Methodology
How we know what we know.
Every figure Padel Sonar publishes carries one of four provenance labels. It is the whole point: you should never have to guess how confident we are.
- Measured
Taken directly from an official booking-system feed (the system of record).
- Observed
Derived from observed availability, listings or public records.
- Modelled
Inferred from public data and stated assumptions.
- Estimated
Low-confidence inference. Published only when clearly labelled.
Definitions
- Club
- A venue with at least one padel court. Counts distinguish bookable, mapped and affiliated venues so they can be reconciled with other sources.
- Court
- An individual padel court, classified as indoor, outdoor or covered.
- Demand index
- A 0–100 composite of first-party behaviour — searches, venue views and booking intent, including searches that find no availability (unmet demand) — normalised per area and daypart.
- Occupancy
- Sold hours divided by available hours where official feeds exist; otherwise derived from observed availability, and labelled accordingly.
- Supply gap
- Demand relative to local supply, expressed as a multiple. 3.1× means demand exceeds local supply roughly threefold.
- Provenance
- The label on every figure: measured, observed, modelled or estimated. It is how we know it, stated plainly.
Aggregation & privacy
We publish aggregates only. No club-identifiable and no player-level data ever leaves the platform. Demand and pricing cuts are suppressed below a minimum cohort, and we never publish a set small enough to identify a club. We never publish forward-pricing signals across competing clubs.
Sources
TrustPadel first-party data (the directory, demand signals, player community), public records (planning, property, demographics), and — increasingly — anonymous aggregate feeds contributed by booking platforms. Contributing partners are credited here.
FAQ
- How many padel courts are there in the UK?
- Padel Sonar tracks every UK padel club and court and publishes the current count in each weekly issue. Counts are transparently defined — bookable, mapped and affiliated — so they can be reconciled with other sources.
- How does Padel Sonar measure demand?
- Demand is derived from first-party behaviour on TrustPadel: searches, venue views and booking intent, including searches that find no availability (unmet demand), aggregated to area and daypart. It is measured from behaviour, not inferred from population.
- Where does the data come from?
- TrustPadel's first-party directory and demand signals, public records (planning, property and demographics), and anonymous aggregate feeds from contributing booking platforms. Every figure carries a provenance label.
- Is Padel Sonar free?
- Yes. The weekly briefing is free to read and to subscribe to.
- How often is Padel Sonar updated?
- A new issue is published every Tuesday, and the underlying data is refreshed continuously.
- Does Padel Sonar publish club-identifiable or player-level data?
- No. We publish aggregates only, and only above a minimum cohort size — never club-identifiable or player-level data, and never forward-pricing signals across competing clubs.
Padel Sonar is an independent publication produced by TrustPadel. We report our own data, and we publish this page so you can judge it.