When it comes to club management platforms, more and more facilities are choosing PodPlay to power their operations. What attracts them is a powerful, comprehensive suite of services on the back end, with an elegant, simple, and user-focused interface on the front end.
How did they do it, and what makes PodPlay so appealing? In the newest edition of The Sweet Spot podcast, the IAPPF’s Josh Kerns dives deep with PodPlay co-founder Ben Borton, and Reuben Pressman, founder of the expansive new St. Pete Athletic facility in St. Petersburg, Florida.
LISTEN: THE SWEET SPOT PODCAST-PODPLAY AND THE FUTURE OF FACILITY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
“Our job is simple – to seamlessly power the core operations of your facility—memberships, bookings, payments, events, coaching—in a way that feels simple for players and staff,” Borton says.
It’s the totality of their solution that attracted Pressman.
“I wasn’t shopping for a gadget or a niche feature,” he says. “I needed a platform that could handle the daily reality of running a club and still scale with us as we grow.”
Built by Operators, for Operators
PodPlay’s roots are in PingPod, the autonomous table tennis concept launched in New York City. Running those clubs forced the founding team to build a full toolset for:
- Reservations and schedule management
- Memberships and recurring billing
- Player accounts and profiles
- Event, league, and program management
- Staff, coach, and court allocation
Over time, they realized the software they’d built for themselves could solve the same problems for other operators across pickleball, padel, and broader racket sports.
“We didn’t sit in a room and design a system in the abstract,” Ben explains. “We built the tools we needed to run our own facilities, then turned that into a platform for everyone else.”
That “operator-first” DNA is what stood out to Reuben.
“You can feel when a product was designed by people who’ve never worked a day in operations,” he says. “With PodPlay, so many workflows just make sense. They clearly come from lived experience at the club level.”
The Core: A Complete Platform for Club Management
For facilities like St. Pete Athletic, PodPlay’s value shows up in the unglamorous, everyday work of running a club. The platform pulls together the key pillars of operations into one place.
Reservations, Events, and Programming
Everything starts with time on court and how it’s organized:
- Open play, court rentals, and private bookings
- Clinics, camps, and group classes
- Leagues, ladders, and special events
Players see a clear, mobile-first interface; staff see powerful tools for building out calendars, assigning courts, and managing capacity.
“We do a lot of different programming—across sports, skill levels, and time slots,” Reuben says. “PodPlay lets us build that complexity behind the scenes while keeping the front-end experience really clean for members.”
Memberships, Billing, and Player Accounts
PodPlay also handles the business backbone:
- Membership tiers and benefits
- Packages, passes, and credits
- Integrated payments and invoicing
- Player history, preferences, and activity
Instead of juggling separate systems for billing, memberships, and bookings, everything flows through one platform.
“I love that when I look at a member profile, I can see the full relationship—what they’ve booked, what they’re paying, how they’re using the club,” Reuben notes. “That makes it easier to serve them and easier to make good business decisions.”
Ben sees this as fundamental to the product.
“We want operators to feel like they’re running their club from a single cockpit,” he says. “You shouldn’t need five logins to answer a basic question about a member or a program.”
Staff and Coach Tools
As clubs grow, staff coordination becomes just as critical as member-facing UX. PodPlay supports:
- Coach and instructor schedules
- Assigning staff to programs and courts
- Role-based permissions and access
For multi-role teams like St. Pete Athletic’s, that structure matters.
“We have front-of-house staff, coaches, managers, and partners,” Reuben explains. “PodPlay lets us give each group the access they need without opening up the whole back end to everyone.”
Integrated Hardware: Enhancing the Experience, Not Defining It
PodPlay’s hardware layer—digital scoreboards, cameras, and instant replays—is a differentiator, but it’s designed to extend the platform, not overshadow it.
Players can see scores on big screens, capture highlights with a push of a button, and access video inside the same ecosystem they use to book courts and manage their accounts.
“We think of hardware as a way to make the core product more delightful,” Ben says. “The real magic is that it’s all part of the same platform—not a separate app bolted on to the side.”
Reuben sees it as a tool for deepening engagement.
“When people see themselves on the monitors or get a replay in their app, it creates moments they talk about,” he says. “But for us as operators, it’s just as important that it doesn’t add complexity. It’s all wired into PodPlay.”
Autonomy as an Option, Not the Whole Story
PodPlay can support autonomous or semi-autonomous operations—using integrated access control, cameras, and remote monitoring—but for many clubs, that’s just one piece of the toolkit.
Some facilities lean heavily into extended hours with minimal staffing. Others use autonomy selectively—early mornings, late evenings, or lower-traffic time blocks. Many simply appreciate that the platform is capable of it if their strategy evolves.
“Autonomous features are a powerful lever,” Ben says, “but they’re not a requirement. Most of our day-to-day work with operators is about running great programs, managing members, and giving staff the tools they need.”
Reuben agrees that autonomy is an important option, not the main storyline.
“What sold me wasn’t just the idea of running a building with no staff,” he explains. “It was knowing that PodPlay could handle the basics of operations really well—then give us the flexibility to add more advanced capabilities when and where it makes sense.”
Data, Insights, and Growth
Because everything runs through a single platform, PodPlay can provide cleaner data and clearer insights:
- What programs are growing or shrinking
- How members are using the club
- Which time slots drive the most revenue
- Where waitlists or underutilized courts exist
That helps operators like St. Pete Athletic fine-tune programming, staffing, and pricing.
“We’re constantly iterating,” Reuben says. “Having data in one system means we can track experiments, not just guess. PodPlay helps us see if the changes we make are actually working.”
A Modern Operating System for Racket-Sports Clubs
For Ben, the mission is straightforward: PodPlay should feel like the operating system for facilities.
“We want to be the platform that quietly runs your business—so you can focus on culture, coaching, and community,” he says. “If we’re doing our job, members feel like everything ‘just works’ and operators have the clarity to grow.”
For Reuben and St. Pete Athletic, that’s exactly the point.
“Our brand is about energy, community, and a great experience,” Reuben says. “We needed tech that supports that, not tech that becomes another thing we have to manage. PodPlay lets the software disappear into the background so the club can be front and center.”
As pickleball, padel, and multisport clubs continue to expand, the facilities that win won’t just be the ones with the most courts—they’ll be the ones with the best-managed operations and the smoothest member experience.