Padel: The UK’s Fastest Rising Racket Sport and the Grassroots Gap

Despite the significant growth in the popularity of padel across the UK, the first ever Grassroots Gap Report from the racket sports experts at PDH Sports reveals financial barriers to entry for new players, a postcode lottery of access despite universal demand, and a lack of funding to develop athletes at a professional level.

This report comes as the International Padel Federation (FIP) has made Olympic recognition a priority for the body, and analyses many of the key factors propelling the success of the sport globally - such as governmental funding, demand and supply, and the personal cost of participation - and how exactly the UK fits within that.

Demand for courts drastically outweighs player access

Since 2019, padel has dramatically grown in popularity and quickly become the fastest rising racket sport in the UK. Figures from the UK’s padel governing body, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), show that player numbers have gone from 15,000 in 2019, to over one million in May 2026.

Despite more than a million people playing padel across the country, there are currently just over 1,800 padel courts throughout the UK, highlighting a massive gap between demand and access. This gap is causing waiting times for bookings to surge and adding pressure on local councils and investors to quickly meet demand, if we are to match the level of infrastructure seen across Europe and America.

The UK is second only to the USA when it comes to the volume of Google searches players are making for available courts to hire, versus the number of actual padel courts available. This demonstrates how demand to play the sport is growing faster than the infrastructure can keep up with, and puts into perspective how far behind meeting this demand the UK is compared to the market leaders – Argentina and Spain.

In fact, for the UK to bridge the gap in demand and meet similar levels to those seen in Spain, the UK would need to build an additional 33,000 courts – an almost 19 x increase in current UK court supply.

• Spain's ratio: 97,710 searches ÷ 17,300 courts = 5.649 searches per court
• UK's ratio: 195,590 ÷ 1,825 courts = 107.172 searches per court
• Courts needed to match Spain's ratio: 195,590 ÷ 5.649 ≈ 34,624 courts
• Additional courts required: 34,624 − 1,825 ≈ 32,799 more courts

Meeting the enormous demand through additional infrastructure will be integral if the UK intends to meet the court-to-population ratio set by Spain while the popularity of the sport still demands it.

This is a view shared by Pete Mills, Sales Director at PDH Sports:

“The biggest challenge and point of ‘catching up’ the UK has ahead of it compared to the powerhouses like Spain and Argentina, will be the infrastructure. If you watch most major padel events, semi or event quarter finals of P1s are pretty much exclusively made up of Spanish or Argentinian players. The challenge for the UK will be to build a base of players, facilities and coaches who can deliver the level to compete with the top players.”

Spain has recognised padel as a professional sport for over 30 years, leading it - alongside Argentina - to have the highest proportion of professional players currently listed in the top 100 player rankings. If the UK wants to compete at a professional level, significant plans to improve access to courts by those outside of the UK's more affluent regions need to be actioned to close the grassroots gap.

Decreasing costs to players and increasing financial investment

Financial stability is always a major factor in the long-term success of a sport, and padel is no different. The analysis shows there are two significant financial pressures affecting the growth of padel in the UK: the personal cost to the players, and the amount of funding and investment from governing bodies.

Data shows us that the UK is the fourth most expensive country in the world to book a padel court, with sessions costing an average of £39 per game (shared by up to four players). British players are paying 86% more than the world leaders – Spain – where an average court costs just €24/£21 to book.

The table below highlights the current costs for booking a padel court across 13 markets, with the UK currently sitting below only France, Italy and the USA, in terms of direct cost of participation:

Long waiting times to play, combined with booking fees of £39 per court and the disproportionate access to courts held by wealthier postcodes all detract from the accessibility of padel to UK players nationwide, especially at the amateur and grassroots level.

Increasing financial investment for padel in the UK

Financial investment in padel, both nationally and at a regional level, is where the most urgency lies if the UK is to bridge the ever-increasing grassroots gap.

The 2024 to 2025 Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, funded by the Government’s Department of Culture, Media, and Sport, completely omitted padel from funding, instead directing the majority to the Football Foundation - a clear demonstration that the UK Government is yet to grasp the appeal of padel at a hobbyist, amateur, and professional level.

Similarly, analysis of Sport England’s own grant data showed that between 2020 and 2025, padel received £7.69 million in funding (£7.5m from grants issued by the Lawn Tennis Association and £193,000 to grassroots clubs) spread across an average of 271,000 players.

