Hi everyone,

Welcome to the latest edition of PBM Monthly.

We are here for the people building the business of padel. Every month, we bring you the stories that matter most: sharp reporting, expert opinion, and original insights you won’t find anywhere else.

Inside this issue: four major news stories, one strong opinion piece, and one big read that dives deep into this month’s defining theme – technology and data in padel.

Enjoy the read!

The PBM Team

PBM PARTNER INSIGHT

Fresh industry perspectives from our respected partners.

Why noise is becoming the hidden risk in padel investment

The distinctive “pop” produced during a game of padel, when a ball strikes a racquet or glass panel, creates an impulsive noise. Image credit: DataKustik.

Padel’s explosive growth is increasingly clashing with a hidden constraint: noise. With more courts being built in residential and mixed-use sites, neighbour complaints are delaying approvals, curtailing operating hours, and raising retrofit costs.

In this PBM Partner Insight, Peer Wiesner, head of marketing at acoustic specialists DataKustik, explains why noise must be treated as a strategic investment risk, addressed early through acoustic modelling of court layout and operating scenarios – helping any type of facility overcome potential barriers ahead of construction. 

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Net news

Diving into the major news stories shaping this month’s theme and beyond: curated reporting and global headlines driving the business of padel forward.

London Padel Week to launch at five clubs across capital

London Padel Week will feature tournaments, coaching, wellness experiences, networking events, talks, product testing, live entertainment and social gatherings. Image credit: London Padel Week.

Over 50 activities will take place across seven days, from 3rd to 9th August, with the programme designed to mix sport with lifestyle, business and community.

Premier Padel partners with Fanatics in global licensing deal

The launch collection is designed around padel’s growing court-to-culture identity. Image credit: Premier Padel.

The professional tour says the partnership underscores its continued global growth as it builds out its commercial offering for fans.

USA Padel unveils plan for National Padel Month in October

The US Open Padel Championships are expected to generate the kind of visibility that can shift broader public awareness of padel in the US. Image credit: USA Padel.

Month-long initiative will feature grassroots learn-to-play clinics, the US Open Padel Championships, and the inaugural USA Padel Awards.

2026 UK Padel Report points to new opportunities amid continued growth

The 2026 UK Padel Report examines growth, pricing and participation in the fast-scaling sport. Image credit: Oxygen Consulting.

New Oxygen Consulting report explores how pricing, access and operating models can help build financially resilient padel venues and turn demand into regular, sustainable participation.

The big hit

The latest exclusive and original in-depth features, interviews and analysis from Padel Business Magazine. Insight you will not find anywhere else.

PBM Insight Report: Padel booking platforms search for new solutions as competition hots up 

Digital innovation: Services offered by padel court booking platforms are expanding rapidly as rivalries intensify among leading players.

Playtomic stresses clubs need to "maximise utilisation, pricing and monetisation of each court hour”. Image credit: Playtomic.

As padel has expanded globally, court booking platforms have become a vital aspect of the sport, managing demand and fuelling its growth, with platforms helping clubs maximise court utilisation, streamline operations, and enhance player engagement.

While some established clubs prefer in-house systems, most new venues rely on apps for efficiency. Amid growing competition, platforms are adding social features, CRM tools, and open APIs as they look to retain clubs and players, signalling that convenience, data ownership, and integration capabilities will define the next wave of booking innovation in padel.

Read on to get exclusive insight on the latest developments.

PBM Insight Report by Keith Nuthall and Kathryn Wortley. 

Opinion serving

A trusted perspective from inside the business of padel. Original opinion and on-theme insight from the leaders shaping the sport’s next chapter.

Samuel Hadeli Lie: How padel is changing Indonesia’s sports technology ecosystem

Samuel Hadeli Lie, co-founder and CEO of Ayo, Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform. Image credit: Ayo.

With over 1,000 courts built in 2025, padel’s growth in Indonesia is among the fastest in the world. With expectations among padel players in the country for a smooth digital experience, the sport’s rise is driving dramatic change across the sports technology ecosystem.

Samuel Hadeli Lie, co-founder and CEO of Ayo, Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform, shares insights on the latest developments and assesses how the market is likely to develop in the future.

Organisers of the inaugural London Padel Week are aiming to help take the popularity of the sport to a new level when the initiative begins next week alongside the first Premier Padel event to take place in the UK.

London Padel Week will feature five clubs hosting a range of activities across the capital from 3rd to 9th August, with London Premier Padel P1 being hosted at Olympia from 4th to 9th August.

Across the seven days of London Padel Week, the programme will deliver tournaments, coaching, wellness experiences, networking events, talks, product testing, live entertainment and social gatherings.

The initiative’s organisers say they have created the UK's first city-wide festival dedicated entirely to the lifestyle surrounding padel.

The five clubs hosting activities are Rocket Padel Battersea, Rocks Lane Chiswick, Stratford Padel Club, House of Racquet King's Cross, and S3 Wembley.

There will be over 50 activities including social tournaments, coaching sessions, racquet testing, wellness workshops, yoga classes, inspirational talks on resilience and performance, tasting experiences, networking events, live DJs and evening celebrations.

London Padel Week will feature tournaments, coaching, wellness experiences, networking events, talks, product testing, live entertainment and social gatherings. Image credit: London Padel Week.

Organisers say that unlike traditional sporting events, the programme has been deliberately designed to mix sport with lifestyle, business and community.

They add that the event has attracted a diverse array of brands from sectors as varied as food, cocktails, wine, hospitality, travel, beauty and cosmetics, wellness, technology, fashion and lifestyle.

"The biggest surprise wasn't attracting sports brands – that was exactly what we expected," said Selena Pellegrini, founder of London Padel Week.

"What genuinely amazed us was the enthusiasm from companies that have nothing to do with sport. [They] all recognised something that perhaps the market hasn't fully realised yet: padel is no longer simply a sport. It's where communities are built.”

Pellegrini added: “People don't just come to play. They come to socialise, network, discover products, exchange ideas and spend quality time together. That is the real story behind London Padel Week. We're not simply organising a sporting festival; we're bringing together brands that recognise where modern communities are forming."

Alongside the sporting programme, visitors will have the opportunity to meet founders, test innovative products, participate in wellness experiences, discover emerging brands and attend conversations focused on resilience, performance and healthy living.

The festival will also provide networking opportunities for club owners, coaches, entrepreneurs and industry professionals, aiming to reinforce London's growing position within the international padel ecosystem.

"We didn't want to create another tournament," Pellegrini said. "We wanted to create something that reflected what padel has become – a place where sport is simply the starting point for human connection.

“If people leave having met new friends, discovered an innovative brand, found a business opportunity or simply enjoyed spending time together, then we've achieved exactly what London Padel Week was designed to do."

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Padel’s explosive growth is increasingly clashing with a hidden constraint: noise. With more courts being built in residential and mixed-use sites, neighbour complaints are delaying approvals, curtailing operating hours, and raising retrofit costs.

In this PBM Partner Insight, Peer Wiesner, head of marketing at acoustic specialists DataKustik, explains why noise must be treated as a strategic investment risk, addressed early through acoustic modelling of court layout and operating scenarios – helping any type of facility overcome potential barriers ahead of construction.

Padel has spent the last decade solving one problem. Growth.

The industry has built courts at a remarkable pace. Investors have poured capital into new facilities. Operators have expanded into new cities and new countries. Manufacturers have raced to satisfy demand. Federations have focused on participation. The result is one of the fastest-growing sports stories of the modern era.

Yet as padel moves from novelty to established infrastructure, a different challenge is emerging. One that isn't participation, investment or land. It is in fact, noise.

Across Europe, operators, developers and local authorities are increasingly finding themselves grappling with an issue that few anticipated when the sport’s boom began. Resident complaints are delaying projects, while approvals for planning are becoming more complicated – to the point that some facilities have faced restrictions on operating hours. Others have become the subject of lengthy disputes between operators and neighbouring communities.

For an industry accustomed to discussing growth opportunities, it raises an uncomfortable question. What if one of the biggest barriers to future expansion is not finding places to build courts, but securing permission to keep operating them?

The challenge hidden inside success

The irony is that padel’s noise problem is largely a consequence of its success. The first generation of clubs often occupied industrial estates, commercial parks or isolated sporting facilities where noise attracted little attention.

Today’s facilities are increasingly different. Developers want to bring courts closer to population centres. Investors are looking at mixed-use developments. Hotels see padel as a premium guest amenity. Residential communities are incorporating courts as lifestyle infrastructure.

This makes commercial sense as the closer courts are to where people live, work and travel, the larger the addressable market becomes. But it also introduces a new stakeholder into the equation.

The neighbour. And neighbours, unlike investors, rarely judge a facility by its utilisation rates. They judge it by what they hear from their garden.

Peer Wiesner, head of marketing at DataKustik. Image credit: DataKustik.

Why padel is different

One of the most common misconceptions is that padel’s challenge is simply one of volume. Acoustic specialists like us know from experience the reality is more complicated.

The distinctive “pop” produced when a ball strikes a racquet or glass panel creates what we describe as impulsive noise. Unlike continuous sounds such as traffic or ventilation systems, impulsive sounds are characterised by sharp peaks that attract human attention.

In environmental acoustics, decades of research have shown that people often perceive impulsive noise as more intrusive and more annoying than continuous sound at equivalent decibel levels. 

This distinction matters enormously because a facility may technically satisfy conventional noise requirements while still generating significant resident dissatisfaction.

What operators hear as the sound of a thriving club, neighbours may hear as hundreds of repetitive impacts extending across an evening.

The issue is not necessarily loudness but perception. And we’ve often seen that perception in noisy padel courts and clubs frequently becomes politics.

The distinctive “pop” produced during a game of padel, when a ball strikes a racquet or glass panel, creates an impulsive noise. Image credit: DataKustik.

When planning becomes commercial risk

This is where the conversation shifts from acoustics to economics.

For investors, noise is ultimately a risk management issue in that a delayed planning application costs money. Restricted operating hours reduce revenue potential; retrofitting mitigation measures increase project costs, and neighbour disputes create reputational challenges.

In extreme circumstances, legal action or regulatory intervention can fundamentally alter the economics of a facility. The industry’s challenge is that many of these risks only become visible once a project is well underway. 

By then, options are limited – mostly because court layouts are approved, construction has begun and capital has been deployed. 

Bluntly put, the cheapest solutions are no longer available. And, as a result, operators often find themselves paying significantly more to solve a problem than they would have spent preventing it.

Learning from mature industries

Padel is not the first sector to face this challenge. Major infrastructure projects have long understood that environmental impacts must be assessed before construction begins.

Airports model future flight paths years in advance. Road planners simulate traffic noise before breaking ground. Renewable energy developers assess acoustic impacts before installing turbines.

The principle is straightforward in that prediction is cheaper than correction. Yet much of the sports facility sector still treats acoustics as a secondary consideration rather than a core component of planning.

That approach is becoming harder to justify.

Emission data highlights the difference between the noise created during a game of padel compared with tennis. Image credit: DataKustik.

The rise of acoustic due diligence

This has created growing demand for a discipline that few outside specialist circles ever discuss: acoustic modelling.

Environmental noise prediction software allows consultants and planners to simulate how sound will travel through a proposed environment before construction takes place.

Court orientation can be tested, barriers can be evaluated. Operating scenarios can be modelled. Different layouts can be compared.

In effect, developers gain the ability to understand the acoustic consequences of decisions before making them.

Among the companies working in this field is DataKustik, whose CadnaA noise prediction software is used by acoustic consultants, engineering firms and public authorities in more than 60 countries.

What makes this increasingly relevant to padel is the emergence of padel-specific acoustic datasets derived from real-world measurements rather than generic sporting assumptions.

This allows planners to evaluate a proposed facility’s likely acoustic impact before construction begins and assess mitigation options virtually.

The significance is less about software and more about certainty. Developers can move from asking whether a problem might occur to understanding how likely it is and what can be done about it.

Noise prediction software allows planners to evaluate a proposed facility’s likely acoustic impact before construction begins. Image credit: DataKustik.

The industry’s next maturity test

Every growing industry eventually encounters the limits of expansion. For some, the constraint is capital. For others, regulation. For padel, the next challenge may be coexistence.

The sport’s future depends not only on attracting players but also on integrating successfully into the communities where those players live.

That requires a shift in thinking.

Noise can no longer be viewed as a technical issue delegated to consultants late in the development process. It is becoming a strategic consideration for operators, investors, developers and manufacturers alike.

The facilities that thrive over the next decade are likely to be those that understand this earliest. 

Because the future of padel will not be determined solely by how many courts are built. It will be shaped by how successfully they coexist with the world around them. And in that future, the industry’s greatest challenge may not be creating demand.

It may be earning permission to keep growing.

·    DataKustik is hosting a free webinar for Padel Business Magazine members with its expert engineers on 12th August, covering the foundations of noise protection. Register to attend here: https://www.datakustik.com/lp/padel-laerm.html 

·   Contact Peer Wiesner, DataKustik head of marketing, at peer.wiesner@datakustik.com 

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Premier Padel has announced a long-term partnership with Fanatics, the global digital sports platform and leader in licensed sports merchandise, naming Fanatics as Master Licensee covering e-commerce, in-venue retail, wholesale, product and memorabilia.

The professional tour says the multi-year agreement marks the next step in its global growth strategy, bringing Fanatics' commerce, manufacturing and distribution capabilities to the tour as it looks to expand its reach with fans around the world.

