Rental company Swimply expands to pickleball, tennis courts

Swimply, the startup that lets people rent private pools, will expand into pickleball courts — and the company says it expects revenue from its new offering to surpass pool rentals in just two and a half years.

On Tuesday, the company announced it was adding pickleball and tennis court rentals to its growing market.

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“There is a huge constraint right now when you consider how fast the sport is growing,” Bunim Laskin, founder and CEO of Swimply, told CNBC.

Swimply, which launched in 2018 in the New York City area, plans to list rental access for up to 300 private courts in markets such as New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Houston and Austin, Texas.

Laskin said he expects the number of jobs available for rent to double by the end of the summer.

Last year, 36 million people tried pickleball. With interest in the sport booming, availability and access to the job have been the biggest challenges for many people.

Laskin said the company beta tested pickleball courts, with some owners earning between $1,000 and $3,000 a month, while typical court rentals cost between $25 and $100 an hour.

He said that because of pickleball’s replay rate — with some people playing several times a week — he expects revenue to overtake the pool category in less than three years.

“Most of our sales in the pool category are from Memorial Day to Labor Day. With pickleball, in warmer states, we see that year round,” he said.

In 2017, less than half of the largest cities in the U.S. offered public pickleball courts, according to the Trust for public land, a non-profit organization that creates and promotes the importance of parks. Today, most major cities’ parks and recreation departments have made pickleball facilities available in their communities.

In the past six years, the number of park jobs has increased more than sixfold from 420 to 2,788, TPL data shows.

“There’s been significant growth,” says Linda Hwang, director of Land and People Lab at TPL — and a pickleball player herself. “I can’t imagine it slowing down any time soon.”

Outside of the park system, privately funded courts are also popping up across the country. This also applies to chains such as Chicken N Pickle and member-only clubs such as The Pickleball Club in Sarasota, Florida, and Court 16 in New York City.

Pickleball courts are even starting to fill the empty space left by shopkeepers in malls. For example, in Stamford, Connecticut, Pickleball America plans to convert 80,000 square feet of a former Saks Off 5th space into 28 pickleball courts. And Paddle Up Pickleball Club is expected to open soon in St. Louis. It’s building nine courts in the space formerly occupied by a Bed Bath & Beyond store.

Inviteda leading US private club owner and operator, began focusing on pickleball in 2020. The company has been building courts at a rapid pace—as well as converting courts from tennis to pickleball—and now operates more than 400 pickleball courts at its more than 200 golf and country clubs across the country.

“Pickleball is just on fire,” invited CEO David Pillsbury told CNBC. “We’ve doubled down on pickleball and have made a huge commitment to the amateur side of the sport, and we’re supporting the professional side by hosting a number of professional tournaments as well.”

Pillsbury does not see the trend abating. “I think this is just the beginning,” he said. He cited the sport’s low barrier to entry, the fact that it appeals to a wide audience and that it’s cheap to try, reasons for its increasing popularity.

Laskin said Swimply is inundated with inquiries from customers looking to build pickleball courts as an investment or as a way to bring in some extra cash.

Since it costs significantly less to build a pickleball court than it does to build a swimming pool, people can expect to make their money back in a year or two, he said.

“Using the pool category, people earn between $2,000 and $10,000 a month,” he said. “We expect pickleball to be quite similar.”