Latest news with #Playtomic
Travel Weekly
3 days ago
- Business
- Travel Weekly
Padel is a fast-growing racket sport, and resorts are courting players
Move over, pickleball. Hotels and resorts worldwide are embracing the next big racket sport. Padel, essentially a cross between tennis and squash, is winning over converts at a rapid pace. And while the sport isn't technically new -- the International Padel Federation traces its origins to 1960s Mexico and the game has long enjoyed footholds in places like Spain and Argentina -- padel is spreading to new markets. According to the 2024 "Global Padel Report" from Playtomic and PwC's strategy consulting arm Strategy&, almost 6,000 padel courts opened globally in 2023, representing a 16% increase from 2022. Additionally, more than 2,500 padel clubs opened around the world that same year, with markets like France, the U.K., Germany and the U.S. all contributing to the uptick. "In Spain, it's actually overtaken soccer as a participation sport now," said Ian Ryder, co-founder of U.K.-based Padel Tripper, which crafts group travel experiences around the game. "And I reckon in five or six years, padel will be overtaking pickleball in the U.S." Founded in early 2023, Padel Tripper primarily offers padel trips in Spain. The company, which is open to working with advisors, offers a scheduled calendar of experiences as well as bespoke trips for private groups, with a standard three-night, four-day coaching package starting at around $800Note, inclusive of accommodations, coaching and tournament access. What makes the sport so uniquely appealing? Ryder cites padel's combination of accessibility and social connection. "For tennis, you've got to spend months just trying to get the serve," he said. "But with padel, you can actually start to rally very quickly without any particular skill." Padel players pose during a Padel Tripper-organized trip. Photo Credit: Padel Tripper Ryder added that the smaller, enclosed court creates a distinctly communal atmosphere. "From a social perspective, I've never experienced something like it -- everyone's noisy and laughing," said Ryder, adding that the sport is also "very inclusive," with a higher percentage of female players than tennis. Among Padel Tripper's preferred accommodation partners is the Hotel Alicante Golf, which offers on-site padel courts and proximity to what Ryder describes as "one of the best padel centers in the world," Bela Padel Center. "Every padel player I speak to, when they go on holiday, the first thing they do is look to see where the padel courts are," Ryder said. "So hotels and resorts that are adding these facilities now are really positioning themselves ahead of the curve." Padel facilities and programming are popping up at high-end hotels and resorts around the globe. Last year, the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland unveiled its Gleneagles Sporting Club, complete with three padel courts and padel coaching services. In April, the Oberoi Marrakech in Morocco added a padel court to its fitness offerings, while the Baha Mar resort complex in the Bahamas plans to expand its John McEnroe Tennis Center with padel courts in the coming year. Properties in the U.S. are also getting in on the action. The Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa near San Diego, long known for its expansive tennis and pickleball facilities, partnered with sporting goods company Wilson to open three padel courts earlier this year. For the Rancho Valencia, the decision to add padel was driven by guest and member demand. (The property offers club memberships that provide access to its fitness and wellness facilities along with other programming.) "We're always looking to be at the forefront of the racket sports and wellness industry, and we have a wonderful membership base that is very passionate," said Lisa Rosenthal, club director at Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa. "They were coming to me asking if we were going to consider adding padel." Consequently, the resort converted one of its tennis courts into three padel courts. The courts, which were crafted by Spain-based company Grupo Padel Galis World, feature panoramic glass walls designed to showcase the property's lush surroundings and join the resort's existing array of 12 hard tennis courts, three red clay tennis courts and four pickleball courts. Padel players at the Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa. Photo Credit: Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa Unlike the noise issues sometimes associated with pickleball -- which is known for its sharp "pop" sound when the ball hits the paddle -- padel's reception has been overwhelmingly positive, Rosenthal said. She described the sport as "louder than tennis, but not as loud as pickleball." "There's actually a lot of curiosity because people have never even seen the padel racket before, or they don't know the rules," she added. "It's such a brand-new thing to explore in the racket sports world, which doesn't happen often." The addition of padel has proven especially popular with the Rancho Valencia's international guests. "A lot of our loyal guests that are international are thrilled to find that we now have these courts, the sport they play at home," she said. "And we're really one of very few luxury properties in the U.S. that have padel at all right now."
