Sport England has released further padel participation data which shows that 50,400 people played the game at least once last year.
Sport England – the non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – collaborates with Ipsos annually to produce reports (one for adults and another for children and young people) to measure the nation’s activity levels.
Last month, their research for the period November 2022 – November 2023 showed that 23,000 adults (aged over 16) had played padel ‘at least twice a month’ (these two playing sessions need to have reached a minimum threshold of 60 minutes).
Additional figures for annual participation have now been published which found a base of just over 50,000 adults taking part in padel ‘at least once in the year during the survey period ending November 2023.’
The highest participation rate was in south west England which is probably explained by the high concentration of indoor centres around Bristol. As expected, there is also high concentration of activity in London.
For comparison, pickleball players across England totalled 27,000 taking part in the sport at least once in the year with 20,000 playing at least twice in the month in which they were surveyed. This suggests that, although far more people had tried padel than pickleball last year, a much higher percentage of those people played pickleball more regularly.
Participants were also asked when during the year they played these sports. The data shows a spike in padel and pickleball participation in the last three months to November 2023, suggesting that as more courts open and the opportunity to play increases, so does participation.
Although there are no previous Sport England figures for padel and pickleball to benchmark themselves against, it is clear to any industry observer that participation in both emerging sports is increasing markedly. This contrasts with the four established racket sports, which have all shown consistent declines over the past seven years since the previous pre-pandemic Sport England research was published.
If there are fewer occasional racket sports players, there are fewer opportunities to convert them to more frequent players which can help boost public health.
Padel and pickleball are therefore both playing a critical role in introducing people to a racket sport for the first time and encouraging racket players to experiment with emerging sports.
Ray Algar, an adviser, researcher and analyst in the health and fitness industry (pictured below) through his Oxygen Consulting business, is using these figures as part of his forthcoming UK Padel Report.
Ray wants to speak to players, club operators and other industry stakeholders to tell the full story of padel’s impact on health and wellbeing and the sport and leisure industry in the UK.
Ray says: “I would enjoy speaking with organisations that would like to be associated with Oxygen Consulting’s forthcoming UK Padel Report, especially a padel centre operator, software provider and fitness equipment provider.
“This is a compelling opportunity to position your business as a key strategic supplier to the sport. Sponsorship means the full report can be made available free of charge rather than behind a paywall. It is beneficial that robust and independent research is available for everyone wanting to grow padel across the UK.
“How do you see these emerging racket sports helping to reinvigorate the established ones? What new business models are emerging to activate racket sports?”
To access the UK Padel Player survey click here.
