Padel in the UK and Ireland: how to start and what it costs
Padel reached Britain and Ireland later than it reached southern Europe, and then spread quickly through clubs that added courts next to their tennis and squash facilities. This is what the sport looks like here now: where you play, how to start without owning anything, what a racket costs and how delivery from our workshop reaches you.
Written byTeam Custom Your Padel
Ten years ago, explaining padel in Britain or Ireland meant explaining the walls, then the underarm serve, then why it is not just small tennis. That conversation is mostly over. Courts have gone up at tennis clubs, at leisure centres and at venues built for padel alone, and a Saturday morning booking is now an ordinary thing to have in the diary.
If you are starting from scratch, what is padel covers the court, the glass and the basic idea. This guide is about how the sport works here in practice.
How it grew here
Padel arrived here long after it had become ordinary in Spain, and the growth since has come mostly from existing clubs. A tennis club with a tired court has an obvious conversion available: two padel courts fit where one tennis court was, they need four players instead of two, and beginners manage a decent rally within an hour.
In Britain the sport sits under the LTA, the same governing body as tennis, which is much of why the courts have appeared at tennis clubs. Alongside that, a commercial side has grown up: standalone padel centres, usually indoors or under cover, which is the practical answer to the weather here.
Where you play
- Tennis and racket clubs. Usually the cheapest option if you are already a member, and the easiest place to find people at your level.
- Dedicated padel centres. Pay and play, booked through an app, no membership needed. Typically indoor or covered, open late.
- Leisure centres and sports complexes. Increasingly common, with a court or two added alongside the existing facilities.
Availability still varies sharply by region, so a court booking app is the quickest way to see what is actually near you.
How to start
You need four people, a court and rackets. The first two are a booking. The third you can hire at almost any venue, which is what most people do for their first handful of sessions.
The scoring is the same as tennis, so if you have ever watched Wimbledon you already know it. The differences are the underarm serve, the walls being in play and the fact that the ball can go out through the side opening. Twenty minutes of play sorts most of that out, and the detail is in padel rules and scoring.
Most venues run beginner sessions or a social format such as an americano, where you rotate partners through short matches. That is the fastest way in if you do not already have three other people to play with.
What a racket costs
Once you are playing weekly, hiring gets old. A padel racket costs between €40 and €350. Entry level sits around €40 to €90, often with a fibreglass face; the mid-range runs €90 to €180, with a carbon face and an EVA core; above €180 you are paying for stiffer grades of carbon and for the brand. The brackets are set out in what does a padel racket cost, and padel racket for beginners explains why the most expensive option is rarely the right first one.
Our own rackets sit in the middle bracket: a round shape with a 3K carbon face and an EVA foam core, 360 grams, with a 12-month warranty. Blank costs €79.99, a printed face €99.99 and Full Custom, face and side, €119.99, all including VAT. Shape, weight and balance matter more than price, which is the subject of how to choose a padel racket.
Ordering from us in the UK and Ireland
We finish every racket by hand in our workshop in the Netherlands and ship across Europe with DHL. Finishing takes 7 days and transit at most 3 days, so around ten days from order to door. Shipping is €17.95 to the United Kingdom and €16.95 to Ireland, shown separately at checkout. All our prices are in euros.
One difference between the two. Ireland is inside the EU, so the price you pay at checkout is the price in full. The United Kingdom is not in the EU, so a parcel crosses a customs border and DHL may ask for import duties and local VAT before handing it over. Those charges are set by the destination country and are not included in our price. The country by country detail is in custom padel racket delivery across Europe.
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