The World’s fastest-growing sport? It depends how you look at it

By Ben Nichols

Founder CEO of Padel 22

Life in 2023 isn’t often prone to the nuance and subtleties that are the true semblance of how the world actually is. In today’s world, too often it is purist idealism at the expense of pragmatism. Either-or at the expense of a dose of both. Extreme viewpoints aired by the Twitterati (whose users let’s not forget only amount to just over 4% of the world’s population) shouting down those who might just dare to choose an opposing point of view (last time I checked, healthy debate and disagreement wasn’t such a bad thing but just a reality of human nature). Nuance has too oftenbeen substituted by the modern social media age trend of out-of-context hyperbole at odds with society at-large.

How does this all relate to the title of this article, you might wonder? Well, within the current commentary surrounding sport in the western world, there’s a certain amount of hyperbole surrounding padel (and pickleball to a lesser extent) about what’s widely considered the world’s fastest-growing sport. There is a lot of talk about the sport “exploding” all over the world. About the sport “taking off” in every nation across Europe. About the sport being “tennis’ nemesis” with tennis’ overall participation rates looking less rosy than those of padel. And whilst, yes, the statistics supporting padel’s remarkable ascent are impressive - all the more so as the sport seemed to grow during the global Covid pandemic, not decline like so many other sports and pastimes - the truth of padel’s “explosion” is, as with so much in life, nuanced. The sport’s growth is occurring in geographical pockets. Its growth is in many ways sporadic, ebbing and flowing depending on regional and national quirks and cultural issues that determine the sport’s path to growth.

So, with the estimates of global padel participation ranging anywhere between 12m - 25m, where are the areas where the sport is truly growing? And is it really the world’s fastest-growing sport?

Well, it depends how you look at it, but in this newly-released Padel Growth Dynamic Report, that we’ve partnered with the sport’s leading fountain of statistical knowledge Padel Intelligence on, the picture is, on the whole, bright for Padel. Whilst there are suggestions the growth could be slowing down, the Report indicates that could be down to it being the first two months of the year or the fact that it has been a pre-tournament period until recently.

Interestingly, the Spanish, Swedish and Italian markets appear to be maturing, whilst the Netherlands is considered in the development phase and France and the UK - where currently the sport is in its infancy - appear to be about to enter a period of rapid growth. Perhaps most interestingly in this Report - which was compiled by Padel Intelligence’s Vianney Dubois - there has been a stark change in the breadth of the sport from 2016 to 2023; in short, the sport has been transformed from a one nation sport into a multinational sport, even if at the professional level, the world rankings are populated almost entirely by Spanish and Argentinean flags.

This brings me onto another key point. How does one determine whether padel is a truly global sport? There are multiple ingredients at play, that need to be mixed into the padel bowl when one considers this very question. Yes, the world rankings need to show a far more diverse range of national flags than is currently the case – but that will take decades rather than years, because the infrastructure and padel development systems need to be established and honed over the years in order to generate homegrown talent from the New World Padel nations. Secondly, one needs to look at factors such as which nations are witnessing growth in amateur and club-level participation? And which nations are seeing a boom in padel facilities and clubs? Where are the padel brands originating from? From what geographies are non-endemic sponsors entering the sport of padel? And what is the level of media coverage in any particular nation?

These questions and more will determine how one sees padel as an increasingly global sport in 2023. For now, the signs for padel’s claim one of, if not the fastest-growing sport worldwide, are good, given pickleball’s growth appears contained to one nation - albeit the world’s largest sports market - at present. And that’s the USA.

The crucial point will be how the trends in this Report look in the months and years ahead – and, interestingly, what new nations emerge in this battle for supremacy.