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 "text": "# Market brief for Kroon Padel: padel in the Netherlands and Flanders (as of 19 October 2026)\n\n**For:** Femke de Wit, Kroon Padel B.V. | **From:** Fernhill Creative research desk\n\n**Before this goes in the deck, three things need fixing:**\n- **The Olympic angle (Q5):** Padel is **not** on the LA 2028 Olympic programme, so there are no 2028 Olympic padel dates to build around.\n- **The Deloitte figure (Q6):** I couldn't find any trace of a Deloitte report called *Benelux Padel Outlook 2026*. I can't confirm the \u20ac212 million figure or give a page number.\n- **Racket brand shares (Q7):** I found no public data on brand shares of rackets sold in the Netherlands in 2025.\n\nDetails for each are below.\n\n---\n\n## 1. Netherlands market size\n\n**Most authoritative source:** *Padel in Cijfers 2025*, published by the KNLTB (the Dutch tennis and padel federation) with EY [1][2]. It counts everything as of 31 December 2025. It combines KNLTB data, NOC\\*NSF sports-participation research and figures supplied by the large commercial operators Peakz Padel, The Padellers and Plaza Padel [1, p. 7]. Page numbers below are the report's printed page numbers.\n\n| Metric | Figure | Source |\n|---|---|---|\n| People who played at least once in 2025 | 876,000 | [1, p. 16\u201317][2] |\n| People who play at least monthly (NOC\\*NSF definition) | 423,579 (about 424,000) | [1, p. 17, 37] |\n| Players registered with the KNLTB | 343,121 | [1, p. 17] |\n| Courts | 3,523 | [1, p. 34, 37] |\n| Venues | 780 (329 commercial centres and 451 clubs) | [1, p. 35, 37] |\n\n**What the KNLTB number means:** it covers people who played through the KNLTB *or* hold a padel membership. It is not a pure membership count [1, p. 17].\n\n**Recent growth:**\n- KNLTB-registered players grew 10% in 2025. The report says this is lower than in previous years [1, p. 17].\n- Courts grew 25% and venues 15% compared with 2024 [1, p. 37][2].\n- There were 475 courts in 2020 [1, p. 37].\n- The report describes the market as moving into \"controlled but solid\" growth, with yearly growth rates easing but still in double digits [1, p. 37].\n- There are about 120 monthly players per court [1, p. 37]. Players are growing faster than venues, and some clubs have waiting lists [2].\n\n**Watch for different counts:** a third-party site citing Padelgids reports 2,886 courts at 688 locations in March 2025 [3]. Padelgids counts differently, so don't mix its figures with KNLTB/EY figures in the deck.\n\n## 2. Flanders and Belgium\n\n**Flanders (KU Leuven research and federation data, as reported by The Brussels Times, 18 October 2026) [4]:**\n- Padel clubs rose from 35 to 340 between 2017 and 2025.\n- Courts rose from 86 to 1,006 over the same period.\n- Registered players went from just over 3,000 in 2017 to more than 100,000 now.\n- The player split is 62% men and 38% women.\n\n**Federation:** Tennis en Padel Vlaanderen reports more than 520 clubs and more than 200,000 members, but that total combines tennis and padel [6].\n\n**Is it growing at the same pace?** No, but it is still growing fast.\n- Sport Vlaanderen's 2026 club-membership figures name padel as the fastest-growing sport, at +17% [5].\n- That is well below the early boom. A secondary source describes the market as consolidating [9], but I couldn't trace that view back to an official source.\n\n**Wallonia and Brussels:** about 700 courts and 180 clubs, up from 206 courts in 2021 [7]. The membership numbers conflict: L'Avenir reports 11,661 federation members [7], while The Brussels Times says about 150,000 players [4]. Don't use either figure until the federation confirms which is right.\n\n**Unverified:** one aggregator says Flanders has passed 2,000 courts, citing L'Avenir [8]. I couldn't confirm this, and it conflicts with the 1,006 figure above.\n\n## 3. Global context\n\nThere are two recent global reports, and they count very differently:\n\n- **FIP World Padel Report 2026** (published 14 October 2026, so the newest) [10]:\n  - more than 91,200 courts worldwide, up 20.4%;\n  - more than 40 million players;\n  - 1.11 million players registered with federations.\n  \n  I couldn't check how this report classifies the Netherlands or Belgium.