The National Padel Series (SNP) plans within two years to quintuple the number of competing players and double the number of participating clubs in its home country of Spain, according to CMDsport.
SNP claims already to be the world’s largest tournament for amateur padel, and though rooted in Spain is also already an international organization, having moved into Portugal six years ago, Sweden five years ago and Italy last year. In Portugal and Sweden alike padel has surpassed tennis in total players, but growth in Sweden has suffered a correction. As SNP co-CEO Emilio Ramírez explains to CMD, the boom in padel there led to a glut of courts and then to the closure of many clubs.
But there is gold to be had in the Americas, Ramírez believes. SNP will begin holding tournaments in Mexico, a country of 132.5 million, this coming January. Padel has yet to boom in Mexico, Ramírez tells CMD, and “when the sport really explodes we want to be well positioned there.”
Back in May, with figures from the latest World Padel Report and some country populations, we calculated the padel penetration rate for a number of countries. Mexico’s was at 0.75 percent. Compare that with the 11.29 percent in Spain, from which SNP derives 95 percent of its business.
Another market where SNP sees golden potential is the US (0.03%). SNP is trying to work out deals there as well as in other countries in the Americas, the Far East and the Middle East.
SNP’s current numbers for Spain are about 100,000 players competing in about 80,000 matches at about 850 clubs per season. Men make up a small majority of the players (58%). Four-fifths are more than 30 years of age, with the balance between 18 and 30.
Next season SNP will be welcoming the Heineken Group as chief sponsor, alongside lesser sponsors Adidas, Babolat, Volvo, El Corte Inglés and Padelmarket.
