🏓 How Athletes are Cashing in on Padel, the Fastest Growing Sport in the World

Padel is the fastest growing sport in the world.

It’s simple. It’s easy to play and in the last 5 years it has exploded in popularity.

But why? Why has a sport which started in the 60s become so popular so quickly

And why are people such as Andy Murray, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Virgil Van Dijk rushing to get a slice of the pie.

Today I explore and I start with some fascinating stats.

Some fun facts:

• In 2014 there were 6,000 Padel courts in the world. Now, ten years later there are now more than 33,000!

• Padel has overtaken tennis as the second most-popular sport in Spain

• Infact, there are 47.4m people in Spain, 6m of them have played at least one match of Padel in the last 2 years. When you factor in kids and elderly, that 47m reduces quite a lot so that’s a healthy amount of participation!

But what is Padel?

It’s a mix of tennis and squash. The court is smaller and the walls are in play.

As a result you do not need to be as fit or as co-ordinated to play Padel as you do to play tennis, which makes participation so much higher.

Young people play Padel, people of older ages play Padel too. This boom in access is fantastic for growth, and… fantastic for investors.

As it stands there are three common ways athletes or investors are choosing to invest in Padel:

1. Building Padel Courts

2. Investing in the growth of Padel infrastructure

3. Owning a Padel Team

Let’s dive into all three.

Method #1: Building Padel Courts

Used by: Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is big and early into the Padel game. Back in his home-town of Stockholm, He has built Padel Zenter - a beautiful leisure centre with eleven Padel courts inside. It truly is one of the best Padel facilities in the entire world.

What’s more is Padel Ztore which is an e-commerce website associated with it, allowing people to buy Padel accessories, Padel’s themselves, branded clothes, everything.

The success has been evident and Zlatan now intends to open up more Zenters in Milan and Paris.

He’s big the game and chose to build his own rather than have someone build them for him…

Method #2: Investing in Padel Infrastructure

Used by: Andy Murray, Virgil Van Dijk

Game4Padel is probably a company you have probably never heard of.

They are a Scottish company who’s entire MO is to develop a UK-wide network of Padel playing facilities.

In early 2022, they raised £1.3m at a £10m valuation which saw some interesting personnel get involved at the cap table:

• Andy Murray

• Virgil van Dijk

• Annabelle Croft

To name just a few.

If you do not want to take the Zlatan route of opening your own centres, you can invest in a company who does it for you like these guys have.

They have secured contracts to build 35 Padel Centres in the UK alone with one coming at the famous Westfield Centre at Stratford very soon.

This method gives you exposure to Padel without having to write such a big cheque like the next set of people did…

Method #3: Own a Padel Team

Used by: Rafael Nadal, Robert Lewandoski

Last week TeamAD/vantage, the Padel team Co-Owned by Andy Murray won the Hexagon Cup, the inaugural Padel tournament hosted in Madrid.

In the final they played Team Eleven Eleven USA a rival team co-owned by Eva Longoria!

You’re now getting a sense of how widespread Padel is and how many celebrities are getting involved.

Take a look at the 6 teams that form the Hexagon Cup and the owners of each team:

• Ad/vantage Team, owned by Andy Murray

• Eleven Eleven Team USA, owned by Eva Longoria

• RL9 Team, owned by Robert Lewandoski

• The Rafael Nadal Academy Powered by Richard Mille, owned by Rafael Nadal

• Hexagon Team, owned by Fans

• Team Bella owned by María Esteve and Carlos López-Lay (owner of Bella Autos)

Owning a team would cost more money than say investing in a Series C funding round for Game4Padel, but it gives you direct access into a burgeoning sport and a burgeoning competition.

A burgeoning competition with a bright future.

Where Next?

As you can see Padel will grow naturally over the next few years, but a key catalyst to its growth will be Olympic acceptance.

When researching this topic I discovered that for Olympic acceptance your sport must adhere to four key rules:

1. Your sport must have a federation

2. Your sport must comply with WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency)

3. Your sport must use no motor equipment

4. Your sport must be played in a minimum of 75 countries

Padel currently adheres to the Top 3 so it cannot be added to the Olympic Games for this years cycle in Paris. However the sport has been given Association of IOC Recognized International Sport (ARISF) status, meaning that it will be monitored on a regular basis as it grows.

I am personally yet to play Padel myself, however it looks fun, and the infrastructure is really beginning to grow.

ITV secured the rights to show the Semi-Final and the Final of the Hexagon Cup when it was playing last week so as broadcast infrastructure begins to increase I imagine it won’t be the last thing we see of this sport any time soon.

Until then, I will leave you with this video which has been labelled the best Padel point of all time!

Madness!

See you next week.