South Sydney Rabbitohs Build Owned Fan Community on social.plus
The South Sydney Rabbitohs built its own digital stack, taking direct ownership of the relationship with its supporters
The Rabbitohs chose to build an owned supporter community. Early results suggest fans were eager for a place to connect directly with the club and each other.”
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, June 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- social.plus, the community infrastructure platform powering in-app social experiences for some of the world's leading brands, today announced that the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the most successful club in Australian rugby league history, have launched an owned fan community on the social.plus platform, onboarding more than 60% of members within a week of public launch.— Amadeus Norén, VP of Marketing
The community sits inside an app the Rabbitohs built and operate themselves. Going their own way gives the Rabbitohs direct ownership of the relationship, the data, and the rules of the conversation. On the early evidence, they've seen a fast on-ramp of the club's existing paying member base.
Why the Rabbitohs are doing this their own way
Founded in 1908 as a foundation club and the holder of 21 premierships, the Rabbitohs are anchored by a European-style member-owned model that gives supporters a stake and a say in the club's direction. The club has 28,000 paying members and roughly 1.8 million fans across social networks. Until now, the relationship has been mediated through platforms the club does not own.
For a club whose identity sits on community, ownership, and a working-class and indigenous heritage that runs through more than a century of the game, that mediation has always been a poor fit. The new app brings the supporter relationship back inside an environment the Rabbitohs actually run.
The Rabbitohs treated their app as a product — building, owning, and continuing to evolve it — so the community sits inside an ecosystem the club designed for itself.
“Sports clubs have spent two decades building audiences on platforms they do not own and cannot shape. The Rabbitohs have chosen to invest in an owned digital experience and supporter community, giving them direct control over the relationship with their fans. The early launch numbers suggest supporters were eager for a place to gather that sits within the club's own ecosystem.”
Amadeus Norén, VP of Marketing, social.plus
Inside the first week
More than 16,700 members onboarded in the first week of public launch — well over half of the club’s paying member base coming into the new community inside seven days.
Live game-day chat has emerged as the standout feature with supporters reacting to plays in real time alongside one another instead of in feeds shared with every other brand competing for the same attention.
Membership tier is recognised inside the social experience so a paying member is visible as one to other supporters and to the club. The environment is moderated and accredited, designed to keep the conversation aligned with the values supporters expect of one another.
“Our supporters don’t follow this club because we have a great Facebook page. They follow us because they’re Rabbitohs. Bringing the community into our own app means the relationship lives where it belongs, with the club and the supporters who have carried it for more than a century.”
Sunny Brar, Digital Strategy Lead, South Sydney Rabbitohs
What this signals for the wider sports industry
The Rabbitohs’ move sits inside a wider pattern. Clubs, leagues, and federations are rethinking the assumption that the most efficient place to reach a supporter is on a horizontal social network optimised for advertisers rather than for the supporters themselves.
Where the Rabbitohs go further than most is the layer beneath the community: the app and the digital stack the community is built on. By owning both, the club gets first-party data on intent and behaviour, control over moderation, and a direct channel for membership, merchandise, ticketing, and sponsor activations — none of which travel cleanly through a third-party feed.
For one of Australia’s most storied clubs, the community is now the platform.
About social.plus
social.plus is the infrastructure layer for in-app community. The platform gives brands the building blocks to create owned social experiences — connection, conversation, content, and commerce — inside their own apps, with full ownership of the data, the design, and the customer relationship. Brands across fitness, travel, retail, sports, and entertainment use social.plus to make community core to how their product works. The best version of every app is Social+. Learn more at https://www.social.plus/.
About the South Sydney Rabbitohs
The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a foundation club of Australian rugby league, established in 1908 and the most successful club in the game’s history with 21 premierships, more than any other club in the competition. The club operates on a European-style member-owned model that gives supporters a stake and a say in its direction, and is anchored by a working-class and indigenous heritage that has shaped more than a century of the sport. The Rabbitohs have approximately 28,000 paying members and roughly 1.8 million fans across social platforms. Learn more at rabbitohs.com.au.
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