weekly cycle resets. This affects the Player of the Week feature and other weekly statistics. Choose the day your club typically starts its playing week (for example, Monday if your main session night is Monday) and the reset hour.

Club week and year end configuration showing day and time selectors

Regional Settings

Three side-by-side selectors let you configure:

  • Timezone: A searchable list with all standard timezones. This determines how dates and times are displayed throughout the platform for your club.
  • Currency: Choose the currency for any financial features (membership fees, event charges). The list is grouped by region for quick browsing.
  • Default Language: Set the default language for your club's interface. ServeLeague supports English, 中文, Español, 日本語, Deutsch, Français, 한국어, Indonesia, हिन्दी, Tiếng Việt, and Português. Members can still override this with their own language preference. If your club serves multiple sports, see Multi-Sport Club for additional configuration options.

Regional settings showing timezone, currency, and language selectors side by side

[!TIP] The timezone setting is particularly important. It affects how session times, match timestamps, and scheduled events are displayed to your members. If your members are seeing the wrong times, check this setting first.

These settings save automatically as you change them. No need to click a separate save button.

Location

Enter your club's physical address using the autocomplete search field. As you type, suggestions appear. Select the correct address and the Latitude and Longitude fields are filled in automatically. Location data is used for your public club page, helps prospective members find you via search, and positions your club on any future map features.

Location card with address autocomplete and map coordinates

[!TIP] If the autocomplete does not find your venue, you can manually enter the latitude and longitude. Use Google Maps to look up the coordinates of your playing venue.

Privacy Settings

Use the Private Club switch to control who can see your club:

  • Public (default): Anyone can find your club and view its public page, leagues, and results. Your club appears in the ServeLeague directory and search results.
  • Private: Your club is hidden from public listings. Only members with a direct link can see it, and new members must submit a membership request that an owner approves.

When private mode is enabled, pending membership requests appear directly on the settings page for quick approval or rejection.

Privacy settings showing the Private Club switch and a pending membership request

Club Rules

Use the rules editor to document your club's house rules, code of conduct, or playing guidelines. This field supports plain text and is displayed to members when they view your club. Leave it blank if you don't need it.

Branding Tab

Click the Branding tab to access your club's visual identity settings. These settings control how your club looks in branded emails and across the platform.

Branding tab with color pickers and a live preview panel

Pro feature: Custom branding is available on the Pro plan. Free-tier clubs will see an upgrade prompt when accessing this tab.

Brand Colors

Two color pickers let you define your club's palette:

  • Primary Color: Used for headers, buttons, and key accent areas in emails and branded elements. Pick a color that matches your club's identity (for example, your shirt color or club crest). Clicking the color swatch opens a full color picker where you can enter a hex code or use the visual selector.
  • Secondary Color: Used for subtle accents and hover states. Choose a complementary color that pairs well with your primary. Many clubs use a lighter or darker shade of their primary color.

Primary and secondary color pickers with hex code input

Font

Select a font family for your branded communications from the list. The available fonts are web-safe choices that display consistently across email clients and browsers. This affects how emails and certain branded elements display for your members.

Live Preview

As you adjust colors and font, the preview panel on the right side of the page updates in real time. It shows a mock-up of how your club's branded email header will look, including:

  • Your club name displayed in the selected font.
  • The primary color applied to the header bar.
  • The secondary color used for accent elements and links.
  • A sample email body showing how text and buttons will appear.

Live branding preview showing a styled email header with the club name and primary color

[!TIP] If you are unsure whether your color combination looks good, use the Preview Email button (described below) to send yourself a real test email. Colors can look different on screen versus in an email client like Gmail or Outlook.

Actions

The branding tab provides three actions:

  • Save Changes: Persists your color and font selections. These will apply to all future emails sent from your club.
  • Preview Email: Sends a sample branded email to your registered email address so you can see exactly how it looks in a real inbox before committing. This is the best way to test your branding. Check it on both desktop and mobile email clients.
  • Reset to Defaults: Reverts all branding to ServeLeague's default colors and font. Useful if you want a fresh start or if a previous color choice is not working well.

The three action buttons: Save Changes, Preview Email, and Reset to Defaults

How Branding Appears to Members

Your branding choices show up in several places:

Element Where it appears
Club Name Dashboard header, public page, email subject lines
Logo Club header, public club page, branded emails
Primary Color Email headers, accent buttons
Secondary Color Email accents, hover states
Font Branded email body text

Members visiting your public club page will see your logo, name, and description. You can also embed widgets from your club on your own website. If your club is set to private, visitors will see a restricted view with a request-to-join option instead.