As a partner to some of the world’s most recognisable sports properties, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and Formula 1, Fanatics brings Premier Padel into a global retail and fan commerce ecosystem built around major leagues, events and international audiences.

As part of the partnership, the official Premier Padel store, store.premierpadel.com, is now live and operated by Fanatics, with products also available across Fanatics’ global e-commerce ecosystem.

Built as a fan-first destination for the sport, Premier Padel says the store brings its official products closer to players and supporters around the world, creating a single place to shop the tour, the game and the culture around it.

The launch collection is designed around padel’s growing court-to-culture identity, “combining the essentials of the game with a broader lifestyle expression of the Premier Padel brand”.

The range includes Bullpadel racquets, footwear, bags and performance apparel, while also taking Premier Padel into fashion and everyday elevated style through collaborations with Homiés Marbella and Fanatics Branded, alongside fan accessories from Wilson and dedicated men’s and women’s collections.

The launch collection is designed around padel’s growing court-to-culture identity. Image credit: Premier Padel.

Fanatics will also run in-venue retail at Premier Padel events as part of the partnership, beginning with the season-ending Premier Padel Finals in Barcelona this December.

Ahead of that, a Premier Padel pop-up shop will open inside the PSG store in central London during the Premier Padel P1 event in the UK capital on 4th to 9th August, giving fans an early taste of official product before full in-venue retail rolls out later in the year.

Premier Padel says the partnership underscores its continued global growth as it builds out its commercial offering for fans, choosing Fanatics for its vertically integrated commerce model, spanning e-commerce, product creation, wholesale and live event retail.

"At Premier Padel we pride ourselves on partnering with the very best companies in the world of sports and entertainment – and Fanatics is a pioneer and innovator in its field,” said David Sugden, CEO at Premier Padel.

“Fanatics gives us the global platform and expertise to create a stronger retail experience online and at our events – while offering products that reflect how people play, watch and live padel today.

“Padel is also a lifestyle and social movement for fans – and this landmark partnership between Premier Padel and Fanatics will be fantastic in building community and fan connections with the tour locally and globally."

Stephen Dowling, international president at Fanatics, added: "Padel is one of the most exciting growth stories in global sport, and Premier Padel is the clear leader in that story. We're bringing our full commerce capabilities to the sport for the first time, from the official store through to in-venue retail at events like the Finals in Barcelona and we’re excited about some of the great product that is going to be available to padel players and fans across the world.”

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UK padel’s next opportunity lies not simply in building more courts, but in converting occasional demand into regular, affordable participation, according to the 2026 UK Padel Report from Oxygen Consulting. 

Researched and written by Ray Algar, managing director of Oxygen Consulting, the report examines growth, pricing and participation in the fast-scaling sport. It argues that padel’s long-term success will depend less on awareness and one-off trial alone, and more on whether operators, landlords, clubs, councils and investors can create venue models that support repeat play. 

The report was launched at an event hosted by real estate firm Savills in London on 10^th June. Attended by more than 100 senior figures from across the UK padel, sport, leisure and property sectors, the event reflected the sport’s growing relevance to landlords, mixed-use locations and the wider leisure property market in the country. 

The report identifies a potential peak-time value-perception gap in UK padel. The UK’s nine largest chargeable padel operators, measured by number of courts, have a median peak-time court price of £42 per court hour. 

By comparison, Oxygen Consulting’s player price-sensitivity research, based on a weekday evening booking between 6pm and 9pm, found acceptable price ranges of approximately £13–£21 for outdoor uncovered courts, £15–£25 for outdoor covered courts and £18–£28 for indoor courts. 

These ranges are not recommended prices; they are national player value benchmarks. The report notes that operators can charge more, but the premium has to be earned by the proposition, especially as players gain more choice. 

Ray Algar, author of the report and managing director of Oxygen Consulting, said: “The most exciting opportunity for UK padel is to find the point where commercial sustainability and social value reinforce each other. By social value, I mean the benefits beyond financial returns: helping more people to be active, feel connected, improve wellbeing and access sport more easily. 

“Venues need to support significant infrastructure investment, appropriate staffing and a high-quality player experience, but players also need the price and access to make padel a repeatable habit. Get that balance right, and padel becomes much more than a fast-growing leisure product.” 

The 2026 UK Padel Report examines growth, pricing and participation in the fast-scaling sport. Image credit: Oxygen Consulting.

Access to padel beginning to broaden 

The 2026 UK Padel Report finds early evidence that access is beginning to broaden, although provision remains uneven. In England’s most deprived neighbourhoods, padel venue provision increased from six venues at December 2024 to 33 venues at December 2025, rising from 3% to 8% of English venues. 

However, access remains uneven: 60% of venues are located in less deprived neighbourhoods, compared with 40% in more deprived neighbourhoods. The analysis uses the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), where decile 1 represents the most deprived neighbourhoods and decile 10 the least deprived. 

The updated IMD 2025 baseline means this is not a strict like-for-like comparison, but the direction of travel suggests padel may be moving beyond its early affluent base. 

The report also highlights the importance of delivery models. Rugby clubs, golf clubs, leisure centres, councils and other community-rooted organisations are increasingly involved in padel, but often as landlords or site hosts rather than direct operators. 

Oxygen Consulting argues that community land can help expand provision, but may not automatically influence who plays, how often they play or how the sport is priced. The next phase may therefore require partnership models in which public, community and not-for-profit asset owners help shape access, pricing and programming, rather than simply hosting commercial provision. 

For operators, the challenge is different but connected. The report notes that in a more competitive market, padel venues will need to move beyond simply providing courts and build a clearer reason to be chosen. It says the goal is to become the player’s “home venue”: the place they return to because the format, price, location, programming and social atmosphere make it feel worth belonging to, not just worth booking. 

Jess Hill, associate director, UK Restaurants & Leisure at Savills, commented: “Padel has moved beyond being a short‑term activation tool and is now a commercially credible part of landlord strategy. What we are seeing is a more data‑led, selective and sophisticated market, where operators are better defined and landlords are increasingly viewing padel as a means to drive sustained footfall, strengthen tenant mix and enhance the overall performance of mixed‑use schemes.” 

Ray Algar, managing director of Oxygen Consulting, and author of the 2026 UK Padel Report. Image credit: Oxygen Consulting.

2026 UK Padel Report: Key findings 

Sustainable participation is the next opportunity

Padel’s long-term value depends on converting occasional demand into regular play. Awareness, interest and one-off trial are useful signs of market reach, but sustainable venues and wider health impact depend on people returning often enough for padel to become part of their active lives.

Peak-time pricing may be testing perceived value

The UK’s nine largest padel operators, measured by number of courts, have a median peak-time court price of £42 per court hour. Oxygen Consulting’s player research, based on a weekday evening booking between 6pm and 9pm, found lower acceptable price ranges: £13–£21 for outdoor uncovered courts, £15–£25 for outdoor covered courts and £18–£28 for indoor courts. These are not recommended prices, but national player value benchmarks. Operators can charge more, but the premium has to be earned by the proposition.

Venue proposition will determine pricing power

Players do not value all courts equally. The report finds that price tolerance rises as the playing proposition strengthens, with players paying not simply for court access but for weather protection, comfort, facilities, reliability and overall experience.

Access is beginning to broaden, but remains uneven

In England’s most deprived neighbourhoods, padel venue provision increased from six venues at December 2024 to 33 venues at December 2025, rising from 3% to 8% of English venues. However, provision remains weighted towards less deprived communities overall. Using the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), where decile 1 represents the most deprived neighbourhoods and decile 10 the least deprived, 60% of venues are located in less deprived deciles 6–10, compared with 40% in more deprived deciles 1–5. The updated IMD 2025 baseline means this should be treated as directional rather than a strict like-for-like comparison.

Delivery models will shape social value

Community-rooted organisations are increasingly involved in padel, but broader social value – the benefits beyond financial returns, such as physical activity, wellbeing, social connection and wider access to sport – may require partnership models that influence pricing, programming and access, not just land use. 

·    To purchase and download the 2026 UK Padel Report visit: https://oxygen-consulting.co.uk/product/2026-uk-padel-report-growth-pricing-and-participation-in-a-scaling-sport/

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As padel has expanded globally, court booking platforms have become a vital aspect of the sport, managing demand and fuelling its growth, with platforms helping clubs maximise court utilisation, streamline operations, and enhance player engagement. While some established clubs prefer in-house systems, most new venues rely on third-party apps for efficiency. Amid growing competition, platforms are adding social features, CRM tools, and open APIs as they look to retain clubs and players, signalling that convenience, data ownership, and integration capabilities will define the next wave of booking innovation in padel. PBM Insight Report by Keith Nuthall and Kathryn Wortley.

As padel has expanded worldwide, the need to automate court booking has not only been increasingly evident, but has been a key motor of the sport’s spectacular growth in the past 10 years.

This process has been aided by the fact that padel expanded from its past niche status at a time when digital technologies were already sophisticated and growing in power and functionality for clubs, branded chains, pro-venues and players. 

Booking platform Playtomic has been a core service provider to clubs seeking sleek and automated online court reservation systems that encourage players to book return games. 

In its 2026 Global Padel Report, Playtomic stresses how clubs need to "maximise utilisation, pricing and monetisation of each court hour”, with many facilities failing to deliver on this goal. 

Automated booking systems enable clubs and venues to closely monitor this leveraging of assets, with Playtomic’s 2026 report highlighting a remarkable spread in court occupation hours between national markets. Looking at 2025 data in 10 countries, the UK came out top, with an average nine hours a day of court occupation. Major market Spain was way down at 4.5 hours. And the USA has significant work ahead to utilise padel facilities, at 3.7 hours of average occupancy per day. 

That said, booking platforms also deliver data on booking yields, and here, notes Playtomic’s 2026 report, the average player booking (in euros) was far higher in the US at €92 (for open games, lessons, academies, league and tournament matches) than other markets, with Italy having the next best yield at €50. Again, padel hub Spain does poorly, at €24 average booking price, according to Playtomic data. 

Playtomic stresses clubs need to "maximise utilisation, pricing and monetisation of each court hour”. Image credit: Playtomic.

Padel’s growth fuels booking platform developments

These systems are likely to increase the popularity of padel, and given it is now played by over 35 million players across five continents, according to the International Padel Foundation (FIP), the sport’s growth is fuelling development of online booking systems as clubs seek to manage surging court demand while streamlining operations.  

And capital is available for such technological development. A 2026 Padel Sports Market Overview published by Growth Market Reports notes that investment in padel-focused tech startups increased by 45% in 2023 compared to the previous year, with venture capital firms increasingly backing technology such as mobile booking apps.    

One newcomer to this market is CourtsApp, an AI-powered booking platform built for racquet sports by a New York, US-based company of the same name. Released in January 2026, the app has been made available to players in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, with more than 1,500 courts in 150 facilities as of the launch date. The company is also expanding into Massachusetts and Florida throughout 2026.  

“When I started looking at how the racquet sports and padel sports industries worked and operated, I saw there was no software out there – similar to an Expedia or OpenTable – where a player could easily see what court times are available at various facilities near them and book it,” says CourtsApp founder and CEO Daren Hornig.  

“We’re going to make it easier for people to play and for more people to play,” he continues, adding that CourtsApp can also help clubs grow by marketing their court time to a broader audience of potential players, thereby unlocking new revenue and increasing court utilisation.  

Daren Hornig, founder and CEO of CourtsApp. Image credit: CourtsApp.

Innovating to stay ahead of the game

Other new online booking systems include UK-based Nettla, launched in February 2026. The all-in-one booking and club management platform tailored for racquet sports helps padel clubs manage bookings, memberships, leagues, coaching and social matches.

Its key features include Ace, a 24/7 WhatsApp-embedded sales agent that provides details on availability, pricing and court type on immediate request, and a one-click integration with CRM and analytics platforms to allow clubs to manage their growth and development through approaches such as customised marketing. 

Alongside the new market entrants, established players such as Estonia-based Anolla, which was founded in 2011, are also innovating. The platform provides AI-driven automation, from field and lane allocation to coach load balancing and intelligent waitlist promotion and uses sports-specific dynamic pricing that accounts for peak times, weather, demand, coach level and membership rules. 

The proliferation of such apps is good news for both clubs and players, say industry experts. 

“A booking system is the foundation of any successful padel club,” states London, UK-based management advisory agency Padel Consulting. “Players want simple, mobile-first tools to book courts, join matches, pay online, and connect with the community. Operators need management dashboards to control schedules, payments, and customer relationships.” 

And looking further ahead, online booking systems can be expected to increase customer engagement and retention as well as lifetime value, according to a note on the padel sector from Texas, US-based data and market research firm Synixi Labs.  

A booking system is viewed as being key to the success of any padel club. Image credit: Adobe Stock.

Competition expands among booking platforms

Morten Bugge, founder and chair of UK and Denmark-based padel operator Rocket Padel, whose company switched to the Sweden-based booking platform Padel Mates in May 2025, says he welcomes how the platform “offers a modern, all-in-one solution that enhances the member experience and streamlines Rocket Padel club operations”.

Padel Mates’ ability to offer players ways to book courts, and participate in tournaments, social games, coaching, box leagues, loyalty programmes and memberships, offers Rocket Padel the flexibility it needs to operate its nine sites. 

That includes, stresses Bugge, access to the system’s open API (application programming interface), enabling clubs to adjust their use of the system, including interactions with third-party apps, such as messaging and emailing, including digital platforms such as Rule, which form a key component for developing community among players.  

