With around 25 million practitioners in 110 countries, this activity is growing in value by 10 percent annually.
Although this sport originated 55 years ago in Acapulco, it began to experience an international boom after 2010, which consolidated after the pandemic as an option for exercising in a controlled environment.
Currently, this sport has a market value of more than $392 million annually, according to estimates from the International Padel Federation and its study with Brainy Insights.
They even project that it could grow by an average of 10 percent annually, totaling more than $517 million by 2027, in addition to having the opportunity to become an Olympic discipline for Los Angeles 2026.
A study by the consulting firm Deloitte with Playtomic revealed that building a court can cost an average of 508,000 pesos, without requiring large spaces; In addition, there is a monthly maintenance cost of 6,000 to 15,000 pesos, depending on the requirements.
This accelerated the emergence of clubs after the pandemic; according to figures from the same study, from 2016 to 2019, 700 clubs opened worldwide each year, but from 2021 to 2023, this accelerated to 2,252 annually; so much so that by 2023, 111 courts were being built per week.
Players
This rapid growth is being exploited by a variety of companies, from traditional sports equipment manufacturers such as Nike, Adidas, Asics, Joma, Lotto, Head, and others; but also by new companies that have emerged to meet this demand, such as Bullpadel, Nox, Starvie, PistaPadel, and Mondo.
“Padel is substantially less physically demanding than other racket sports, especially tennis. While this sport still provides an excellent aerobic workout, it is less stressful on the body than other racket sports because there is less movement,” explained market research firm The Brainy Insights.
For this reason, Ignacio Soto Borja believes that the inclusion of padel in the Olympic Games is imminent. Except for the fact that it still needs to have four federations in at least 75 countries, it meets all the requirements demanded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), such as having its own International Federation, not being a motorized sport, and being regulated by the World Anti-Doping Agency.