The world’s fastest growing sport, padel – a fun easy social and addictive mini-tennis/squash hybrid – has landed on Aussie shores, thanks to the official launch of Game4Padel Australia, the first overseas expansion by the UK’s leading padel business.
Padel is played by over 25 million players across more than 90 countries and growth has exploded across large swathes of Europe and the Middle East following on from its huge original base in South America. Game4padel’s aim is to match its achievement in the UK of being the nation’s leading padel operator, with Australia on the verge of the same exciting growth trajectory seen in many other countries across the globe.
Game4padel boasts global sports stars such as former world tennis number one’s Andy and Jamie Murray, former British number one’s Andrew Castle and Annabel Croft, Liverpool/Holland soccer superstar Virgil Van Dijk and Welsh rugby union legend Jonathan Davies as investor ambassadors.
Game4Padel’s ambitious growth plans launch with them owning and operating the first-ever padel club in Melbourne and the State of Victoria in partnership with an experienced management team. The club “Game4Padel Melbourne” is in the Docklands area of central Melbourne, has four covered padel courts and has the potential to be expanded with further courts and other community sports facilities into Australia’s elite padel club. It is located in a stunning location overlooking the Yarra River within walking distance of the city centre.
Game4Padel Australia is delighted to have partnered with Tennis Australia, the governing body of Australian padel, to host the first ever Australian Padel Open this January. Tennis Australia will support the Padel Open commencing January 24 with prize money, promotion, branding attracting elite international and Australian players competing for $20,000 prize pool and title of Australian Padel Open Champion. The tournament will begin at the Game4Padel Melbourne club in Docklands, before moving to the purpose-built pop-up court at Melbourne Park’s all-new eye-catching ‘AO Tennis Club’. The sport which is still in its infancy in Australia will benefit significantly from Tennis Australia’s marketing and TV viewership, helping to raise awareness for the sport across the country.
Reflecting the wider opportunities in the Australian market, Game4Padel Australia will not only design, build and operate its own padel venues but will market, distribute courts for third party padel venues and assist in helping people looking to open their own padel club. Game4Padel Australia is delighted to have been granted the rights to be exclusive distributor in Australia and New Zealand for Instantpadel courts a versatile world-unique, pop-up court concept that doesn’t need any major groundwork and can be erected in just 4-6 hours.
Played always as doubles on a court much smaller than a traditional tennis court enclosed with glass walls, Padel is much easier and more accessible to play than tennis played by hitting the ball over a net and rebounding off the glass walls with purpose-made racquets while following the tennis scoring system.
Internationally and domestically, athletes from a range of sporting codes are getting in on the action. From tennis legend Andy Murray, and international soccer superstar David Beckham, to Aussie cricketing icon Adam Gilchrist, the sport is widely enjoyed and quickly becoming more accessible to the masses as courts are built across urban Australia.
Game4Padel has twice the number of UK venues as any other operator and an exceptional pipeline of future venues with over 35 venues already secured including partnerships with Europe’s largest retail destination Westfield London and world golf governing body the R&A. Its expansion into Australia has been funded by its fifth oversubscribed fundraising round valuing the business at over £23m and increasing its investor base to 85 individual shareholders.
Game4Padel Australian CEO, Matt Levey said: “It’s an exciting time for padel here in Australia with the first official Australian Padel Open taking place this January, and introducing the wider Australian audience to the thrilling sport. Padel is already the fastest growing sport in Europe and the Middle East with huge participation in South America and now exploding globally so we’re excited to welcome our sport-loving nation to the game, and to Game4Padel Melbourne for a match in the near future.”
Game4Padel Global CEO, Michael Gradon commented: “Australia is one of the world’s greatest sporting nations with a much better climate for outdoor sport than the UK, so it is perfectly primed for padel. We are really excited at the potential for padel in Australia and look forward to using our experience of growing padel in the UK to quickly expand throughout Australia, and then potentially further into APAC.”
To find out more about Game4Padel or where to play padel in Melbourne, visit www.game4padel.com.au