Bugge encourages other padel operators to look hard at such features offered by booking platforms, who generally are paid a set portion of client turnover, before choosing which system is right for them.

"I would encourage clubs to look a bit beyond some of the headline features and interrogate how well the system handles the full breadth of what you actually need as a club,” he explains.

“So, court booking, of course, that's a given, everyone can do that. But what about tournaments, event management? We have a lot of corporate events at Rocket Padel.”

Bugge points out that as Rocket Padel also runs box leagues and other competitions, a system that displays players’ standing can be useful. He adds that flexibility to offer coaching, lesson sessions and loyalty programmes are key – for example in London where padel court demand is outstripping supply. 

Morten Bugge, founder and chair of Rocket Padel. Image credit: Rocket Padel.

Retaining booking and player data

A key benefit of Padel Mates for Bugge is that it enables clubs and operators to retain full ownership of booking and the player data, which is not always the case with booking platforms. “Player data is one of the most valuable assets,” he says. “It informs you about targeting your communication and retention strategies. You can commercialise it with your local partners and national partners.

“Where platforms restrict access to data, that risks creating dependency and impedes some strategies. You're unable to analyse your business, which is going to be key, I think, as we move forward.” 

While larger booking platforms inevitably offer access to different clubs and venues, Bugge thinks this does not matter, especially in a growing sport such as padel, whose UK player numbers doubled in 2025 to 860,000, according to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). 

"Yes, there are other clubs with different logos and they do different things. But at the end of the day, I think padel will grow more padel. So, it's not about me being a competitor with X, Y, Z. I think it's great that clubs are popping up and bringing more awareness around padel and growing the sport.”

He also stresses that court bookings are built into this popularity, because “padel is a participation sport” with a lower entry to join than tennis, and a game people want to play more than watch. 

Given this, convenience is key – players want to book courts near their homes or workplaces, not commute an hour to play a game – something that multi-court booking sites can facilitate through highlighting court availability. 

Rocket Padel switched to the Sweden-based booking platform Padel Mates in May 2025. Image credit: Rocket Padel.

Why booking can still be local 

For some padel clubs and businesses, there is reluctance to utilise a powerful booking platform. Ian Colligon, director of UK-based padel promoter and developer iPadel, explains that his club, The Limpsfield Club – a large tennis and squash facility with padel, based in Surrey, southeast England – uses its own booking system.

“It seems to work fine for the members,” he says. “I think this is the case with well-established tennis clubs that have added padel to their facilities.” However, he notes that new standalone padel clubs seem more inclined to use booking apps – “probably because they don’t want to employ staff to run the bookings as they already have huge overheads”.

For those that do, says Colligon, “booking apps are fine if everything works but are a total pain if something goes wrong”, as in his experience, they can be difficult to contact. “I think booking platforms are generally useful but only if they combine a human element. You cannot do everything through an app,” he explains. 

Where booking platforms do not give out phone numbers, this can be frustrating for users facing technical difficulties, he adds. Also, in his experience, booking apps have struggles with managing padel leagues and meshing with player rating systems. “Individual ratings on apps are not worth it as each one has a different system and they are not compatible,” he says. 

New standalone padel clubs seem more inclined to use booking apps than established sports venues. Image credit: Adobe Stock.

Playtomic looks to adapt to changing demands

Whether local or global, booking platforms have become a major part of padel’s growth. As ever with a new growth sector, early mover advantage helps – with booking platforms as with any other padel service.

In this regard, having been launched in Spain in 2017, as a platform able to link racquet sports facilities with players, Playtomic was perfectly positioned to take advantage of and help fuel the robust growth in the sport during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.  

It has retained that leading position worldwide, being used by an estimated 80% of UK padel clubs, for example, with Britt Ivy, Playtomic head of business development – US & Canada, telling Padel Business Magazine: “I do think it has aided in the growth because having a technology platform that ... can make it easy for players to discover clubs and courts, find matches, connect with other players, participate in competitions or training, just helps reduce friction.” 

This, she says, “makes the difference with helping to push the sport along, make it accessible, in one single ecosystem,” enabling clubs to move away from relying on phone calls and WhatsApp. “Digitalising and standardising a booking experience has made it just more accessible, both to existing players and then newcomers,” she stresses. 

Ivy adds that Playtomic’s access to more than 7,000 clubs worldwide has helped drive padel growth, with relocating and travelling players able to book a court easily when they might otherwise have let the sport slip, temporarily or permanently. 

In this regard, booking apps play into the social aspect of padel, which is unusually strong compared to other racquet sports (alongside pickleball). "So having kind of our open match feature is very valuable with connecting people – it's a matchmaking service, so people can find others to play with very easily,” says Ivy.

As a result, Playtomic has enabled social media components, so players can post results, photos, create group chats, direct message and check player profiles, including playing history.  

Britt Ivy, head of business development – US & Canada at Playtomic. Image credit: Playtomic.

Adjusting services for different markets

As an international company serving a global sport, Playtomic has had to adjust service for particular markets, for example in the US, which is a new growth market for padel, with technical adjustments, for example reflecting how Americans like facilities saving credit card details, and using web browsers rather than just a phone app.

“The web version on Playtomic is more complete, so you can see all activities beyond just regular bookings, plus you can actually complete the transactions on the web version – that was a very US-specific thing that was needed,” Ivy says, noting that it boosts access to players using laptops and tablets, for example. 

Playtomic recognises the need to keep developing services to remain competitive, for example its offering of open API, rolled out during 2025. Ivy says: “Clubs can use it for more automated integration with different applications, whether that's a marketing-related platform, or accounting-related, dashboards they want to create outside of what we offer, video recording technology ... it just makes clubs’ lives easier.” 

As for data retention, which has been a point of competition with rival platforms, Ivy stresses that Playtomic "clubs have access to their own data ... anything that's generated through using Playtomic. They have dashboards, reports built into the software for them, so it's very searchable – they can filter for different things. They see revenue, data occupancy, player activity data, payments, CRM information.”

She adds that clubs can use APIs to extract or download data and save to CSV files, noting “they need to be able to analyse what's going on”.

Accumulated data helps Playtomic adjust client relationships, and share insights and reports, which are shared with clubs, such as its Global Padel Report.  

Playtomic announced in March 2026 it was increasing data access to clubs, notably via its new BreakPoint CRM product that facilitates communications with players, which is fully compatible with Playtomic. 

“Clubs need to have a way to do smart marketing and communications and manage their CRM in a way that makes sense,” Ivy says.

Playtomic says it recognises the need to keep developing services to remain competitive, such as its offering of open API. Image credit: Playtomic.

Meta-search engines

Looking ahead, while businesses such as Rocket Padel are today offering bookings via one booking platform, Bugge anticipates that meta-search engines, reflecting how Trivago integrates sales sites for hotels, might offer information on all courts that offer online bookings in future.

With London, UK sites currently booked to 90% occupancy he knows a player who has configured AI to warn him when a court is open for booking via a platform, functionality that Bugge predicts will become more available in future. 

It is another example of how padel booking platforms will need to keep ahead of the game to stay relevant. 

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With over 1,000 courts built in 2025, padel’s growth in Indonesia is among the fastest in the world. With expectations among padel players in the country for a smooth digital experience, the sport’s rise is driving dramatic change across the sports technology ecosystem. Samuel Hadeli Lie, co-founder and CEO of Ayo, Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform, shares insights on the latest developments and assesses how the market is likely to develop in the future.

When padel courts started appearing in Indonesia a few years ago, I wasn't immediately convinced the sport would stick. Another imported sport, another wave of enthusiasm. But what we've seen over the past 12 months has changed my view, and that of the wider sports technology ecosystem in Indonesia.

With more than 1,000 padel venues built in a single year, padel here is not a fad. It’s something real.

Ayo is Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform, with over 2,100 venue partners and close to one million users across padel, badminton, tennis, mini soccer, basketball, and pickleball. We have a front-row seat to everything that is happening in sports technology, and what we're watching is genuinely exciting.

Digitally savvy players

What makes padel unique compared with established sports like badminton or tennis is that the players are digitally savvy and expect to be able book courts online.

That might sound insignificant and a small detail, but this matters so much in Indonesia’s sports ecosystem. Badminton has been our national sport for decades, and many venues have run on manual booking processes such as phone calls and WhatsApp messages for a long time.

Padel venues, from day one, treated online booking as the obvious default. Courts are now available across more than 100 cities and regencies in Indonesia – remarkable reach for a sport that was barely on the radar a few years ago. The players coming into padel expect a smooth digital experience, and the venues have had to meet that expectation from the start.

Samuel Hadeli Lie, co-founder and CEO of Ayo, Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform. Image credit: Ayo.

A rising tide for all sports

Here's what surprised us most: padel's digital-first culture is now dragging other sports along with it. It was the pull factor that Indonesia’s sport ecosystem needed to adopt technology. Badminton has been Indonesia's national sport for generations, but many venue operators have been slow to embrace online booking. As padel courts filled up through our platform, those operators started asking questions. Then they started listing their courts too.

The same story is playing out with tennis. Sports that were perfectly happy operating through WhatsApp groups and handwritten schedules are now coming online because padel has set a new expectation for what a modern sports venue looks like. That has a real impact on sports participation in a country where, by international standards, we still have ground to make up.

In addition, these sports venues which are coming online are not just giving their current customers more convenience, they are experiencing growth in revenue due to their increased exposure online on Ayo. To put that shift in perspective: the total value of bookings flowing through Ayo grew five-fold in 2025 compared to the year before.

Noble Samson Padel, located in PIK2, Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia, is the country’s largest padel venue with 16 courts, 10 of which have VIP rooms attached to them. Courts can be booked via Ayo. Image credit: Noble Samson Padel.

Community behaviour

Padel players, as evident in Indonesia, engage with technology differently compared with players of other sports. They want to log their scores. They use apps to find opponents they've never met and arrange games with strangers. They're genuinely interested in tracking their progress over time.

These data points are meaningful for a sports platform like Ayo. When users generate their own data – match results, rankings, playing history – it gives us the foundation to build things that actually keep people engaged: leaderboards, rating systems, community challenges. This also increases the stickiness of the platform, and more importantly gives people more reasons to keep playing sport – this is Ayo’s mission and something we really care about.

We're now starting to see similar behaviour spread to badminton and other sports. It's early, but the direction is encouraging. Padel has set a new reference point for what an active sports community on a platform can look like.

Courtyard Padel, located in West Jakarta, DKI Jakarta, in Indonesia. Courts can be booked via Ayo. Image credit: Courtyard Padel.

The bigger picture

With 280 million people – of whom around 69% make up a massive productive population – sports participation in Indonesia still has significant room to grow compared with many other countries, and that's something that gives me fuel to keep improving Ayo.

Padel, perhaps unexpectedly, may be one of the catalysts that helps achieve that – not only because it's an enjoyable sport, but because of the relationship with data, community and technology it has brought with it.

The courts are being built. The users are showing up. The real work now is turning that momentum into something durable – and making sure the benefits extend beyond padel to Indonesian sport more broadly.

And the momentum isn't slowing – in Indonesia alone, we expect the total value of bookings on our platform to more than double again in 2026.

What's also becoming clear to us is this story isn't unique to Indonesia. And that's why we're starting to look beyond this country – we think the platform we've built here has a role to play across Southeast Asia.

We're seeing the same ingredients across the region: fast-growing padel communities, a young, connected population, and sports venues that are only just beginning to go digital.

·    Samuel Hadeli Lie is co-founder & CEO of Ayo, Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform. Visit ayo.app Email: Hello@ayo.co.id

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USA Padel has revealed plans for a new project to be launched this year which will mark October as National Padel Month.

The US governing body for padel, which has changed its name from the United States Padel Association (USPA), says the first-of-its-kind, industry-wide initiative will aim to grow participation, showcase elite competition, and recognise the individuals and organisations shaping the sport’s rise in the US. 

The month-long campaign will bring together three signature programmes: grassroots learn-to-play clinics at member clubs across the country, the US Open Padel Championships, and the inaugural USA Padel Awards.

USA Padel says that together they form the most comprehensive calendar of padel events the country has seen. 

“October offers us a real opportunity to introduce the sport to new players and communities across the country,” said Bill Ullman, president of USA Padel. “The growth we have seen over the past few years has been exceptional, and National Padel Month is our way of channelling that momentum and bringing padel to more people right across the USA.” 

The US Open Padel Championships are expected to generate the kind of visibility that can shift broader public awareness of padel in the US. Image credit: USA Padel.

The learn-to-play component will activate USA Padel member clubs as local hubs for beginner programming throughout October. Participating venues will offer structured introductory clinics, open courts and beginner-friendly sessions, designed to provide a formal entry point for anyone curious about the sport. 

The US Open Padel Championships, to be held on 2nd-4th October, will serve as the competitive centrepiece of the month, bringing together the nation’s top players and international contenders.

USA Padel notes that championship events have historically been among the most effective tools for growing participation in racquet sports, and the US Open is expected to generate the kind of visibility that can shift broader public awareness of padel in the US. 

The inaugural USA Padel Awards will recognise the players, coaches, clubs and advocates who have driven the sport’s remarkable growth in the country.

USA Padel says the awards will aim to create a cultural narrative that goes beyond competition, by honouring the human stories behind padel’s rise, the coaches who introduced hundreds of students to the game, the clubs that built courts before the demand was obvious, and the players who have represented the country internationally.

