Le padel appeared in Acapulco in 1969 in Mexico by a Mexican Enrique Corcuera. Not having enough space in his garden to build a tennis court, he decided to build a 20m by 10m court surrounded by walls using a flat bat as a racket. This new sporting practice has its origins in different sports, in particular squash, tennis, table tennis and Basque pelota.

It was in 1974 that the padel arrives in Europe and more precisely in Spain in the city of Marbella. Indeed, Alfonso de Hohenlohe while traveling in Mexico had taken such a liking to this sport that he decided to import it in his country and to create the first club of padel in Marbella, the Marbella Club.

This sport very quickly seduced the jet set of the Spanish coast but also many amateur and professional tennis players. This new sporting practice has developed rapidly in Spain and today has more than 3 million players in Spain. The padel has become a fashion phenomenon appealing to all audiences thanks to the proliferation of installations. There are approximately 1750 padel for 800 clubs padel. The main sources of income for these clubs are player membership fees, pitch rental, football schools, padel, events, and catering on site.

After its development in Spain, this new sport was imported to Argentina by a millionaire who fell in love with the sport. The padel has experienced in Argentina a development similar to that of Spain and today has more than 4 million players and has become the national sport in Argentina.

Now the padel attracts many European countries such as France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, England, Sweden and even Germany which have been infected with the virus of this fun and technical sport. Indeed, this sport is developing outside the Spanish speaking countries. Indeed, a stage of the world championship of Padel will take place in Sweden for the first time in its history, whereas these stages were usually concentrated in Argentina, Spain or Portugal since 2005.

According to several sources, such as that of the professional circuit of padel, there would be around 9 million padel in the world, or 7 million between Spain and Argentina. This means that 2 million players are shared with the rest of the world. Of course, there is still a majority in Europe but some African countries such as Morocco have clubs of Padel but also in Australia, Italy, Mexico and the United States.

Tanguy Le Roux

Student in Master 2 entrepreneurship and innovation at IESEG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT in Paris and passionate about sport, I decided to devote my end-of-study thesis to the emergence of padel in France as a sport and social practice and the associated market development. Having lived 22 years in Morocco and for 5 years in France, I am delighted to be able to share my skills.

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