How Can Gyms and Fitness Centres Add Racquet Sport Revenue Without Hiring More Staff?
The Short Answer
Gyms and fitness centres should treat racquet sport as an adjacent revenue stream they’re already positioned to capture — and a self-service rental kiosk is how they do it without adding payroll. Australia’s fitness sector is huge: 6.2 million members, roughly 8,000 gyms and leisure centres, and about AU$3.7 billion in annual consumer spend. But nearly all of it is a single-revenue model built on memberships and classes. Meanwhile, pickleball and padel reached 97,000 adult players in 2025 and are still climbing — and a gym’s existing courts, floor space, and after-hours access put it one step from monetising that demand.
A 24/7 rental kiosk bolts racquet-sport equipment onto that footprint with no counter, no pro shop, and no extra staff. That’s the whole answer: don’t build a new department to chase a new sport — drop in a machine that rents the gear while you sleep.
Gyms Have the Footprint but a One-Revenue Model
The fitness industry’s economics are well documented, and they explain both the opportunity and the pressure:
- 6.2 million Australians held a fitness-facility membership in 2025 — 23% of the population (AUSactive, 2026 HFA Global Report).
- The sector spans roughly 8,000 commercial gyms and public leisure centres, generating about AU$3.7 billion in annual consumer spend.
- Around 1 in 5 Australians holds a gym membership (GapMaps, 2023 Health & Fitness Centres Report, powered by CommBank iQ).
- 61% of Australians live within 3km of an Anytime Fitness — convenience and proximity are the industry’s core assets (GapMaps).
Read those last two together and the implication is clear: a gym’s real moat is proximity and convenience, not its class timetable. Yet most operators still monetise only what happens inside a staffed session. The floor space, the after-hours access, the member base, and the location — the expensive, hard-to-copy assets — are left idle for every hour a class isn’t running.
That’s a one-revenue model sitting on top of a multi-revenue footprint.
Racquet Sport Is Growing Into the Gym’s Own Demographic
The sports growing fastest right now are also the ones a gym is already built to serve:
- Pickleball and padel combined reached 97,000 Australian participants aged 15+ in 2025 — 1.3% of that age group (Australian Sports Commission, AusPlay, released 30 April 2026).
- Both sports are doubles-first, social, and beginner-friendly — a player can pick them up in an afternoon with no prior racquet experience.
- They skew strongly toward the demographics gyms want to retain: women, older adults, and people returning to sport after a long break.
For a fitness operator, the crossover is the point. A pickleball or padel newcomer doesn’t need a gym membership to start — but they do need a racquet and a court. The gym already has the court (or the under-used squash court that could host pickleball lines), the parking, and the after-hours access. The only missing link is the equipment, and that’s precisely what a staffed gym is worst at supplying — nobody wants to run a pro-shop counter at 6am or 10pm.
| The gym already has | The gap a rental kiosk fills |
|---|---|
| Courts and floor space | Racquets, balls, and accessories available on demand |
| After-hours / key-tag access | A 24/7 equipment counter that never closes |
| A member base that wants social sport | A low-barrier way to try racquet sport without buying gear |
| Location and parking | Monetising non-members who drop in to play |
| Staff only during peak hours | Zero staff needed to rent or return equipment |
The Kiosk Turns Idle Footprint Into a Second Revenue Stream
Here’s the sequence for a gym adding racquet-sport rental:
- Stock the machine, not the roster. One kiosk with modular lockers holds tennis, badminton, squash, padel, and pickleball gear. Restocking is a quick top-up, not a new hire.
- Let members and walk-ins self-serve. A player taps a card, a locker door opens, they collect their gear, and return it when done — the same frictionless, key-tag model the gym already uses for after-hours entry.
- Capture every rental in the cloud. Each hire is logged with the payer’s identity and a timestamp, so the gym can see which sports are moving and when — no sign-in sheet, no guessing.
- Sell to the member’s friends. The kiosk serves non-members too, so a social pickleball night becomes a way to introduce new people to the venue — the top of the membership funnel.
- Scale with demand, not with headcount. A quiet week costs nothing extra. A busy summer of casual racquet-sport traffic earns more, with no roster to adjust.
The result is a revenue line that tracks usage, not the wage bill — which is exactly the discipline a margin-watching gym operator wants.
A Staffed Pro Shop vs a Self-Service Kiosk
| Requirement | Staffed pro shop / hire desk | Self-service rental kiosk |
|---|---|---|
| Open 6am–10pm or later | Only when someone is rostered | Always — 24/7 |
| Serve a walk-in pickleball group | Queue at the counter | Tap, pay, collect |
| Multiple sports from one point | Needs shelf space + a person | One kiosk, modular lockers |
| Track who hired what | Paper or memory | Automatic, per-rental cloud log |
| Staff cost when demand spikes | Overtime and casual calls | None — machine scales |
| Idle cost in a quiet month | Wages still accrue | Small fee only per successful rental |
A gym’s whole operating model already runs on “the member lets themselves in.” The kiosk simply extends that same logic to equipment — the one thing the member can’t practically own for a sport they’re still trying out.
The Bottom Line
Australian gyms and fitness centres hold a rare combination: 6.2 million members, unmatched proximity, and after-hours access — yet a single-revenue model that ignores the fastest-growing sport category around them. Pickleball and padel hit 97,000 adult players in 2025 and skew toward the exact demographics gyms want to keep.
A self-service racket rental kiosk lets a gym bolt racquet sport onto its existing footprint — with no counter, no pro shop, and no extra payroll — and capture that demand around the clock. One machine, five sports, and a running cost that only moves when someone actually rents.
Want to see how a kiosk would sit alongside your courts and after-hours access? Contact us and we’ll walk through it. Or see how it works and review the hardware.
Data sources: AUSactive via the 2026 IHRSA / Health & Fitness Association (HFA) Global Report — Australia chapter (6.2 million fitness-facility members in 2025, 23% population penetration, ~8,000 commercial gyms and public leisure centres, ~AU$3.7 billion annual consumer spend on fitness clubs and gyms); GapMaps / CommBank iQ 2023 Annual Health & Fitness Centres Report (1 in 5 Australians hold a gym membership; 61% of Australians live within 3km of an Anytime Fitness); Australian Sports Commission, AusPlay, released 30 April 2026 (pickleball and padel combined: 97,000 participants aged 15+, 1.3% of that age group); IBISWorld Gym & Fitness Centre Operation industry report 2026 (9,011 businesses, ~AU$3.8 billion revenue); Dark Pro Shops product documentation (24/7 self-service kiosk, modular lockers, five-sport support, cloud dashboard with per-rental records, customer search and SMS).