Additional details on participating clubs, US Open Padel Championships dates and USA Padel Awards categories will be announced at padelusa.org. 

USA Padel membership climbed by 53.5% to 2,915 in 2025, according to the body’s latest annual report, released in January 2026.

Alongside the rise in individual membership, which comprises players and coaches, the number of active USA Padel member clubs rose to 108 in 2025, up from 53 at the end of 2024.

The number of open tournaments sanctioned by USA Padel more than doubled from 48 events hosted in 2024 to 104 in 2025.

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Hi everyone,

Welcome to the latest edition of PBM Monthly.

We are here for the people building the business of padel. Every month, we bring you the stories that matter most: sharp reporting, expert opinion, and original insights you won’t find anywhere else.

Inside this issue: four major news stories, one strong opinion piece, and one big read that dives deep into this month’s defining theme – broadcasting and media rights in padel.

Enjoy the read!

The PBM Team

Partner with us: Why brands sponsor Padel Business Magazine 

It’s no news that the global padel industry is growing fast. But those building serious padel clubs and facilities are overwhelmed by cold outreach, sales noise, and companies all competing for their attention.

Most operators, investors, and developers do not have the time to sit through endless AI-generated pitches and generic marketing. Increasingly, they look to  respected third-party platforms to help them navigate the companies, technologies, suppliers, and ideas actually shaping the future of the industry.

That is where Padel Business Magazine comes in.

We are the only dedicated and respected b2b platform trusted by thousands of vetted senior decision-makers behind many of the world’s most ambitious and successful padel clubs and facilities across the UK, Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

Our audience and community are not casual consumers. They are the serious operators, investors, developers, budget holders, and commercial leaders actively scaling padel across the world.

That is why smart brands across infrastructure, technology, construction, equipment, software, and real estate are partnering with us to tell their story, build long-lasting authority, cut through the noise, and create meaningful long-term commercial relationships.

Beyond visibility, our platform helps partners gain lasting GEO and SEO exposure through trusted editorial coverage, interviews, analysis, and strategic industry storytelling that continues delivering value long after publication.

“It was a great experience partnering with the Padel Business Magazine team to help us communicate our story with impact. The article resonated really well with our own prospects and brought in a steady stream of warm leads directly. Super happy with the results!”
Alan Scanlan, CEO, Newlands Padel

As part of our next phase of growth, we are opening a limited number of strategic commercial partnerships ahead of launch.

Opportunities include:

• Exclusive regional sponsorships across the UK and USA

• Sponsored industry sections including courts, technology, and equipment

• Featured partner interviews and editorial

• Brand partner profile pages

• Event and launch support

• Investor and supplier visibility opportunities

A limited number of exclusive partnership positions are now available.

If your company wants to reach the people building the future of global padel, let’s talk.

Ready to own the spotlight? Email contact@padelbusinessmagazine.com

Net news

Diving into the major news stories shaping this month’s theme and beyond: curated reporting and global headlines driving the business of padel forward.

Padel World Summit 2026 visitor numbers up 20%

The exhibition space at the 2026 Padel World Summit was 34% larger than in 2025. Image credit: Padel World Summit.

Third edition of Padel World Summit featured 140 exhibitors from more than 30 countries, with Investor & Business Forum hosting 1,175 business meetings.

Playtomic report highlights real estate, wellness and global investment shifts 

Nearly 5,000 new padel clubs and almost 8,000 new courts were added worldwide in 2025 alone, according to the report. Image credit: Playtomic.

2026 Playtomic Global Padel Report finds padel is evolving beyond the court into a global investment category, with the UK emerging as Europe's most in-demand market and clubs transforming into holistic wellness destinations.

VVV Sports plans £5m raise to boost US padel market push

UK No.1 Christian Medina Murphy is among several British padel players backed by R3 Sport, the athlete management division of VVV Sports. Image credit: VVV Sports.

UK publicly listed business focused on emerging racquet sports is seeking a dual listing on Nasdaq as it plans a major expansion into the US padel market.

Premier Padel launches new mobile game with Red Bull

The game is designed to create a new way for audiences to engage with padel beyond the court. Image credit: Premier Padel.

Players control both members of their pair in real-time online matches while managing their own club in new free-to-play online mobile padel game.

The big hit

The latest exclusive and original in-depth features, interviews and analysis from Padel Business Magazine. Insight you will not find anywhere else.

PBM Insight Report: Padel faces calls for change as it targets mainstream global TV audience

Worldwide attention: Calls are growing for an evolution in how padel is presented on TV and streaming platforms amid the sport’s ambition to become an established global spectator sport.

Premier Padel matches have been broadcast on Red Bull TV since 2024. Image credit: Red Bull TV.

A growing number of broadcasters and media platforms are looking to cash in on padel’s surge in popularity, with a series of deals over recent years struck by the likes of ESPN, Red Bull TV and the UK’s ITV, as well as specialist streaming services such as Padel-TV.

The sport is now looking to build on the expanded coverage to lift its profile worldwide, but faces a series of challenges in establishing itself as a global TV product. Experts within the game are calling for a more broadcast-friendly approach, with visible crowds and more creative camera angles, as well as a greater focus on the best players outside of Spain and Argentina, and the widespread use of English by both broadcasters and players.

Read on to get exclusive insight on the latest developments.

PBM Insight Report by Laura Syrett and Paul Cochrane.

Opinion serving

A trusted perspective from inside the business of padel. Original opinion and on-theme insight from the leaders shaping the sport’s next chapter.

Saidja Drentje: Finding solutions to padel’s broadcasting paradox

Saidja Drentje, partner at global sports strategy consultancy CAA Portas. Image credit: CAA Portas.

As padel’s media landscape evolves at pace, the gap between the sport’s participation growth and its broadcast monetisation is coming under ever closer scrutiny. Here, Saidja Drentje – partner at global sports strategy consultancy CAA Portas, and author of ‘The Racket Sports Race: Tennis And The Advent of Padel & Pickleball’ (January 2026) – draws on his firm’s research across broadcasting, media rights, and commercial strategy to examine the structural challenges facing padel’s broadcast ambitions, the innovations seeking to address them, and what needs to happen next.

A growing number of broadcasters and media platforms are looking to cash in on padel’s surge in popularity, with a series of deals over recent years struck by the likes of ESPN, Red Bull TV and the UK’s ITV, as well as specialist streaming services such as Padel-TV. The sport is now looking to build on the expanded coverage to lift its profile worldwide, but faces a series of challenges in establishing itself as a global TV product. Experts within the game are calling for a more broadcast-friendly approach, with visible crowds and more creative camera angles, as well as a greater focus on the best players outside of Spain and Argentina, and the widespread use of English by both broadcasters and players. PBM Insight Report by Laura Syrett and Paul Cochrane.

The last five years have seen a flurry of broadcast and media deals to show live padel tournaments to the sport’s rapidly growing international community of players and enthusiasts. 

Padel has attracted a combination of mainstream and sports broadcasters with established television channels and viewing platforms, as well as specialist padel-focused media companies, streaming padel live online. Viewing models include both free-to-air and fee-paying subscription agreements. 

Big name broadcasters include the UK’s ITV, which in 2024 signed an exclusive deal with the Hexagon Cup to broadcast the competition live on a free-to-air basis on ITVX, with highlights shown on ITV4. ITV’s UK deal was renewed in 2025 and the broadcaster has continued to air the tournament in 2026. 

Other well-known names include Disney-owned US-based sports broadcaster ESPN, which in 2022 signed a four-year deal with the International Padel Federation (FIP) to broadcast FIP tour matches in South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. 

Another major player is Austria-based Red Bull TV, which since 2024 has broadcast Premier Padel matches throughout the season.

Premier Padel matches have been broadcast on Red Bull TV since 2024. Image credit: Red Bull TV.

Padel-TV looks to build on deals with national federations 

Among the specialist streaming channels dedicated to padel is Swedish media company Padel-TV – a business which started covering Nordic region matches and is gradually expanding its coverage across the globe. 

“Padel is a great TV sport since there is a lot of action in a relatively small area, and we have found a good way of producing cost-effectively with multiple cameras, replays, scoreboard, graphics, commentators and studio,” Johannes Thomhave, CEO of Padel-TV, tells Padel Business Magazine. 

Launched in February 2021, Padel-TV began with a three-year agreement with the Swedish Padel Federation to produce and broadcast the Swedish Padel Tour. It has since signed deals to stream live professional padel matches in Denmark, Norway and the UK.

In March 2025, Padel-TV signed a three-year agreement with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the governing body for tennis and padel in the UK, to produce and exclusively broadcast padel competitions, including the British Padel Tour, Masters Final and the LTA Padel National Championships, along with some FIP tournaments. 

Padel-TV also produced and broadcast the first Americas vs. Europe Intercontinental Cup Competition padel tournament, launched by FIP in 2024 and dubbed ‘the Ryder Cup of padel’, in three languages (English, Spanish and Swedish) and is in discussions with padel leagues in the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Finland and the US.

Johannes Thomhave, CEO of Padel-TV. Image credit: Padel-TV.

The company charges a monthly fee for subscriptions, which Thomhave says is modest at the “equivalent [cost] of renting a court for 15 minutes in most countries”.

When choosing which padel competitions and leagues to partner with, Thomhave explains that Padel-TV looks for padel leagues which are sanctioned by recognised national international or national federations with whom the company can work to help attract and expand audiences. The company also looks for a strong population of professional players with sponsors who see the value in reaching broadcast audiences.

“Underlying market drivers and momentum for padel have to be strong and there has to be a will and understanding from the federation to professionalise and grow the sport together. Then we need a growing set of skilled players that are attracting sponsors and followers and are happy for us to create a platform for them to be seen,” Thomhave says. 

“When these factors align, we know that the padel community is strong and growing and they want to follow their sport in high quality and are willing to pay for it,” he adds.

Padel-TV started covering Nordic region matches and is gradually expanding its coverage across the globe. Image credit: Padel-TV.

Olympic ambitions: a potential gamechanger for padel’s broadcast appeal 

Some padel industry commentators believe that padel’s broadcast appeal would be significantly enhanced if the sport succeeds in FIP’s ambition for it to become an Olympic sport, with a goal of including padel in the Brisbane, Australia, summer Olympics in 2032. 

In March 2026 padel was confirmed as a medal sport in the official programme of the European Games, taking place in Istanbul, Turkey in June 2027, having previously been confirmed as a sport in the Asian Games 2026 in Nagoya, Japan and the Mediterranean Games 2026 in Taranto, Italy. 

“This represents another major event within the Olympic Movement and a fundamental step in the pathway towards the goal of Olympic participation,” FIP said on announcing the decision.

But Thomhave believes greater integration of the international padel scene is needed for padel to enter the top tier of spectator sports and involves reaching an audience beyond the padel-playing community. 

“For the sport to grow even more and become an Olympic sport, everyone [broadcasters and players] has to start speaking English, and international players need to be included,” he says. 

“As the sport grows our audience will grow with it, especially when people not playing padel notice that padel is a great spectator sport,” Thomhave adds. 

Padel finals at the 2023 European Games in Kraków. Image credit: FIP.

Pro Padel League develops range of broadcast and streaming partners

For their part, professional padel leagues and federations are eager to sign broadcast deals that allow them to reach new audiences. As of April 2026, the Pro Padel League (PPL), North America’s professional padel circuit, had 15 broadcast and streaming partners distributing its content across six continents. 

According to Diane Gotua, chief commercial officer for PPL, broadcast deals are essential for transitioning padel from a purely recreational sport into a spectator sport.

“The PPL is getting the sport in front of more eyes, especially in emerging markets like the US,” Gouta tells Padel Business Magazine.

She says the PPL is “actively exploring more mainstream opportunities like our partnership with DAZN”, referring to the company’s first broadcast deal, signed in 2024, with the London, UK-based sport and entertainment streaming service, which streams PPL events live in 200 countries.

Gouta says PPL competitions are available to watch through a “robust global distribution network”, spanning traditional broadcast, streaming platforms, and free online access.

“In the US, last season fans watched PPL content on FanDuel Sports Network, Tennis Channel, Telemundo [an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal], and Tubi,” she says.

Internationally, DAZN carries the PPL across most of the world via its regional partners and every match is also streamed live on the PPL YouTube channel in both English and Spanish, making the league freely accessible to fans worldwide.

Gouta says the PPL is locking in domestic and international partners for 2026 and expects even broader distribution this year compared to last season.

According to Gouta, reach is more important than direct revenue from its broadcast partners. “[We prioritise] distribution and exposure over maximising media rights fees. Streaming deals are a small source of revenue for us – accessibility is what matters most,” she says.

The PPL looks to achieve maximum audience engagement by balancing its broadcast partnerships between those companies with global scale such as DAZN and those with established, engaged audiences like the Tennis Channel in the US.

The Pro Padel League (PPL) has 15 broadcast and streaming partners distributing its content across six continents. Image credit: PPL.

Overcoming hurdles to meet padel’s broadcast product potential 

But while the number of broadcast deals for padel is growing, Philippe Azar, Austria-based owner and founder of TennisHackers, an independent advisory platform focused on the global racquet sports industry, thinks padel has some more work to do to achieve its potential as a broadcast product with an appeal similar to tennis. 

“Unpredictability is television gold, and audience numbers reflect that: tennis reaches around two billion global viewers annually, while padel is still working toward a sustainable broadcast audience,” Azar tells Padel Business Magazine.

