OpenActive
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
OpenActive firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- OpenActive
- Legal name
- OpenActive (Initiative stewarded by Open Data Institute)
- Website
- https://openactive.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
OpenActive industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Open Data Standards for Sport and Physical Activity
- NAICS
- Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers (71394)
- SIC
- Services-Membership Sports & Recreation Clubs (7997), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Developer & Open-Source Communities (MPACAJAK)
Keywords
Where OpenActive is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
OpenActive business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Others
Revenue model
- Grant Funding: OpenActive is backed by grant funding from Sport England and DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport). The Open Data Institute (ODI) serves as a key partner hosting the initiative.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free access to open data standards and tools |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
OpenActive product offering
Product offeringCore offering
OpenActive provides open data standards, APIs, and developer tools for the sport and physical activity sector. Its offerings include the Opportunity Data Model, the Open Booking API, the Realtime Paged Data Exchange (RPDE) specification, the Route Guidance Specification, and the OpenActive Activity List of around 700 curated activities. These enable activity providers, leisure operators, NGBs and app developers to publish, share, and consume standardised data about activities, events, places and bookings.
Product overview
OpenActive is a community-led open data initiative for the sport and physical activity sector, providing a suite of data standards and tools. The core offerings include: the OpenActive Opportunity Data Model (a W3C specification for publishing opportunity data), the OpenActive Activity List (a curated vocabulary of ~700 activities), the Open Booking API (for placing bookings), and the Realtime Paged Data Exchange (RPDE) specification (for near-realtime data synchronisation). These are supplemented by the Route Guidance Specification for publishing path and trail data. Supporting tools include the Data Quality Explorer/Visualiser for validating feeds, the OpenActive Validator for standards conformance, and elearning modules. The initiative is stewarded by the Open Data Institute and backed by Sport England and DCMS.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- OpenActive Opportunity Data Model A W3C Community Group specification introducing a data model to support the publication of data about sport and physical activity opportunities, covering activities, events, places, organisations, and related information. Used by activity providers and platform developers in the sport sector.
- OpenActive Activity List A curated vocabulary of approximately 700 physical activities for use as reference data in apps, systems and tools like activity finders, based on the SKOS standard.
- Open Booking API HTTP API specification for placing bookings to participate in physical activities, either by attending events or through the use of leisure or sports facilities, supporting both simple and approval-based booking flows.
- Realtime Paged Data Exchange (RPDE) Specification providing a mechanism to allow systems to synchronise database states in near-realtime, supporting the booking use case for open opportunity data.
- OpenActive Route Guidance Specification Data model specification to support the publication of data describing paths and trails for recreational use.
- Data Quality Explorer / Visualiser Tool to visualise OpenActive data and to check if a data feed meets user needs.
- OpenActive Validator Validator tool to check if open data feeds conform to OpenActive standards.
- OpenActive Elearning Modules Elearning modules covering business case for open data, creating impact from open data, how to make data useful, open data in the activity sector, physical activity data future, and prioritising data to publish.
Quantifiable outcome
- Publishing open data is estimated to increase participation rates by 10-25% per opportunity
Companies that use OpenActive
Customer profileNamed customers7 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
OpenActive technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration13 records
Feature5 records
OpenActive partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Open Data Institute (ODI)coreThe ODI is the primary steward of OpenActive and manages the core data infrastructure including data specifications, data catalogues, and code. They host OpenActive and provide support to users seeking to publish and use OpenActive data.
- imincoreSector-leading platform for aggregating, cleansing and curating OpenActive data on behalf of activity providers, powering multiple user-facing platforms including national and local government, NGBs, and leisure operators.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
OpenActive competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- ClassPass: Global subscription-based activity discovery and booking platform across studios, gyms, and fitness experiences; comparable as a broad incumbent competing for the same consumer-facing activity-booking use case that OpenActive standards aim to enable.
