A Flexible Phone Tripod for a Courtside Scoreboard

PadelRef turns your phone into a live scoreboard with numerals big enough to read across the court - but a phone face-up on the bench or zipped into a bag isn’t a scoreboard anyone can actually see. The fix is embarrassingly simple: hang the phone on the side-wall fence by the court’s entrance, at eye height. That’s exactly the spot where a normal tripod is useless - there’s no flat ground on a padel court’s perimeter, just glass and fencing. The Goocong F1C is an “octopus” tripod: its legs bend, so instead of standing on the floor, it weaves into the fence and holds the phone right where both teams walk in and glance at the score. We’ve hung our own unit exactly this way for many matches now, so this is a court-tested verdict, not a read of the spec sheet.

What you’re actually getting

The F1C is a small, flexible tripod built around a seven-strand aluminium core wrapped in a non-slip rubber shell - the same idea as the mini tripods photographers wrap around bike handlebars or tree branches, sized for a phone. In plain terms:

• Legs: flexible, 23 cm each, so they weave into the fence or curl around a post or railing rather than needing flat ground to stand on.
• Head: a ball head with 360° horizontal pan and vertical tilt, so you can angle the screen at the players and choose landscape or portrait for the scoreboard without remounting anything.
• Grip: a phone clamp that fits 56-95 mm widths, a standard 1/4″ screw, and an action-camera adapter is included - rated up to 1.5 kg, several times what a phone weighs.
• Size and weight: 200 g and 23 cm folded, 29 cm overall extended - it lives in a court bag and disappears until you need it.

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How it fits PadelRef

This is the piece of gear that gets the phone out of everyone’s pocket and up where a scoreboard belongs. Clamp the phone in landscape, weave the legs into the side-wall fence by the court’s entrance - the spot where we hang ours every match, right where both pairs pass on the way in and at every change of sides - and tilt the ball head so the screen faces the players. PadelRef’s oversized, high-contrast numerals do the rest: both pairs read the score at a glance between points, and nobody has to ask “what was it again?”

Mounted on the fence, though, the phone is out of arm’s reach - which is exactly the setup PadelRef’s hands-free scoring is built for. Pair a Bluetooth remote and the score updates from the server’s wrist or pocket while the scoreboard hangs untouched; our best Bluetooth remotes for padel scoring roundup covers the shapes that work well on court. Add a portable speaker and the score is announced out loud too - remote in, scoreboard up, announcements on, and the phone never leaves the fence until the match is over.

Goocong F1C Flexible Phone Tripod

Best for Players who hang the phone on the fence by the court entrance so PadelRef's scoreboard is readable from both sides between points.

Pros

• Flexible legs weave into the fence, a railing or a post - the scoreboard hangs by the court entrance where both teams read it at a glance
• Ball head with 360° pan and vertical tilt - angles the screen at the players, landscape or portrait, without remounting anything
• 200 g and 23 cm folded - lives in a court bag and is forgotten until needed
• Holds almost any kit: 56-95 mm phone clamp, 1/4″ screw and an action-camera adapter included, up to 1.5 kg

Cons

• White-label brand with nothing behind it: Goocong's website is down, so there is no support or spare parts beyond the seller
• It is a wrap-on mount, not a free-standing one - at 29 cm overall, without a fence, a post or a railing at the right height it is just a tabletop tripod

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How it has held up on court

We’ve used this exact unit for many matches, hung on the fence by the entrance, and it does the job: the legs grip the fence, the phone stays where it was aimed, and the scoreboard is still up when the last point is played. It solves the real problem with a phone scoreboard (nowhere flat to stand anything on a padel court’s perimeter) better than any rigid stand could, and the numbers - 200 g, a 360° head, a clamp wide enough for most phones and a 1.5 kg rating - are comfortably ahead of what holding a phone still asks of it.

A flexible tripod isn’t the only way to get the phone onto the fence, of course. Some players prefer other tools for the job - MagSafe mounts that snap the phone on and off in a second, rigid clamp mounts, or a different octopus tripod altogether. We haven’t put those through matches yet; we’ll test more options and keep this guide updated as we do.

Do I need this to use PadelRef?

No. PadelRef works the same with the phone on the bench, in a pocket, or in your hand between points. A tripod on the fence is a comfort upgrade: the score becomes something both teams see all match instead of something one player checks. Nothing in the app requires it.

Will it hold my phone with a case on?

The clamp is rated for phones 56-95 mm wide, and most phones with a slim or medium case still fit inside that. We haven’t measured specific cases against it, though - if your phone is already near 95 mm bare, check your case’s added width before buying.

The bottom line

If your matches already run on PadelRef, the F1C is the cheap, light piece that turns the phone into what it’s pretending to be: a real courtside scoreboard, hanging by the entrance where everyone can read it, updated from a remote without anyone touching it. It has earned its place in our court bag over many matches - the caveat that stands is the brand, not the tripod: a no-name label with a dead website means you’re relying on the seller if anything goes wrong.

Skip it if your court time happens where there’s no fence or railing to wrap onto, or if you’d rather start with the gear that changes how you score - see our Bluetooth remote roundup for that.