Making it easier to find local sports clubs

Over the last eight years, the OpenActive data standard has allowed physical activity providers to publish information about time-based events, such as instructor-led classes or facility time slots. This has led to over 10 million activities being published monthly.

However, as the focus was strictly on time-based activities, organisations like community groups or clubs – who are interested in general visibility rather than driving traffic to specific slots – could not previously align with the standard and be pulled into club finders.

The latest release addresses this by allowing organisations to publish an OpenActive feed using just four properties:

• Entity type: Whether it is an organisation or a person
• Name: The organisation’s or club’s name
• Activities: The names of the physical activities offered
• Address: The organisation’s main physical address

The primary benefits of publishing this open data for an organisation or club include:

• Increased visibility: Greater exposure across platforms, directories, and search engines without the need to provide data to the individual services
• Healthcare signposting: the option for healthcare professionals at NHS GP practices and neighborhood health centers to signpost patients to your clubs.
• Brand accuracy: ensuring contact details and branding are consistent and accurate wherever they appear. 

More details on the required properties and guidance on how to publish can be found in this document.