Run clubs · free for any size

The run club app that puts money on the leaderboard

Most clubs already have a leaderboard. What they do not have is a reason for anyone to look at it on a Thursday. Everyone puts in the same buy-in, runs for a week, and the winner takes the pot — and the club pays nothing, because RunMatch takes 0% of it.

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Groups of 2 to 200 · free to set up · 0% of the pot

What a run club actually needs from an app

Almost every club app solves the wrong problem. Clubs rarely struggle to record runs — everyone already has something doing that. What they struggle with is the middle of the week.

A club challenge dies in a predictable way. It launches on Monday with enthusiasm, the group chat is busy for two days, and by Thursday nobody has opened the leaderboard. Nothing is at stake, so there is nothing to check.

  1. Something to settle on SundayA challenge without a settlement is a leaderboard, and leaderboards get muted. Money, or at minimum a forfeit.
  2. A format that suits the slowest memberIf the same person wins every week the rest stop entering. Streak fixes this; Race does not.
  3. Verification nobody argues aboutThe moment there is a pot, an honour-system spreadsheet becomes a source of arguments rather than miles.
  4. Zero admin for the organiserNo club account, no fees to collect, no spreadsheet. Set it, share the code, it settles itself.

That is the whole brief, and it is why this page exists rather than another tracker.

Set up a club challenge

Three formats: Race, Most Miles, Streak

Every member stakes the same amount. RunMatch takes 0% of the pot; the winner collects all of it.
FormatHow it settlesBest club for itWatch out for
RaceFirst member to hit a target distance takes the pot.Small clubs with similar paces.One fast member winning every week.
Most MilesHighest total over the window, usually a week.Mixed-ability clubs of any size.Rewards free time as much as fitness.
StreakHit a modest daily target every day or you are out. Last one standing wins.A first club challenge, at any size.Set the daily target low — lower than feels right.

If your club has never done this, run a Streak and set the daily target at something almost embarrassingly modest — a mile, or twenty minutes. The point of a first challenge is that most of the club finishes it, not that it separates the strong from the weak. You can raise the bar once everyone has had the experience of winning something.

Start with a Streak

Setting the buy-in and the pot

The buy-in decides whether anyone checks the leaderboard, and clubs consistently set it too low.

Five dollars across twelve members makes a $60 pot, which is a nice gesture and changes nobody’s Thursday. Twenty dollars makes a $240 pot and changes everyone’s. The number that works is the one members would be mildly annoyed to lose — for most groups that is $10 to $25.

$5A gesture. Nobody will check the board.
$10Works for a casual or new club.
$20The sweet spot for a weekly club challenge.
$50Only for a club that has already run several.

Nobody is out of pocket for being slow. Worth saying at the launch, because it is the first objection: in a pot format every member stakes the same amount and the winner takes it, so the cost of finishing last is exactly the buy-in. It is a sweepstake, not a fine.

And there is no club float to manage. Each member stakes individually from their own balance, so the organiser never collects, holds or chases money.

Set up your club’s first pot

Where a club’s $240 actually goes

Worth showing plainly, because the first question from any club treasurer is who takes a cut.

A 12-member club challenge at $20 eachEach company’s own rules and pricing · verified 17 September 2026
RunMatch Oursno pot cut — 3% only when the winner withdraws$0 kept
$240 to the winner
Strava Clubsno pot at all — but 12 subscriptions to run the challenge$143.88/mo
12 × $11.99 a month, and nobody wins anything
Nike Run Clubfree, and no prize either$0
free challenges, bragging rights only
Spreadsheet + honour systemfree, and unverifiable once money is involved$0
works right up until it matters

The comparison is not quite fair and it is worth saying so: Strava is not trying to run a sweepstake, and its subscription buys a great deal more than challenges. But if a club’s specific goal is a weekly competition, twelve subscriptions is what that now costs there, and nobody wins a pot at the end of it.

