Padel is growing rapidly in the UK with participation more than trebling last year, highlighting the success of the Lawn Tennis Association’s five year strategy so far in making the sport more accessible.
Launched in September 2024, LTA’s ‘Padel Opened Up’ strategy aims to double padel’s visibility from 20% to 40%, increase interest from 7.5% to 15% and boost participation significantly by 2026.
Their goals also include growing annual players from 129,000 to 400,000, monthly players from 65,000 to 200,000, expanding number of courts from 350 to 1,000, increasing coach and activator workforce from 40 to 70, and assisting 10 players to reach the top 200 and two to break into the top 100.
The LTA has announced this week that they have already surpassed several of their 2024-26 targets, with new data revealing by the end of 2024 just over 400,000 adults and juniors in Great Britain played padel at least once in the previous 12 months.
Participation has surged by over 2,500% since 2019, increasing from just 15,000 to 400,000 players at the end of 2024.
Steve Yeardley, LTA Padel Manager said: “Padel is growing exponentially, I think there are many reasons for this.
“The barrier to entry does not exist, and the smaller court makes it super sociable and engaging at all times.”
Awareness of padel among adults reached 43% of the population (approximately 23 million individuals) in the first quarter of 2025, representing a significant increase from 23% (12 million) during the same period in the previous year.
Running from 2024 to 2029, this new strategy is committed to opening up padel across the UK by enhancing infrastructure, diversifying its workforce, developing a solid performance pathway, and increasing nationwide participation and visibility to ensure longevity of the sport.
As of February 2025, the LTA has invested more than £6 million in the growth of padel across Britain, including £4.5 million towards the development of 80 courts at 42 venues – representing approximately 10% of all padel courts nationwide.
Updated figures also confirm that there are now 893 padel courts available across 300 venues in the UK.
The LTA is working closely with delivery managers, local authorities, charities, operators, and partners to continue to achieve their goals and target lower income threshold families, ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities to ensure everybody has equal opportunities to experience the joy of padel.
Yeardley said: “We have just done a recent padel operator survey which found 77% of our operators have community outreach programmes.
“These programmes are vital for inspiring new audiences to try padel.”
For example, newly-announced LTA Padel Ambassador and Comedian Jason Manford organised two days of padel coaching at PurePadel, Manchester for 70 local secondary school students just before the Christmas holidays.
The community activation, facilitated by the LTA aimed to get as many padel rackets in the children’s hands, get them playing and grow their interest for a sport.
In addition to this, the LTA is working with Manchester City Council and Manchester Active to produce a local padel plan for the city – the first of its kind in Great Britain.
This will support the development of local facilities, support for clubs and schools in the area, and build greater awareness and appetite for the sport in Manchester and build an infrastructure for the next generation to keep playing padel and staying active.
To ensure the sustainability of padel in the UK, the LTA are also placing a considerable focus on the development and diversification of the workforce to supplement the demand and develop coaching programmes for both children and adults to build a pipeline of future players.
Sarah Thomas, Coach Development Manager at Rocket Padel said: “Coaches and officials are the lifeblood of padel and play a key role in attracting and retaining people in the game, and currently there are not enough coaches to meet the high demand.”
Rocket Padel is currently tendering to become an LTA Workforce Development Centre (WDC) which will cater for coaches and officials working in both padel and tennis across a larger region.
Thomas said: “If our tender is successful, my role will be to engage coaches and officials with world class development and support opportunities, so they can fulfil their potential and deliver enjoyable on court experiences for all, whilst helping with the recruitment and the deployment of qualified officials and coaches.”
They will offer courses to train LTA Qualified coaches, who are safe to practise (in terms of insurance, safeguarding and first aid) to deliver coaching programmes.
These coaches will play a key role in creating a safe and superb padel environment for the next generation of players to thrive, thereby ensuring the long-term future of the game.
Rocket Padel CDC shares the LTA’s vision of opening tennis and padel up and transforming communities by making courses as welcoming and accessible for all, so that anyone can take their first steps on the LTA coaching qualification and officiating pathway.
Only 24% of LTA accredited tennis coaches are female, therefore, to bridge this gap, the LTA have introduced female only assistant coaching courses.
There are also mentoring and grant schemes for females, ethnically diverse individuals, and disabled people.
What makes padel so appealing for most people is the dynamic nature of the game and the camaraderie amongst players, regardless of age or ability, aided by the smaller court size and the doubles format.
George Carson, Head of Y1 Padel said: “The community vibe that the padel centres have fostered combined with the Playtomic app allow you to play with different people every week.
“You can be playing with a 20-year-old one week and a 60-year-old the next, you are always learning and adapting.”
Yeardley added: “We’re going to see a huge change in the landscape, I would not even say we are at the boom yet, I would say we are at the emerging stage of padel.
“At the back end of last year, we had 435 courts and now there is 893 courts so you can see we are virtually more than doubling each year.
“And I anticipate over the course of the next three to five years, that number will continue to grow and grow and grow!”
The future of padel in the UK looks promising and with this strategy the LTA is committed to ensuring it becomes a lasting and loved sport for generations to come.
Join the discussion