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New tennis facility to open with special guest
A new sports facility is set to open its doors to the public. Padel Project UK (PPUK), a leading padel tennis operator, has announced the launch of a four-court outdoor padel complex at Worthing Rugby Football Club in Angmering. The launch event will take place on June 6 from 5pm to 8.30pm. Adam Holman, club manager at PPUK Worthing, said: "I'm thrilled to be launching the PPUK Worthing club and look forward to welcoming everyone to our launch day on June 6. "I can't wait to help players of every age and ability step on court and discover just how much fun padel is, and just how easy it is to pick up." The new venue has four floodlit panoramic courts and on-site racket hire. The facility is designed for everyone, from complete beginners to experienced players. Former England rugby player and Worthing RFC alumnus Joe Marler will cut the ribbon at 6pm. He will be joined by PPUK chief executive Tim Foster and club manager Adam Holman for a short welcome. The event will have an exhibition match with PPUK's professional coaching team, introductory sessions, coached games with prizes, music, refreshments and tours of the new courts. Drinks will also be available from the bar. C oaching sessions cost £5 and can be reserved through the Playtomic app. Mr Foster said: "We are incredibly excited to bring this state-of-the-art padel facility to Worthing. "Our goal is to build a fun, inclusive and active padel community here. "This club is another step toward making padel a mainstream sport across the UK, and we can't wait to see the Worthing community embrace the game." Following the launch, PPUK will offer discounted introductory sessions for a limited time. Membership at the Worthing club is free. Residents can join the WhatsApp community via to receive news, offers and session details. Barny Hall, chairman of Worthing RFC, said: "We're delighted to add padel to our offering and give our members and the wider Worthing community something new to enjoy. "Rugby and padel share the same spirit of camaraderie, so seeing the two worlds cross over on our grounds is fantastic."
Telegraph
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Revealed: Remarkable numbers that show the padel boom is unlike anything else
If you are wondering why you keep hearing people talk about padel – Britain's latest sporting novelty – then new participation figures might provide the answer. Data from the Lawn Tennis Association shows that the number of Britons who played padel at least once annually has more than trebled in a year, climbing from 129,000 at the end of 2023 to above 400,000 just 12 months later. It is a remarkable rise for a sport born in Mexico almost 60 years ago, but is now finding a new audience outside its traditional heartlands of Spain, Portugal and South America. Yet the LTA – which has run the sport in this country since 2019 – insists that padel has not damaged tennis participation. Tennis's annual participation in 2024 was measured at 5.6 million, the same figure as the previous year. 'The two sports make good bedfellows,' said Alan Douglas, who works for padel's leading booking system Playtomic. 'I consulted with East Dorset Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club when they put up three padel courts last summer, and afterwards I asked their chairman how their tennis players were taking to padel. 'They're not,' he replied. 'What we're seeing is a whole new generation of people who we've never met before.' And the club was able to take that extra revenue and invest it in coaching pathways for their junior tennis players.' It is possible that this may change. Anecdotally, everyone at a tennis or padel club knows of at least a couple of people who have migrated from the more traditional sport to its brasher rival, especially in the older age groups where court coverage – a padel court is about 25 per cent smaller – becomes challenging. But one of the intriguing things about padel is that it attracts people without a sporting background of any kind. With its underarm serves, and the way the ball bounces back to you off the walls, it is arguably the easiest racket sport to pick up from a standing start. The involvement of numerous celebrities also helps provide visibility. Rapper Stormzy and model Elle Macpherson are among those on Instagram who have posted padel content via their accounts, while other enthusiasts include David Beckham and the Prince of Wales. Whether through influencers or simple word of mouth, the awareness of padel has also more than doubled in the space of 12 months. In 2024, as many as 43 per cent of people surveyed had heard of the sport, up from 23 per cent a year earlier. Padel still provokes its fair share of scoffing from people who see it as an upstart or a fad. In most cases, those people have not tried it. Its strengths include not only accessibility but a high level of tactical sophistication, once you have mastered the basics. As well as learning to predict the bounces off the glass walls, ambitious players need to master a variety of different overheads including the bandeja (a slower, defensive shot), the vibora (a slice-heavy kill) and the rulo (a top-spun variation aimed at the side wall). The quest to improve your skill set – and your ranking, which runs from 1.0 for beginners to 7.0 for a professional – soon becomes addictive. 'The number of times that people are playing per week is nuts,' Douglas said. 