Azar notes that while padel has the participation numbers to make for a strong broadcast viewing base, at present it lacks the “stories, personalities and moments” needed to underpin a broadcasted spectator sport with mass appeal.

He suggests padel needs to become more visually broadcast-friendly, with lighter, preferably outdoor, stadium courts in iconic locations and with visible crowds and event-style lighting.

Azar also argues for more creative camera angles – rather than just back of court shots – and player microphones, plus investment in ‘star building’ to bring out padel players’ personalities and rivalries.

Padel-TV’s Thomhave agrees that spectators want to get to know professional players better to help build a broadcast audience following and thinks this should start at a national level.

“We think what the international federation is missing is that the national community are tired of watching the same Spanish and Argentinian players every week – they want to watch their own national heroes. They are much more excited about watching, respectively, Britain’s, Denmark’s and Sweden’s best players than the world elite,” he says.

beIN drives padel broadcast expansion in Middle East

Meanwhile, sports broadcasting in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – has been dominated by Qatar, with the emirate owning a raft of pan-Arab channels, including Alkass Sports Channels (a group of 11 sports channels), which broadcasts in Arabic and English, as well as international channel beIN Sports. 

Both channels covered the 2026 GCC Games, which included padel and were staged in Qatar from 11th to 22nd May despite the recent armed conflict with Iran. 

“beIN has taken the leadership position through all rights acquired for padel,” says Astrid Thams, commercial managing director of the Hexagon Cup. “It’s a positive thing, a strong penetration in the Middle East from a global perspective. Saudi Arabia and the UAE both now host world-class padel events.” 

With padel taking off in the Gulf, a private investor in padel clubs who requested anonymity observes that the region is ripe for “taking it to the next level, with more commercialisation of the sport, more branding, advertising and media outreach. There’s a lot of potential, and there should be more than just Qatari channels broadcasting padel.” 

Thus far, despite padel’s regional popularity, Middle East broadcasters "have also not really commercialised padel, or had the outreach to players and the public to make the sport better known,” says Thams, noting that padel sport infrastructure is lacking, such as larger court facilities that can host a lot of spectators. "More sponsorship and broadcasting deals can help drive padel in the region,” she says.

Astrid Thams, commercial managing director of the Hexagon Cup.

Saudi Arabia is a case in point, with the Saudi Padel Committee (SPC) only becoming an official federation two years ago, following its 2021 launch. Mogren Al Mogren, president of the SPC, says: “In terms of broadcasting, padel is still not mature in our region, although Qatar and the UAE are ahead of us. The federation is only two years old, and padel has only existed in the kingdom since 2018, with private clubs. But we have created the BSF League, and have sponsors.” 

The SPC does not yet have any broadcasting contracts. It live streams events on its YouTube and TikTok channels, while Saudi broadcaster Riyadiya TV (KSA Sports TV) broadcast two padel tournaments in 2025. National-level events featuring padel are broadcast on the Saudi National Olympic Committee’s streaming channel.  

European-based streaming channels have approached the SPC to cover tournaments but required payment – so no deal thus far. “Hopefully, there will be a sponsorship model like Premier Padel has with Red Bull, which is what all federations are aiming for, to have companies come and pay us for broadcasting. That will take time and investment,” says Al Mogren. 

Hexagon strategy focused on regional awareness

At a more international level, Saudi Arabia is involved in padel tournaments through the sports and entertainment agency 54, which received investment from Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

In 2025, 54 teamed up with the Hexagon Cup and FIP to create the Hexagon World Series, a global professional circuit governed by FIP and aimed at complementing Premier Padel and the Cupra FIP Tour, with broadcast potential.

However, given the nascency of the sport in the Gulf, Thams says Hexagon is not yet seeking exclusive contracts or pay-per-view deals. “Maximum exposure would be through a combination of live and streaming coverage, such as on Saudi channel MBC and its streaming platform, on beIN Sports and its streaming platform, and on UAE channels Dubai Sports and Abu Dhabi Sports. It would be a network of agreements to make sure there is wide coverage,” says Thams.

The strategy is focused on regional awareness, spearheaded by Hexagon’s own YouTube channel, whose viewership grew 250% last year on 2024, with 7.6 million viewers worldwide. “It’s also important to assess audience data to understand the demographics,” says Thams.

Hexagon has also developed short videos, not longer than 60 seconds, without any language used to reach an international audience. “Through reels and shorts on YouTube, we managed to increase non-Spanish-speaking audiences to 29% of our YouTube views so far in 2026 compared with 10% in 2025, which reflects a trend in the market,” says Thams.

The Hexagon Cup has tie-ups with the eight teams in the tournament, including Team AD/vantage, which is co-owned by tennis star Sir Andy Murray, boxer Anthony Joshua and AD Global Sports, which was founded by Arran Yentob and Dani Vallverdú, who was Sir Andy’s former coach.

“We capitalise on celebrities from other sports to make sure we can bring padel not only to our fans, but to benefit from their fan base, and their digital impact. We had over 86 million video views from the Cup event,” says Thams.

Celebrity owners are not paid to attend tournaments. “Rather than being a model where celebrities are paid to participate, it works the other way around: they are involved as team owners and are investing in the competition,” she says.

For Hexagon Cup and Series events, “the idea is that the money will come through sponsors, media deals and venues, and goes down from there,” Thams explains. For now, she adds: “There’s still a way to go with how big a business padel will be. But the more successful an event is, the more the money will trickle down in different areas, from prize money to media broadcasting.”

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As padel’s media landscape evolves at pace, the gap between the sport’s participation growth and its broadcast monetisation is coming under ever closer scrutiny. Here, Saidja Drentje – partner at global sports strategy consultancy CAA Portas, and author of ‘The Racket Sports Race: Tennis And The Advent of Padel & Pickleball’ (January 2026) – draws on his firm’s research across broadcasting, media rights, and commercial strategy to examine the structural challenges facing padel’s broadcast ambitions, the innovations seeking to address them, and what needs to happen next.

On the surface, padel’s broadcasting moment has arrived. According to the International Padel Federation (FIP), the sport has more than 35 million global players – a 133% increase since 2020, while Premier Padel’s 2026 season spans 26 tournaments across 18 countries, with nearly 75% held indoors.

In 2025, worldwide broadcast viewership for Premier Padel grew 30% year-on-year, with the tour now reaching 244 territories. Heineken has signed on as its first-ever global beer partner. WHOOP has committed to a three-year wearable technology deal. And in August, padel’s elite tour arrives in London for the first time, taking over the £1.3bn-transformed Olympia.

Yet beneath these encouraging headlines lies a paradox. In our CAA Portas Global Racket Sports Report, published in January 2026, we identified broadcasting as the single biggest bottleneck standing between padel’s participation boom and its commercial maturation.

Four months on, that diagnosis still holds. The question is no longer whether padel can get on screens – it is whether it can keep people watching, and whether it can monetise that attention at scale.

Saidja Drentje, partner at global sports strategy consultancy CAA Portas. Image credit: CAA Portas.

A broadcast architecture built in record time

The speed at which padel has assembled a credible global distribution infrastructure deserves recognition. Red Bull TV, as the primary free-to-access streaming partner for Premier Padel under a deal running up to 2027, covers all 26 tournament stops from quarter-finals to finals. A paid Premier Padel TV subscription offers all rounds with multilingual commentary.

The CUPRA FIP Tour streams free via FIP TV. beIN’s February 2026 deal spans 39 territories across MENA, Turkey, Asia-Pacific, and North America, covering both the Premier Padel tour and the FIP World Cup.

The strategic significance is worth noting: beIN is owned by Qatar Sports Investments, the same entity that controls Premier Padel and whose flag carrier Qatar Airways is the tour’s title sponsor. This vertical integration of ownership, operation, and distribution mirrors a model familiar from other Gulf-backed sports properties.

The Hexagon Cup’s evolution into the Hexagon World Series – through a partnership with 54, the agency behind LIV Golf, and FIP, backed by Saudi PIF investment – adds a team-based format to the professional calendar. DAZN distributes globally (free-to-air), while FanCode has secured exclusive rights in India.

In North America, the Pro Padel League is taking a different approach entirely: building a franchise-based league explicitly designed as a media product, with distribution already reaching an estimated 300 million households.

A comparison with Major League Soccer (MLS) is instructive. MLS became valuable not because it competed with the Premier League or LaLiga for the same global audience, but because it created appointment viewing for a domestic American audience that did not care about European football.

If the PPL can do the same for padel in the US – creating a broadcast product that stands independently of Premier Padel – it unlocks a second monetisation pathway in the world’s most valuable media market.

The Pro Padel League (PPL) is building a franchise-based league explicitly designed as a media product. Image credit: PPL.

The structural challenges that distribution alone cannot solve

Distribution is necessary, but it is not sufficient. In our report, we mapped five structural challenges constraining padel’s broadcast appeal. These persist – and one additional problem has become harder to ignore.

Camera angles and visual intimacy
Padel’s enclosed court dimensions restrict camera positions. Most broadcasts default to wide, overhead angles that capture tactics but lose the close-up drama and player personality that drive emotional investment.

Tennis benefits from diverging styles, surface variety, singles-versus-doubles variation, and clear one-on-one momentum swings. The deployment of Ease Live’s interactive overlays on Red Bull TV’s coverage of Premier Padel – featuring real-time stats, fan polls, and educational explainer videos – is a smart attempt to compensate, but it addresses the symptom rather than the structural constraint.

Ease Live’s interactive overlays feature on Red Bull TV’s coverage of Premier Padel. Image credit: Ease Live.

Audio, atmosphere, and the empty-stadium problem
The enclosed glass-and-wall structure creates echo effects that reduce broadcast audio quality, and 75% of the 2026 Premier Padel tour being indoors offers better production control. But there is a more fundamental atmosphere challenge that the industry needs to confront: outside of weekend sessions, Premier Padel venues are often visibly empty.

The tour is doing an excellent job diversifying its global footprint, but midweek rounds at half-empty arenas undermine the broadcast product. Empty seats are devastating on camera. Every sport that has scaled its media rights has solved the attendance problem first – whether through pricing, scheduling, or venue right-sizing. Padel needs to do the same.

Star power and narrative depth
Padel’s biggest name, Ale Galán, has 680,000 social media followers; Nadal has 21.6 million. There are early signs of commercial recognition – in January 2026 world number one Arturo Coello signed with Swiss performance brand On, its first move into padel, with a co-designed padel shoe planned for 2027 – but individual endorsement deals do not yet translate into mainstream name recognition.

The WHOOP partnership with Premier Padel, embedding player physiological data into broadcast narratives, is a step forward. But fundamentally, the sport has not yet produced its Drive to Survive moment.

Formula 1 was struggling to reach younger and American audiences until Netflix’s documentary series transformed its cultural relevance, driving a reported 70% increase in US viewership. Tennis has responded with Break Point and Carlos Alcaraz: My Way. Padel has no equivalent – no major documentary or scripted production on Netflix, Amazon, or HBO.

The raw material is there: the sport’s rise from a niche Iberian pastime to a global phenomenon, the rivalries, the Gulf investment, the Olympic bid. Someone needs to tell that story at scale.

Padel’s biggest name, Ale Galán, has 680,000 social media followers. Image credit: FIP.

Nationality concentration and the language barrier
All ten of the world’s top-ranked male players come from Spain or Argentina, constraining the national-pride viewership that is one of the most powerful audience-building mechanisms in sport.

But there is a subtler dimension to this problem that is often overlooked: the sport’s entire storytelling infrastructure – player interviews, coaching content, social media, post-match analysis – operates predominantly in Spanish.

For the English-speaking markets where padel is growing fastest – such as the UK, US, Australia and India – this creates a narrative barrier that persists even when distribution is solved.

You can put the match on every screen in Britain, but if viewers cannot connect with the players’ personalities because the content ecosystem speaks a different language, the emotional investment that sustains broadcast audiences does not form.

The UK’s surge to 860,000 players and 1,553 courts is extraordinary at the participation level, but until both the professional pipeline and the content infrastructure diversify beyond the Iberian and Latin American base, the viewership ceiling remains lower than participation alone would suggest. 

The monetisation gap – and the missing piece

Tennis generates around $0.7bn in annual commercial rights revenue – itself dramatically under-monetised versus the NFL ($10bn+), Premier League and NBA ($5–10bn), or UEFA Champions League ($2–5bn).

Padel sits lower still, with private equity and venture capital investment into the sport totalling around $190m since 2023 and total event viewership reaching approximately 19 million across more than 120 countries. The arrival of Heineken – a brand synonymous with Champions League and F1 sponsorship – signals growing commercial confidence. But sponsorship follows audience, and the audience depends on the broadcast product.

The arrival of Heineken as a Premier Padel sponsor signals growing commercial confidence in the sport. Image credit: Premier Padel.

Key role for betting and fantasy

There is also an uncomfortable truth that the padel industry has largely avoided discussing: the role of betting and fantasy in driving broadcast engagement.

Every major sport that has cracked premium broadcast value – football, American football, basketball, cricket, tennis – has done so with a symbiotic relationship between live broadcasting and betting markets. 

Real-time wagering creates a reason to watch every point, not just the highlights. Padel does not have that infrastructure yet. By making match durations more predictable, Premier Padel’s new Star Point system is inadvertently creating a prerequisite for live betting products – bookmakers need schedulable windows and consistent game structures to offer in-play markets. 

