With the sport of pádel expanding strongly in Scandinavia and Finland, a big Swedish venture capital firm, Triton, has reportedly made just over 30 acquisitions worth around 2.5 billion Swedish kronor (€250m-$290m) in the sector over the past three months, forming a newly created Ledap Group with a presence in seven European countries.
It now owns total of around 90 pádel halls with 600 courts, most of them in the Nordic countries. By the end of this year, the network is set to be more than doubled to some 200 halls with over 1,700 courts. The facilities will retain their original names, but the group will make investments in building up the sport of pádel as a more user-friendly alternative to regular tennis while it continues to work its way to becoming an Olympic sport.
One of the companies that Triton has acquired is We Are Padel, which has become one of the largest players in Sweden. The investors in the four-year-old company include well-known sports celebrities who have been acting as ambassadors for the sports such as a former Formula 1 driver, Marcus Ericsson, and two former hockey players, Johan Wiklander and Johan Adolfsson.
With an estimated 500,000 players, accounting for about 5 percent of the total population, pádel has become about as big as golf in Sweden, which will be hosting the first dedicated fair in the Nordics, Padel Expo, next Jan. 28-30 at the Scandinavian XPO in Stockholm.
Particularly strong growth was recorded in Sweden during the 2020 pandemic year. In neighboring Denmark, the number of players is estimated to have grown by more than 180 percent in 2019 alone, reaching a level of 25,000. It is expected to continue to grow at around 25 percent year to 45,000 by 2025 – a big target for a country with a population of 5.8 million people. As a result, sales of pádel-related products reportedly reached a level of €990 million last year. More than half of the products were sold online. Meanwhile, the number of pádel halls in Denmark has doubled to more than 400.
Until about five years ago, pádel has a significant presence only in Spain. It has since moved into Italy, France and other European countries besides the Nordics. As previously reported, next year’s edition ISPO Munich will revive the Padel Village, after an absence of seven years, because of the sport’s recent strong international expansion.
