Jethro Binns interview: LevelTech co-founder on partnering with iPadel on Box Leagues launch

Former professional squash player Jethro Binns looks set to play a significant role in the development of padel after co-founding LevelTech, home of the player rating tool SquashLevels. The firm’s equivalent for padel, PadelLevels, was introduced last year and is being used in the new iPadel Box Leagues competition format. Binns speaks to Padel Business Magazine about how the platform works, future plans for PadelLevels and what padel can learn from squash.

Last Saturday, 25 January marked the official launch of iPadel Box Leagues, a new player-focused competition format developed in the UK by padel promoter iPadel and technology firm LevelTech.

The initiative is designed to enable clubs to offer players flexible, ongoing competition while tracking progress through PadelLevels, the performance rating platform developed by LevelTech, which launched SquashLevels back in 2015.

SquashLevels has around 40,000 users across the world, including professional and amateur players in around 50 countries. It provides the official world squash ratings and is endorsed by the Professional Squash Association (PSA) and World Squash Federation.

The platform has helped squash players connect to set up matches, follow their ratings, improve their game and build communities across the sport.  

For LevelTech co-founder and co-CEO Jethro Binns – a former professional squash player who now plays padel in Bristol where he lives – the hope is that PadelLevels, which was introduced to the sport last year, can have a similar impact. He explains that the technology behind it provides a finely tuned ratings platform that uses algorithms rather than self-assessment.

“We've seen in squash the impact a genuinely accurate global rating has,” he says. “With SquashLevels we connect to 120 different systems around the world. At the moment we've got 6.5 million results, all feeding into the system. The algorithm provides a highly accurate rating.”

New opportunities through business and technology

During his professional squash career, Binns played on the PSA World Tour from 2005 to 2010. He was crowned Welsh National Champion in 2007 and competed for the Welsh national team in the World Championships in both 2007 and 2009.

When a serious injury put a stop to his professional play, he sought to build on his passion for the sport by finding new opportunities within the game through business and technology.

In 2012, he founded SquashSkills, an online platform which grew to become the world's largest squash coaching brand. Then in 2018 he collaborated with the founder of SquashLevels, Richard Bickers, who is a former Hewlett-Packard tech guru, and they went on to launch LevelTech in May 2023.

Given the success of SquashLevels and the technology that sits behind it, Binns anticipates strong take-up for PadelLevels as the sport develops within the UK. “We see iPadel Box Leagues as the first step in setting accurate levels and the plan is to roll this out across the UK,” he explains.

iPadel Box Leagues launched with 36 boxes set up across 30 clubs, and Binns says the aim is to have boxes set up in around 100 clubs across the country within the next two months.

Results from the other leagues run by iPadel will then start feeding into the PadelLevels platform. “We're also in discussions with different tournament providers and federations about bringing wider results in,” Binns adds.

He says that LevelTech is looking to collaborate with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), which became the UK governing body for padel in 2020, through a potential partnership.

“The goal is to create a genuine British padel rating, and then expand to a global standard like we have in squash,” he explains. “The long-term target for PadelLevels is to become synonymous with the sport.”

Using multiple systems and aggregating all the data

LevelTech can provide an up-to-date rating for padel players, from the everyday amateur to a world number 1, based on each point they play. Binns points out that while Playtomic uses a self-assessment system to determine a user's skill level, “what we're trying to do is let people use multiple systems and join them all together so they don't have to be on one booking platform. They can be on any tournament system they want but we aggregate all the data.”

For now, though, the focus is on the iPadel Box Leagues as the starting point of the project. “We're working closely with the clubs, setting accurate orders, reviewing those Box Leagues orders and the results, setting players’ starting levels, refining that after a couple of rounds of boxes, then locking that in,” says Binns.

He adds that LevelTech has developed a close partnership with iPadel which is proving mutually beneficial. “We're helping drive visibility and bringing more players to iPadel, and they’re helping us with their established brand to get into the clubs.”

