Padel added 4,969 clubs worldwide in 2025, close to 14 a day, according to Playtomic’s 2026 Global Padel Report. Worldwide, the sport now counts 19.4 million players, 58,300 courts and more than 20,900 clubs.
Alejandro Betancourt López’s biography describes him as a founding partner of Playtomic, the Madrid-based platform people use to book racket-sport courts. Madrid, Playtomic’s home city, drew €717 million of the €2.6 billion invested in Spanish startups during the first nine months of 2025, behind Barcelona’s €1.1 billion, and venture capital firms took part in 71% of the country’s rounds.
How Big Padel Has Become
Courts went up even faster than clubs. Builders worldwide added 7,898 padel courts in 2025, nearly 22 a day, and the global padel equipment market has grown at a 34% compound annual rate since 2019, the report found. Clubs are also turning into what the report calls “third spaces,” and courts are showing up as amenities in real estate projects. Many now operate as hubs pairing courts with fitness classes, food and drink, saunas and cold plunges.
Playtomic had already reached a €200 million valuation after buying GotCourt in 2022. It raised €65 million in March 2025, €55 million in equity and €10 million in debt from Banco Santander. Match Invest, led by Chief Executive Félix Ruiz, a Tuenti co-founder, and Luxembourg Finance House headed the round, with Bonsai, Arconas and existing backers GP Bullhound and FJ Labs also taking part.
Playtomic, the platform linked to Alejandro Betancourt López, counted 1.5 million monthly active players at the time, 6,000 clubs in 63 countries and gross revenue above €240 million for 2024, up 40% from a year earlier.
Where the U.S. Fits for Alejandro Betancourt López’s Playtomic
Americans gained 250 new padel clubs and 330 courts in 2025. Playtomic’s report labels the country a “Diamond in the Rough,” with growth concentrated in Florida, Texas, California and a handful of East Coast cities, driven by affluent consumers with international exposure. Pickleball, it found, is introducing Americans to social racket sports and feeding padel’s growth. “We are still in the early innings,” Pablo Carro, Playtomic’s co-founder and chief commercial officer, said of the U.S.
Unlike pickleball’s mass-market appeal, U.S. padel is being built as a premium, experience-led sport, the report said. More than 50 U.S. clubs were active on Playtomic when the 2025 round closed. Alejandro Betancourt López counts the company among his most successful investments. “We did Playtomic, which is the largest padel operator in the world,” Alejandro Betancourt said in an interview, listing it alongside Hawkers and the Uber transaction as his strongest results.