Getting Into UK Pinball
Venues, leagues, tournaments, events - a practical guide to finding your people in the UK pinball community.
MAYA
Maybe you have some pinball nostalgia, or maybe you played a pinball video game and want to try the real deal. Maybe you stumbled upon a game out in the wild and want to play more. Pinball is a niche hobby, but it has an enthusiastic and warm community behind it. The best way to play more pinball is to find other enthusiasts that play pinball in the UK!
UK Pinball Venues
First off, go and support your local location. Running a pinball venue is a labour of love and they want nothing more than to spread the joy of the silver ball to as many people as possible. Pinball enthusiast arcades are a great way to try a variety of machines, and they are run by people that love pinball and will keep the pinball tables well maintained so you can get full enjoyment from the machines on location. The dedicated clubs tend to have free play sessions, with fixed entry fees based on scheduled sessions and unlimited pinball in that session (be sure to check opening hours before travel). The people on the front desks will typically be passionate members of the UK pinball community who will help you with any information about local goings on.
If you’re lucky enough to live within easy travelling distance to these venues, they will often host weekly competitive meets, which are another great way to meet club regulars.
- Pinball Republic — London
- The Pinball Factory — Birmingham
- Special When Lit — Salisbury
- Medway Pinball — Medway, Kent
Also worth a visit: Retroids arcade bar in Worcester is a bar with pay-to-play machines that also runs tournaments and events.
Over in Chiswick, London, Chief Coffee is a specialty coffee shop with a Pinball Lounge downstairs housing eight machines from the late 90s to the present, plus a newly opened floor of Japanese arcade machines.
If you operate a venue and want to be added to this list, don’t hesitate to contact us.
UK Pinball League
This is a fantastic social way to meet people in the pinball hobby in your area in a very relaxed competitive environment. Each region in the UK has a list of fixtures in the diary each year. Each event is generally hosted by a private collector or pinball venue who opens their doors for the day, and the local community shows up to have a bite to eat, a chin wag, and to play plenty of pinball.
Get in touch with your regional coordinator here, and they will give you any information you want about the league in your region.
- ● Scottish
- ● Northern
- ● Irish
- ● Midlands
- ● East Anglian
- ● South Wales
- ● London & South EastLondon & SE
- ● South West
Each fixture venue has a list of league designated machines. There is typically a warmup period with a start and end time where you’re free to play anything and get a feel for the tables. Then there is a start and end time for the league-play period in which you get to play each of the tournament machines just once, and then record each score. You play on your own, or with a small group and then sign off each other’s scores after each game. Your list of scores are then submitted and ranked for each against all of the other scores for the day on each table. Your rank on each table is then combined to give you an overall position for the day. Those performing best across the season are then invited to play in the UK pinball league final. Full information at the UK pinball league website. Historically the final has been held at Pinfest, but as of 2026, it has moved to a dedicated event at the Pinball Factory in Birmingham, allowing league finalists to enjoy the varied tournament schedule, without timetable collisions at … drum roll …
UK Pinfest
Pinfest is an annual pilgrimage for UK pinheads. Hosted Friday to Sunday in late August at the Mercure Hotel in Daventry each year, it brings together pinball enthusiasts and families from across the UK. Both day tickets and weekend tickets are available. There are open and classics tournaments for anyone to join, and there is also a ladies tournament and social event. With over 100 games donated by the community set to free-play all day every day, and additional dedicated tournament machines, it’s a pinball lover’s utopia. Entry into tournaments is voluntary for attendees, and the karaoke in the hotel bar goes on until late if that’s your jam!
UK Pinball Tournaments
There are frequent standalone tournament events up and down the country over the course of the year. A directory of competitive events for the whole UK is currently diligently maintained by the East Anglian regional league coordinator. These are typically open to anyone so long as you follow any instructions for registration prior to the events. The vast majority of the one-day events are based on a 4-player matchplay format. This is typically a fixed number of rounds (often 12) where you are assigned a different machine and opponents each round. You play in the specified order on the specified machine, and are awarded points for your position in that group of 4. This is different to a league meet where your score for the table is compared against all other players on the day. Here it’s just the position 1 to 4 for that game on that table for that particular round. This then repeats for the remaining rounds, and then those with the greatest number of points typically advance to finals to determine an overall champion and runners up for the day. Some tournaments in the directory follow other formats.
The day tournaments tend to be played according to slightly more strict international standard rules (These are here to impede debate on the day, not fun). Adherence to these rules then allows every tournament player to receive their own International Pinball Flipper Association (IFPA) identification number and a points contribution based on their final position in the tournament so they can track their overall world ranking and UK specific ranking. Chasing World Pinball Player Ranking (WPPR) points quickly becomes an addictive way of assessing your own progress across your pinball playing career. Now you know what people mean when they chatter about “whoppers” at pinball tournaments. Ranking well across a number of select tournaments over a season entitles the player to a spot in the UK championship series (search for the UKCS conversation on pinball-info to delve down that rabbit hole).
On the IFPA acronym: I guess they didn't want to get confused with a type of beer or a consumer electronics show in Berlin. Makes sense as a lot of our continental European neighbours refer to pinball as "flipper", so IFPA is an unambiguous and a more encompassing, if somewhat odd acronym, but heck I'm just speculating here.
UK Pinball Major Events
For those that really want a highly competitive experience, there are a number of larger events that draw an international crowd. For example the UK Open (London), The Pinfest Open (Daventry), and the East Anglian Pinball Open EAPO (Thetford). These tend to have more complex qualifying formats with qualification occurring over a number of days. Fierce high calibre competition and large attendance means that serious WPPRs are on offer for those looking to boost their world ranking, but these events probably warrant their own descriptive post entirely.
There’s something for everyone in UK pinball. Get involved!
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