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Moves brief into research/state-of-padel-q1-2026/ and adds source files: - FIP 2024 PDF (8 MB) - Extracted text from both FIP 2024 + 2025 PDFs - README with download link for 2025 PDF (44 MB, not committed) Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
10 KiB
State of Padel Q1 2026 — Research Brief
Compiled 2026-02-25 from FIP World Padel Reports 2024 + 2025 (PDF text extraction), padelfip.com press releases, and Premier Padel circuit announcements.
Raw source files:
- FIP 2024 PDF text:
/tmp/fip_2024_text.txt(11,049 lines)- FIP 2025 PDF text:
/tmp/fip_2025_text.txt(28,135 lines)- FIP 2024 PDF:
https://www.padelfip.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WORLD_PADEL_REPORT_2024_FIP-1.pdf- FIP 2025 PDF:
https://www.padelfip.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/FIP-WPR-2025_DIGITAL.pdf
1. Global Player Population
| Metric | End 2023 (FIP 2024 report) | Mid/Oct 2025 (FIP 2025 report) | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amateur players worldwide (est.) | ~25–30 million | >35 million | — |
| Federated / licensed players | 600,000 | 850,000 | +42% |
| Players playing ≥1×/week | >50% of amateurs | >50% of amateurs | — |
| Gender split | ~60% M / 40% F | ~60% M / 40% F | — |
| Pro-ranked players | ~4,874 | 11,125 | +128% |
| Junior-ranked players | ~1,209 | 4,219 | +249% |
Player distribution by continent (FIP 2025 report):
| Continent | Share |
|---|---|
| Europe | 61.3% |
| South America | 19.0% |
| Central & North America | 7.7% |
| Asia | 6.8% |
| Africa | 4.9% |
| Oceania | ~0.3% |
Source: FIP World Padel Report 2025, /tmp/fip_2025_text.txt
2. Courts Worldwide
| Metric | Early 2024 (FIP 2024) | June 2025 (FIP 2025) | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total courts worldwide | 60,000 (milestone) | 77,355 | +29% |
| Europe | 42,600 (70%) | 51,000+ (66%) | +20% |
| South America | ~14,850 | ~14,100 (18%) | — |
| Asia | ~3,200 | ~4,633 (6%) | +45% |
| Central & North America | ~2,000 | ~3,976 (5%) | +99% |
| Africa | ~2,300 | ~3,389 (4%) | +47% |
| Oceania | ~50 | ~110 | +120% |
| Court-to-club ratio (global avg) | 3.2 | — | — |
3-year context (from FIP 2024 report): +240% court growth globally since 2021. Excluding Spain, European countries grew courts 6× in the same period.
Source: FIP 2024 report pp. key facts section; FIP 2025 report country-breakdown section. /tmp/fip_2024_text.txt lines ~380–414; /tmp/fip_2025_text.txt court section.
3. Top Countries by Court Count
2025 (June 2025 data, FIP 2025 report)
| Rank | Country | Courts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spain | 17,300 |
| 2 | Italy | 10,220 |
| 3 | Sweden | 4,220 |
| 4 | Argentina | 4,220 |
| 5 | France | 4,000 |
| 6 | Netherlands | 3,500+ |
| 7 | Belgium | 2,150 |
| 8 | Mexico | 2,000+ |
| 9 | Chile | ~2,000 |
| 10 | Denmark | ~1,560 |
| 11 | Portugal | 1,560 |
| 12 | Saudi Arabia | 1,127–1,575 |
2024 (early 2024 data, FIP 2024 report)
| Country | Courts |
|---|---|
| Spain | 16,000+ |
| Argentina | ~9,053 |
| Sweden | ~4,200 |
| France | ~2,300 |
| Netherlands | ~2,420 |
Source: FIP 2025 top-15 courts chart, /tmp/fip_2025_text.txt ~lines 390–412. FIP 2024 country pages, /tmp/fip_2024_text.txt.
4. Clubs Worldwide
| Metric | FIP 2024 report | FIP 2025 report |
|---|---|---|
| Total clubs worldwide | ~19,800 | 24,627+ |
| FIP-affiliated clubs | 5,820 (+48% vs 2022's 3,923) | 8,612 (managing 30,000+ courts) |
| Countries / nations playing padel | 130 + 12 territories | 150 + 20 territories |
Source: /tmp/fip_2024_text.txt global summary; /tmp/fip_2025_text.txt headline stats.
5. FIP Member Federations
| Metric | FIP 2024 | FIP 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Total FIP member federations | 71 (30 joined in prior 3 years) | 87 |
| European | 39 | 50 |
| Asian | 15 | — |
| American | 12 | — |
| African | 3 | — |
| Oceanian | 2 | — |
Source: /tmp/fip_2024_text.txt line 3573; /tmp/fip_2025_text.txt federation overview.
6. Country-Level Licensed (Federated) Players
From FIP 2025 report (data as of Oct 2025)
| Country | Licensed Players | Gender split | Amateur est. | Courts | Clubs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | 109,182 | 39,851W + 69,331M | 6,200,000+ | 17,300+ | 4,570+ |
| Italy | 86,301 | 23,257W + 61,837M | 2,200,000 | 10,220 | 3,795 |
| France | 250,000 | via FFT* | 800,000 | 4,000 | 2,917 |
| Sweden | 6,118 | 1,900W + 4,218M | 700,000 | 4,220 | 1,202 |
France figure = FFT (Fédération Française de Tennis) licences covering padel. 100,000 are padel-only; 150,000 are multi-racket licences.