'That might calm down, but there is something intrinsically fun and accessible about padel. I love tennis but it's a hard game, one of those learned sports like golf. You can go on a padel court for the first time and it's enjoyable right away.' As regional director for the whole of the UK, Douglas has seen the number of players using Playtomic's app grow exponentially from 31,000 in January 2024 to 152,000 a year later. While court fees can be expensive in London, the average court-hire fee per hour outside the capital stands at a more reasonable £7 per person: a figure that is likely to come down further as more facilities are built. This is another area of rapid growth, with the LTA's figures identifying 763 courts in the UK at the end of 2024, up from 350 a year earlier. Access is still not universal, however. Playtomic's data suggests that 80 per cent of people are using courts within a 40-45-minute drive. There are some parts of the country where you would have to spend three hours in a car to find a padel court. In Douglas's words: 'I speak to Playtomic's other regional managers from around the world, and our view is that there is still probably five years' worth of expansion to come, in terms of court construction.' The cautionary tale here is Sweden, which experienced a padel bubble between 2018 and 2021, with 300 courts rapidly expanding into 3,500. According to Bloomberg, almost 90 Swedish padel-related companies filed for bankruptcy in 2023. But Sweden's population is roughly a seventh the size of the UK's. And with planning permission being much harder to obtain here – especially in light of the noise pollution that padel creates – it seems unlikely that we will reach a position of oversupply. In some quarters, the LTA has been accused of not committing fully to the padel revolution, with critics suggesting a possible conflict of interest with tennis. This argument was cited by the board of Pickleball England – stewards of another growing racket sport – when it won the right to self-govern in December. But the LTA recently opened a dedicated social-media channel and a new website: It also points out that it has invested more than £6 million in the growth of padel across Britain, including £4.5 million towards the development of 80 courts at 42 venues – approximately 12 per cent of all padel courts nationwide. Private operators welcomed the LTA's data on Friday. 'These new figures confirm what we have long been trumpeting,' said UK Padel's chief executive Nick Baker, 'which is our belief that Padel is the best sport in the world to engage the widest possible range of people to get exercise, stay healthy and build community.' He added: 'While the LTA's new digital platforms are a positive step forwards, we should acknowledge the role of the private sector in this journey. Private investment in padel facilities is likely to be well in excess of £100 million in the UK to date.'
Scotsman
06-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Padel plans: Firm to spend £2.2m opening 11 Scottish courts as racket sport sees ‘explosive' growth
'We're committed to making the sport more accessible and saw a great opportunity to bring padel to more locations across Scotland' Sign up to our Scotsman Money newsletter, covering all you need to know to help manage your money. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... A major five-a-side football operator is to invest more than £2 million into a fast-growing racket sport across a trio of Scottish sites. Powerleague said its investment would deliver 11 padel tennis courts across its Paisley, Portobello and Sighthill, Edinburgh clubs by the end of 2025. It is thought to mark the single largest investment in padel infrastructure by any company in Scotland to date. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The firm aims to bring padel out of traditional tennis clubs and 'onto the urban high street', helping to make the sport more accessible to thousands of new players every year. It is estimated that some 25 million people now play padel globally. Paisley and Sighthill will each welcome four new courts, while Portobello will install three. All three clubs have also unveiled refurbished bars and clubhouses. The first site to open will be Paisley at the beginning of July, followed by Portobello later that month and Sighthill, Edinburgh in October. Powerleague said the Scottish expansion plans formed part of a wider £14m UK-wide rollout, which will see the company deliver 76 courts across its estate by 2026, cementing its ambition to become the 'nation's leading provider of small-sided sports'. Chief executive Christian Rose said: 'Padel is experiencing explosive global growth, with over 25 million players across more than 100 countries and a compound annual growth rate of 26 per cent. Its rapid rise comes down to its simplicity, social nature and sheer fun, making it a perfect match for Powerleague's dynamic, community-focused venues. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We're committed to making the sport more accessible and saw a great opportunity to bring padel to more locations across Scotland. We're excited to support the sport's growth and reach new communities.' He added: 'Football will also be at the heart of Powerleague, but we're excited to expand our offer and introduce a new way for people to stay active, connect and have fun, all aligning with our ambitions to create a healthier, more inclusive society.' Customers will be able to book slots via the Playtomic app. Powerleague operates from 43 clubs across the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. Its product range includes leagues, social play, kids coaching, kids' parties, kids' camps, functions and special events. More than 8.5 million customer visits are made to the firm's clubs each year. It is thought that some 25 million people play padel globally and there are an estimated 378,000 active padel players in the UK. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In January, Powerleague submitted plans for the four new padel courts with floodlights, canopies and a viewing area at its Sighthill site on Bankhead Drive, Edinburgh. The move followed similar plans for the three courts being approved at the Portobello complex. In order to accommodate the padel courts at Sighthill, one of the existing five-a-side football pitches will be removed. Two new courts will be introduced to the east of the clubhouse, replacing a football pitch, and two courts will be introduced to the west of the clubhouse on vacant landscaped land.
