Padel’s Growth in the UK: At What Price?

This article was first published in Physical Activity Facilities Magazine, August 2025, and has been adapted for the Oxygen Consulting blog.

Physical activity, in all its different forms, can profoundly impact health and wellbeing. Yet, many people will relate to the challenge of maintaining a regular routine when life’s seemingly more urgent priorities take over. Some activity may sometimes feel more like a chore than a joy, which is why the rapid padel growth in the UK is so compelling. I am referring to the explosive interest in padel, a sociable, hybrid racquet sport that is now growing rapidly across the nation.

Padel, along with pickleball, has emerged at a time when participation in traditional racket sports is flatlining or declining. Sport England and Ipsos have recently published their latest Active Lives data, which confirms this trend. Padel and pickleball were only added to the Active Lives dataset in 2023, so longer-term comparisons are not yet possible. However, participation in padel has increased nearly fivefold in England in one year. So padel is emerging at an opportune moment, but if this sport is to play a significant role in helping people to become and remain more active, then we need to care about where padel venues are being built and how the sport is priced.

Racket Sports Participation in England (Played at least once in the past year)
Sport	2016	2024	Change since 2016	Average Annual Change since 2016 (%)
Tennis	3,038,600	2,928,000	(-110,600)	(-0.4)
Badminton	3,088,000	2,871,900	(-216,100)	(-o.9)
Table Tennis	2,703,100	2,319,800	(-383,300)	(-1.9)
Squash	1,214,900	956,200	(-258,700)	(-2.9)
Padel	n/a	111,700 (2023: 23,000	n/a	n/a
Pickleball	n/a	75,700 (2023: 20,000)	n/a	n/a

Table: Racket Sports Participation in England for the year ending November 2024. Source: Sport England/Ipsos Active Lives

What the UK Padel Report Reveals: Joyful Sport, Unequal Access

Over the past year, I have conducted research into padel, culminating in the recent launch of the UK Padel Report. The report was created to provide a UK-specific lens on the sport’s growth, offer strategic guidance to stakeholders, and explore padel’s potential to contribute to the physical activity and public health agenda

Through an extensive survey of players, it became clear that men and women are primarily driven by intrinsic motivations, with interest/enjoyment, and competence as key factors. The inherent joy of padel shines through, and this is very powerful in fostering the long-term retention of players, which is good for club and country. However, padel infrastructure, both indoors and outdoors, is relatively expensive. The UK Padel Report’s audit of padel courts confirmed that 43% were indoors or covered outdoor courts, which attract a higher court price. Indoor and outdoor covered padel courts offer a better playing experience, especially during the winter or on rainy days, but a single outdoor canopied court costs at least £120,000, excluding VAT and other essential projects costs. This capital intensity is directly influencing pricing. With the sport currently led by private, for-profit operators, the cost of play is often high. One hour of padel can exceed the price of a whole month’s gym membership — just £22 at PureGym in the South East of England. Without a shift and blend in padel offerings, access may skew towards high-income households.

It is important to remember that the consumers are not just comparing different padel operators.
Consumers are increasingly applying ‘arena thinking’ when choosing how and where to be active. For the exercising public, decisions are influenced not just by passion or convenience, but by value — how far a pound stretches in pursuit of wellbeing. Cost-conscious consumers may weigh the appeal of one hour of padel against a full month of gym access or free alternatives such as Parkrun. The remarkable rise of budget gyms over the past 19 years demonstrates that when prices are significantly lowered, it can unlock a large new audience, especially among previously inactive groups. This strategic shift is critical to understand if padel is to scale inclusively and sustainably.

In the table below, you will see the pricing policy for the UK’s leading padel operators. However, many games extend to 90 or even 120 minutes, meaning that the per-person cost can vary significantly depending on booked court time. For reference, David Lloyd Leisure is the country’s largest padel operator by courts and venues, but these courts are only available to existing members and are therefore excluded from the table.

What is a Fair Price For Padel?

Determining what constitutes a ‘fair’ price for one hour of padel is a complex and ongoing discussion, particularly as the sport grapples with a growing perception of being expensive. With two-thirds of UK padel bookings on the market-leading Playtomic platform lasting 90 minutes, and many players wishing to participate multiple times a week, high prices risk limiting broad engagement. Without strategic and targeted  policies, padel may begin to resemble an exclusionary rather than inclusive sport, appealing to the few, rather than the many. Therefore, is the current pricing model optimised for the long-term and broad growth of padel, or does it primarily cater to those who are already active, willing and able to pay? How can we develop different pricing models to attract less active and less affluent individuals?

Padel Venue Distribution Across Deprivation Levels in England

My research discovered that padel venues in England are disproportionately concentrated in more affluent areas based on The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Eighteen per cent of venues are located in decile 10 (the most affluent), while only 3% are found in decile 1 (the most deprived). This means padel provision in the wealthiest areas is 6.5 times greater than in the most deprived communities, highlighting a significant access gap. The IMD ranks geographical areas based on socio-economic deprivation. It combines data from income, employment, education, health, crime, housing, and the living environment to provide a comprehensive picture of deprivation. The figure illustrates how the 215 padel venues (not individual courts) are distributed across these IMD deciles, reinforcing the sport’s current imbalance in accessibility. The LTA has recognised this inequality and has recently announced an important change to its Quick Access Loan Scheme, which allows not-for-profit organisations to apply for padel infrastructure funding. Venues in IMD deciles 1-4 are now eligible for 50% cheaper loan finance, meaning 2.5% instead of 5%.

