LONDON, UK – JANUARY 31, 2023 – Legend, a leading leisure management software for UK leisure operators under Xplor Technologies, and imin, a leisure middleware platform and leading contributor to OpenActive, has today announced an industry-first OpenActive integration to better connect leisure providers and consumers. The Legend-imin collaboration will ultimately make it even easier for people to find and book physical activities and is now available to all public and private sector leisure operator customers.

Originally founded by imin in 2015, OpenActive is a community-led initiative for the sport and physical activity sector, designed to make finding and booking physical activities online as easy as finding and booking a hotel room. To help combat habitual inactivity, OpenActive has created a standard way of openly sharing information about physical activities, using technology and approaches seen in other sectors. Today, OpenActive receives funding from Sport England[1], while the Open Data Institute[2] helps to maintain its core infrastructure.

While the UK’s leisure industry is gradually building back to pre-pandemic levels, government data shows that over 23% of the population in England remain physically inactive.[3] Physical inactivity is now linked to 1 in 6 deaths in the UK and is estimated to cost the UK £7.4 billion annually (including £0.9 billion to the NHS alone).[4]

The new collaboration with imin builds on Legend’s existing OpenActive capabilities. Alongside publishing open data on available classes, activities, and facilities on third party platforms to make it easier for people to find these, the integration also now enables seamless booking, for both new customers and existing members, all without leaving the platform.

In addition to facilitating easy-to-use, online activity bookings, leisure operators should benefit from increased footfall and revenue, and enhanced ability to reach new and diverse customers. Using the Legend-imin collaboration, local healthcare and social prescribing organisations will also be able to direct members of communities to new services, enabling people to more easily find and book physical activities.

James Barter, Head of Partnerships, Fitness and Wellbeing at Xplor Technologies comments: “Legend is delighted to be the first leisure management software provider to deliver full OpenActive capabilities. By enabling people to easily find and book physical activities in their local area we’re not only helping our leisure operator customers drive more footfall and revenue to their centre, but we’re also making physical activity more accessible for all.”

By using OpenActive data standards, data from leisure management software providers like Legend is available to the public via third party organisations building innovative platforms for their key demographic. These platforms, offered by the likes of Badminton England, This Girl Can Classes, HealthPlace.io and other sports brands, will enable people to more easily find and book activities wherever they are in the UK.

Today’s news is especially relevant to those local authorities building new tools to help residents find activities in their area. The Legend-imin collaboration delivers a superior user experience, enabling people to not only search for activities, but also book, with individual account details, like concessionary rates, automatically applied to their account.

Nishal Desai, Co-founder imin confirmed: “This first full OpenActive integration demonstrates what can be achieved through collaboration. While we have industry-wide consensus that open data and open standards are the right direction of travel, to have reached a point where people can now search and book a physical activity as easily as they can a hotel, is a huge achievement. Everyone deserves easy access to physical activities in their local area.” For more information on Legend’s OpenActive integration for operators, visit the Legend website.

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[1] https://www.sportengland.org/news/new-investment-boost-openactive

[2] The Open Data Institute is funded by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

[3] https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/physical-activity/data

[4] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/physical-activity-applying-all-our-health/physical-activity-applying-all-our-health