A proposal for Virgin Active · from Get Lucky Golf
Golf
200 Golfzon™ bays in 130 Southern African clubs, booked like padel. Get Lucky Golf buys it. RMB or the bank you prefer finances it. We run it. Virgin Active gives the room and the members, and takes 20% of every rand.
200 bays · 130 clubs · R37 million a year to Virgin Active · zero capex
Chapter one
Padel proved it. Give members a game and the courts fill at R400 an hour. Virgin Active Padel Club is already at 17 clubs.
Golf is the bigger game, and it is getting younger. 47 million juniors play worldwide, up 3.2 million in a year, six times the growth in adults.
The courses cannot take them. Tee sheets are full, the best clubs are private, and the game stops at dusk. So the sim belongs in the gym they already go to three times a week.
Gym, then an hour on the sim, then recovery. That is the routine we want to build.
Simulator golf, by the numbers
This is the sim
Golfzon™ TwoVision. The same bay in 13,000 venues worldwide, and the official simulator of the U.S. Open. It fits where a studio fits.
The offer
A ten-year exclusive concession. Get Lucky Golf buys, installs and runs the bays. RMB finances them, or the bank you prefer.
Virgin Active provides the room and the members, and takes 20% of everything the bays earn.
The room. Two bays (60 m²) in 70 clubs, one bay (30 m²) in 60 smaller clubs, inside planned refurbishments. The members. Booking in the Virgin Active app, marketing to members. Ten-year exclusive.
Gets outR37 million a year at maturity. No capital, no operating risk. A golf add-on on the member bill. First call on the UK, Italy, Australia and Asia.
Everything inside the wall. The bays, the equity, Golfzon™, coaching, leagues, the insured shot, and a golf host in every Collection club. We run it.
Gets outAn operating business of 200 bays, and the reference case for the rest of the Virgin Active group.
Asset finance for the equipment, drawn in three phases, secured over the bays and the concession. RMB has already seen the model. If Virgin Active has a house bank, we are open to it.
Gets outThe bays pay the loan back from bookings. Virgin Active never carries the debt.
We open at 20% of bay revenue, with Virgin Active building the shell inside its refurbishments. Both posts move. A bigger share, or us building the shell, still works for us and for RMB. We are not precious about the number. We want a deal that works for both of us.
The numbers
Five booked hours a day at R360. That is padel pricing, and half the hours Golfzon™ venues run. A Collection bay does six hours at R520.
A R299 a month golf add-on, leagues, corporate evenings, coaching, and the insured shot.
The chain
Three phases, 2027 to 2029. Fully ramped by 2031. The Virgin Active share is paid monthly from the first booking.
Virgin Active income in 2031 at three levels of use. Even the quiet case covers the finance.
| Year | Bays live | Clubs | Bay revenue | To Virgin Active |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2027phase one | 40 | 20 | R15m | R2.9m |
| 2028phase two | 140 | 70 | R67m | R13.0m |
| 2029phase three | 200 | 130 | R140m | R27.0m |
| 2030 | 200 | 130 | R181m | R35.2m |
| 2031fully ramped | 200 | 130 | R191m | R37.2m |
Ex VAT. Phase one opens mid-2027. Bay revenue is hire, add-ons, leagues and the insured shot. A bay reaches full use in its third year. Full model under NDA.
The sim
One platform across the chain. Golfzon™ is the world's largest simulator platform. Sandton plays Umhlanga on the same course on the same night.
20 Collection and flagship clubs, two bays each. Johannesburg first.
50 metro clubs, two bays each.
60 smaller clubs, one bay each. Botswana and Namibia included.
In the Virgin Active app, by the hour. Members pay the member rate. Non-members pay full rate, and you get a lead.
R299 a month: an hour included, member rates, leagues. Billed and shared by Virgin Active.
Chain-wide leagues. Leadbetter coaching in the practice bays. A pro in every Collection club.
Get Lucky's product, indoors. From R50 a swing, with prizes from R25,000 up to R1 million, insured by Santam.
Golf
Chapter two
One brand, eight countries. The same sim goes from Cape Town to London, Milan, Sydney, Singapore and Bangkok.
South Africa proves the numbers. Each territory is a Virgin Active decision.
| Territory | Clubs | Bays | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Africa | 136 | 200 | 2027–29 |
| United Kingdom | 32 | ~65 | 2029–30 |
| Italy | 33 | ~65 | 2029–30 |
| Australia | 11 | ~25 | 2030–31 |
| Singapore and Thailand | 14 | ~30 | 2030–31 |
| The group | ~230 | ~385 | 2027–31 |
Virgin Active club counts as published, March 2026. Two bays a club assumed outside South Africa.
Who we are
South Africa's insured hole-in-one challenge. A swing at a par-3 for up to R1,000,000, live at 30 courses, underwritten and sponsored by Santam. Virgin Golf is the concept we are proposing: your brand, our bays.
The people you would deal with
Built The Duchess with AB InBev and RMB, ten million units in five countries. Leads Get Lucky Golf and this deal.
Partner at Bellair Road, R5 billion under management. Harvard MBA. Owns the numbers and the financing.
Fifteen years in beverage and entertainment brands. Runs partnerships, brand and the leagues that keep the bays busy.
Prizes underwritten by Santam. Equipment finance modelled with RMB, or your bank if you would rather. Bays by Golfzon™, in 13,000 venues worldwide.
Timeline
An hour with the Virgin Active leadership this quarter. We will bring the reference design, the Golfzon™ pricing and the full model.
Johannes le Roux · johannes@getluckygolfclub.com · Cape Town