This level of funding is significantly lower than what was funnelled into the three other main racket sports in the UK – squash, tennis, and badminton. Squash was the second-lowest funded racket sport but received more than £12million in funding across around 1.5million players – a gap of around £5million between the two sports.

The funding allocation per player presents a different picture though. The Active Lives Survey from Sport England puts padel’s player numbers at almost 280,000, making padel's grant of £28.41 per participant more than three times that of tennis (£7.93), and more than four times that of badminton (£6.64).

However, as of May 2026, the LTA reported that padel participation has passed one million players, bringing the grant figure per player closer to that of tennis. This has prompted government action, with the UK Government committing £3 million across the 2026/27 financial year to cover padel and tennis facilities - funding that is expected to deliver around three projects nationally.

This first step towards widening access and narrowing the financial gap also marks the first dedicated public investment of its kind. Though, three facilities set against a player base of more than a million illustrates the scale of the accessibility gap still to be closed.

Pete Mills commented on these barriers saying:

“There are challenges with affordability and availability at the moment, but as more courts open, I would expect to see lower prices and more availability – similar to Spain! As the sport grows and its stars become household names it will continue to drive opportunity and inspiration at all levels.”

Regional investment is disproportionately spread

Not only does the analysis reveal a clear postcode lottery when it comes to access to courts and facilities, but the split of regional investment and funding streams also highlights inequality, with 68% of all regional funding going to London & the South East.

With grassroots funding historically lower in regions such as the North East, South West and East Midlands, the £3 million the UK Government has committed across the 2026/27 financial year for covered padel and tennis facilities risks reinforcing current difficulties in accessing the sport outside of wealthy neighbourhoods. If that imbalance persists, opportunities for players to train and progress to a professional level outside of a limited pool of the UK’s players will remain limited.

Access to padel courts is a postcode lottery in the UK

The analysis further highlights that public funding for racket sports is distributed significantly less evenly than participation and club growth across the country.

Among the 485 padel clubs across England, London sees the highest level of club access relative to its population, with 10.8 clubs per million people, while the North East has the lowest, at 5.1 clubs per million. This represents a disparity of approximately two to one. However, the imbalance in grant funding is considerably greater, with the gap between the highest- and lowest-funded regions approaching twenty to one.

The East Midlands presents the clearest opportunity for targeted development, recording both the lowest funding per head in England and the second-lowest number of clubs relative to population size.

Overall, the findings suggest that padel’s growth outside the South East has largely taken place without equivalent levels of public support, instead being driven by private operators and existing clubs converting available court space.

Paul Hargrave, professional squash player and founder of PDHsports.com came up through Derbyshire clubs, achieving national ranking from junior level.

"PDH Sports is based in Derby, in the heart of the East Midlands, and this data highlights something we already feel on the ground. Our own region receives just £17,829 in racket sports funding per 100,000 people, the lowest of any English region, while the South East receives almost twenty times that.

“But padel's growth isn't a London and South East story, it's growing everywhere, including right here at home, but the funding path hasn't caught up with where people actually want to play. If grassroots access is going to mean anything, it can't keep depending on which region you happen to be based in."

The professional opportunities for Padel in the UK

Spain has the largest number of professional padel players in the world, according to the International Padel Federation rankings. More than two thirds of the current 198 ranked players are Spanish (128), half of the remaining players are Argentinian (33), while the UK has just two professional players in the top FIP rankings – one of which is Catherine Rose, ranked 91:

Given the unprecedented explosion of padel’s popularity, having British players competing at the standard set by players from countries with a more developed padel program is something that sets a standard for future generations of players to build upon.

The 2025 UK Padel National Schools U18 Championships saw a record number of participants turn out with 132 young players taking part in the event, and padel competitions specifically for the youth demographic are increasing in line with the sport’s popularity, setting big expectations for the 2026 U18 Championships in October.

Pete Mills says that a proven pathway developing professional talent is to increase youth participation by including racket sports in the school curriculum:

“A lot of countries have attributed success at a professional level to making sports part of the school curriculum. Look at French badminton, three individual World champions plus World team championships runners up in 2026 – 10 years ago they certainly wouldn’t have been considered the international powerhouse they are now!

“GB have shown they can compete at the top levels but building a network, programme and opportunities for young players to develop their padel skills from a young age will be key to producing a programme that can repeatedly deliver in years to come.”

Does padel have gaps in participant diversity?

The analysis also highlights gender and disability disparities within padel clubs at hobbyist, amateur, and professional level across the UK – though they are not exclusive to British clubs. Significant gender participation gaps exist globally.

