ECAL alternatives for clubs, teams and venues

The short answer

ECAL is a calendar marketing platform built for leagues and entertainment brands, with smaller plans for community groups. In 2024 it bought Rokt Calendar, whose brands included the NBA, MLB, NHL and NASCAR. Fans sync a brand's calendar once and ECAL keeps the fixtures in it current, writing to Google Calendar with the fan's permission. A single club or venue can also share a public Google Calendar, or use AddEvent's subscription calendars, whose changes reach Google Calendar users when Google next checks: every 12 to 24 hours, by AddEvent's own estimate. TheyCal, which we make, writes events straight into followers' Google or Microsoft calendars.

What does ECAL do?

ECAL's site calls it “the world's leading calendar marketing platform”, and its pricing page names sports leagues, entertainment venues, media publishers and ticketing platforms among the businesses it suits. Fans tap a “Sync to Calendar” button once and ECAL keeps the brand's calendar current from then on. In its partnership with rugby league's Betfred Super League, ECAL says a change to a match time or venue updates automatically in fans' calendars, and the events carry ticket alerts and streaming links.

For one-to-one messages there's Private Events, which ECAL pitches for things like payment reminders and booking confirmations. Community groups get a product of their own, ECAL Community, whose page says that when you change an event's time or venue, or cancel it, the change updates in people's calendars automatically.

Mi3 reported in June 2024 that ECAL had bought Rokt Calendar, a US calendar business, bringing over brands including the NBA, MLB, NHL and NASCAR. The same report says ECAL expected its reach to grow to 24 million users.

How does ECAL get into a fan's calendar?

On Google Calendar, fans see Google's permission prompt, which says ECAL can “See, edit, share and permanently delete all the calendars that you can access using Google Calendar.” ECAL's explainer says that's Google's standard wording, and that ECAL uses the access to create the brand calendar the fan picked and keep its event times up to date. It also says ECAL can't read a fan's existing appointments or delete anything they created themselves. Every event carries a “Manage My ECAL” link where fans change what they get or unsubscribe.

ECAL's page on its Saudi Pro League partnership says it syncs fixtures to Apple and Outlook calendars as well as Google's.

What are the alternatives to ECAL?

If you run a club or a local team, these are the options we could check against each company's own pages.

	How fans add your events	How a change reaches them	Built for
ECAL	Sync a brand's calendar once; on Google, by granting ECAL access	ECAL updates the calendar it created	Leagues and entertainment brands, with plans for community groups
AddEvent subscription calendar	Subscribe from a calendar on your site or a link in an email	When their app next checks: every 12 to 24 hours in Google, by AddEvent's FAQ	Teams and organizers who set up their own calendar
Public Google Calendar	Subscribe in Google Calendar, or in another app with its public iCal address	Apps using the iCal address pick it up when they next check	A schedule anyone can see
TheyCal (ours)	Follow once, then connect Google or Microsoft, or use a private calendar link	Connected calendars within moments; calendar links when their app next checks	Businesses with a local following

AddEvent

AddEvent pitches its subscription calendars to sports teams as well. Its blog suggests embedding a calendar on the team's website for fans to subscribe to, and promoting it in emails and on social media. Updates reach each fan when their app next checks the calendar, which AddEvent's FAQ puts at every 12 to 24 hours for Google Calendar. Our guide to AddEvent alternatives covers its other tools.

A public Google Calendar

You can make a Google calendar public and share its public iCal address for fans to subscribe to, or embed it on your website. Anyone can see the events, and Google says a public calendar on a searchable website can appear in search results. Fans who add it by that address get a moved game time whenever their app next checks. Our guide on using a public Google Calendar for your business goes further.

What should you ask before choosing?

How do fans sign up? Think about where fans meet you: a QR code at the ground or the bar, a link in your app or your emails. Try it on your own phone with Google and Apple calendars both.
What happens in Google Calendar when a start time moves? Subscriptions wait for Google's own refresh, and our guide on why a subscribed calendar isn't updating explains how long that takes.
Can different fans get different events? If season ticket holders get events other fans don't, check that the tool can send to just them.
What do you learn about your fans? ECAL's pricing page talks about first-party user data. Ask every vendor what sign-up details and click counts you get to keep.

A business's TheyCal join page, offering Google, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Calendar and others — On a TheyCal join page, people pick the calendar they use.

Where TheyCal fits

We make TheyCal, for businesses with a local following such as country clubs, music venues, bands and sports teams. Fans follow once from a join page or its QR code. Google and Microsoft users connect their calendar, and we put the business's events in it and keep them current. Everyone else gets a private calendar link. A team or a sports bar can add a pro team's season (MLB, NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL or MLS) as a source, and TheyCal checks it hourly in the day and a half before a game so a delay or postponement reaches followers' calendars. Links in events are click-tracked, so the business sees which ones fans tap.

Common questions

Is ECAL only for big leagues?

The partnerships ECAL writes about include the Betfred Super League and the Saudi Pro League. Its pricing page also lists Basic and Community plans for small teams and community groups.

What permission does ECAL ask for in Google Calendar?

Google's prompt says ECAL can see, edit, share and permanently delete your calendars. In ECAL's explanation, that's Google's standard wording, and its technology only touches the ECAL calendar you chose to add.

Does ECAL work with Apple Calendar?

ECAL's page on the Saudi Pro League lists Apple and Outlook next to Google.