The IT Checklist for Your New Padel Venue (2026 Edition)

Opening a padel venue is exciting. The courts are ordered, the lease is signed, and the branding looks sharp. But there’s one area that consistently trips up new operators: the IT infrastructure.

We’ve worked with padel venues across London and seen the same mistakes repeated. Consumer-grade routers trying to serve 200 guests. Payment terminals on the same network as guest WiFi. CCTV systems that crash when three cameras stream at once. Booking platforms that can’t talk to the access control hardware.

This checklist covers everything you need to get right before opening day.

1. Internet Connectivity

Your venue needs more bandwidth than you think — especially if you’re planning AI camera systems or streaming content in a bar/lounge area.

Minimum requirements for a 6-court venue:

Dedicated business fibre connection (not residential broadband)
Minimum 100 Mbps symmetric (upload matters as much as download for CCTV and AI cameras)
Consider a backup connection for failover — if your internet goes down and your access control is cloud-based, your courts don’t open

What to ask your ISP:

Is the connection dedicated or contended?
What’s the guaranteed uptime SLA?
Can you provide a static IP? (needed for remote access and VPN)

2. Network Architecture

This is where most venues get it wrong. A padel club network isn’t a home network with more devices. It needs proper segmentation.

VLAN structure (minimum 4 segments):

Guest WiFi — isolated from everything else, bandwidth-limited per device
Staff and POS — your payment terminals, admin computers, back-office systems
CCTV — camera feeds on their own segment, not competing with guest traffic
Court automation — access control, lighting systems, booking integrations

Why does this matter? If a guest’s compromised phone is on the same network as your payment terminals, you’ve got a PCI compliance problem. If your CCTV streams are fighting guest Netflix traffic for bandwidth, you’ll lose footage. VLAN segmentation prevents these issues by design.

Hardware you’ll need:

Enterprise-grade gateway/firewall with VLAN support
Managed switches (not unmanaged consumer switches)
Enterprise access points — consumer routers won’t cut it for coverage or client density

3. WiFi Coverage

Padel venues have unique coverage challenges. Courts are often in large open spaces with metal structures, glass walls, and outdoor areas that all need signal.

Design considerations:

Access points rated for high-density environments (50+ concurrent clients)
Indoor and outdoor models where needed
Ceiling or high-wall mounted for best coverage pattern
A 6-court indoor venue typically needs 3-4 access points for complete coverage
Don’t forget reception, changing rooms, and bar/lounge areas

Guest WiFi best practices:

Captive portal with terms acceptance (GDPR requirement)
Bandwidth limits per device (prevent one user hogging the connection)
Automatic session timeout
Separate SSID from staff network

4. Booking System Integration

The booking platform is the operational heart of your venue. The right choice affects everything from court utilisation to staffing costs.

Key platforms in the padel space:

Playtomic — the largest padel booking platform globally, widely used in the UK
Padel iQ — offers booking management and can integrate with court automation
Nettla — booking and venue management
Anolla — includes occupancy analytics alongside booking

Integration questions to ask:

Does the platform offer API access for connecting to third-party hardware?
Can bookings trigger access control and lighting automation?
Does it support multi-venue management from a single dashboard?
What data export options are available for reporting?

The automation opportunity: When a booking starts, the court door unlocks and lights switch on automatically. When it ends, they reset. This enables unmanned or reduced-staffing operation — particularly valuable for early morning and late evening slots. Not all platforms support this out of the box, so check before committing.

5. Access Control

For venues operating extended hours or unmanned sessions, automated access control is essential.

What you need:

Electronic locks on court entry doors (or gates for outdoor courts)
Integration with your booking platform (so access is granted only during booked slots)
Backup access method (physical key override, staff PIN) for when connectivity fails
Audit trail logging who accessed which court and when

GDPR note: Access logs containing personal data (who booked, when they accessed) must be handled in accordance with data protection regulations. Retention periods should be documented.

