Padel is the fastest-growing sport in the world: 200+ tournaments, 17 new countries, and U.S. universities join the boom

Padel has stopped being a Mediterranean phenomenon. The CUPRA FIP Tour enters 2026 with more than 200 tournaments across five continents, adding 17 new host countries to the calendar and nearly 400 combined draws across categories. It's the data-backed confirmation of something the industry already sensed: padel is growing faster than any other racquet sport in the world.

From niche sport to campus phenomenon

One of the most telling indicators doesn't come from the professional circuit — it comes from university campuses. At the University of Miami, students and alumni have grown an informal club into a 200-member association, with covered courts already under construction on campus. It's the same pattern padel followed years ago inside tennis clubs in Spain: first it borrows a court, then it demands infrastructure of its own.

That jump — from "we play wherever we can" to "we need our own courts" — is exactly the moment a club, a university, or a real estate developer starts considering construction investment.

A professional tour that no longer fits the Mediterranean calendar

The International Padel Federation (FIP) has launched a new scoring system (Star Point System) for 2026 and expanded the Qatar Airways Premier Padel Tour calendar, while the FIP Promises Tour — the international development pathway — runs youth tournaments simultaneously in Malaysia, South Africa, Spain, the United States, and Brazil.

Broadcasting is professionalizing too: Premier Padel now has English-language commentary on Red Bull TV, designed explicitly for audiences discovering the sport for the first time.

What this means for the people who build courts

This expansion isn't just a sporting curiosity — it's a direct market signal for three profiles:

• Existing clubs watching demand for court hours outstrip their installed capacity, needing to expand with new courts, covered or not.
• Developers and investors identifying padel as an asset with more growth runway than other, already-mature racquet sports.
• Universities and sports institutions — like Miami — watching demand emerge from within, and needing regulation-compliant infrastructure before they can compete officially.

In all three cases, the technical question is the same: what type of court to build (indoor, outdoor, or panoramic), with what cover, and under what homologation standard, so the investment doesn't become obsolete the moment the club wants to host its first official tournament.

From demand to a built court

The growth of the professional calendar and the emergence of university clubs in new markets like the United States confirm a trend IDRECO has been tracking closely for years: court construction is no longer driven only by recreational demand, but by a competitive market that requires certified facilities from day one.

If you're evaluating an expansion or launching a new court project, the moment to design with technical rigor — not just today's demand — is before the first blueprint is signed.