Whether or not the sport’s stakeholders choose to actively pursue this relationship, they should recognise that the absence of a betting ecosystem is a structural gap in padel’s monetisation architecture compared to every sport it aspires to compete with commercially.

Premier Padel’s new Star Point system is inadvertently creating a prerequisite for live betting products. Image credit: Premier Padel.

Format innovation as the bridge

The Star Point scoring system, unanimously approved by the FIP General Assembly and implemented from the 2026 Riyadh P1, is the most consequential rule change in professional padel’s history.

By capping games at a maximum of three deuces before a decisive point, it addresses broadcast’s oldest operational problem: duration unpredictability. FIP president Luigi Carraro cited a women’s quarter-final game lasting 18.5 minutes under the old system that would have resolved in just over four. For schedulers, arena operators, and broadcasters, this is material. And as noted above, it also lays the groundwork for the live betting products that drive sustained viewership in other sports.

The Hexagon World Series team format – fronted by celebrity owners including Sir Andy Murray, Robert Lewandowski, Eva Longoria, and Anthony Joshua – is doing what the Laver Cup has done for tennis: creating a made-for-television spectacle designed to attract viewers who may never have watched padel. The involvement of 54, with its experience building LIV Golf from scratch into a media property, signals serious production ambition. Generali Group has signed on as title sponsor, and DAZN’s free-to-air global distribution ensures maximum reach.

(Left to right) Gary Davidson, group chief operating officer at 54, Enrique Buenaventura, founder of the Hexagon Cup, and Luigi Carraro, president of FIP, at the launch of the Hexagon World Series in London in December 2025. Image credit: FIP.

What will determine whether the gap closes

First, commission padel’s equivalent of Drive to Survive
The raw material is compelling: a sport that barely existed outside Spain a decade ago, now backed by Qatari and Saudi sovereign wealth, with an Olympic bid live, celebrity team owners, and a participation explosion across 150 countries.

The women’s game offers particularly rich territory – Gemma Triay and Delfina Brea’s dominance, the reshuffle of the top pairings for 2026, and the sport’s 40% female participation rate (among the highest in global sport) are stories that resonate far beyond the padel community. No major streaming platform has yet told any of them. Whoever does will create the cultural breakthrough that converts casual awareness into sustained viewership – exactly as Netflix did for Formula 1.

Second, solve the attendance problem before it becomes a broadcast problem
The London P1 at Olympia in August 2026 is the right kind of test: a world-class venue in a market with 860,000 players, delivered by Sela with LTA support.

Running alongside it, London Padel Week – a collaboration between Padel Consulting and Padel Travel X – will create pop-up courts, coaching clinics, and social events around the city, giving players the chance to play and then watch the world’s best.

This matters because, as operators across the industry increasingly recognise, tournaments in emerging markets need to feel like a day out, not just a series of matches. The Australian Open has mastered this – world-class sport as the anchor, surrounded by an experience that stands on its own even when the match doesn’t deliver.

Padel needs that same thinking applied to every stop on the Premier Padel tour. If the London P1 fills seats and delivers compelling broadcast content, it becomes the template. But the sport also needs to address midweek attendance across the calendar – through creative pricing, scheduling, right-sizing venues, or building the kind of fan culture that makes Tuesday’s quarter-final as compelling as Sunday’s final. 

The Premier Padel London P1 at Olympia in August 2026 offers a test case for padel’s broadcast potential. Image credit: LTA.

Third, pursue Olympic inclusion as the single most powerful viewership accelerator
Our research shows a 60% uplift in sponsorship revenue for new Olympic sports, an eight-million social media follower increase for individual athletes, and a 75% surge in sports-related social posts.

Padel’s governance is IOC-ready: FIP has 87+ national member federations, ARISF status, European Games inclusion since 2023, and the sport will debut at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games – another critical milestone on the Olympic pathway.

The Star Point system aligns explicitly with IOC innovation objectives. The Brisbane 2032 timeline is live. And the women’s tour, with Triay and Brea’s dominant nine-title 2025 season attracting growing broadcast interest, offers a powerful narrative for Olympic inclusion in an era when the IOC prioritises gender equity. If padel secures a place, the broadcasting challenge transforms entirely.

The participation story is settled. The facility story is accelerating. The commercial story is gaining momentum – with Heineken, WHOOP, Red Bull, Qatar Airways all invested. But the broadcasting story is still being written. Padel has 35 million players. It has 244 broadcast territories. What it does not yet have is the broadcast product, the cultural content, or the betting infrastructure that turns distribution into dollars. The decisions being made in 2026 – on content, on attendance, on format, on monetisation architecture – will determine whether that changes.

·       Saidja Drentje is a partner at CAA Portas, a global strategy consultancy dedicated to sport, where he leads its racquet sports and golf advisory practices from Dubai. He is the author of ‘The Racket Sports Race: Tennis and The Advent of Padel & Pickleball’ (January 2026) and ‘India Padel Report: Navigating Asia’s next boom’ (May 2026). A former competitive tennis player who represented the Netherlands at junior level, he also founded Club Padel Dubai, providing both advisory and operator-side experience in the sport.

The full CAA Portas Global Racket Sports Report is available upon request.

Contact: saidja.drentje@caaportas.com Website: caaportas.com


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Premier Padel and Red Bull have launched Red Bull Padel: Court Legends, a new free-to-play online mobile game inspired by the world of professional padel. 

Available globally on iOS and Android, Premier Padel claims the game combines competitive online gameplay with the structure, atmosphere and identity of the professional tour to create a new way for audiences to engage with the world’s fastest-growing sport beyond the court.

Inspired by the ecosystem of the Premier Padel tour, Red Bull Padel: Court Legends allows players to compete in real-time online matches while building and managing their own club.

Progression follows a clear competitive path, starting with entry-level Friendly League competitions through to P2 and P1 tournaments, ultimately reaching the prestigious Majors. Players control both members of their pair during matches, recreating the tactical and dynamic nature of the sport through volleys, lobs, smashes and defensive recoveries, alongside rankings, leaderboards and special in-game events throughout the season.

The game is designed to create a new way for audiences to engage with padel beyond the court. Image credit: Premier Padel.

The game also marks the first time professional padel players are featured within a mobile video game, which Premier Padel says represents another step in the continued global positioning and visibility of the sport’s athletes beyond the court.

Red Bull athletes Bea González, Alejandro Galán and Juan Lebrón appear in the game as coaches, with Delfi Brea set to join in a future update, designed to help bring fans closer to some of the sport’s biggest personalities through the new digital platform.

Official gear and equipment from leading brands across the professional padel ecosystem, including Wilson and Bullpadel, are also featured throughout the game.

“The launch of Red Bull Padel: Court Legends represents another step in Premier Padel and Red Bull’s shared ambition to expand the sport’s reach beyond traditional audiences and platforms, connecting fans around the  world with the players, atmosphere and competitive journey that continue driving padel’s rapid international  growth,” Premier Padel said.

Red Bull: Court Legends is available for download for free on Android and iOS from the App Store and Google Play.

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VVV Sports, a UK publicly listed sports, media and entertainment business focused on building infrastructure around padel and other emerging racquet sports, has announced plans to raise fresh investment of around £5m as it targets a significant push into the US padel market.

VVV, which is listed on the UK’s Aquis Exchange for growing companies, says the targeted proceeds will be used to fund the company's US expansion, as well as working capital and further investment in its subsidiaries and other new opportunities.

The company intends to seek a dual listing on the Nasdaq Global Market in the US, whilst retaining its listing on Aquis following completion of the placing, which is expected to close by the end of June 2026. VVV says it is intended the placing will be undertaken with a small group of existing and new investors.

VVV, founded and chaired by British entrepreneur Jonathan Rowland, says proceeds of the placing will be used in the US market to:

·       Progress plans for a US Padel Centre of Excellence in New York

·       Establish VVV USA, which will be the company’s US operating entity, due to be based in Miami

·       Launch VVV Sport Book Inc., a sports betting and prediction markets platform

·       Roll out the R3 Bullpadel Cup into the US market

The VVV board believes the company is well-positioned to capitalise on significant growth opportunities in padel and pickleball, particularly in the US, where it notes demand for infrastructure across both sports substantially exceeds current supply.

UK No.1 Christian Medina Murphy is among several British padel players backed by R3 Sport, the athlete management division of VVV Sports. Image credit: VVV Sports.

The firm also has ambitions in other global markets, and says proceeds from the raise will be used for the continued development of plans for the Abu Dhabi Padel Centre of Excellence (ADPCE), which it is seeking to develop in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Project and Infrastructure Company (ADPIC).

The project, which forms a central part of Abu Dhabi's five-year national padel strategy, is one of the most ambitious planned padel facilities in the world, with a projected size of 55,000sqm, and an investment of over £120m due to be delivered within the next two years.

Proceeds from the planned £5m raise will also be used for the production of new premium content, including a six-part docuseries in development with Amazon Prime, as well as wider investment across other media and content, events and infrastructure.

VVV operates across five divisions:

·       athlete management (R3 Sport)

·       events and activations (TOPSERIES Pickleball and the R3 Bullpadel Cup)

·       infrastructure (Global Padel Centres of Excellence)

·       media and content (Windswept and Groovy)

·       brands and commerce (exclusive Bullpadel equipment distribution)

Through its subsidiary MRH Sport Ltd, VVV holds the exclusive right to distribute Bullpadel equipment in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The company says it is finalising terms for the distribution of Bullpadel equipment in other markets for 2026. Bullpadel is an official partner of Premier Padel.

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The latest edition of the Playtomic Global Padel Report has revealed new figures underlining padel's continued global expansion, and has concluded that the sport is “transforming from a fast-growing leisure activity into a recognised investment category, a real estate asset class and a holistic wellness destination”.

According to the 2026 edition of the report, which is produced with Strategy&, PwC's strategy consulting arm, padel’s global growth remains strong, with nearly 5,000 new clubs and almost 8,000 new courts added worldwide in 2025 alone, bringing the global total to more than 20,900 clubs, 58,300 courts and 19.4 million players.

The report forecasts the global market to reach approximately 91,000 courts by 2028.

For the first time, the report classifies markets into five archetypes by maturity and demand quality. The UK and Germany are identified as ‘Hotspot markets’, characterised by demand consistently outpacing supply and strong unit economics attracting institutional capital.

According to the report, the UK has grown at an 86% compound annual growth rate since 2021, with around 85% average court occupancy, and approximately half of all UK players reporting difficulty booking a court at peak times.

The US is classified as a ‘Diamond in the Rough’, a high-potential early-stage market with the highest average booking price in the world at €92 per session, and significant long-term upside as structural barriers progressively ease.

Pablo Carro, co-founder and CCO of Playtomic, said: "Padel is no longer just a sport. The data and insights from our platform make clear that this is a global business attracting serious investment, reshaping real estate and redefining what a sports club can be.

“With nearly 20 million players worldwide and markets like the UK and Germany growing at extraordinary pace, the opportunity ahead is the most compelling in sport today."

Miren Tellería, partner and real estate sector lead at PwC, added: "The sports industry is progressively attracting greater attention from investors, and padel is emerging as one of the disciplines gaining traction as an investment opportunity thanks to its strong growth and the solid performance of its fundamentals.”

Nearly 5,000 new padel clubs and almost 8,000 new courts were added worldwide in 2025 alone, according to the report. Image credit: Playtomic.

Padel emerges as a real estate and investment asset

This year's report includes a new section focused on padel as a real estate asset. It notes that sports-related real estate has moved from a niche category to a recognised investment area, with institutional funds, developers and family offices actively deploying capital into padel-backed projects.

“Global real estate advisory firms including JLL and CBRE have created dedicated sports and entertainment real estate practices,” it states. “Padel courts are increasingly integrated into residential developments, hospitality assets and mixed-use schemes as standard amenities.

“In Portugal, the Quinta do Lago sports-residential development has delivered approximately 30% residential value appreciation alongside owner retention rates above 75%, driven in part by its padel-anchored sports masterplan.”

The report also points to a “fundamental shift” in how clubs operate, with nine out of ten top-performing clubs now offering off-court services including fitness classes, sauna and recovery facilities, social events and food and beverage.

The data also shows that top-performing clubs generate up to five times more booking revenue per court per month than bottom performers.

“Clubs are evolving from court-booking utilities into holistic wellness destinations, functioning as third spaces where players gather before and after play,” the report concludes.

Additional findings include:

· Nearly 5,000 new padel clubs opened globally in 2025, averaging nearly 14 new clubs per day

· 7,898 new padel courts were built globally in 2025, averaging nearly 22 new courts per day

· France added more courts than any other country in 2025, with 1,142 new courts

· Indonesia added approximately 800 courts in 2025, driven by major metropolitan hubs and niche resort locations

· The global padel equipment market reached €598m in 2025, growing at a 34% CAGR since 2019

The full 2026 Playtomic Global Padel Report is now available to download at https://playtomic.com/global-padel-report.

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Organisers of the 2026 Padel World Summit, held on 26th to 28th May in Barcelona, have announced that this year’s edition attracted 7,208 attendees, 20% more than last year, of which more than half were international.

New trends and products from across the padel industry were showcased by 140 exhibitors from more than 30 countries at the third edition of the event, its largest to date, which was jointly organised by Fira de Barcelona and the International Padel Cluster in Hall 6 of the Gran Via venue.