 

Reimagining Padel Infrastructure

Padel did not emerge from premium leisure centres or commercial wellness brands. It was born in Mexico in 1969 as a simple, concrete-rendered court, enclosed by solid walls. As the sport spread across Latin America, these low-cost courts popped up across towns and cities, proving that what truly matters is not the best and most expensive infrastructure solution but instead pragmatic, ‘good enough’ courts that could activate and repurpose a myriad of eclectic community spaces. This ethos was mirrored in the UK’s first public-facing padel court, opened in 1998 at Rye Lawn Tennis Club. It featured rendered block walls, not the sleek tempered glass and steel now synonymous with the sport’s contemporary image. And yet, that court achieved its goal: it allowed people to discover and enjoy a new kind of sociable, accessible racket sport. The Rye padel court is still used daily 27 years after its installation.

As padel expands across the UK, the temptation is to build only the “gold standard” — premium indoor courts in expensive warehouses with high fixed costs that must be passed on to players. But this risks pricing out more purpose-driven operators and less affluent players. What is needed instead is a blended infrastructure model using a good, better, best approach, along with temporary and pop-up courts that can rapidly activate an area as a prelude to longer-term solutions. This way, a range of different stakeholders can create courts that are “good enough” and democratise the sport. This thinking aligns with Sport England’s place-based approach, which recognises that physical activity infrastructure must be designed around the needs of less active and less affluent communities. By prioritising affordability and reimagining underused space, padel can become part of a broader movement to reduce health inequalities and activate local environments.

How can we bring down the price of padel?

Recently, I was sharing preliminary findings from the UK Padel Report with members of the public health team at Brighton and Hove City Council. We were discussing the suitability of a community-oriented padel model priced at £30 per hour, so £7.50 per person for a four-player game. Their response was that even this price point would exclude many of the households they were trying to reach. In their view, the unlocking price-point for accessible padel was closer to £4 per person. However, headline pricing alone does not necessarily deliver inclusion. Affordability must be accompanied by protected time slots which are dedicated, subsidised sessions for underserved groups, along with deliberate outreach to persistently inactive people. It is not enough to build padel courts and expect diverse uptake.

Padel on Prescription

There is a growing interest in how the NHS and the sport and fitness sector can converge through models like social prescribing and GP referral. For these partnerships to thrive, any physical activity intervention must be seen as both effective and cost-efficient. This raises an important question for padel: can it demonstrate sufficient health and social value at its current national average hourly price point of £35, or does it need a significantly lower price point to be considered a feasible public health referral option?

Who Pays for Inclusive Padel?

To date, padel’s growth has mainly been financed by the private sector. This has increased speed and visibility, but not always inclusivity or access to underserved communities. One notable exception is the Lawn Tennis Association’s Quick Access Loan Scheme, which has supported the installation of around 100 padel courts across Great Britain.

Looking ahead, the corporate sector could become a key partner in creating more equitable access. A useful precedent is the Barclays–LTA partnership, which aims to get 150,000 more people playing tennis for free across Great Britain. Their programme supports access to equipment, coaching, and community leagues in public parks — helping to remove both financial and psychological barriers to participation.

Could a similar model be applied to padel? With the right partnership approach, brands could co-fund local venues, underwrite free or low-cost sessions, and help reposition padel as a social, health-enhancing activity accessible to all and not just to those able to pay the equivalent of a month’s gym membership for a single hour of play.

From Insight to Action: Launching Ikigai Padel

As my focus pivots from research to project implementation, I have launched Ikigai Padel, a Community Interest Company committed to creating inclusive and affordable padel experiences. I am also advising organisations on designing projects with a strong social purpose that introduce the sport to a wider range of communities. However, if we are serious about integrating padel into parks, schools, housing estates, and other public spaces, then the funding sources need to expand. Could corporate partnerships, charitable foundations, NHS-linked social prescribing, Section 106 agreements and Community Infrastructure Levy help unlock lower-cost access?

Build for All — Not Just the Affluent Few

Padel’s rise in the UK is undeniable, but the more intentional work lies ahead in shaping what kind of sport it becomes and for whom. If we follow the familiar path of launching only in affluent postcodes, we risk locking in long-term inequality. Instead, we need to design for public good from the outset. Padel has the potential to be more than just popular; it can also become purposeful, arriving at a time when the nation is ready to embrace new racket sports.

If we could step into the future, what might UK padel look like in a generation or 30 years from now? Has this infectious sociable pursuit become deeply embedded far and wide across our national sporting landscape?

The original version of this article that appeared in Physical Facilities Magazine can be read here

About the author

Ray Algar is the founder of Oxygen Consulting and author of the UK Padel Report. He advises organisations on the strategic development of padel in the UK and is the founder of Ikigai Padel, a community interest company focused on creating accessible padel venues. His work sits at the intersection of sport, community impact and public health. The UK Padel Report can be purchased for £250, plus VAT at this link