How Prime Sports Academy Manages Multiple Sports Across Abu Dhabi on One Platform
“Classcard is an integral part of the operation.”
Mark Wareing
Founder
About
Prime Sports Academy is dedicated to nurturing athletic talent and promoting sports excellence. The academy offers a comprehensive range of programs across various sports disciplines, catering to athletes of all ages and skill levels. With state-of-the-art facilities and a team of experienced coaches, Prime Sports Academy provides personalized training, fostering both physical and mental development.
sports programmes run on one platform across Abu Dhabi
~10 hrs
saved per week across scheduling, enrolment and payment management
100%
of manual coordination eliminated - coaches, students and parents on one connected system
Challenge
Running a multi-sport academy across several Abu Dhabi facilities is operationally complex in a way that a single-sport, single-location club is not. Each sport has its own scheduling requirements, its own coaching team, and its own student roster. Coordinating all of it - keeping coaches informed, managing student bookings, collecting payments, tracking attendance - across multiple programmes simultaneously required a level of administrative effort that grew with every new programme added.
Before Classcard, that coordination happened manually. Different programmes ran on different systems. Payment collection varied across activities. Scheduling across multiple facilities required active management to keep everything aligned. Mark describes the situation as a logistical labyrinth: the kind of operational complexity that consumes staff time and creates the conditions for things to fall through the gaps.
What Prime Sports needed was a platform that could handle the full range of its activities in one place. Not a tool built for a single sport or a single location, but something that could reflect the actual complexity of what the academy was running.
Solution
Classcard gave Prime Sports Academy a single platform across which all its programmes could be managed. Booking, scheduling, attendance tracking, and payments moved onto the platform for every sport the academy offers. Coaches gained visibility into their own schedules and student rosters without needing to cross-reference information held in separate systems. Parents could book sessions, track their children's attendance, and manage payments in one place.
The consolidation made the operational complexity of running a multi-sport academy manageable. Instead of maintaining parallel systems for different programmes, Prime Sports runs everything on Classcard. Schedule changes are reflected across the whole platform. Attendance records are consistent. Payment data is centralized. The logistical overhead that had previously required active management to keep under control became a problem the platform handled automatically.
Mark's assessment of the change is direct: 'Classcard is an integral part of the operation.' Classcard is not a convenience for Prime Sports. It is the infrastructure the academy runs on.
Results
From Dream to Reality: Prime Sports Takes Flight
Prime Sports wasn't born overnight. Mark Wareing, the co-founder, arrived in the UAE in 2015 with a passion for sports development. He honed his skills managing a football academy back in the UK, and upon arriving in Abu Dhabi, he gained valuable experience working with established organizations like Manchester City and Regional Sports. Recognizing a gap in the market, Mark partnered with Mohamed Al Hosani, a basketball enthusiast with a deep family legacy in UAE sports. Together, they launched Prime Sports in May 2018. Their vision was to provide Abu Dhabi students with a premier sports experience, offering a variety of programs and fostering a supportive environment that empowers young athletes.
Prime Sports' initial success came at a price: a burgeoning administrative burden. Juggling registrations, scheduling practices and games, and tracking payments across multiple sports and facilities with a disjointed system of Excel sheets, registers, and individual payment methods created a logistical labyrinth. This manual approach consumed valuable staff time and resources, diverting their focus away from their core mission of training young athletes.
Classcard: A Game Changer for Prime Sports & A Coach's Heart
Classcard streamlined operations by offering a centralized hub for registration, scheduling, and payments. It made information readily accessible, empowering coaches with instant student information and allowing parents to conveniently manage their accounts. Mark emphasizes Classcard's importance, saying, "It's an integral part of the operation."
Mark Wareing's passion for sports extends far beyond the business of running an academy. His favorite coach from his youth, Coach Shaun, exemplified the perfect blend of expertise and personal touch. At Prime Sports, Mark strives to create a similar environment. Technical and tactical skills are important, but building a strong team culture and fostering connections are equally valued.
Prime Vision: The Future & The Power of Perspective
Looking ahead, Mark envisions Prime Sports becoming the leading sports academy in Abu Dhabi. Expansion into Dubai and Saudi Arabia is a natural progression, but the core focus remains: to be a top academy that fosters talent and potentially even develops a professional team.
Mark admits his biggest takeaway since starting Prime Sports is the importance of perspective. As an entrepreneur, constructive criticism can be misconstrued as a personal attack. He's learned to embrace feedback and better understand the cultural nuances of his clients. At Prime Sports, they strive for a blend of European coaching methodologies with a welcoming and accepting approach that celebrates the local Arab culture.
