Two years ago, we asked a simple question: What would happen if we removed just one barrier for female participation in sport?

We aren’t naive, nor do we have delusions of grandeur, Pitchbooking is a relatively small company, and our reach isn't comparable to what Sport England can achieve with the “This Girl Can” campaign, Sport Ireland's “Her Moves”, or any multitude of corporate initiatives (such as Nikes “So Win” and our team favourite Orange - la Compil des Bleues).

No excuses however, in the summer of 2023 we launched Game On! - our financial commitment to Female Sport. Our aim was to enable any sports facility or event operator to host events for Women and Girls, free of charge, from their Pitchbooking dashboard. By encouraging our Partners to host classes, camps & coaching sessions without charge on our platform, we hope to facilitate an increase in engagement in Sporting Events for women and girls at grassroots level.

Now with two years of impact in our rear view mirror, we thought this was a good time to review what effect we have had, where we haven’t lived up to our expectations and where we go from here.

The Reality of Women's Sports Participation

The stats don’t surprise us, they just made the issue harder to ignore. Credit to Women in sport for the headline figures:

43% of girls disengage from sport following primary school.
Only 41.6% of women participate in sport or physical activity at least once a month
More men participate in sports than women at almost every age group.

Barriers to participation aren’t just social or cultural. In many cases, they are logistical. Cost, access, and availability combined to create a persistent imbalance in who got time on the pitch (or court, or hall). Ask any grassroots women's sports team, there's a hierarchy to availability.

We felt we could take a meaningful step. One that is low-friction, measurable, and easy to scale for us. Game On! was our way of removing a single barrier, in the hope that more doors would open as a result. Luckily we had some willing partners in place, ready to host and run events under this initiative.

Forever thankful to:

The Irish Football Association

Elite Sports UK

Northern Ireland Women's Football Association

What Game On offered

Game On! was built into the existing Pitchbooking experience — no extra logins, no hidden settings, no convoluted rollouts. It allowed our partners to mark eligible events as “free to book” for women and girls, using the same interface they used every day.

The thinking was simple: if we made it easy enough to support female-led sessions, more of our partners would do it. And if we gave these events visibility and priority, more players would show up.

Turns out, that hunch was right.

The Numbers

Since launching Game On!, our platform has seen:

Over 100 sessions created specifically for women and girls
A 140% growth in female-specific events year on year
Events ranging from girls only training sessions and holiday camps to Women's Health specific seminars

It’s progress we’re proud of and a foundation we’re committed to building on.

We’re proud of the results - but not content.

Some numbers didn’t move the way we hoped. We had anticipated that more than 25 of our existing partners would have made use of our Game On! offering at this point. On top of this, too many sessions were one-offs, not ongoing recurring events throughout the calendar year.

We even had one Partner create an event, but took no bookings for it. So while overall participation grew, this showed us that that awareness alone isn’t enough to drive real engagement with these events.

Hands up, we underestimated how much effort it would take to promote the initiative inside some of our Partner organisations. This is something we’re actively working to address in how we support and onboard new partners to Game On! moving forward.

Practical Surprises

There were a few surprises we didn’t see coming.

Some facilities used Game On! as a conversation starter, a way to get buy-in for new female focused programmes internally. Others folded it into wider community engagement strategies, and some even used the participation data we store to access grant funding by showing the work they are undertaking to promote female participation.

We also learned that just because an event is free & accessible, doesn’t mean it will fill. The most successful sessions were the ones that had a champion, someone to spread the word, rally a group, and show up consistently.

Whats next for Game on

Game On! isn’t going anywhere.

We’re keeping the initiative live — and we’re doubling down on making it easier for partners to activate. That means clearer onboarding, better templates for promoting sessions, and in some cases, nudges built directly into the dashboard.

On top of this, we’re looking to grow it. Into more sports. More Partner facilities. We’re exploring new partnerships with Game On! as a central piece of our offering as well as ways to build even more flexibility into the platform to support different event types and audiences.

We also want to put more power in the hands of organisers, giving them tools to promote, manage, and expand these sessions with less effort and more impact.

How you can get involved

If you’re already using Pitchbooking, activating Game On! is quick and easy. And if you’re not with us yet but want to make your facility more accessible to women and girls get in touch, we’d love to help.

👉 For existing Partners, reach out to your Account Manager to get started.

👉 For new Partners - check out our overview of Game On!