- MoveGB: Commercial UK activity aggregator providing discovery and flexible-access booking across gyms, classes, and leisure facilities; comparable as a competing activity-discovery and booking layer sitting above the same UK physical-activity supply that OpenActive standardises.
Emerging players
- OpenStreetMap: Volunteer-led open data initiative producing community-built geographic data, with overlapping governance principles (open community, open data, open standards); comparable as a sibling open data project and a likely complementary data source for OpenActive's Route Guidance Specification.
Direct peers
- imin: Sector-leading data aggregation platform that aggregates, cleanses, and curates OpenActive data on behalf of activity providers, powering multiple user-facing platforms including national campaigns, NGBs, and local authorities — directly comparable as it sits one layer above the same open data standards.
- Sport:80: Platform enabling NGBs to share event and activity data through the OpenActive network; comparable as an NGB-side integration producing data in the OpenActive schema.
- Playwaze: End-to-end toolkit for providing, promoting, and participating in sport and activity, with an embeddable search portal, analytics, and OpenActive data feed; comparable as a consumer-facing activity finder built directly on OpenActive standards.
- Gladstone Software: Popular UK leisure management software that publishes OpenActive opportunity feeds for all its customers; comparable as a publisher-side integration that maps the same physical activity data into the OpenActive standards.
- Played: Provider of branded activity finders for Active Partnerships, local authorities, and NGBs consuming OpenActive data; comparable as a consumer-facing discovery layer consuming the same open data feeds.
- Spawtz: Booking software for sport and physical activity that implements OpenActive opportunity feed publishing and the Open Booking API; comparable as a booking-system integration endpoint in the OpenActive network.
Others
- Open Data Institute (ODI): UK non-profit that stewards OpenActive and hosts its infrastructure, including specifications, data catalogues, and code; comparable as the parent/incubator organisation rather than a competitor, providing governance and infrastructure context.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
OpenActive social profiles
Digital presenceOpenActive financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
OpenActive leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
OpenActive funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
OpenActive M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about OpenActive
What does OpenActive do?
OpenActive provides open data standards, APIs, and developer tools for the sport and physical activity sector. Its offerings include the Opportunity Data Model, the Open Booking API, the Realtime Paged Data Exchange (RPDE) specification, the Route Guidance Specification, and the OpenActive Activity List of around 700 curated activities. These enable activity providers, leisure operators, NGBs and app developers to publish, share, and consume standardised data about activities, events, places and bookings.
Is OpenActive a public or private company?
OpenActive is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was OpenActive founded?
OpenActive was founded in 2017. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is OpenActive based?
OpenActive is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does OpenActive make money?
One revenue line is on record: grant Funding.
Who are OpenActive's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are ClassPass and MoveGB. OpenStreetMap is listed as an emerging player. Direct peers are imin, Sport:80, Playwaze, Gladstone Software, Played and Spawtz. Open Data Institute (ODI) is listed as an others.
Does OpenActive have an API?
Yes. OpenActive offers multiple public API specifications for the sport and physical activity sector: (1) Open Booking API - allows apps and services that use open opportunity data to include seamless booking functionality for physical activities, either by attending events or through the use of leisure or sports facilities; (2) Modelling Opportunity Data - a data model specification to support the publication of data about sport and physical activity opportunities; (3) Realtime Paged Data Exchange (RPDE) - a mechanism to allow systems to synchronise database states in near-realtime, supporting the booking use case; (4) Route Guide Specification - a data model for publishing data describing paths and trails for recreational use. The APIs are published as W3C Community Group specifications and use JSON-LD with Schema.org and SKOS vocabularies. Developer documentation is at openactive.io/open-booking-api/EditorsDraft/1.0CR3.
What industry is OpenActive in?
OpenActive's product category is Open Data Standards for Sport and Physical Activity. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPACAJAK, Developer & Open-Source Communities. Its NAICS code is 71394 and its SIC code is 7997.