Operator's Guide · Southeast Asia
POS for Sports Clubs — Court Sessions + Café Counter in One Till (2026)
The 2026 operator's guide to POS for pickleball, padel and badminton clubs in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Court sessions and café sales on one ticket, membership discounts auto-applied via PEKO, and Playtomic / Courtsite kept as your booking companion.
By LOOP Editorial · Last updated July 25, 2026
PEKO ecosystem
LOOP runs the venue. PEKO brings the customer back. Two products, one company.
PEKO — the AI customer-retention platform (heypeko.com) from the same company as LOOP. PEKO handles retention; LOOP handles operations.
| LOOP — operations | PEKO — retention |
|---|---|
| Inventory & recipes | Churn prediction |
| Shift & staff management | Automated win-back |
| Table layout | Member portal |
| Kitchen display (KDS) | Loyalty tiers |
| E-invoice (TT78) | Receipt OCR enrolment |
| Aggregator queue (GrabFood / ShopeeFood / Be) |
LOOP and PEKO each work on their own. Run both and the data syncs into one single AI brain, so nothing is entered twice. PEKO is not a POS and does not replace one — it also runs alongside any other POS.
TL;DR — verdict by use case
- • Every racquet club sells drinks and snacks — that counter needs a POS, and no booking app provides one.
- • LOOP merges court session billing and café sales on one ticket, so members pay both together and staff close one till at night.
- • Membership tiers (student, monthly member, coach) auto-apply the right court rate and F&B discount via PEKO — no arguing at the counter.
- • Booking stays with Playtomic (SG/MY pickleball, padel), Courtsite (MY courts), or whatever tool you run today — LOOP does not compete with booking.
- • Same POS your café-counter staff already understand from working F&B jobs, so hiring is easier than training on a bespoke sports platform.
- • SG/MY/PH context: SG pickleball is scaling fast on ex-badminton floors; MY has an explosive padel and pickleball scene; PH pickleball adoption is the fastest in SEA in 2025–2026.
The pickleball and padel wave hit Southeast Asia hard in 2024–2026. The clubs that emerged didn't just build courts — they built cafés against those courts, because members will pay for a lime soda and a protein bar between games at 10x the margin of the court fee. That café counter is where operators discover the tool gap: their booking app (Playtomic, Courtsite, MATCHi) handles court reservations beautifully but has no F&B counter, so the counter runs on Loyverse or Square and the two systems never talk.
This guide is written for the operator who owns the club and the counter. LOOP is the till that runs both: court session billing (per-hour, per-court, with member tiering) and café sales (drinks, snacks, protein) merge onto one ticket, one payment, one receipt. Playtomic keeps the booking; LOOP runs the counter; PEKO handles retention. Three tools that don't overlap and don't fight each other.
1. The tool gap sports clubs discover in month 2
Every operator we've talked to across Singapore, KL, Cebu and Manila hit the same wall in the second month of trading. The booking flow is clean: member opens Playtomic (or Courtsite in MY), reserves a 6pm court, pays inside the app. Then they walk up to the counter for a Pocari Sweat, and suddenly nobody knows anything: the counter staff is on a separate POS with no idea whether that person is a paying member, a walk-in, or a coach. The membership discount doesn't apply. The receipt doesn't tie to the court fee. Nothing reconciles.
The workaround most clubs run is a laminated printout of members at the counter, a mental note of coach names, and a nightly reconciliation between two dashboards. That works for one court and one part-time staff. It breaks by court number 6 or staff number 4.
2. Court session + café tab on one ticket
LOOP models the court session as a line item on the same ticket the F&B lands on. Whether the session was booked in advance (Playtomic sync) or a walk-in (opened at the counter), the ticket carries: court number, session start/end, member tier, F&B items, payment. The customer pays once. The staff close once. The nightly report shows court revenue and F&B revenue against the same customer profile so you can see which members actually spend at the bar and which just show up for court time.
Practical: on a Friday 6–10pm peak at a 6-court KL pickleball club, this collapses close time from ~25 min of dual-system reconciliation to under 5 min.
3. Membership discounts, auto-applied via PEKO
PEKO stores the member tier (Monthly Member, Student, Coach, Corporate League). When the member's PEKO ID lands on a LOOP ticket — QR scan at the counter, or phone-number lookup — every line prices itself correctly: monthly members get the reduced court rate, coaches get their pro-shop discount on strings and grips, corporate league captains get the group-of-8 pack rate on drinks. Staff never have to remember which discount belongs to whom.
This matters more for clubs than for cafés because the price-sensitivity gap between a walk-in and a monthly member on a peak court slot can be S$15–S$25 per session — enough that an accidentally-billed walk-in rate ends the membership renewal.
4. Where booking apps end and LOOP begins
Playtomic and Courtsite are the two dominant booking rails in SG/MY pickleball and padel. Both are excellent at what they do — court inventory, discovery, member self-booking, payment for the slot itself — and both explicitly leave the on-site counter to you. That's the seam LOOP is designed to close.
LOOP takes the confirmed booking (via API sync where the booking tool supports it, or via a member-name lookup at the counter otherwise) and opens the session ticket. From that moment on, the customer's counter experience — F&B, coaching add-ons, pro-shop, tournament pack — is all one ticket. Playtomic keeps the reservation UX; LOOP owns the till.