IOL News
28-04-2025
- Sport
- IOL News
Padel4Good gears up for first mixed tournament at new Bree Street venue
Terina Coetzee in action during the last Padel4Good show. Coetzee and her sister Lena-Lisa Bester walked away victors at the first Ladies show for 2025. Photo: Keith Lyle Cape Town Sport Photography At the end of May, one of Cape Town's fastest-growing padel brands — Padel4Good — will host their first mixed event tournament since relocating from the Virgin Active Padel Arena in Paarden Eiland to the vibrant and popular Racket+Ball Club in Bree Street, Cape Town. This week, however — on May 1, to be precise — it's the fastest fingers that will help secure a spot in one of the most exciting tournaments in the Western Cape padel community to date. Regarding the padel court action, the wisest and fittest bodies ultimately decide who gets the spoils. Entries for this competition will open this Thursday at 6pm, allowing 32 players (16 mixed teams) to secure their spots. For the first time, this showpiece will cater to a wider pool of talent, as players between levels 2 and 5 on the Playtomic app are eligible to compete in Padel4Good's third overall mixed event since its inception in 2023. In May 2024, at the inaugural P4G mixed event, Taryn Nel and well-known padel figure Luke Potter took home the spoils after an incredible final that kept fans on the edge of their seats. It was a game of inches that went down to the wire, with Tristan Karakashian and Genevieve Korsten eventually succumbing 5–4 in a tie-breaker to Nel and Potter. In the second P4G mixed tournament, it was Kelly de Wit and Joshua Bransgrove who were crowned victorious after beating David Crommelin and Nel 5–4 in another thrilling tie-breaker on the centre court of the Virgin Active Padel Arena. Earlier this month, the dominant sister duo of Lena Lisa Bester and Terina Coetzee were crowned champions of the very first P4G women's event of 2025 and continue to establish themselves as the 'team to beat' on padel circuits across the Cape, having won every event they have played together. Will these sisters form part of two mixed teams? Will Nel and Potter reclaim their throne? Or will de Wit and Bransgrove have their say again? It all depends on who secures a spot on Thursday night. The link to enter the competition will be sent via the Padel4Good WhatsApp group and will be available across all its social media channels. For those interested in learning more about padel or joining a league or circuit, find a venue convenient for you and download the Playtomic app. Playtomic allows players to find partners, join active matches wherever they are, compete against players at the same level thanks to a built-in rating feature, and arrange private matches with friends. 'Playtomic is one of the fastest-growing communities in the world, which means that no matter where you are, you can find a court nearby and players on your level to join your game,' said Padel4Good's Kathleen Barker. 'After each game, you record your score, and this is how you improve your level. It is easy to connect with players at your level, which helps especially if you are new to the game. 'It opens doors and connects you to players that you would not otherwise meet and be able to play with. When you travel, you can find nearby courts and set up a match — no matter where you are.' Padel4Good has already confirmed its next two events on the 2025 calendar: the mixed event on May 30, and the men's event on June 27. For details on how to enter or support, check out the Padel4Good Instagram account.