6. Court Lighting Automation

LED lighting with smart controls is standard for modern padel venues. The goal is simple: lights on when a court is booked, lights off when it’s not.

Benefits:

Significant energy savings (no more empty courts with lights blazing)
Consistent lighting levels for play quality
Scheduling aligned to bookings reduces manual intervention

Integration: The best setup links your lighting directly to your booking platform. When a booking window opens, the relevant court lights activate. When it closes, they dim or switch off after a short buffer period.

7. CCTV and Security

Camera coverage serves three purposes in a padel venue: security, insurance evidence, and operational monitoring.

Coverage areas:

All courts (for disputes, incidents, and operational monitoring)
Reception and entrance
Car park (if applicable)
Storage and equipment areas

System options:

On-premise NVR (network video recorder) for local storage with cloud backup
Fully cloud-managed cameras for zero-maintenance operation
Hybrid approach with local recording and cloud clips

Storage and retention:

Standard retention: 30 days (check your insurance requirements)
GDPR: You need signage, a documented retention policy, and a process for subject access requests
Budget for storage: camera streams generate large amounts of data

Bandwidth consideration: Each camera stream typically needs dedicated network capacity. A 6-court venue with cameras on every court, plus reception and entrance, could easily have 8-10 streams. Your network must account for this.

8. Payment Infrastructure (PCI DSS 4.0)

Every padel venue processing card payments must comply with PCI DSS 4.0, which came into full effect in March 2025.

Key requirements:

POS terminals on a segmented network (separate from guest WiFi and other systems)
Strong authentication on all devices with access to payment systems
No unnecessary storage of cardholder data
Physical security of POS terminals (can’t be tampered with)
Regular security assessments

For most padel venues, Level 4 PCI compliance applies (fewer than 20,000 e-commerce transactions or up to 1 million total transactions per year). This means completing an annual Self-Assessment Questionnaire and quarterly network scans.

Don’t assume your payment provider handles everything. You’re responsible for the network environment those terminals sit on.

9. AI Camera Systems (Optional but Growing)

AI-powered camera platforms are becoming a revenue driver for padel venues. They provide automated match recording, player tracking, highlight generation, and analytics.

What they offer:

Automated video recording of every match
Player stats and performance analytics
Shareable highlights (players love posting their best shots)
Coaching tools for academies

Revenue model: Courts with AI video analytics typically command a premium per hour booking fee. Over a month, that additional revenue per court can be meaningful — particularly for venues running at high utilisation.

Infrastructure requirement: Each AI camera stream needs substantial dedicated bandwidth. If you’re planning these, factor the network capacity in from day one — retrofitting is much harder than designing it in.

10. Multi-Site Considerations

If you’re planning more than one venue (or think you might expand), design your IT with multi-site in mind from the start.

Architecture principles:

Centralised management dashboard across all venues
Consistent security policies and configurations
Site-to-site VPN for secure data sharing between locations
Standardised hardware across venues (easier support, spare parts, training)
Remote monitoring so issues can be resolved without a site visit

It’s much cheaper to build this right the first time than to retrofit when you open venue number two.

Padel venues collect more personal data than most operators realise:

Member data — names, emails, phone numbers, payment details
Booking data — when people play, how often, who they play with
CCTV footage — images of identifiable individuals
Access control logs — who entered which court and when
Children’s data — if you run junior programmes, extra protections apply

You need:

A privacy policy covering all data collection
CCTV signage at all entry points
Data retention schedules (don’t keep data longer than needed)
A process for subject access requests
If processing children’s data, documented safeguards

The Bottom Line

Getting the IT right for a padel venue isn’t about buying expensive kit — it’s about designing a system where everything works together reliably. The booking platform talks to the access control. The CCTV runs on its own network segment. The payment terminals are PCI compliant. The guest WiFi doesn’t bring down your court automation.

If you’re planning a new venue or your current setup is causing headaches, get in touch for a free venue IT assessment. We’ll review your requirements and put together a spec that’s right for your operation.