The Investor & Business Forum hosted 1,175 business meetings, of which 293 were part of the Hosted Buyers programme, designed to gather international buyers and investors with high decision-making capacity.

The exhibition space was 34% larger than in 2025, with the most prominent companies including Padel Nuestro, Skechers Padel, Playtomic, HIT-X by Padelgest and Realturf, alongside major brands such as Adidas, Joma, Head, Babolat, Lusotendas, Endless, TenCate Grass, Mondo, LED Projects, Matchi and Okatent.

Padel World Summit director Àlex Ponseti said the 2026 edition “has broken all previous records, highlighting the need of the padel sector to have a first-class international trade fair that drives the significant business opportunities presented by this sport, fosters alliances between professionals and promotes innovation across all fields”.

The exhibition space at the 2026 Padel World Summit was 34% larger than in 2025. Image credit: Padel World Summit.

Padel Galis rewards leading startups

Innovation played a central role at the event through the Innovation Arena, sponsored by Padel Galis, which brought together 20 startups. The space showcased solutions ranging from the first-ever padel videogame to pressurisers designed to extend the lifespan of balls.

A jury comprised of investors and representatives of Padel World Summit and Padel Galis selected the three best startups. First prize went to VAM-OS, a finance and operations platform for clubs that offers real-time visibility of profitability and cash flow.

Second place went to CourtBrain, a neutral shot detection system that integrates multiple tracking solutions into a single tool.

Third place was awarded to Bopa, a ball re-pressurisation solution designed for club rental use, combining sustainability with operational efficiency.

The Innovation Stage also hosted leading international investors, including Alan Flatt (InvestTrek Capital), Ali Al Arif (SPADREC Investment Group), Hale Yildiz (Lumia Partners) and Oriol Cortada (Tripelsum Investments), who discussed the key factors in financing the next generation of padel clubs worldwide.

Meanwhile, Diego Campos (Sunrise Capital), Koen Bosma (APEX Capital), Anton Brams (Mindspring Padel) and Álvaro Ruiz Cotorro (AO Ventures) addressed investment opportunities in emerging padel-related technology companies.

The Innovation Arena, sponsored by Padel Galis, brought together 20 startups. Image credit: Padel World Summit.

Conference addresses key industry topics

The Padel Global Conference addressed key industry topics through a diverse range of speakers. Pedro Claveria, co-founder and CSO of Playtomic, explained how open APIs are transforming clubs into connected businesses. Astrid Thams, commercial managing director of Hexagon, presented the evolution of the Hexagon Cup into a global team-based padel competition.

Australian actor Darren McMullen, founder of Racquet Club, shared his commitment to bringing padel to Australia through innovative and effective commercial initiatives.

Abigail McCulloch, included in Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30 Sports’ list and founder of Alma Padel in Chicago, provided the perspective of a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Ben Hanley, responsible for the development of padel within the British Armed Forces, introduced a unique model of social and sporting integration between service members and their families.

In addition, the venue was transformed into a large indoor padel club, with ten courts installed by Padelgest, Euronix, Padel Alba, AFP Courts, Padel Galis, GreenSet, Pòrtico Sport, Padel Tech, Cent pour Cent Padel and Padel Lab.

Renowned figures such as Argentine player Fernando Belasteguín – considered the greatest player in the history of padel – and Spanish player Carolina Navarro, who held the world number one spot on the World Padel Tour for nine years, took part in activities on court.

The fourth edition of Padel World Summit will take place from 4th to 6th May 2027 at Fira de Barcelona.

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Hi everyone,

Welcome to the latest edition of PBM Monthly.

We are here for the people building the business of padel. Every month, we bring you the stories that matter most: sharp reporting, expert opinion, and original insights you won’t find anywhere else.

Inside this issue: four major news stories, one strong opinion piece, and one big read that dives deep into this month’s defining theme – tournament economics and event management in padel.

Enjoy the read!

The PBM Team

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Net news

Diving into the major news stories shaping this month’s theme and beyond: curated reporting and global headlines driving the business of padel forward.

WPN report: Search interest in padel up 121% in UK and 72% in US

Worldwide interest in padel grew by 1,026% between 2004 and 2025, comparing annual averages, according to the Padel Global Search Report 2026. Image credit: Adobe Stock.

The Padel Global Search Report 2026 from World Padel Network reveals that global search interest in padel rose by 49% in 2025.

Serena Williams enters padel court as new Heineken 0.0 ambassador

Serena Williams joined as a last-minute ‘stand-in’ teammate with padel players who had booked through the Open Match by Heineken 0.0 feature on Playtomic. Image credit: Heineken.

To launch the multi-year partnership, Serena surprised unexpecting padel players in Miami with a game followed by a post-match Heineken 0.0.

SFIA report: Padel surpasses 1 million players in the US

The SFIA report counted 1,073,000 Americans who played padel in 2025. Image credit: USPA.

Landmark national study tracks padel for the first time, with the USPA saying it confirms the sport’s arrival in the American mainstream.

PadelStars targets 50% female participation with ex-LTA No 1 Ellie Tait 

Ellie Tait (centre) with PadelStars founder Andy Knee (left) and COO Jeevan Gill (right). Image credit: PadelStars.

Former LTA No 1 Ellie Tait has become a PadelStars player ambassador as the UK operator aims for 50% female participation across its venues by 2027.

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The latest exclusive and original in-depth features, interviews and analysis from Padel Business Magazine. Insight you will not find anywhere else.

PBM Insight Report: Padel tournament strategies evolve amid growing appeal for players and operators

Peak performance: Competitive padel events at all levels present significant opportunities for organisers, clubs as well as players. 

For 2026, the Premier Padel tour has expanded to 26 tournaments across 18 countries. Image credit: Premier Padel.

With the number and scale of padel tournaments expanding at pace globally, both professional and amateur competitive events are helping drive the sport’s development, raise its profile and attract new players, while also increasing revenues for operators.

As padel’s growth continues, event organisers, venues and clubs are all looking to cash in. But amid the sport’s expansion, what are the best strategies for establishing and expanding different types of padel tournament, and how does it vary across key growth regions like the US, UK and Middle East, and more mature markets such as Spain?

Read on to get exclusive insight on the latest developments.

PBM Insight Report by Laura Syrett and Paul Cochrane.

Opinion serving

A trusted perspective from inside the business of padel. Original opinion and on-theme insight from the leaders shaping the sport’s next chapter.

Andrew Herring: Lessons from the front lines of US padel tournaments

Andrew Herring, co-founder of PATL. Image credit: PATL.

Amid the rapid growth of padel in the US, tournaments have become a central part of the sport’s development, giving new opportunities to both elite and local players of all abilities.

Yet hosting the events comes with a myriad of challenges, ranging from logistics to player participation and sponsorship deals. Hosting two major tournaments annually – the Atlanta Padel Open and WPR end of year finals in Charleston – the US padel operator PATL has firsthand experience of building and scaling padel tournaments in the country.

Here, PATL co-founder Andrew Herring shares insights on what works and what doesn’t across planning, organising and hosting, and explores how tournaments play a vital role in building a padel community.

With the number and scale of padel tournaments expanding at pace globally, both professional and amateur competitive events are helping drive the sport’s development, raise its profile and attract new players, while also increasing revenues for operators. As padel’s growth continues, event organisers, venues and clubs are all looking to cash in. But amid the sport’s expansion, what are the best strategies for establishing and expanding different types of padel tournament, and how does it vary across key growth regions like the US, UK and Middle East, and more mature markets such as Spain? PBM Insight Report by Laura Syrett and Paul Cochrane.

Padel clubs across booming growth markets such as the US and UK, as well as established markets like Spain, are increasingly turning to tournaments and competitive events as revenue drivers and structured ways of engaging a growing padel-playing population. 

The earning potential of tournaments is partly borne out by a surge in numbers, with an increasing number of clubs looking to host more competitive events. 

The International Padel Federation (FIP)’s World Padel Report 2025 noted that the number of FIP-organised tournaments alone jumped to 290 in 49 countries last year, up from 182 in 36 countries in 2024.

For 2026, the Premier Padel tour has expanded to 26 tournaments across 18 countries, with nearly 75% indoors. In 2025 there were 24 tournaments across 16 countries.

Meanwhile, according to the United States Padel Association (USPA)’s annual report for 2025, along with surging membership and club numbers in the US, the association sanctioned 104 open padel tournaments in 2025, more than doubling the 48 events hosted in 2024. At the middle of April, the USPA’s 2026 schedule had 255 events, with more being added each month.

Experts say the appeal of hosting tournaments to clubs is their potential to deliver one-off high profit margins from entry fees, ticket sales, commercial partnerships and hospitality. They also benefit from the longer-term ‘community-building’ benefits of events that clubs are keen to cultivate, boosting and maintaining high court occupancy levels outside of competitions. 

For 2026, the Premier Padel tour has expanded to 26 tournaments across 18 countries. Image credit: Premier Padel.

Tournaments a major source of income for padel industry

According to Alicante, Spain-based padel court construction and installation company MejorSet, the official court provider of Premier Padel, tournaments are already a major source of income for the padel industry. 

“For clubs and investors, tournaments are no longer just visibility, they’re a revenue engine and part of their growth strategy,” says a company spokesperson. 

MejorSet notes that as tournaments become part of clubs’ business models, this is driving demand for courts that are designed, tested and approved for high-performance competition – meaning that tournaments boost business activity and revenue throughout the padel supply chain. 

“Today, well-structured padel tournaments can generate six to seven figures [in US dollars or euros] annually across entry fees, sponsorship and brand activations, increased court occupancy, food and beverage uplift and media exposure and long-term memberships,” the company adds. 

Significant investment costs

Investment costs to create international tournament-standard courts are significant, due to demands about court surfaces, such as FIP-compliant high-quality, short-pile synthetic turf filled with silica sand for consistent, controlled ball bounce and player traction.

Also, according to guidelines from padel’s UK governing body the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), tournament play may require an increased height of court screens (glass and mesh panels) to accommodate professional level shots, of four metres, compared to three-metre-high screens for recreational courts.

Additionally, clubs need to ensure that player and spectator facilities, including dressing rooms, must be of sufficient quality. However, many clubs calculate that the returns are worth the outlay. 

MejorSet highlighted the example of Padel 4 Maroc, a recently-completed, FIP-approved 10-court premium MejorSet club in Casablanca, Morocco, established to host regular tournaments and cash in on the growing popularity of padel in Morocco, which as of 2026 has been included as a stop on the Cupra FIP Tour of international tournaments.

Padel 4 Maroc, a recently-completed, FIP-approved 10-court premium MejorSet club in Casablanca, Morocco. Image credit: Padel 4 Maroc.

Big prize money pots across professional circuit

Several professional padel tournaments offer big prize money pots, such as the national and international events organised by professional padel bodies like FIP, whose Madrid-based Hexagon Cup offers a prize pool of €1.2 million.

Meanwhile, the Pro Padel League, North America’s first professional padel circuit, offers six-figure US dollar cash prizes to be shared by winners of individual tournaments, with a total prize pool of more than $1 million across tournaments in 2026/27.

And the UK’s LTA Padel National League offers prizes ranging from a few thousand GBP for LTA events to €150,000 for top-grade LTA-hosted FIP tournaments.

There are also amateur community-based tournaments organised by clubs or local sponsors where non-professional players compete for fun, such as the LTA ‘Grade 5 Local Tour’ events, which are aimed at beginners and held regularly at local venues across the UK, with entries accepted on a first come, first served basis and World Padel Quest events held in cities across Europe and open to amateur players of all levels.

In the latter category, one format gaining popularity in fast-growing padel markets is the ‘Padel Americano’ – a round-robin doubles format where players rotate partners and opponents every round. Unlike a traditional knockout or league padel tournament format, every player competes individually and points are accumulated personally across all rounds, and the player with the most points at the end wins the tournament. 

 The Madrid-based Hexagon Cup offers a prize pool of €1.2 million. Image credit: Hexagon Cup.

Structured calendar essential to build player and spectator community

Julián Romaguera, an independent executive adviser to sports clubs based in Marbella, Spain, tells Padel Business Magazine that “a structured calendar of leagues, social activities and events such as tournaments” are essential to building the player and spectator community padel clubs need for sustainable profitability. 

He notes that social tournament formats allow for maximum court occupancy and high utilisation of club facilities such as onsite retail and catering. 

According to Alessandro Corti, co-founder and CEO of London-based Padel Consulting, the key to monetising tournaments is to turn them into “experiences”, for example with music and Prosecco offerings, rather than just competitions. 

Alessandro Di Stefano, CEO and founder of Padel Travel and a global padel consultant based in Andalucia, Spain, says that both professional and amateur padel tournaments can attract padel-playing tourists and with them an influx of revenue for padel clubs. 

He observes that one of the ways clubs can monetise tournaments is through “trips linked to major professional events, where travellers watch top players live and combine this with some on-court activity”. 

While Spain remains the main destination for professional tournaments, Di Stefano notes that other international tour stops are becoming more relevant.  

“There are amateur tournaments also attracting international players … mainly in Spain,” he adds. 

Di Stefano thinks the key to turning destination tournaments into major money spinners is to make these tournaments “clear and recognisable offers” to a willing market of spectators and players through better communication about the events. 

He says that clubs need to “use tournaments and events as travel drivers, not just competitions”. 

Social tournament formats allow for maximum court occupancy and high utilisation of club facilities. Image credit: Adobe Stock.

