Skateboard England has launched its King and Queen of the Carpet competition ©Getty Images

Skateboard England is hosting a new online competition called the King of the Carpet, which will feature the biggest names in the sport in Britain performing their skills from home.

With a prize pot of £2,500 ($3,100/€2,900), the purse is the biggest amount ever offered online in UK skateboarding.

It comes after Skateboard England announced last month that all public and private skate parks would need to close to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the UK.

The competition was introduced to encourage the 750,000 skateboarders around the country to continue practicing in a safe environment.

Three categories will exist in the competition, one for men, one for women, and one for most creative and runs, until May 3.

Skateboarders will self-film their tricks and upload them online, with the top 10 being picked.

From there, the public will then vote to decide who is crowned King and Queen of the Carpet.

Skateboard England and Skateboard GB chief executive James Hope-Gill said: "During the lockdown it has been tough for skateboarders to participate in the sport they love, so we wanted to encourage new and fun ways to carry on skateboarding.

"The competition aims to engage with people to continue being active and maybe even push them to try new things on a board."

Voting for the competition will start on Friday (May 1) with prizes donated by Habito, Tech Deck and Skatehut.

To date, there have been more than 161,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the UK, resulting in the deaths of more than 21,600 people.