From Boom to Bust: What Swedish Padel’s Crash Teaches Us About Simulator Golf

The lesson? Demand wasn’t the problem – people still love padel. The failure was in the business models. Operators built too many courts, often side by side in small towns, while ignoring community, diversification and margins. Investors lost millions because expansion was funded with debt and focused on square meters, not sustainable revenue.

Simulator golf is now entering its own growth phase. Demand is rising across Europe and North America and hundreds of new venues are opening. The opportunity is enormous – but only if we avoid the same mistakes.

There’s one key difference, though: simulator golf can thrive in both staffed and fully unstaffed venues. Tech makes true 24/7 access possible, with low overhead. That makes the model more flexible – but it also means your success depends even more on how you design revenue streams and keep customers coming back.

Here are 10 lessons every indoor golf operator and investor should pay attention to:

1. 🎯 Don’t scale before you prove demand

Padel clubs raced to build as many courts as possible. The result was half-empty halls with massive costs.

👉🏽 Example: 6 bays at 70% utilization can bring in the same revenue as 12 bays at 35% – but with half the rent, half the debt and fewer headaches.

👉🏽 With Alba’s utilization reports, you’ll know exactly when demand justifies expansion instead of guessing.

2. 🏌️ Build a brand, not just a booking page

Many padel venues sold “court time” and disappeared when competition grew. The few that survived built identity through leagues, cafés and community.

👉🏽 Even if your sim golf venue is unmanned, you can still build loyalty through leagues, tournaments, memberships, streaks and branding.

👉🏽 With Alba you can run memberships and events directly on the platform, so your venue becomes more than just “another screen rental.”

3. ☕ Hospitality (or add-ons) drive revenue

In staffed venues, cafés and lounges boost spend. In unmanned venues, it can be rental clubs, vending machines or partnerships with local restaurants.

👉🏽 A group might book one hour of play – but if you give them reasons to stay or spend more, the value of each booking grows.

👉🏽 Alba makes it simple to package play with extras, no matter your setup.

4. 🤝 People connect to people – even in unmanned venues

Padel halls without a “face” felt soulless. The ones with a known manager or local pro kept their customers.

👉🏽 Even if your venue is unmanned, connect customers to local pros or a digital community.

👉🏽 With Alba, pros can manage their own schedules and bookings inside your venue, creating extra revenue streams without adding staff.

5. ⏰ Prime-time is easy – off-peak decides your profit

Every padel hall was full on Friday nights. What killed them was Tuesday at 11am.

👉🏽 Use dynamic pricing to fill off-peak. A 20% lower price at 2pm is better than an empty bay.

👉🏽 Alba automates both dynamic pricing and recurring bookings – perfect for unmanned venues that need to stay efficient.

6. 📊 Know your break-even, don’t guess it

Many padel operators never calculated how many bookings they needed to cover rent and debt.

👉🏽 Whether staffed or not, knowing your numbers is everything.

👉🏽 Alba shows occupancy, revenue per simulator and average spend in real time – so you always know where you stand.

7. 🛠️ Tech reliability is part of your brand

Padel was low-tech. Sim golf isn’t. If your system crashes or people play overtime, you lose money and trust.

👉🏽 Alba’s SimLock ensures only paying customers can start play and locks automatically when time is up.

👉🏽 Integrations with Kisi, Salto and others enable true 24/7 control – critical for unmanned venues.

8. 🔍 Use your data, don’t ignore it

Most padel venues had no idea who their customers were. The few that tracked players and leagues survived longest.

👉🏽 With Alba, you see which times and products are most popular and you can segment by repeat visits and demographics.

👉🏽 That lets you design offers based on facts – not gut feeling.

9. 👶👴 Build for juniors and seniors, not just 30-year-olds

Padel was trendy with 25-45 year olds. When that crowd moved on, halls were empty.

👉🏽 In sim golf, sustainability means serving youngsters and retirees too.

👉🏽 Unmanned venues can run junior academies in partnership with golf clubs or offer senior memberships that fill daytime hours.

👉🏽 Alba supports segmented memberships so each group gets a tailored offer.

10. 🏆 Leagues are the stickiest revenue you’ll ever have

The padel clubs that survived all had leagues. Players don’t ask “should we book this week?” – they just show up.

👉🏽 With Alba, you can automate sign-ups, payments and scheduling.

👉🏽 Leagues work just as well in an unmanned venue – and often even better, since players run themselves.

Final thoughts

The Swedish padel crash wasn’t about the sport – people still play padel. It was about flawed business models: too much supply, too little community and weak revenue diversification.

Simulator golf has massive potential. And unlike padel, the model works both with staffed lounges and fully unmanned 24/7 facilities. But the winners won’t be the ones with the most bays. They’ll be the ones with:

• strong communities (digital or local)
• diversified income
• reliable tech
• and a clear understanding of their numbers.

That’s why we built Alba – not just to fill simulators, but to help venues build businesses that last.