With the world’s finest players on court at Wimbledon, an entirely different racket sport is driving a major growth spurt for an Otley-based immersive technology specialist.

Apollo3D, headquartered at Wharfebank Mills, has capitalised on the UK’s explosive padel tennis boom to accelerate its own corporate expansion. The tech firm has revealed how its digital twin and CGI mapping technology successfully launched a major new sports facility for operator Voltage Padel in Baildon.

Padel is currently recognised as the fastest-growing sport globally, and the team at Voltage Padel needed a data-driven way to secure customer interest and finalise facility aesthetics well before their doors opened. Apollo3D stepped in to construct exact CGI 360-degree panoramic mockups, deploying drone flythroughs and progress content to turn a standard industrial fit-out into a comprehensive marketing campaign.

Since opening its doors, Voltage Padel has welcomed more than 1,700 players and clocked 2,119 hours of court occupancy in just three months.

Mark Shepherd, director and founder of Apollo3D, said: “The summer always brings a welcome seasonal spike in racket sports, but padel has become a year-round phenomenon that is absolutely exploding across Yorkshire and the wider UK. Our work with Voltage Padel proves that immersive tech is no longer just a post-completion marketing luxury. It’s an essential operational tool. By generating highly accurate CGI models from manufacturing instructions, we allowed the client to test bold design modifications, like switching to full black walls and reflective glass, before contractors even arrived on site. It completely de-risked their capital expenditure.”

The successful partnership comes during a milestone period for Apollo3D. Having recently delivered a record financial year with £550,000 in revenue, a 20 per cent year-on-year increase, the 12-strong firm is on track to cross the £1 million turnover threshold within the next 18 months.

Elliot Cosgrove, director of Voltage Padel, commented: “Launching a premium, modern sports venue requires building genuine community momentum before the first serve is ever hit. We didn't want to rely on flat architectural plans or wait until construction was finished to talk to our future players. Apollo3D gave us a high-quality bank of content from drone footage to social media reels that brought our audience into the build journey early. The court booking figures from our first three months speak directly to the power of that early engagement.”

Founded in 2017, Apollo3D’s widening portfolio spans from mapping international retail layouts for brands like Primark and Marks & Spencer to creating immersive walkthroughs for historic regional hospitality venues. With the launch of their new global platform, the Otley firm is rapidly transitioning from a regional scanning supplier into a software-led partner for international estate analytics.