On our side the number that matters is the 0%. A $240 pot pays out $240. The 3% applies only when an individual moves winnings to their bank, and only to that individual.

Set up a club pot

How runs are verified

This matters more for a club than for an individual, and it is the part worth being precise about.

Every run has to arrive with GPS and heart rate recorded by an Apple Watch. A submission without watch heart-rate data is rejected by the server outright. GPS on its own is not enough, because a location-spoofing app can draw a flawless 10K and a bicycle can ride a real one — but producing 150 bpm for forty minutes while sitting down is a different proposition.

Runs also fail on a sub-4:00/mile pace floor, a heart rate outside 40–220 bpm, fewer than ten GPS points, a duplicate route, or a workout more than 24 hours old.

The cost of that strictness, stated plainly: it rules out every Android phone, every Garmin and every Fitbit, and treadmill runs the watch did not record. If a meaningful share of your club is not on an iPhone and an Apple Watch, this is the wrong app and Nike Run Club is the right one.

Why club challenges die in week two

Most organisers have run one before and watched it fizzle. The pattern is consistent enough to plan around.

Failure 1

The same person wins every week

You run Race or Most Miles, the club’s fastest or least-busy member takes it three weeks running, and everyone else quietly stops entering. The challenge is technically alive and functionally over.

Fix: run Streak with a low daily target. It rewards turning up rather than talent or spare time, so the winner is genuinely unpredictable.
Failure 2

Nothing happens on Sunday

No settlement, no payout, no announcement — the leaderboard just stops. Nobody remembers who won the last one, which tells the club exactly how much the next one matters.

Fix: a fixed window with an automatic settlement, and announce the result in the group chat the same evening while people still care.
Failure 3

The organiser becomes an accountant

Collecting $20 from twelve people over Venmo, chasing the three who forgot, holding the float, then paying out. Do that twice and the organiser stops volunteering.

Fix: members stake individually from their own balance. There is no float, nothing to collect and nothing to chase.

Payouts: who holds the money, how fast

QuestionAnswer
Who holds the buy-ins?Stripe, from the moment a member joins until the challenge settles. Not RunMatch, and never the organiser.
When does it pay out?Automatically when the challenge window closes. The pot lands in the winner’s RunMatch balance.
How fast to a bank?Withdrawals via Stripe Connect, roughly 3–7 business days.
What does the club pay?Nothing. 0% of the pot. The only fee is 3% when an individual withdraws winnings.
Who can take part?Members aged 18 or over, on an iPhone with a paired Apple Watch.

What it costs the club: nothing from the pot

There is no club tier, no per-seat pricing and no organiser subscription, and that is not a launch promotion — it is the model. RunMatch makes money on the 3% withdrawal fee and on Pro, which only unlocks public matches against strangers. A club racing its own members never touches it.

It is worth comparing that with what changed elsewhere in 2026. Strava moved group challenges behind its subscription and requires one for every participant, not just the person who created it — a twelve-person club challenge now needs twelve subscriptions at $11.99 a month.

Run club apps compared

RunMatch (ours)
What it does for a clubRace, Most Miles or Streak with a real pot
VerificationApple Watch GPS + heart rate, required
What it costsFree — 0% of the pot
PrizeWinner takes the pot
Strava Clubs
What it does for a clubGroup challenges, club feed, segments
VerificationGPS activity
What it costs$11.99/mo — every participant
PrizeNothing
Nike Run Club
What it does for a clubFriend challenges, friends-only leaderboard
VerificationGPS activity
What it costsFree, no paid tier
PrizeNothing
Stridekick
What it does for a clubStep and distance challenges, team modes
VerificationDevice sync
What it costsFree ≤10 people / 7 days
PrizeNothing
WhatsApp + a spreadsheet
What it does for a clubWhatever you can be bothered to maintain
VerificationThe honour system
What it costsFree
PrizeArguments

Checked 17 September 2026 against vendor pricing pages and help centres. Strava’s subscription requirement applies to the challenge creator and every athlete joining; a free trial also satisfies it.