LTA and FIP data indicate that women players account for only 30% of UK padel participants, while just 28% of top players in leading countries like Spain and Argentina are women. In response to these gender imbalances, the LTA launched the "She Rallies" initiative, aiming to enhance gender equity in padel and boost involvement in female-specific competitions.

Lisa Hargrave, Operations Director at PDH Sports said:

"Gender parity in padel isn't a UK-specific problem we can solve in isolation, it's baked into the sport globally, and needs fighting from the inside out.

“Ring-fenced events and sessions for women and girls and competition pathways that start right at junior level aren't 'nice to haves', they're the difference between someone picking up a racket once and someone sticking with the sport for life.

"Padel has grown fast in the UK, but growth without inclusive design just means we're building the same barriers into new venues.”

The LTA and Sport England launched the Open Court Programme for clubs to give players with disabilities and impairments more opportunities to play padel and tennis in their local communities. This comes as reports have found that most padel courts are too narrow for wheelchair users to access and have inaccessible toilets and bathroom facilities.

Lisa adds:

“Court spacing, changing facilities, and clear accessibility commitments with actual timelines all need to be part of the conversation from day one for any new club, not an afterthought raised after someone's turned up and found they can't access the court.

"The appeal of padel has always been that it's easier to pick up than tennis or squash. There’s a low barrier to entry; it’s a sociable game and fast to learn. That promise only holds if it's genuinely true for everyone, not just the players the game has traditionally been built around."

For British clubs to develop and foster elite professional talent - particularly if padel achieves Olympic status - the UK must expand diversity programs and broaden grassroots access for aspiring players.

Will padel become an Olympic sport, and can GB be represented?

One of the three current missions laid out by the FIP includes having padel recognised as an Olympic sport alongside tennis, badminton, table tennis and (as of the upcoming 2028 Olympic games) squash.

Should that become a reality, the analysis indicates that GB participation is highly unlikely. As of the racket sports currently funded by UK Sport (to support training for Olympic athletes) only one racket sport has achieved a medal for Team GB (Bronze in badminton in 2016). Not only that but Badminton has the second-highest cost per medal of all 34 sports UK Sport financially supports, at over £15million per medal, which might impact the likelihood of padel receiving public investment for Olympic participation.

Private investment in padel tells a different story. Estimates suggest the sport already generates £11.1 million per year in UK tournament prize money alone - more than half of badminton's £16.7 million and nearly double squash's £6.7 million - despite having no formal UK Sport programme nor Olympic recognition.

Pete Mills shares his thoughts on the Olympic aspirations for padel:

“The rapid rise of padel globally, particularly with the attention in the media and the fact it doesn’t require a huge number of athletes will be very appealing for the Olympics. I [feel] that we need to have a base of players who have started playing padel at a young age so they can develop over time. The more the sport can be visible the better. If the sport can generate interest at every level, it sets the foundation for future generations to be engaged with the sport.

“[Regarding private and public funding] I think it comes hand in hand with the growth of the sport. I personally don’t believe a majority of players start a sport because of the potential monetary gain, it may define if they continue at a professional level or it is sustainable, but as the sport continues to grow and the global reach of the sport continues to rise it will likely increase the prize pots significantly in the coming years.”

It’s time to start closing the grassroots gap in the UK

Padel’s appeal is gaining traction daily and its recognition as a sport with long term professional pathways is on the horizon. But before that can happen, many cultural and infrastructural changes must be addressed.

The grassroots gap is evident on the ground through high booking fees, long wait times due to overdemand, and the postcode lottery of padel court availability, while funding restrictions are leaving padel clubs unable to meet demand as quickly as needed to keep interest in the sport high.

But there is light on the horizon. The government has committed extra funding for both padel and tennis, padel courts are being privately funded in areas with high demand, and player numbers continue to grow – including young players with professional aspirations.

In closing, Pete Mills says:

“I think padel’s biggest strength is the ability to be able to play and enjoy the game pretty much instantly from starting - it provides so many people with opportunity to exercise, socialise and enjoy a racket sport from day one.

Premier Padel London will hopefully be a catalyst to drive more professional events to the UK, giving more access to live padel, and inspiring more players.”

To learn more about padel read our in-depth guides or get in touch with our Padel Ambassadors.

Players can also visit our facility in Derby where our team of padel experts will help you find all the gear to help you play at your best, while time on our demo Padel court will get you game ready ahead of booking a court near to you.