How many padel courts were built in 2023? Insight and Analysis from the Playtomic Global Padel Report '24
Once again this year, as per tradition, Playtomic released its Global Padel Report, undoubtedly the most comprehensive and detailed, yet authoritative, document on padel market around the world.
As a manufacturer of padel courts, this publication is definitely a key indicator, giving us a 360-degree overview of the growth of the industry in every part of the world, the number of courts installed during the past year, but also future prospects and player habits.
We will analyze all this in today's article, focusing particularly on the padel court industry.
How many Padel Courts were Built during 2023? And in which Countries?
Throughout the past year, as many as 5816 new padel courts and more than 2,500 new padel clubs were built attesting to the growth at a +16% and raising the total number of padel courts in the world to 43249.
In first place among the countries with the most significant development is France, which, with a growth of 45% exceeded last year's forecasts, going so far as to build as many as 673 courts during 2023 and confirming to the whole world its full potential.
In second place are Belgium and the Netherlands, which, with growth of 26 percent and 20 percent, respectively, registered a total of 656 new padel courts, continuing the growth trend that had seen them among the leading players in the past year as well.
Honorable mention for the United States, which, with 152% growth, can boast of 274 new courts going on to strengthen its position in the padel market, despite the still impactful influence of pickleball and tennis. Although it should be mentioned that the two-year highlight for the States could be 2024-2025.
Speaking of absolute value in terms of number of courts, Italy and Spain remain at the top of the ranking, with 8347 and 16126 padel courts to their credit, respectively. Precisely the data concerning Spain, the epicenter of world padel, displaced everyone in that during the past year as many as 826 new padel courts were installed, many of them for clubs in need of renovation or for private homes and projects, despite rumors that the market was very close to saturation.
The Situation in the United Kingdom and Germany
The United Kingdom and Germany fall, along with France, among the European "big three" in the sector, but the first two definitely require a separate discussion.
In the UK, 2023 saw growth approaching 100 percent with 239 new courts installed and 90,000 active players. Incredible numbers when one considers that until 3 years ago there were just 6,000.
Let's move on to analyze Germany, to which Playtomic devotes an extensive reflection about the situation it is going through regarding padel development. Despite a 122% growth over the previous year and 306 new padel courts installed, Germany has not yet reached its full potential and in this regard the market saturation rate speaks very clearly: with just 1.8% compared to 3.6% in the UK and 8.8% in France, Germany stands for the second year in a row as the big sleeping giant of the padel court market and Playtomic identifies at least two main factors that manage to give us explanations for this phenomenon.
1)In Germany, a padel court is considered a building construction in its own right with the attendant issues of building permits and related costs
2)Most padel clubs or sports facilities in Germany are classified as nonprofit associations and consequently a commercial activity faces prices that are not easy to charge when there is a goal of substantial financial gain.
The Essential Factors for a Successful Padel Club
The last part of the Global Padel Report is devoted to the key factors for developing a successful padel club.
Compared to a few years ago, in fact, today there are more and more aspects to pay attention to and details not to be overlooked in order to be at the top.
Among these are mentioned the services to be provided to the players, inside the court (such as tournaments and lessons) and outside the court (clubhouse, efficient reception, bar/restaurant) and the quality of the infrastructure, especially way of the courts that must provide the maximum in terms of safety, playability and necessary maintenance.
We at NXPadel, who have been working hard on all these aspects for years feel in total agreement with what has been said and to confirm this we have entered the market with something truly revolutionary, reinventing all padel court components to provide the exact same playability as traditional ones but with many more advantages in terms of safety, installation and maintenance.
We are, of course, talking about the innovative Fiberglass structure, the first chemically anti-rust; the safety of ComfortGlass, the only indestructible padel glass; and the technology of ZeroS, the first totally sand-free padel mat.
All this and more is NXPadel, and as you wait for Playtomic to include us in Global Padel Report 25, you'll already know the next step you need to take to scale the padel business, bringing to your club, the padel courts of the future.