The honest summary: Strava is the best social layer and now the most expensive way to run a club challenge. Nike Run Club is the best free option and genuinely good. RunMatch is the only one where the leaderboard pays out, and the only one that will refuse a run it cannot verify.

Try the one that pays out

Set up your first club challenge

  1. Pick Streak and a low targetA mile a day, or twenty minutes. Low enough that most of the club finishes it.
  2. Set the buy-in at $10–$20Enough that people check the board on Thursday. Everyone stakes the same amount.
  3. Share the invite code in the group chatMembers join from their own phone and stake from their own balance. No float to collect.
  4. Let it settle on SundayThe pot pays out automatically. Then announce the next one while everyone is still annoyed or smug.

Run the first one over a single week. Monthly challenges work once a club has finished a weekly one together.

If your group is not a club yet, the run club guide covers finding members, picking a route and setting a weekly time — the parts that have nothing to do with an app.

Two ways a club can put money on a week

Race your friends

The whole club stakes the same buy-in and runs. Race, Most Miles or Streak — the winner takes the entire pot, and RunMatch keeps none of it.

Bet on yourself

Members can also stake their own goals individually. Miss one and the money goes to someone they named, which turns a group chat into accountability.

Start a match — run 1 mile, get $10Free · 0% of the pot

Run club app questions

What app should our run club use?
It depends what the club needs. For a social feed and segments, Strava — but its group challenges now require a subscription for every participant, not just the organiser. For free challenges with no paywall, Nike Run Club. For a challenge with actual stakes, RunMatch, which is ours: everyone puts in the same buy-in and the winner takes the pot.
How much does RunMatch cost a run club?
Nothing. There is no club account, no per-member fee and no subscription for the organiser. RunMatch takes 0% of the pot — the only fee anywhere is 3% when an individual withdraws winnings. Pro is $9.99 a month and is only for public matches against strangers, which a club never needs.
How big can a club challenge be?
Two to a couple of hundred. Most clubs run something between 8 and 30. Above that, Most Miles works better than Race, because a big field makes first-to-the-distance a foregone conclusion for the fastest member.
How are members' runs verified?
Each run has to arrive with GPS and heart rate from an Apple Watch. The server rejects a submission without watch heart-rate data outright. That matters more for a club than for an individual, because the moment there is money in a pot, a spreadsheet on the honour system stops being good enough.
What if some of our members are on Android?
Then RunMatch will not work for them, and we would rather say so now. It requires an iPhone and an Apple Watch — no Android, Wear OS, Garmin or Fitbit. A mixed club is better served by Nike Run Club, which is free and works everywhere.
Who holds the money?
Stripe, not us. Buy-ins sit with Stripe until the challenge settles, then the pot pays out to the winner's balance and they withdraw to their bank in roughly 3–7 business days. Members are 18+.
What format works best for a first club challenge?
Streak. Hit a modest daily target every day or you are out, last one standing takes the pot. Most Miles rewards whoever has the most free time and Race rewards whoever was already fastest — Streak rewards showing up, which is the behaviour a club actually wants.
Can we do this without money?
Yes, and plenty of clubs should. If the group is new or the vibe is social, run the same three formats with bragging rights and a coffee for the loser. The run club guide covers setting that up. Add stakes later, once the group has finished one challenge together.

Give the club leaderboard something to settle.

Free to set up for any group from 2 to 200. 0% of the pot, verified on Apple Watch, paid out automatically.

Get RunMatch — run 1 mile, get $10
  • Payments via Stripe
  • GPS + heart rate on Apple Watch
  • Withdrawals via Stripe Connect

One $10 first-mile reward per new account · 18+ · iPhone and Apple Watch required · Terms apply

Start your club’s first pot — $10 for mile one