From FIP 2024 report (data as of end 2023 / April 2024)
| Country | Licensed Players | Amateur est. |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 101,326 | 5,500,000+ |
| France | 113,006 (FFT) | 1,000,000 |
| Argentina | 73,741 | 1,500,000 |
| Paraguay | 15,000 | 500,000 |
Source: /tmp/fip_2025_text.txt Spain ~line 25571, Italy ~line 19606, France ~line 17550, Sweden ~line 26084. /tmp/fip_2024_text.txt Argentina ~line 4125, France ~line 4488.
7. Professional Circuit — Scale & Growth
FIP-Organized Tournament Volume
| Year | Total FIP tournaments | Countries hosting | Unique players |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 (full year) | 182 | — | — |
| H1 2024 | 71 | 21 | 2,419 (65 nationalities) |
| H1 2025 | 132 (+86%) | 38 (+81%) | 3,266 (+35%, 91 nationalities) |
H1 2025 breakdown: 12 Premier Padel + 75 CUPRA FIP Tour + 45 FIP Promises
Digital reach (H1 2025)
- 1.85 million unique website users (+19% vs H1 2024)
- 30+ million page views (+33%)
- 680,000 social followers (+23%)
Source: padelfip.com press release July 2025, plain HTML.
8. Premier Padel Prize Pools
Per-tournament prize money by tier
| Tier | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major | €525,000 | €525,000 | Not confirmed |
| P1 | €250,000 | €300,000 | Not confirmed |
| P2 | — | €150,000 | €250,000 (+67%) |
| Year-end Finals | — | — | €600,000 total |
2024 Finals breakdown (Barcelona, Dec 2024): Winner per player €52,500 · Finalist €30,000 · 3rd €21,000 · 4th €13,500 · QF €7,688 · Alternate €2,250
2025 update: Women's P2 raised a further €10,000 (announced March 2025, padelfip.com).
Note on 2024 Major/P1 amounts: Not confirmed in any accessible source. The 2024 P2 increase (€150k → €250k) was confirmed from Genova P2 announcement. Major/P1 for 2024 require one more manual lookup on padelfip.com.
Source: padelfip.com press releases 2022, 2023, 2024 — plain HTML, fully accessible.
2024 Finals: padelfip.com/2024/10/countdown-to-the-qatar-airways-premier-padel-finals...
9. Broadcast & Viewership
2022 (most granular year — from FIP press release)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| YouTube views (season) | 22 million |
| Live stream viewers | 17 million |
| Watch time | 6 million hours |
| Household broadcast reach | 150 million+ |
| Territories | 180+ |
| Multi-year broadcast deals | 11 (ESPN, beIN Sports, Canal+, RTVE, etc.) |
| Live attendance | 200,000+ across 8 events |
H1 2024
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Broadcast territories | 242 (6 continents) |
| Live attendance | 350,000+ (14 tournaments, 12 countries) |
| Social media followers | ~2M total; 4M on Instagram |
| Broadcast countries (full year) | 187 |
2024 viewership ratings / unique viewer counts not published in any accessible source. The 2022 figures remain the most granular available.
Source: padelfip.com 2022 year-end release; padelfip.com August 2024 US expansion announcement.
10. World Padel Tour (WPT)
WPT operated prior to the WPT/Premier Padel merger (completed May 2024).
worldpadeltour.com is effectively defunct — ERR_TLS_CERT_ALTNAME_INVALID on all fetches, domain being wound down. No aggregate 2023 WPT prize pool figure was recoverable from any accessible source.
The FIP 2024 report notes: from 2019 (birth of Cupra FIP Tour) through April 2024, 355 tournaments were played across 36 different nations on the FIP circuit.
11. What Padelnomics DuckDB Adds
The FIP data is country-level. The Padelnomics pipeline has city-level granularity:
-- Venue counts per country (OSM + Playtomic deduplicated)
SELECT country_code, COUNT(*) as venues
FROM serving.dim_venues
GROUP BY country_code ORDER BY venues DESC;
-- City-level market scores + venue density
SELECT city_name, country_code, market_score, venue_count, population
FROM serving.city_market_profile
ORDER BY market_score DESC LIMIT 50;
The delta between FIP's 17,300 courts in Spain and Padelnomics-tracked venues is meaningful for the article — it illustrates the data methodology gap (FIP = self-reported by federations; Padelnomics = independently scraped OSM + Playtomic).
12. Data Source Assessment
| Source | Available | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| FIP 2024 PDF | Free | PDF → parseable text | /tmp/fip_2024_text.txt — layout scrambles extraction slightly |
| FIP 2025 PDF | Free | PDF → parseable text | /tmp/fip_2025_text.txt — same |
| padelfip.com press releases | Free | Plain HTML | Clean URL pattern /YYYY/MM/slug/. Best source for prize pools, circuit stats |
| premierpadel.com | Partial | Next.js SPA | Requires headless browser; static fetch returns empty shell |
| Playtomic / PwC Global Padel Report 2025 | Gated | HubSpot form → PDF | 45-page report; only teaser stat (70k courts by 2026) visible on landing page |
| Statista padel topic | Paywalled | — | |
| Market research firms (Mordor, GVR, etc.) | Paywalled | — | Typical quoted figures: ~$1.5–2B market, 15–20% CAGR through 2030 |
| worldpadeltour.com | Dead | — | Invalid TLS cert post-merger |
13. Data Still Needed Before Writing Session
| Gap | How to fill |
|---|---|
| Premier Padel Major/P1 prize pools for 2024 | 1 manual lookup: search padelfip.com for "2024 Premier Padel season announcement" |
| DuckDB pipeline venue counts | Run the 2 SQL queries above |
| FIP 2025 per-country data (all 87 federations) | /tmp/fip_2025_text.txt has the full text — grep by country name |