If you’re an American who plays padel — or is even just “padel-curious” as Mike Puertas of Pickle + Padel calls it — you’ve likely seen plenty of videos on Instagram or YouTube of pros running off court to retrieve a smash or hitting almost geometry-defying winners… or sometimes both in a single point:
Yet, for as much as many Americans are watching the pros play online, very few of us really have any understanding of how the various professional tours work or fit together. So, here’s a quick rundown of a handful of the major ones you’ve likely come across:
The World Padel Tour (WPT):
Started in 2013, the World Padel Tour (WPT) effectively replaced the Pro Padel Tour (PPT), which ran from 2005 – 2012 and had been widely considered the top international tour for pro padel players. Headquartered in Spain, the WPT initially only held tournaments there, in Argentina, and in Portugal, before expanding to Dubai during the second season.
While Spanish, Argentine, and Brazilian players largely dominated the competition during the early years (and still do today), the tour quickly grew in popularity and expanded to Andorra, Belgium, France, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S. by 2017 — with some of that year’s biggest competitions taking place in Miami and Granada.
Eventually the tour expanded to many other countries including Austria, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay, and the U.A.E. among others and began gaining widespread media attention through platforms like YouTube, with many highlight videos routinely getting millions of views.
In August 2023, after a growing rivalry and disputes between the WPT and the competing Premier Padel tour, it was announced that Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) — the owners of Premier Padel — had acquired the WPT and would be merging the two tours into a single unified competition starting in 2024.
The last ever WPT tournament, the WPT Grand Master Final, was held in Barcelona in December of 2023.
Premier Padel:
Beginning in 2024, the Qatari owned Premier Padel tour will become the de facto #1 global padel tour and will be organized under the International Padel Federation (FIP) and given that it promises larger payouts for players than the former World Padel Tour did, it will likely attract many of the world’s top players.
Of the merger, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, chairman of QSI and Premier Padel, has said, “This is an historic moment for the sport of padel, ultimately seeing the two leading professional padel tours unified as one single global Premier Padel tour under the governance of the International Padel Federation – starting next year.
As the fastest-growing sport globally, QSI is proud to be at the heart of driving the development of padel professionally all around the world, always placing the players at the centre of our mission to grow the sport everywhere. We are very excited for this next chapter.”
While Premier Padel has yet to release a tournament schedule for 2024, this past year the tour hosted tournaments in locations including Doha, Rome, Madrid, Paris, and Milan, along with the smaller venue of Mendoza, Argentina.
A1 Padel:
A1 was founded in 2020 by businessman Fabrice Pastor, who is from Monaco. Originally it was called the American Padel Tour as its initial stated goal was to, “improve the level of competition on the American continent, with greater prizes and better infrastructure.” However, the tour was unable to host any tournaments that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the tour was expanded to included European venues and was thus rebranded as the APT Padel Tour. During its inaugural season, more than 40 tournaments were held in 11 countries, with the participation of 772 professional players (615 men and 157 women).
2022 saw the tour expand to Africa and add a new Junior level of competition for players under 18 in addition to the existing Future, Open, Master, and Grand Master categories. At the end of 2022, Ike Franco, founder and managing partner of Infinity Global, became a capital partner of the APT Padel Tour and the tour began to focus on expanding to the U.S.
This U.S. expansion was very well-publicized as it was announced that The New York Yankees would be investing in and partnering with the emerging tour, which rebranded yet again to A1 Padel.
Of the partnership, Yankees team president Randy Levine said, “I looked and saw that padel was the fastest growing sport in the world, and played intensely pretty much all throughout Europe, South America, and Africa, but not here. We, at the Yankees, are always looking for investments that our brand can help bring sports to the core, and this one matched.”
The debut U.S. tournament took place in rather stunning fashion in New York’s Central Park in October of 2023. Other notable A1 tournament locations in 2023 included Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cape Town, South Africa; Halmstad, Sweden; and Panama City, Panama, with the Grand Master Final being held in Salta, Argentina in December of 2023.
Pro Padel League (PPL):
Finally, there’s the Pro Padel League (PPL), which launched in 2023 and is unique in that it is a team-based-competition tour that is 100% focused on North America. Like many other major sports leagues in the U.S., the PPL operates in a franchise-based model, which PPL commissioner (and former U.S. Padel Association president) Marcos Del Pilar describes as “the perfect approach for padel under the American business model.”
The PPL’s inaugural season included seven teams (of eight players each) hailing from Arkansas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, and San Diego, as well as Toronto, Canada, and Cancun, Mexico. For the upcoming 2024 season, the PPL has expanded to include new teams from Orlando, Houston, and New York.
In the PPL format, each team has four primary players (two male and two female) as well as four alternate players. An all-male and all-female combo from each team square off and should the teams split one match all, a third tie-breaking match is played where each team puts forward their best male-female combo for a mixed duel.
Following the regular season of play, there are then playoffs to crown a league champion. In the inaugural season, the Las Vegas Smash defeated the Cancun Waves 2-0 in the final to take home the Padel Cup, which was broadcast in its entirety by CBS Sports.
Further raising the profile of the PPL — as well as padel in the U.S. in general — is the fact that the league has been attracting some notable celebrities as owners and advisors. These include former tennis legends Tommy Haas (co-owner of the San Diego Stingrays) and Juan Martin del Potro (a strategic advisor to the Miami Padel Club), as well as hip-hop mega star Daddy Yankee (who recently acquired the new Orlando franchise).
