In his report on padel, the Monitor Deloitte firm, in collaboration with Playtomic, presents a curve on the development of padel. It shows where the different countries are at.

Different stages of padel development

First, we look at the countries that have reached maturity. Among them, we obviously find Spain, which is at the top of the curve. On the other side of the Pyrenees, the number of licensed padel players exceeded that of tennis players in 2021, making padel one of the most practiced sports in Spain. As a result, we find many Spaniards in international competitions, which are themselves largely organized in Spain.

Another mature country is Sweden – it is even on a downhill slope… There, almost 7% of the population plays padel regularly. The Swedish Padel Federation works with several player associations and sponsors to organize its own official professional circuit and create its own national padel team. In addition to the two Scandinavian market leaders We Are Padel (Leda) and PDL- Padel United, the activity is also supported by many personalities such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic who is opening a new center, the Padel Zenter.

Booming countries

The second group that we find are the booming nations. At their head: Italy, which stands out as the locomotive of this group of countries, already invaded by the padel fever and with a very large pool of players. These countries benefit in particular from numerous investments allowing them to considerably increase their number of padel courts (+1800 tracks created in 2022 for our transalpine neighbours). They also benefit from a significant presence of the private sector and above all a certain absence of legal obstacles.

Finally, at the junction between this "boom" phase and the interest phase, we find the Middle Eastern countries (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, etc.) which benefit from numerous investors who bet on padel and therefore promote its development. This is felt through the organization of international tournaments and the creation of 1000 tracks over the past two years.

France lagging behind 

Although we have more courts than some countries in the previous group, we are only at the beginning of the interest phase, according to the Deloitte report. It is certainly the lack of investment that represents a brake on the real development of the tracks and therefore of the practice. Surprisingly, France is slightly ahead of the United Kingdom or Germany, which are only at a discovery phase of padel. Finally, it is the United States, Japan and India that are at the very beginning of this curve and therefore of this discovery phase. 

thomas jay

After being rocked by tennis for almost 15 years, I became an absolute fan of its cousin, padel. For almost a year now, it is with another racket that I have been chasing the little yellow ball but with just as much passion! Based in Lyon, I intend to make you more aware of padel in the region and at the national level.

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