The pay and play programme, which focused on providing a legacy after London 2012, has also reached its landmark 500th leisure facility in England - exceeding the milestone four years ahead of schedule, with more than 200 venues coming onboard since the Olympics.

"The No Strings Badminton programme has gone from a gem of an idea to an innovative and sector leading leisure activity that encapsulates everything that is great and good about recreational badminton for all ages and abilities," Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy (pictured top, right) said.

"It has proven to be both a major success for our partners and a new set of loyal, social players will continue to be pivotal to our participation plans over the next four year funding cycle.

"Not only that but this success has paved the way by providing the foundations needed to work with leisure operators on an even wider scale through the launch of our new Play Badminton framework that will see Badminton England working in partnership with over 800 leisure facilities by October 2014, delivering over 160,000 additional participants playing badminton on a regular basis."


Since the initiative's launch in September 2010, players have hit courts more than 690,000 times - enough to fill the London 2012 Olympic Stadium seven-and-a-half times over - and participated in more than 55,750 weekly sessions, equating to more than 353 million shots being played.

The programme now boasts eight major leisure operators in the local delivery network alongside community trusts, education institutes, local authorities and independent leisure providers.

"Although 15.5 million people are now playing sport every week in England, sports bodies need to continue to work hard to offer fun and engaging programmes if numbers are to continue to rise," Sport England director of sport Lisa O'Keefe added.

"I am delighted that No Strings Badminton is going from strength to strength due to the way in which Badminton England is listening to consumers and offering what they want from sport."

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