Learning from tennis about monetising tournaments

Miguel Coelho, founding partner of US padel court designer and supplier APMX, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, tells Padel Business Magazine that padel should learn from tennis about how to monetise tournaments. 

“There is a small but growing segment of amateur tournaments, exhibition events or pro tours, where participants combine watching top-level padel with playing themselves,” he says. “This mirrors what tennis did around events like Roland Garros or Wimbledon.”

According to Cesc Caceres, co-founder and CEO of Padel Smash Academy, a padel gear supplier in the US, which also operates padel clubs in the country, some clubs take an innovative, hyper-local approach to tournaments to maximise inclusion by working with corporate brands to put on regular mini tournaments and allowing players to compete free of charge.  

For example, Reserve Padel’s Design District padel club in Miami, Florida, an exclusive members-only facility featuring three glass-enclosed padel courts, a viewing lounge, and a pro-shop, “do one of the best” examples of this model, Caceres observes. 

“The club in Miami’s Design District is surrounded by a lot of high-end shops. So they work with them and create a kind of a tournament that [the retail] employees can come and play in. And meanwhile, they will ask the members to come and play as well for free,” he explains. 

Caceres notes that this works well for both the retailers, whose staff get to access a premium sports venue in their community for a fun, social, nominally competitive occasion, while their sponsorship pays for an event that allows them to promote their brand and products to a key target audience of well-heeled padel players, including celebrities. 

“The members come in to play for free and usually there are gifts and even food, provided by the sponsors, which creates a great event. They do a great job of this,” he adds. 

Reserve Padel’s Design District padel club in Miami, Florida. Image credit: Reserve Padel.

Corporate tournaments becoming big business for padel clubs

Caceres also notes that the corporate tournaments for the staff of big companies is becoming big business for clubs. 

He cites examples of corporate tournaments he has been involved in for financial services firms such as New York-headquartered asset manager BlackRock and Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel, where the companies bring their staff and often their clients to a padel club as a social ‘mixer’ and team-building occasion for employees, based around coaching and tournaments. 

“Most people are willing to pay more of a premium for this because, remember, all these companies, they have a budget already allocated for these corporate events,” he adds, noting that such events also tend to please club sponsors because of the exposure their brands get to key target audiences. 

Middle East war hinders padel contests in the region

Another key growth market for padel is the Middle East, where both professional and amateur tournaments have been expanding over recent years. Progress has been heavily impacted this year, however, with the US-Israeli war on Iran, and Iranian attacks on neighbouring Gulf countries since late February, upending padel tournaments in the region.

On March 16, Premier Padel and FIP announced the postponement of the Ooredoo Qatar Major, which had prize money of €1.04 million, scheduled for April 6–11 in the capital, Doha, “due to the unprecedented situation in the wider region”. There have been no announcements as to when the event will be rescheduled, with Premier Padel not providing Padel Business Magazine with further details. 

On the other side of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, the 2026 Qatar Airways Premier Padel tour event at New Giza in Egypt, took place on April 13-18. There are two other Premier Padel tour events in the region slated for later in the year, in Kuwait in October, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in November.  

The war “could not have come at a worse time” for the sport in the Gulf as padel had “been in the momentum-building phase,” says Jon Dault, partner at private equity firm Fletchstone Global, which has offices in the UAE, UK and USA. The firm recently invested in Dubai-based padel service provider and court operator Just Padel in Dubai to expand tournaments and leagues in the region. 

“We are hoping that there is some good movement over the next couple of weeks to solidify events once the war is over,” he says. “A lot of people are champing at the bit to get going again, and we will see more action going forward. As long as there is no long-term disruption, over the next three to four months we will see 100% recovery, and an explosion of momentum. Padel is ripe to expand in the Gulf and across the MENA.” 

The Premier Padel Ooredoo Qatar Major, scheduled for April 6–11 in Doha, has been postponed due to the conflict in the Middle East. Image credit: FIP.

UAE predicted to emerge as region’s top padel tournament destination

Dault expects the UAE to emerge as the region’s leading padel tournament destination, despite Qatar and Saudi Arabia having pushed the sport in the Gulf and further afield, including through organised competition.

Qatar has led padel Gulf and global tournaments through Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), a Qatari government-backed investment fund behind Premier Padel.

Saudi Arabia is also investing in the sport through the BSF Padel League, with games launched in September 2025 by the Saudi Padel Committee, the country’s padel federation, and the sports and entertainment agency 54, which has received backing from Sanabil Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), teaming up in December 2025 with the Hexagon Cup and FIP to create the Hexagon World Series, a global professional circuit governed by FIP. 

“We will see Dubai take over the largest tournaments, and draw the largest number of people,” says Dault. He points to the UAE having a larger expatriate population than Qatar or Saudi Arabia to draw on in terms of players and fans, while also having more attractions and facilities to host tournaments and attract a wider fan base.

But for that to happen, more padel facilities and courts will need to be built to host large tournaments. “Most facilities in the UAE have 8 to 10 courts. Compare that with the 180 pickleball courts in Naples, Florida, and its centre court holding 25,000 spectators,” observes Dault. “Dubai needs to get to that level to draw in the biggest players from around the world. This will happen in the UAE sooner rather than later, as well as big purse money to attract the biggest players, which you need to grow the sport, not just a title.” 

New padel tournaments are underway elsewhere in the MENA, such as the Royal Air Maroc Golf & Padel Cup 2026, organised by Padel+ Agency and golf event agency Agence Swing, sponsored by US-based tennis brand Wilson Sporting Goods and the Moroccan national airline Royal Air Maroc.

There are to be nine stages in France, with the tournament final in Morocco at the end of the year. The organisers announced that the event is “part of a new business to business circuit, designed for entrepreneurs, golf and padel enthusiasts”.

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UK operator PadelStars has named former LTA No 1 female Ellie Tait as its first player ambassador.

The 30-year-old is to play a vital role in PadelStars’ ambitious campaign at increasing female participation to 50% across its venues by 2027. As ambassador, Tait will attend events, activations and deliver padel clinics.

PadelStars, which has 11 venues across the south and south east England with plans to open a further six in the next six months, currently has female participation at 28%. The national average is 30%, according to participation data released in March 2026 by padel’s UK governing body the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).

The company identified in November 2025 the need to increase the number of women and girls playing padel across its venues, following an internal meeting around gender imbalance.

PadelStars says it has put substance behind its effort to encourage and grow female participation by also supporting Tait on her career journey.

Jeevan Gill, COO of PadelStars said: “Ellie is the perfect cultural fit for PadelStars and is a great role model to encourage women and girls to try padel.

“Ellie was an international hockey player before she took up padel and with our clubs built alongside existing sports facilities, including hockey venues, we see many people from other sports playing padel.”

Ellie Tait (centre) with PadelStars founder Andy Knee (left) and COO Jeevan Gill (right). Image credit: PadelStars.

Tait, who has begun 2026 competing internationally on the Cupra FIP Tour, says she is ready to play a key role in growing the sport amongst women and using her profile on tour to raise awareness.

“I’m really excited to be partnering with PadelStars at such an important time for the sport,” she said. “Their ambition to reach 50/50 male and female participation by 2027 is bold, but it’s exactly what padel needs as it grows.

“It shows a tangible commitment to building something inclusive from the start, where women feel just as welcome and represented on court! For me it’s exciting to help bring it to life in a practical way.

“I am also grateful to PadelStars for their backing as having PadelStars behind me is a game changer. With their backing, I can train hard, compete regularly, and stay focused on maintaining my top 10 position in Great Britain.”

PadelStars believes Tait’s on-court success will enable it to capitalise on delivering the company-wide strategy to grow female participation, with implementation already underway and 2026 seen as a ‘test pilot’ year.

In addition to Tait, Padelstars has asked Fiona Coope, assistant manager at PadelStars St Albans, to spearhead its efforts to increase female participation. 

Coope has identified the barriers for women taking up the sport and is developing a programme and range of activities that aims to negate these. This aims to make padel more inclusive, accessible, and welcoming for women to engage with the sport.

She said: “There are a number of factors that are stopping women from playing the sport. There are confidence issues around ability and body image; they don’t want to be in a male-dominated environment, especially newcomers; there are safety concerns on location, particularly at night; and the facilities need to be of a certain standard.

“Being aware of this enables us to put on events and activities that allay these fears and bring together women and girls into a fun and sociable environment.”

Fiona Coope, assistant manager at PadelStars St Albans. Image credit: PadelStars.

The strategy recognises that women entering the sport have diverse needs, ranging from highly competitive players to complete beginners seeking a supportive environment. As a result, PadelStars is developing a broad mix of entry points, including coaching sessions, tournaments, and community-driven events.

Moving forward, the initiative aims to expand to include partnerships with local schools, as well as holiday camps and junior pathways.

Insights gathered throughout 2026 will inform a wider rollout in 2027, with the aim of building long-term, sustainable growth in female padel participation across the sport.

Gill added: “The 50/50 ambition really matters because padel is still such a new sport, and that means we’ve got a rare chance to do things differently from the very start. In many established sports, gender imbalance has been baked in for decades. While it’s great to see progress in sports like football, cricket and rugby, padel gives us a clean slate to get that balance right from day one.

“It taps into that love of group activity many women enjoy, bringing back the kind of energy you’d find in netball teams or aerobics classes.

“And let’s be honest, women are incredible community builders. They show up, they support, they bring friends, and they help create that welcoming, vibrant atmosphere every great padel club needs. They don’t just play the sport, they help it thrive.”

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Padel has crossed 1 million players in the US, according to the 2026 Topline Participation Report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA).

The report, which draws on data collected throughout 2025, tracked padel for the first time in the survey’s history.

The SFIA’s annual study is the largest of its kind in the country, surveying 18,000 Americans aged six and older across a nationally representative sample.

In 2025, the organisation expanded its tracking from 124 to 126 total activities, adding two new sports: padel and disc golf.

The report counted 1,073,000 Americans who played padel in 2025. Of those, 835,000 played between one and seven times during the year, and 238,000 played eight or more times. That second group is a meaningful signal, given that US padel infrastructure is still in its early stages, with just over 1,000 courts open across 31 states as of April 2026.

The United States Padel Association (USPA) notes that inclusion alongside established racquet sports such as tennis and pickleball reflects the scale of padel’s growth and its standing as a measurable category in American recreation.

The SFIA report counted 1,073,000 Americans who played padel in 2025. Image credit: USPA.

Bill Ullman, USPA president, said: “This is a milestone the padel community has earned. We’ve watched clubs open from coast to coast, seen our tournament calendar more than double in two years, and cheered US athletes compete on the world stage. Now the data from one of the most respected research institutions in American sport confirms what everyone in our community already knows: padel is here, and it’s growing fast.”

Padel’s debut in the SFIA data comes as racquet sports have had their strongest five-year run in US history. Participation rose from 13.9% of the US population in 2020 to 20.6% in 2025, and seven of the eight racquet sports tracked by SFIA posted year-on-year gains last year. Gen Z participation in racquet sports reached 27.1% in 2025, with millennials at 22.7%.

USPA says the 1 million figure matches what it has seen in its own numbers. Club membership grew 51.5% year-on-year in 2025, and individual membership grew 53.5%, with both continuing to climb in 2026. The USPA sanctioned 104 open tournaments in 2025. It says the 2026 schedule currently has 255, with more being added each month.

The USPA’s junior development programme, its inaugural National Collegiate Padel Championships, and its Olympic Pathway initiative targeting Brisbane 2032 are each designed to build a pipeline of players and convert casual participation into lifelong players.

Based on current infrastructure and growth, the USPA projects the US could reach 10,000 courts and more than 10 million players by 2030.

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Non-alcohol beer brand Heineken 0.0 has announced tennis legend Serena Williams as its new global brand ambassador, launching a multi-year partnership designed to tap into the social appeal of padel.

Widely recognised as one of the greatest athletes of all time, Serena – who retired from professional tennis in September 2022 – has embraced padel in recent years.

Heineken says the partnership “celebrates the joy of connecting with others through one of the world’s fastest-growing social sports, padel”.

The company adds that Serena’s “love of padel makes her a natural fit for Heineken 0.0, a brand that champions social connection and refreshing moments both on and off the court”.

To launch the partnership, Serena spent a day surprising unsuspecting padel players in Miami, stepping onto the court as a last-minute ‘stand-in’ teammate for a game they had booked through the Open Match by Heineken 0.0 feature on booking platform Playtomic.

The players had no idea their fourth partner would be a 23-time Grand Slam champion.

“After an unforgettable round, the group connected post-game over a Heineken 0.0 – capturing the essence of what the partnership aims to inspire: new experiences, new connections, and a more refreshing social life,” Heineken said.

Serena Williams joined as a last-minute ‘stand-in’ teammate with padel players who had booked through the Open Match by Heineken 0.0 feature on Playtomic. Image credit: Heineken.

The initiative marked the first installment of a new feature from Heineken 0.0, known as ‘Unexpected Doubles,’ where players who book through Open Match by Heineken 0.0 on Playtomic can be rewarded with guest appearances.

Nabil Nasser, global head of Heineken said: “At Heineken, we believe the most rewarding moments happen when people stay active, social, and open to new connections - without having to compromise.

“Serena represents that mindset perfectly. Her iconic presence, her confidence, and her love of padel reflects everything Heineken 0.0 stands for: a confident choice for people who want to stay in the game and fully enjoy the social moments around it. Together, padel becomes a natural way to bring people together - on court and beyond.”

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