5. SG / MY / PH context — the local pickleball reality
Singapore: pickleball has taken over off-peak badminton hall time, and the fast-growing operators are building 4–8 court dedicated venues (Kallang, Katong, Woodlands) with proper F&B counters attached. Playtomic is the dominant booking rail. GST-formatted receipts for GST-registered clubs; PayNow load spikes on Sunday morning class blocks.
Malaysia: this is currently the fastest-growing padel and pickleball market in SEA, with new clubs opening monthly around KL, PJ, Subang, Penang and JB. Booking is split between Playtomic and Courtsite depending on the venue. DuitNow QR is the primary rail. SST rules apply to F&B at registered venues. Multi-venue chain operators are already emerging and want consolidated daily reporting.
Philippines: pickleball adoption in 2025–2026 is the fastest in the region — Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao have all opened dedicated clubs in the past 18 months. GCash is the primary tender at the counter. BIR-format OR requirements apply to court fees and F&B alike, and a proper POS with serial numbering avoids the compliance headache barangay officials are increasingly enforcing.
6. The pincer band — booking, operations, retention
Same honest framing as our billiard guide: no single tool wins all three jobs, and any vendor claiming otherwise is overselling. Booking = Playtomic or Courtsite (companion, not replaced). Operations = LOOP (the counter till + session ticket + café + payments + reporting). Retention = PEKO (member tiers, auto-applied discounts, win-back campaigns for lapsed members).
That's the whole stack. Three tools, three clear jobs, one clean seam between each. If you're being sold a POS that also claims to be the best booking app and the best loyalty program, you're being sold three mediocre things wrapped as one.
7. POS options for sports clubs — an honest mini-comparison
The realistic shortlist today is: generic F&B POS (Loyverse, Square, Qashier) — great for the café, cannot model a court session or a member tier flowing across systems; booking-native counter (Playtomic and Courtsite both offer a light counter module) — good for cross-referencing the booking, weak on F&B, weak on payments, weak on multi-outlet financials; unified session + F&B POS (LOOP) — designed for exactly this seam.
Top 5 mistakes new café owners make
- Running Playtomic + a separate café POS with no bridge — you lose member-tier pricing at the counter and the nightly close becomes a spreadsheet job.
- Buying a "club management" platform that also tries to be your booking + POS + loyalty — the booking layer will be worse than Playtomic and the POS will be worse than a real F&B till.
- No recipe deduction on the café side — a busy club burns 4–7% of drinks inventory invisibly per month without recipe-level costing.
- Ignoring BIR-format receipts in PH because "it's just a court" — court fees are taxable revenue and barangay enforcement is tightening in Metro Manila.
- Treating the F&B counter as an afterthought — clubs that run the café well see 20–35% of total revenue from F&B and pro-shop, at margins well above court time.
Frequently asked
Do I have to move off Playtomic or Courtsite to use LOOP?
No — and we recommend you don't. Playtomic and Courtsite are excellent booking tools. LOOP is the counter POS that takes over once the member walks up to the till. Booking stays where it is.
How does the court session appear on the ticket?
As a line item with court number, start/end time and the member's tier-based rate. Staff open the ticket either from the booking (member name + court + time lookup) or as a walk-in session started at the counter with one tap.
Can member pricing apply automatically?
Yes, via PEKO. Scan the member's QR (or look up by phone number). Their tier flows into every line on the ticket: reduced court rate for monthly members, coach discount on pro-shop, corporate-league pack pricing on food.
What if the club sells rackets, strings, grips — pro-shop items?
Full retail SKU support alongside the court session and café items. All three revenue lines close on the same ticket, and the nightly report breaks out court revenue vs café revenue vs pro-shop margin.
Does LOOP work for coaching sessions?
Yes. Coaching is modelled as a session type with its own hourly rate and coach commission line. When a coach is on the ticket, their share auto-splits so end-of-week payout to the coach is a report, not a calculation.
What payments work at the counter?
PayNow and NETS QR (SG), DuitNow QR and Touch 'n Go (MY), GCash / Maya / QR Ph (PH) via dynamic per-ticket QR with auto-reconciliation. Cards via Visa / Mastercard / MyDebit / JCB where the operator has an acquiring relationship.
Can multiple courts run in parallel on one tablet?
Yes. Each court is a tile on the counter tablet. Open, meter, add F&B, close, in parallel, without staff having to switch screens or juggle two systems.
How is this different from a booking-app counter module?
Booking-app counter modules exist but are optimised for cross-referencing the booking, not for running a real F&B café or a multi-tender counter. LOOP is F&B-native — recipe deduction, aggregator handling on the takeaway side, KDS routing — with the session as a first-class line.
What does it cost to run a sports club on LOOP?
Same pricing as F&B and billiards: free forever for 1 branch (session tickets, café, receipts, AI Daily Brief). Growth from S$39 / RM 129 / ₱1,690 per branch per month for multi-branch clubs, adding consolidated reporting and the inventory forecast.
Do I need one tablet per court?
No. One counter tablet handles a 6–8 court venue comfortably. Larger venues (12+ courts) benefit from a second tablet for parallel-open of walk-in sessions on peak nights, but that's a scale decision, not a requirement.
Does LOOP include loyalty?
LOOP handles operations. For AI-driven customer retention, PEKO is the sibling product from the same company — it runs alongside LOOP or alongside any other POS. Together they cover operations and retention.
Can PEKO handle inventory and staff scheduling?
No — PEKO is the retention layer. LOOP covers inventory, recipes, shifts, table management and kitchen display in the same ecosystem.