Padel Isn't a Trend. It's Bedding In and Moving Fast.
Updated: Aug 14
Three years ago, I spent most of my time explaining to people what padel actually was. "No, it's not a water sport." "No, it's spelt padel, not paddle." Although, having since installed the first ever floating padel court on a lake at the Alfred Dunhill Padel Classic, some might argue we are, in fact, a water sport.
This May, at the third annual Alfred Dunhill Padel Classic, I didn't have to explain anything to anyone. Sixteen teams, over 180 players, more than 1,000 guests across the two days, and competition that was markedly fiercer than the year before. The sport has well and truly landed in people's lives here in the UK. This isn't a passing trend. It's bedding in, and it's moving fast.
Why Padel, Specifically
Plenty of sports are growing. Very few remove as much friction, or are as open, welcoming and rewarding, as padel. Tennis takes months before your serve stops apologising for itself. Golf is brilliant and convivial, but to newcomers it can be daunting, even demoralising. Padel is forgiving, inclusive and sociable from the first rally.
I always come back to the same analogy: few sports let you play properly with your entire family and friendship group, across every age. With tennis, you might get a decent game with four out of ten friends. Golf, maybe five. With padel, it's closer to eight out of ten.
On Court:
Genuinely inclusive: Beginners are in proper rallies within minutes, regardless of ability, age or gender.
Always doubles: Built-in sociability, you're never playing alone, and conversation happens naturally between points.
The walls are the point: Mistakes become opportunities. The ball stays in play roughly 80% of every hour booked.
Underarm serve: No months of practice before you're competitive. The barrier to enjoyment is as low as it gets.
Off Court:
Relationship-building: Playing alongside someone at any level creates bonds that a dinner or a panel discussion simply can't.
Brands and partners: A genuinely warm room. Sponsors don't stand at a booth. They play, they mix, and they come back.
Celebrity and pro talent: The mix of legends and amateurs on the same court is a dynamic no other hospitality format reliably delivers.
Elevated hospitality: On-court experience matched by what's waiting off it, Mirabeau rosé, Ben Tish, and a very good reason to stay all day!
What We've Built, and Why It Works
We didn't back into padel. We founded the Alfred Dunhill Padel Classic at Hurlingham, the Evelyn Partners Padel Cup in Canary Wharf, and the Singapore Padel Invitational, because we believed padel could give brands a genuinely fresh platform: to build awareness, entertain clients and guests, and engage their own people, all by getting them on court together regardless of ability, age or gender.
At the Alfred Dunhill Padel Classic, we've had some of the finest padel players the sport has produced, alongside most of the UK's current top ten, mixing with amateur teams, captains of industry and names like Sir Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Peter Crouch, Judy Murray and Michael McIntyre. We've been fortunate to partner with brands including Alfred Dunhill and the Richemont Group, Mercedes-Benz, Evelyn Partners, Wilson and IWC.
"Padel with a purpose is the ethos at the core of the Alfred Dunhill Padel Classic." - Padel Magazine
Underpinning all of it sits Laureus Sport for Good, founded under the patronage of Nelson Mandela, with every match played helping support young people across more than 40 countries. One tangible output: over 200 young girls from the local area now take part in a monthly learn-and-play padel and rackets programme at the club. In a short space of time the Classic has bedded itself into the season, once described as the "ribbon cutter to the British summer social calendar," alongside Royal Ascot, the Derby and Henley.
What Brands Get:
A fresh platform: Padel gives brands access to an audience that is engaged, high-value and genuinely hard to reach through conventional sponsorship.
Real relationships: Three feet from the person you're trying to impress, laughing about the same shanked volley.
Association and trust: Over 50 brands and companies now in our partner family, all drawn to the value the sport and our events deliver.
What Players Get:
World-class company: Professional padel players at the peak of the sport, legends from cricket, football and rugby, and amateur teams competing together.
An event worth the diary: Two days at Hurlingham, with everything on and off court given equal care and attention.
Meaning behind the match: Every point played contributes to something much bigger for Laureus Sport for Good, and the young people they reach.
Why We Think We're the Ones to Keep Building It
We're not running one event and calling it a strategy. We're building towards the second year of the Evelyn Partners Padel Cup this October, and the second edition of the Singapore Padel Invitational, because the same approach holds firm wherever we take it: get the sport right, get the venue right, deliver an elevated experience on and off the court, and bring together brands and teams that add real value by their presence and association.
Spain and South America remain the spiritual homes of padel, with around 40 years behind them. But the sport has escaped its heartland, exploding across Italy, France and Sweden, leaving the UK and Germany as the next major markets still catching up, with the US waiting in the wings as perhaps the biggest prize of all.
Players Worldwide
Tipped for Olympic debut
Courts worldwide by the end of 2027
In the UK alone, player numbers have doubled in a year. That, for me, is the gap TTB Sport fills so well: not just running a padel event, but genuinely understanding how to mix a great experience with real value for brands and partners alike.
Moving Forward with TTB Sport:
Padel welcomes everybody in. It wraps its arms around every age group and every gender, and puts up no barrier to whether you consider yourself sporty or not. With the events we build, we bring brands, players and great hospitality together, and somewhere a six-year-old benefits from the work Laureus does. We strive to bring the best version of impact of what sport can do, from the boardroom to the playing fields. We take it seriously but make sure we bring the fun and laughter along the way.
If you're thinking about padel, as a brand, a partner, a player, or simply someone who wants to understand why this sport has taken hold so completely and so quickly, we'd love to talk. We've spent three years figuring out how to do this properly and we're just getting started.
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