News & Insights

Our Financial Commitment to Women's and Girls' Sport - Two years On

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.

Why Schools Like Horndean Are Ditching Paper Diaries for Pitchbooking

Horndean Technology College is a thriving educational institution that takes pride in its top-tier sports facilities. These facilities are not only used by pupils but are also available to the wider community. At the heart of this operation is the dedicated Sports Facilities and Sports Bookings Manager, Stuart Martin, who ensures everything runs smoothly—from maintenance and facility upkeep to community bookings, funding applications, and daily operations at the on-site Sports Café.

Generating regular, consistent booking volume with less hassle: A testimonial from Salt Hill Football

Managing a busy sports facility isn’t easy—especially when you're juggling phone calls, spreadsheets, and a packed weekly calendar. We caught up with Hayley Randell, Facilities Manager at Salt Hill Football, to hear how Pitchbooking has helped streamline their operations and improve both staff and customer experience.

Pitchbooking Score Big by Renewing Partnership with Derbyshire FA

For any sporting body, the smooth operation of events and courses is paramount. [Derbyshire County Football Association](https://www.derbyshirefa.com/) understands this well, serving as the backbone for football development and regulation within the region. To further enhance their efficiency and user experience, Derbyshire FA has teamed up with Pitchbooking for another two years, to help deliver their crucial events.

The Ultimate Guide to Block Bookings for Sports Facilities

Unlike one-off or casual reservations, block bookings provide guaranteed, repeatable, forecastable income and help establish a predictable and efficient facility schedule. At Pitchbooking's top performing partner facilities, block bookings can account for as much as 85% of total usage during peak times.

Why FAREPlay Stepford Recommends Pitchbooking for Every Sports Facility

Located in Glasgow east and serving Greater Glasgow, FAREPlay Stepford operates as a community sports and leisure facility using a social enterprise model (business with a social purpose). They cater for all sections of the community providing opportunities for children, young people, and adults to play, exercise, develop, and socialise. Their competitive advantage is the FIFA approved turf, LED floodlighting, state of the art pitch surrounds and external viewing gallery which all combined add up to an unbelievable footballing experience for all ages. With 5-a-side, 7-a-side and 11-a-side pitches, offering the most complete footballing experience in Glasgow.

Understanding Booking Lead Times: The Key to Optimising Sports Facility Management

Every Sports Facility Management Team we speak to are fully aware of what booking slots are the most popular, across all their facilities. Typically, in the UK, for most sports, 7pm - 10pm, Monday to Thursday sees the highest utilisation rates, with a special mention to 10am - 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays for formal grassroots sports focused facilities. However, this is only half the picture when it comes to a true understanding of what drives utilisation. An aspect that fewer Sports Facility Management Teams can elaborate on is *when* bookings for these facilities are made. **To understand bookings across your facilities, you should understand the lead time between when bookings are made, and when the bookings actually take place.**

Bury FC’s Winning Strategy: Seamless Bookings with Pitchbooking

Bury Football Club is an English association football club based in Lancashire since its inception in 1885. Two-time FA Cup winners at the turn of the 20th Century, they plied their trade within the English Football League from 1894 until 2019, when financial mismanagement resulted in expulsion from the EFL. With the club and ground now pieced back together, they are again one and compete in the North West Counties Football League, Step 9 of the football pyramid. Nicknamed the ‘Shakers’, their home Gigg Lane is a 12,000 seater stadium. We spoke with Casey Lynchey, Community Development Officer at Bury FC about partnering with Pitchbooking to handle their community bookings.

The Overlooked Metric to Maximise Revenue at your Sports Facility - How to Calculate your Late Cancellation Rate (LCR)

For commercially minded Sports Facilities, success isn’t just about a blocked out calendar — it’s about ensuring those bookings actually happen. One key metric that often gets overlooked? Your Late Cancellation Rate (LCR). N.B. This article is an expansion on a previous topic we have covered before, [“The Pitchbooking Guide to Reducing Late Cancellations and No-Shows”](https://pitchbooking.com/blog/reducing-cancellations-no-shows-lost-payment-sports-facilities).

Managing Sports Events Made Simple: A testimonial from Niall Morgan and Precision Goalkeeping

Pitchbooking partnered with Precision Goalkeeping Experience Camps this year as the online booking software for their Ultimate GAA Goalkeeper Coaching Day. In this video testimonial, we spoke in depth with Tyrone GAA Goalkeeper Niall Morgan about the camp, what the attendees could expect, and of course how Pitchbooking helped streamline the bookings and payments admin for the organisers. Coaches on the day included: 🌟 Niall Morgan - Tyrone 🌟 Dr. Donal Hughes - Mayo 🌟 Abby Shiels - Dublin 🌟 Shane Ryan - Kerry 🌟 Laura Brennan - Mayo 🌟 Ódhran Lynch - Derry