Positive response from padel clubs to new platform

Binns says the response so far from padel clubs signing up to the iPadel Box Leagues has been overwhelmingly positive. “People are really enthused and engaged,” he says, adding that LevelTech is benefiting from the growing number of squash players moving into padel in the UK.

One such player is Frazer Richards, head of the Cardiff Padel Community, which organises matches and leagues across the Welsh capital and began using the iPadel Box Leagues during its beta testing phase prior to the official launch.

Richards told Padel Business Magazine he believes PadelLevels can make a significant contribution to the sport’s development as its expansion across the UK gathers pace.

“One of the key issues padel faces as a nascent sport in the area is a mechanism for matching strangers up for games at a similar standard. This is where the PadelLevels boxes have been crucial,” he says.

“Not only do the boxes allow us to record all fixtures and results with a neat interface, but they are also backed by the power of PadelLevels ratings. Soon people won’t need to use arbitrary words like ‘experienced beginner’ or ‘lower level of advanced’ but will just be able to share their PadelLevels rating for a quick and easy way to communicate a rough standard.”

He adds: “I’m aware other ratings systems exist but it’s PadelLevels’ universal and ubiquitous nature that is its real USP. It doesn’t matter if you play at a facility that pays money to be affiliated with a booking system or not, anyone can record results and get a rating.”

UK Government grant provides £360,000 to develop algorithm

Key to LevelTech’s move into padel was the awarding in December 2023 of a £360,000 UK Government Smart Grant through the Innovate UK programme, specifically to develop the algorithm to encompass doubles matches.

“It’s obviously a singles algorithm for squash, and doubles is much trickier,” says Binns. “You've got four players on the court, and we also needed to turn the platform from a singles platform into a doubles platform.”

The firm has received funding from angel investor Akira Financial, while the PSA is also an investor, and Binns says the aim is to attract further financial support in 2025. “We're planning to go through a relatively small funding round now, and will then look to raise significant sums later in the year.”

He adds that the broader ambition is to move into other points-based sports, including tennis, table tennis, pickleball, racquetball, snooker and darts. “It’s a big multi-sport play, long-term, but padel is the short-term focus to prove the concept beyond squash.”

Revenue from paid memberships and sponsors

Once the iPadel Box Leagues becomes established, the idea for LevelTech is that it generates revenue further down the line from paid memberships on PavelLevels, as well as sponsors.

To highlight its potential, Binns points to how SquashLevels has developed a highly engaged audience, with 1.5 million page views a month, and an average time on site of seven minutes.

He notes that the North West Counties Squash League (NWCSL) – which comprises Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside and is regarded as the world’s largest squash league – has 2,100 players, of whom 71% are registered on SquashLevels, and 21% have a paid membership on the platform. He adds that in Wales, of the 1,478 competitive players, 68% are registered on SquashLevels, with 15% holding a paid membership.

“Those figures give a sense of the engagement and presence we have. If you're playing competitive squash, you're on SquashLevels. Ultimately, it's a bit like being a runner and being on Strava.”

Drawing parallels between padel and squash

Reflecting on his extensive experience in squash, Binns sees parallels between the sport’s popularity in the UK in the 1980s and padel today.

“In the ‘80s, squash was the thing everybody went to do. You had to ring up one or two weeks before and book the court. Now, I know in London people have been waiting six, eight weeks to book a padel court, which is just insane.”

While squash is less popular in the UK now, Binns points out that with more than 4,200 courts across England alone – compared to almost 700 padel courts in the UK, according to the LTA – padel has some way to catch up.

However, he believes in many ways the two sports can learn from each other. “Squash can learn from the marketing and the sexiness of padel, whereas padel can learn from the infrastructure that squash has in place – the junior coaching, the tournament structures, the county leagues and inter-club leagues.”

He adds: “Padel at the moment is undeveloped, particularly in the UK, but for us, it’s just a really exciting, interesting time to be involved with the sport, certainly coming from squash and seeing all the buzz and hype around it. Courts are busy in the evenings, and it's so enjoyable and fun. I don't see it as a fad. I think it will level out, but the UK is definitely not at capacity yet.”

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