One of the biggest challenges for pickleball club operators is figuring out what to do with all the data they collect.
Court bookings, player attendance and membership activity can provide a detailed picture of how a club is performing. But that information often remains scattered across different platforms or requires operators to spend hours interpreting it. IQSport Intelligence is designed to close that gap, turning historical player and club data into actionable insights that can help operators fill courts and make smarter programming decisions.
“The reason we created IQSport was because we saw a clear necessity in the market due to the fact that there’s a lot of courts right now that are being under-filled,” said Vlad Shetinin, the co-founder of IQSport. “Clubs have valuable booking, attendance, membership and programming data that often goes unused — leading to missed retention, utilization and revenue opportunities.”
Rather than simply showing operators what has already happened, IQSport is designed to use historical behavior to help predict what will happen next. Shetinin said the platform can look as far back as 15 months to identify patterns in how individual players interact with programming.
For example, if an open play session has only filled half of its available spots, IQSport can identify players who have historically attended that type of session and are likely to participate again. The goal is to make filling courts less dependent on manual outreach and more targeted based on actual player behavior.
That predictive approach is particularly relevant for Indianapolis Pickleball Club (IPC), where founder and CEO Chris Sears has seen firsthand how much information can sit unused inside club-management systems.
For Sears, IQSport’s value goes beyond simply adding another analytics dashboard. The platform gives IPC a way to understand how its players are interacting with the club, which programs are performing and where changes may be needed — and then use those insights to drive action.
One of the biggest changes, according to Sears, has been moving the club from a reactive approach to programming toward a proactive one.
At IPC, programming is central to the club’s strategy for building community. Leagues, open play and social events are intended not only to put players on the court but also to create opportunities for members to develop relationships.
Previously, much of the team’s operational focus was on simply getting programming onto the schedule. Sears described recurring conversations about when the next event would be scheduled and whether the team was hitting its programming cadence. The question of whether those programs were actually working could get lost.
“We were never focused on the real truth,” said Sears. “What we needed to get at during that time was how was how has our programming performed? What are members responding to? What is actually working?”
IQSport has changed that conversation by putting performance data at the center of those decisions. Sears said he can now look at forecasts, scheduled programming and historical performance to determine what is working, what needs to be changed and what new ideas are worth testing.
“That’s been a game changer on our end,” said Sears. “Regardless of the AI advisor or downstream impacts of what we can do with driving campaigns and targeting particular audiences around that, that’s just icing on the cake. Just understanding our business better is probably the most fundamental change that we’ve been able to do so far.”
The platform’s capabilities extend beyond programming analysis. Shetinin described IQSport as combining predictive analytics, retention tools, targeted marketing and an AI advisor into one system.
The AI advisor is designed to give operators an accessible way to interact with their club’s data. The system helps surface insights and recommend potential actions. IQSport also uses self-learning algorithms intended to become more accurate as additional club data is fed into the system.
Retention is another major focus. The platform can identify players who are attending less frequently, helping operators determine who may be at risk of dropping out and giving them an opportunity to intervene. It can also support upselling and targeted marketing based on player’s previous activity.
For a club like IPC, the larger opportunity is connecting those capabilities back to the member experience.
Sears sees the future of club management as one where AI can help operators match players with programming based on their interests, playing preferences and the types of communities they want to be part of.
That could make AI less about replacing the human side of club operations and more about helping small teams deliver it more effectively. Sears noted that most pickleball operators don’t have large staffs dedicated to analyzing data, marketing and operations.
For those smaller teams, automation can make sophisticated analysis more accessible without requiring significant additional resources.
Shetinin said IQSport is continuing to expand in that direction. The company plans to add a staff payroll feature to the platform, further consolidating club-management functions.
Ultimately, the opportunity IQSport presents is to help operators move beyond collecting information and toward using it.
As pickleball clubs become more sophisticated, the competitive advantage may belong to those that can understand their players most effectively and act on that understanding quickly.
Interested in the IQSport pilot? Contact Vlad Shetinin at vlad@iqsport.ai to learn more, or reach out to Chris Sears at chris@indianapolispickleballclub.com to hear directly from a club operator using IQSport today. Or click the link below to sign up directly. Pickleball Innovators readers receive 20% off their first three months if they continue after the pilot: https://linkly.link/2qdwg
Prefer to listen? The full interview can be found on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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Jordan Meek is a staff writer for Pickleball Innovators, where she covers the rapidly evolving business of pickleball — from facility growth and technology to player experience and industry strategy. A graduate of Denison University with a degree in Journalism, she joined Peake Media in 2025 and brings a passion for storytelling and curiosity to every piece. Jordan is driven to spotlight the leaders shaping the sport and uncover insights that help operators thrive in the fastest-growing game in America. Reach her at jordan@peakemedia.com.
