UK padel has attracted at least $300 million in investment in just a few years.
The first operator bankruptcies have landed in 2026.
The figure comes from a Bloomberg investigation published on 9 October 2026.
Investors include Andy Murray, a shareholder in Game4Padel, and rapper Stormzy, who has bought into London’s Padel Social Club.
The failures have hit other operators, but the whole sector is now looking at Sweden, where the same rush to build courts ended in a string of bankruptcies.
“There’s people who are swimming with their trunks down.”
Gareth Balch, chief executive of advisory firm Two Circles, quoted by Bloomberg
From 69 to 1,825 Padel Courts in Six Years
The UK had 69 padel courts six years ago.
By May 2026, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) counted 1,825 of them across 551 venues.
Another 559 planning applications are pending.
Padel has only had official status as a tennis discipline in Britain since 2020.
New companies are following suit: 468 firms with “padel” in their name in the first half of 2026, up from 7 in the same period of 2020, says BTG Consulting.
David Lloyd, the country’s largest operator with close to 300 courts, is putting £111 million into padel and adding 46 courts in 2026.
Two Padel Operators Already Bust
Social Sports Society, one of Britain’s biggest operators with five sites, has gone into administration, a UK insolvency procedure.
Its founder blames financing partner Mindspring Padel, which disputes his account.
Padel XO, founded by former Scotland rugby international Max Evans, was liquidated in 2026.
The problem comes down to three numbers.
A padel court costs around £40,000 to build, and twice that with a canopy to keep the rain off.
An hour on court costs £30 on average in the UK, and up to £100 in London.
Evening and weekend slots fill up, off-peak hours far less so.
British squash ran into the same wall, BTG Consulting points out.
So clubs are chasing other income: food and drink, saunas, cold plunges, yoga, DJ nights.
At Racketeer (13 indoor courts in west London), events and coffee bring in close to a quarter of revenue.
Game4Padel boss Michael Gradon says the market is crowded with operators who turned up too late.
Sweden and Chile: The Precedent Worrying UK Padel
In Sweden, close to 90 padel-related companies went bankrupt in 2023 after expanding too fast during the pandemic.
In Chile, more than 80 clubs shut in 2024, according to the newspaper The Clinic.
The LTA puts the UK’s saturation point at 4,500 courts.
The current total is about 40% of that.
The governing body expects the hourly rate to fall as supply grows.
It is urging local authorities to build courts themselves, to keep a grip on prices.
Its head of padel, Tom Murray, sees Britain’s slow planning system as a useful brake on overheating.
Rocket Padel knows both markets: founder Sebastian Gordon lost clubs in Sweden.
He runs 35 courts in the UK, plans 25 more in 2027 and expects the market to shrink.
To gauge the French market, PadelSpeak keeps an up-to-date top 100 of the biggest padel clubs in France and a list of padel court builders.
