MATCHi, the world’s largest online booking platform for racket sports, has entered the UK sports and leisure market through a new partnership with Game4Padel.
Having made racket sports more accessible for thousands of venues and millions of players around the world, MATCHi has been chosen as Game4Padel’s official booking partner.
Founded in 2012, MATCHi quickly established itself as an industry leader, offering its comprehensive services to more than 1,400 venues in 15 countries, including some of the largest padel chains across the world. The Swedish scale-up business deploys a user-friendly online booking platform making it easy for players to book courts, pay for them, and find playing partners.
In MATCHi’s domestic market of Sweden, padel has grown exponentially in the last seven years, from 14 courts and 600 players in 2014, to 3,500 courts and more than half-a-million players in 2021. MATCHi has played a key role in facilitating that growth.
Game4Padel is anticipating a similar rate of growth in the UK over the next decade. We plan to cement our position as the dominant player in the market by building up to 300 new courts within the next five years. It was imperative that we find the best partner to provide user-friendly tech.
Vincent Hivert, Growth & Participation Director at Game4Padel, said:
“We have very ambitious plans to grow both the game of padel and our business over the next decade and beyond. Having a reliable partner by our side will be crucial to our ability to do so, and we feel confident that we’ve found that in MATCHi, not least because the team there has experienced this journey before in the Swedish market and elsewhere. The UK has a population six times the size of Sweden’s, so the opportunity here is clear.
“Padel is an accessible, exciting and sociable game, and we believe it is crucial that the digital experience matches the on-court experience. The partnership with MATCHi will allow all padel players to book courts and padel activities at Game4Padel venues in their area quickly and easily. It is an exciting time for Game4Padel, and we hope to reach more players thanks to this agreement with MATCHi.”
Johan Rogebrant, Chief Growth Officer at MATCHi, said: “This is a really exciting new partnership for us and a significant milestone as we enter the UK market. The UK has been a priority for us as we see great potential for it to be the next Sweden in terms of padel participation and venues, and the growth we’ve seen lately is testament to that. With the help of an industry leader and highly knowledgeable partner like Game4Padel by our side, we aim to take the padel scene in the UK to new heights.”