Incorporated in 2020, Padel Park aims to foster the sports of padel in the country by building a complete ecosystem around it — ranging from constructing courts to teaching the sport and organising championships
The startup claims to have harvested INR 2.5 Cr in FY24 revenues, and the company is EBITDA positive. In the short term, Padel Park has set its eyes on running a cluster of 35 more courts across India
On the back of the sport's growing popularity, the startup is receiving increasing advertising interest from several new-age, premium brands. Consequently, the events business now contributes around 30% of Padel Park's overall revenue
How often do we see a new sport entering India? The answer is, not very often. It’s because any new sport takes quite a while to establish itself and gain traction to finally create headlines. It was precisely the period during which Nikhil Sachdev, Ronak Daftary, and brothers Jigar Doshi and Pratik Doshi pivoted from their original turf and court construction and leasing business to get the most out of the growing popularity of padel, a sport that finds its roots in Mexico.“We were intrigued by the ease of the game even though it was just a combination of tennis, squash and badminton. It just made sense for India, as the very social nature of the game was exactly what we needed after being locked up for almost two years,” Sachdev said. As of now, about 60% of the startup’s revenue is driven by people booking courts in the city. Sachdev asserts that the 10 courts that are operational in the city see bookings 2-3 weeks in advance. Padel Park’s courts see an average footfall of 5K users per month. Beyond court sales, the cofounders’ ambitious plan to expand its court count to 200 in the next 2-3 years heavily involves franchise-operated centres.For now, as per Sachdev, a major hurdle for padel’s growth in the country is gaining recognition from the government, which he believes will be pivotal for driving the adoption of this sport.
Similar has been the journey of pickleball in India. For the uninitiated, the sport operates at the intersection of tennis, table tennis, and badminton and is played with a hard plastic wiffle ball on an arena similar to a badminton court (also in dimensions).