Game, set, cash! Three padel bets and the invest behind.
3 early signals and news. Every Monday. Episode 488.
Celebrity capital meets a leisure conglomerate, this is PadelCity.
PadelCity, founded in Munich in 2022 by former national football coach Hansi Flick among others, operates 24 facilities across Germany and is targeting 40 locations and 350 courts by the end of 2026. In late July 2026 French leisure group Compagnie des Alpes (CDA) invested 12m € as part of a 20m total commitment, taking a 33.9% stake. The investor group already includes Mats Hummels, Joshua Kimmich and Tommy Haas. Opinion — This is the clearest signal yet that German padel has moved from celebrity-endorsed hobby to institutional asset class. A ski-resort and theme-park operator buying into padel courts is a bet on square-metre economics.
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When a leisure conglomerate invests, the sport is establishing itself..
American celebrities are buying padel teams, this is Pro Padel League.
Pro Padel League runs North America’s professional team padel circuit with ten franchises across the US, Canada and Mexico. They compete in a structured, lottery format modeled on major US sports leagues. Since its 2023 launch the league has raised $25m across two rounds. The ownership and investor roster reads like a celebrity index: tennis star Frances Tiafoe, polo player and entrepreneur Nacho Figueras are just some celebrity names. Opinion — This is proof that the celebrity-capital playbook, has fully arrived in padel. An NBA owner backing a padel league at a rapidly expanding valuation says as much about the speed of US sports capital as it does about the sport itself.
In the US, owning a padel team is the new owning a piece of the game.
Boutique padel, automated, this is Mitte.
Mitte (written mitte), officially The Padel Company GmbH, runs boutique padel clubs in central urban locations. Built on automated booking and entry systems. The interior design stems from a dedicated architecture studio with the ambition to make padel a daily “third place” rather than an occasional place. Founded in Berlin in 2024, the company has already opened clubs across Hamburg, Berlin and Düsseldorf, with Oberhausen next. Funding has come from venture funds Epix Sports, DLF Ventures and MVP Founders or celebrities like Klaas Heufer-Umlauf. Opinion — With mitte, the model is the interesting part: while most operators chase scale first, mitte is betting that design and hospitality are the key.
Padel as a daily habit, not a weekend outing.
