PADEL WORLD SUMMIT 2026

The annual event cements its place as the industry’s show stopper

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That age-old phrase was certainly adhered to by the team behind the Padel World Summit in Barcelona. There were a few tweaks here and there from the 2025 event, but the return to Barcelona for the 2026 edition of the summit had all the hallmarks of last year. The Summit has now firmly established itself as the industry’s ‘go to’ business event. This year saw a new record attendance of more than 7,200 visitors walk through the doors of Hall 6 (a rise of 20 per cent on 2025), with half being from outside Spain. As before, the Summit boasted a packed agenda of talks, numerous activations, plus the plethora of exhibitors – not to mention networking. Consequently, time is a very valuable commodity and it has to be used wisely.

The buzzing innovation arena returned and was complimented by 20 padel start-ups; the expo featured 10 branded courts (an increase of two on 2025) encircling the main floor of around 140 exhibitors from more than 30 countries; plus there was the global conference area – for insights and discussions into the industry’s major talking points.

There was a distinctive set of themes to the ‘activity programme’ with a trio of talks focusing on padel investment; and another trio providing insights into the USA, UK and Dutch padel markets. Growth, governance and the time honoured tradition of the Global Padel Report from Playtomic also featured prominently.

The booking platform’s latest study shared data that has had the industry talking. The key stats being a total of 4,969 new clubs were established in 2025 and 7,898 courts were built.

At the conclusion of the Summit, the awards for the best start-up was announced. UK-based VAM-OS, a finance and operations platform for clubs that offers real-time visibility of profitability and cash flow, came first in the vote.

Second place went to booking app aggregator CourtBrain, which is expanding into the UK market, and third place was awarded to Bopa, a ball re-pressurisation solution designed for club rental use, combining sustainability with operational efficiency.

Positive feedback

All the signs are positive for the padel sector, which was great news for the organisers of the Padel World Summit – the International Padel Cluster. Michel Gogniat, the recently appointed MD of the International Padel Cluster, provided a reflection of what Cluster members were saying about this year’s Summit.

“There was a thriving atmosphere and members were really happy about the quality of the meetings they had,” he said. “In terms of the Summit, they were saying this is unstoppable. They are convinced that next year is going to be bigger. And that in 10 years, there will be a huge venue here and not one hall, but maybe 3, 4, 5 halls.”

Cluster members echoed this sentiment.

Fernando Canovas, general manager of Greenset said: “This year was really good and I’m really happy with all the people coming here. We are doing good deals, good business.

“We were one of the first companies that believed in the summit three years ago and today the people attending are more professional. Padel is growing, business is growing, and people want to invest. That is the most important.”

The observations of Carlos Sanchez Sierra of JUBO Padel included the change in the demographics of visitors, and the positive impact for the industry. “The Summit is good for business because I think it’s much more for investors, and clients who really want to invest in padel,” he said.

“We are also seeing visitors from many new countries. Countries in Asia, some countries from Africa. So, really good for us.

“This year, the Summit is much better. There are more people and brands, while we have the chance to host our distributors from many, many countries including Australia, Ireland, France and Germany.”

Court manufacturers were certainly in agreement about the business being done at the Summit.

Ray Brinkmanis, CEO of Padel Alba, said: “I have loved the Summit from the first edition. This year hasn’t disappointed as it’s been even better than last year - and we already have a spot for next year. The first day was incredible and that alone made it worth coming.

The first day was incredible and that alone made it worth coming

“The people who come here, they mean business. They come here from all over the world only for this event. When they come here, they know what they want whether that’s courts, or rackets, or something else. Importantly, they don’t come here just to look.

“The Summit is a very well-organised business event.”

Rackets, apparel and footwear also dominate the expo floor, with many of the big names present.

Spanish brand Joma added star quality to its stand this year with nine-time women’s number one and brand ambassador Carolina Navarro present all week.

Aside from the numerous interviews and photos, Carolina was also very ‘hands on’ to promote the brand’s products.

She said: “I’m working with Joma and helping them with growing padel everywhere in the world and promoting the new collection of rackets.

“This year I think we are doing a good job and there are lots of people coming and asking for Joma and wanting to know more about the products.”

Making a first appearance at the Summit was major US shoe brand Skechers, which is purposely targeting the padel sector.

Lee Molyneaux, director Technical Performance Europe said: “We already do pickleball footwear because Skechers is from LA. “Pickleball is very more Americanised than padel, which is more European, so there’s a huge want and need for padel shoes in Europe. This is why we’re branching into padel.

“Padel and pickleball shoes have similar traits, so for this year we have changed the outsole of our pickle shoes to be padel-friendly and then from 2027 onwards, we’ll have dedicated padel-specific shoes.

“We’re a $9 billion global brand and we’re going to put full resources behind it. We’re here in Spain, leading the way in padel. Every country, every continent is going after padel, so we need to be there.”

Future horizons

And while the Summit can celebrate its stature as THE industry’s meeting point, there potentially is work to be done for next year. Selena Pelligrini, one of the co-founders and organisers of this summer’s London Padel Week, noted plenty of positives in a LinkedIn post but also what she called ‘big absences’ with entire categories barely represented or not represented at all including nutrition brands; medical and recovery; design and furniture solutions; experiences and travel.

Pelligrini wrote: “Are courts really the only thing that matters inside a club? What about lounges, hospitality areas, coworking corners, social spaces, retail concepts, or lifestyle design?

“Padel tourism is exploding globally, yet there was very little storytelling around experiences, destinations, retreats, hospitality, and travel packages connected to the sport. I was hoping to dream a little more and feel like I could travel the world, instead, I just felt like I was inside a huge club in Barcelona.

“The feeling I had while walking through the event was clear: padel is still being represented mainly as infrastructure and competition, and many rackets.

“Padel’s future growth will increasingly depend on lifestyle, wellbeing, hospitality, community, and experiences.”

Padel’s future growth will increasingly depend on lifestyle, wellbeing, hospitality, community, and experiences

Plenty for Summit managing director Alex Ponseti to ponder ahead of the fourth edition of Padel World Summit which will take place from 4 to 6 May 2027 at Fira de Barcelona.