Customizing Your Club Colors

The color picker gives you precise control over your club's visual identity. Click on either the Primary Color or Secondary Color swatch to open the full color picker interface.

  • Visual selector: drag the crosshair across the gradient to find the right shade. The hue slider along the bottom lets you pick the base color family.
  • Hex code input: if you have specific brand colors (from your club logo or jersey supplier), type the hex code directly (e.g., #1A73E8) for an exact match.
  • Recently used colors: the picker remembers your last few selections, making it quick to switch back if you experiment.

Color picker showing visual selector, hex input, and recently used swatches

Colors appear throughout the member-facing experience. Your primary color is used for email headers, call-to-action buttons, and page accent bars, while the secondary color handles hover states, subtle backgrounds, and link underlines. The effect is subtle but consistent, reinforcing your club's brand every time a member opens an email or visits your club page.

Preview Before You Save

As you adjust the sliders, the live preview panel updates in real time. This shows a realistic mock-up of a branded email, including your logo, club name, header bar in the primary color, and accent elements in the secondary color. Use this to check that your colors work well together before committing.

Live preview panel showing branded email mock-up updating in real time

[!TIP] If your primary color is very dark, make sure your secondary color provides enough contrast for links and buttons. The preview panel will show you immediately if text becomes hard to read.

Resetting Colors

If you've experimented and want to start fresh, click Reset to Defaults in the actions bar. This reverts both your primary and secondary colors to ServeLeague's default palette. Your font selection is also reset. This is non-destructive. You can set new custom colors immediately after resetting.

Font Selection

The Font list offers a curated set of web-safe font families that display consistently across all major email clients and browsers. Options range from clean sans-serif choices (ideal for modern clubs) to more traditional serif fonts (suited to established organisations).

Your font selection affects:

  • Branded email body text: the font is applied to all outgoing club emails (welcome messages, session reminders, renewal notices)
  • Email subject line preview: some email clients show preview text in the sender's specified font
  • Branded elements on your club page: your club name and description use the selected font on the public-facing page

[!TIP] Sans-serif fonts like the default option tend to be the most readable on mobile screens. If most of your members check emails on their phone, stick with a clean sans-serif.

How Branding Appears in Emails

Your branding settings are applied automatically to every email ServeLeague sends on behalf of your club: session reminders, membership renewals, event confirmations, and admin notifications.

What Gets Branded

  • Email header: your club logo sits alongside the club name, all set against your primary color background
  • Call-to-action buttons: "View Results", "Renew Membership", "RSVP" and similar buttons use your primary color
  • Accent lines and dividers: subtle touches in your secondary color separate sections of the email
  • Footer: your club name and address appear in a styled footer

Branded Email vs Default

Clubs on the Free plan use the standard ServeLeague template: a neutral grey header with the ServeLeague logo. Upgrading to the Pro plan and configuring branding replaces this with your own colors and logo, creating a more professional and recognisable look.

Side-by-side comparison of a default email template and a branded email with custom colors and logo

Tips for Readable Email Branding

  1. Check contrast ratios. White text on a light primary color is hard to read. Aim for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between your header text and background. The preview panel helps you spot issues before they reach inboxes.
  2. Keep your logo sized appropriately. A logo wider than 200 px works best in the email header. Very small logos look pixelated, while very large ones push content below the fold on mobile.
  3. Test on mobile. Use the Preview Email button to send yourself a test email and check it on your phone. Email rendering varies between clients. What looks great in Gmail on desktop may need a tweak for Apple Mail on iOS.
  4. Use your secondary color sparingly. It's most effective as an accent. If both primary and secondary colors are bold, the email can feel cluttered.

Best Practices

  1. Keep your logo simple. A square or horizontal logo under 200 KB works best. Avoid very tall images. They push content down in emails.
  2. Test your colors. Use the Preview Email button to see how your primary and secondary colors look in a real email client. Dark colors on dark backgrounds can make text unreadable.
  3. Set your timezone early. Changing it later won't retroactively update existing session times, so get it right before creating your first league.
  4. Use a descriptive club name. Members may belong to multiple clubs. A clear name like "Auckland Table Tennis Club: Monday League" is more helpful than "ATTC."
  5. Enable privacy if needed. If your club is invite-only or runs internal corporate leagues, turn on private mode before sharing any links.

What's Next?

Now that your club looks and feels like your own, continue setting up by:

  • Adding Members to Your Club: Invite players, import rosters, and manage membership.
  • Navigating the Admin Dashboard: Learn your way around the dashboard to manage leagues, sessions, and results efficiently.