How many licensees? How many practitioners? Is it a sport practiced by women? Without answering precisely all these questions, we will try in this article to see a little more clearly.

Le Padel Pro Show: “2,3 million practitioners in Spain”

In France, for the moment, there is no figure since the FFT (French Tennis Federation) has recovered there is hardly 1 year this sport. Appointment in a few months to know more.

On the other hand, if we look at the side of our Spanish neighbor, we realize that the figures which circulate on the net are sometimes very far from reality. It's even a slap when we analyze the padel on the Loup.

First, giving an exact figure is impossible because the padel is primarily a “leisure” sport. It is therefore not necessarily necessary to refer to the numbers of license holders even if ... in 2012, the Spanish Federation of padel had a total of only 39 licensees (when tennis surprisingly had only 652 in 103) and thus ranked 898th among sports federations in relation to the number of licensees… Another figure that the fep gives us: the number of women licensees is around 2012/19, much more than the Spanish national average of 1%.

Warning ! We do not rely solely on these figures, because the brands of padel who sell “1,5 to 2 million rackets”According to Frédéric Bertucat (France director of Dunlop) could rightly tell us that there is a problem in analyzing these figures. This is true and it is among other things the show padel "Padel Pro Show ”which during its conference last March put its foot in the dish: You have to actually count if you have to take into consideration the number of sales of all rackets from padel sold in Spain to about 2 practitioners of padel including about 900 who would be only occasional practitioners.

Le World Padel Tour : “12 million practitioners”

Problem, the World Padel Tour (WPT), the professional circuit of padel, announces on the other hand 12 million practitioners in the world… And it is this figure which does not cease being taken again in heart in the newspapers, the Internet sites, etc. Moreover, we have perhaps at times contributed.

This would mean that there are roughly 9 million practitioners outside the Spanish borders. Of course, Argentina is a huge pool of padel, but according to a number of padel in Argentina, "if there are already as many players in Argentina as in Spain, it is already the end of the world".

Let's round to 5 millions of players between Spain and Argentina by integrating all players including casuals. 7 is missing millions on the call.

Taking all the countries of Latin America, it seems improbable to us to reach the million, but, since in our survey, there is also no reliable figure, and there seem to be many opinions on the question, we have counted 1 million players for North and South America.

We are at 6 millions. Counting the rest of the world, we decided to dream and imagine that there were 100 000 other practitioners between France, Italy, England, Germany, Asia, Africa and Africa. 'Oceania.

The total figure is certainly significant, but for around 6.1 million players of padel 80% of which in Spain and Argentina, there is still a lot of work to see this sport democratize all over the world. Frédéric Bertucat, with his long experience in the field of padel believes for its part that we are more certainly below the 5 million mark.

Note, however, that the growth of padel for 2 years has been dizzying. Within 2 years, the padel has developed considerably in France. The many private initiatives at the end of 2012/2013 put the padel on the right track.

Le Padel is it the national sport behind football?

NO. This does not appear to be the case from the numbers. If football is indeed the most popular sport in Spain, padel would be in 9th position according to the study carried out by the Center for Sociological Investigations (CIS) in June 2014, winning 5.5% of the vote. Worse, there would be only 1.8% of people questioned who do not yet practice this sport who would be ready to test against 48% for football for example. The fishpond padel in Spain seems to have reached a threshold that is complicated to exceed while there is still so much to do elsewhere.

However, and this is a bit of the paradox of this sport and the figures given previously; It seems that there are lots of padel everywhere in Spain (hotels, residences, housing estates, etc.). So here too, even if these figures are more precise, they contradict a certain reality. So what to think? You are free to make your opinion.

And what about France?

Le padel has experienced unprecedented growth for almost 2 years. The FFT obtained the approval of the Ministry of Sports last June to represent the padel in France. Projects are multiplying, and the padel is becoming more and more fashionable.

Roland Garros will certainly be the starting point for a multitude of club creations padel in France and not only.

Franck Binisti - Padel Magazine

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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