In the US, Padel Is Emerging as a Luxury Sport

A new global report showcases the worldwide growth of padel. In the U.S., it sees the racket sport trending toward affluent consumers in hospitality and private club settings

Pickleball may have gotten Americans hooked on racket sports with a beginner-friendly, all-ages approach. Now, padel is counting on the same crowd to pay up for a more refined version.

If you ask Playtomic co-founder Pablo Carro, padel is no longer in emerging mode. The racket sport has become a global lifestyle and business phenomenon, with nearly 5,000 new padel clubs and almost 8,000 new courts added worldwide in 2025, bringing the global padel player base to 19.4 million.

And in the U.S., the stage has been set for the sport to move beyond traditional clubs into premium wellness, hospitality and lifestyle experiences, with long-term growth potential.

That’s the takeaway from the 2026 Playtomic Global Padel Report, released by the racquet sports platform behind the app of the same name and PwC’s Strategy&. 

Playtomic is feeling the upside, too. It raised more than €5.1 million (around $6 million) late last year.

“What makes the U.S. particularly exciting is that we are still in the early innings,” Carro said, adding that the report reveals that the padel market is developing differently than in Europe.

Stateside, 250 new padel clubs and 330 new courts were added last year, with growth concentrated in Florida, Texas, California and select East Coast cities, where the report links demand to affluent consumers and a craving for social fitness. Padel is also becoming a key amenity in real estate and mixed-use developments, and finding a home in luxury hospitality and private club settings, Playtomic reports.

Pickleball operators need not fear, either. Rather than competing with padel, the report sees pickleball as a gateway to the elevated racket sport, which has been described as a cross between tennis and squash.

The premium-club model is already taking shape in the U.S. Utah City, a 700-acre mixed-use development in Vineyard, Utah (and home to the first Peloton-powered community), debuts its racket club on June 13. Flagborough, the developer of Utah City, is teaming up with LVBL on the facility, among the first to bring padel to Utah County.

VVV Sports, a British Virgin Islands company whose shares trade on London’s Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market, is also moving in.

The company announced a proposed placing to raise roughly £5 million (around $7 million), with proceeds to fund plans that include a U.S. operating entity based in Miami and a U.S. Padel Center of Excellence in New York. VVV said it intends to seek a dual listing on the NASDAQ Global Market.

The capital has been flowing for a while. Miami-based Racquet 360, focused primarily on padel, closed a $9 million round late last year to scale brands including the National Padel League and racket sports festival RacquetX. AO Ventures, the investment arm of the Australian Open and Tennis Australia, recently took a stake in U.S. club operator Padel Haus, which runs six clubs nationwide. And Virginia-based Epic Padel raised an oversubscribed $10 million seed round last fall to open its first U.S. clubs, backed by former pro athletes.

The luxury angle is showing up in travel, too. Privé Padel, a Hamptons-founded lifestyle brand, launched Privé Passport this month, a members-only program linking padel players to a network of luxury hotels and resorts with on-property courts. The platform launches with more than 40 hotel and resort partners across 15-plus countries and a base of over 600 active members in New York, Miami and the Hamptons, with members getting perks like preferred rates, room upgrades and spa credits at participating properties.

Playtomic’s assessment aligns with Garmin’s 2025 Connect Data Report, which found that racket sports led all activities in year-over-year participation growth, climbing 67% and edging out even Pilates. Women and players aged 18 to 29 drove the biggest gains.