On the occasion of the inauguration of Babolat Padel Studio, we interview Eric Babolat, CEO of his eponymous brand, the very famous Babolat. We had already received it on our microphone a few years ago, and 4 years later, he confirms his certainties about the evolution of padel.

A sport that is good for the head and the body

"In Babolat, we work in the long term. We like to study things and make them fit with our times. 10 years ago, padel was emerging in a few countries, especially in Spain. We have supported it through product development, experience, life in clubs, players who are starting out. We have done it with countries that are discovering this sport.

Cupra padel point tour 4PADEL babolat

Today it is an adult sport, where there are not many children. We try to work a lot on this subject, precisely, with our partner Club Med, who takes care of families. In the end, padel touches everyone.”

Covid as a favorable factor

“Covid accelerated two things. First, people realized that sport was good for health. Then, they discovered that racket sports, especially padel, bring a playful and fun side. It almost becomes addictive. The acceleration of this sport is even more convincing than before.”

Club Med and padel: why does it work?

“Club Med has been very interested in the family and accessible side of padel. We are working more and more with them on this. They are investing, and dedicating more and more places to this sport. It ticks a lot of their “boxes”. Tennis does not have the accessible side that padel can offer.”

Club Med offers padel

“They are going to put padel in most of their spots. This is already the case in the Seychelles and especially Marbella where the sport is developing massively. We see more and more customers who come to spend a week at Club Med, just to play padel!”

“It renews the heart of our collaboration”

“We talked a lot. We shared our experience with them, in mature countries like Spain, countries where padel is developing very quickly, in Italy for example, or countries like France where the sport takes a little longer to take off.

We have always believed in padel. It is not seen as a competitor to tennis but as another racket sport. Club Med asked us a lot about the type of public it reached. This renews the heart of our collaboration that extends from tennis to padel, which is a very important sport for the future.”

Padel in percentage: what does it give?

“Today, it represents between 15 and 20% of our entire business. It has grown by more than 50% per year for a good two years.

It is growing more and more, certainly, but not to the point of catching up with tennis yet. Tennis is present in 150 countries, compared to 90 countries for padel. However, I think that the size of the padel market will exceed that of tennis by 2030 without a problem. The room for growth is exponential.”

“On sales to equipment distribution, it is estimated at 1,5 billion on the planet for tennis, against 250 million for padel. Everything is in place for padel to develop. Obviously, the infrastructures need to multiply, so that people can play.”

A first in the world of sport

“This is the first time that a sport has had this development, this growth and this impact, in the history of Babolat, and sport in general. We are experiencing a world first with padel. In sport, there have been epiphenomena like rollerblading, but we have never seen anything so strong or so big. It is not a fad.”

To watch the interview in full:

Amance Redondy

Having become a padel fan, I fully intend to keep you up to date with all the latest padel news! See you soon on the slopes!

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