\n- **Playtomic / PwC Strategy& Global Padel Report 2026** (May 2026) [11][20]:\n  - about 58,300 courts and 19.4 million players;\n  - forecast of 91,000 courts by 2028.\n  \n  It places the **Netherlands and Belgium in its \"Sweet Spot\" group**, alongside France, Switzerland and South Africa [12]. These are markets past their tipping point, with about 5\u201319 courts per 100,000 inhabitants and average growth of about 23% a year [12].\n\nA trade outlet notes that Playtomic's lower court count reflects narrower data collection than FIP's [13]. If the deck quotes a court total, name the source next to it.\n\n## 4. Who plays in the Netherlands (KNLTB-registered players)\n\n- **Gender:** about 35% women and 65% men. The share of women fell after 2020 and has since stabilised at that level [1, p. 16\u201317].\n- **Largest age group:** 25\u201334, in absolute numbers [1, p. 17].\n- **Growing groups:** young people up to 17 and players aged 45 and over [1, p. 17]. More than 14,000 children aged 12 and under played at least once in 2025, more than double the 2024 figure [1, p. 17].\n- **How often people play:** 60% play once or occasionally and 40% play regularly [1, p. 17].\n\n## 5. The Olympic angle: padel is not in LA 2028\n\n- In 2023 the IOC added five sports to LA 2028: baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash [14]. LA28 confirmed that line-up [15].\n- Padel was not included [18].\n- The Games run from 14 to 30 July 2028 [16].\n- Any line suggesting padel is an Olympic sport in 2028 would be false and could be risky in an investor deck.\n\n**Real dates you could use instead:**\n- **European Games, Istanbul, 16\u201327 June 2027:** padel is a medal sport [17]. This is three months after your launch.\n- **Brisbane 2032:** padel's next Olympic chance [17]. I couldn't confirm whether it has been added to that programme.\n\n## 6. The Deloitte \"\u20ac212 million\" figure\n\nI couldn't find a report called *Benelux Padel Outlook 2026* in any search.\n- The Deloitte padel work I could find is the *Global Padel Report 2023* by Playtomic and Monitor Deloitte [19]. It is global, not specific to the Benelux.\n- Please ask your CEO for the original document. Until we have it, the figure shouldn't be footnoted or used.\n- One possible substitute: FIP's new World Padel Impact study includes equipment spending and a profile for each federation [10]. I haven't checked it for a Dutch number.\n\n## 7. Racket brand shares in the Netherlands (2025)\n\nI can't verify this, and I found no public source. Global analyst reports list major brands but give no Dutch sales shares. Getting a reliable figure would likely mean buying retail sales-panel data. I haven't estimated one.\n\n## 8. Implications for the campaign\n\n1. **Make the core target 25\u201334 men, but plan to widen it.** That is the largest age group and the gender split is 65/35 [1]. Six in ten players are occasional players [1], and children and over-45s are growing fastest [1]. That supports an easy-entry product tier alongside the core performance line.\n2. **Sell to a growing, maturing market, not a new trend.** Both countries sit in Playtomic's \"Sweet Spot\" [12]. Growth is now steady rather than explosive: +10% registered players in the Netherlands [1] and +17% club membership in Flanders [5]. The European Games in June 2027 are a credible moment to build around instead of the Olympics [17]. In the Netherlands, put spending into the provinces with the most courts: Noord-Brabant (715), Noord-Holland (628) and Zuid-Holland (598) [1, p. 35].\n\n---\n\n## Sources\n1. KNLTB & EY, *Padel in Cijfers 2025*: https://www.knltb.nl/media/xvtejmk4/eyxknltb_padel_in_cijfers-2025.pdf\n2. EY press release, 31 March 2026: https://www.ey.com/nl_nl/newsroom/2026/03/padelspelers-in-nederland-groei-zet-door-nieuwe-fase-in-professionalisering\n3. Alles voor Padel: https://allesvoorpadel.nl/aantal-padelbanen-in-nederland/\n4. The Brussels Times, 18 October 2026: https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/2362385/padel-fever-how-belgium-fell-in-love-with-a-sport\n5. Sporza, 16 September 2026: https://sporza.be/nl/2026/09/16/populariteit-van-vlaamse-sportclubs-houdt-aan-het-aantal-leden-stijgt-voor-het-vierde-jaar-op-rij~1789569800915/\n6. Tennis en Padel Vlaanderen: https://www.tennisenpadelvlaanderen.be/nl/wie-zijn-wij\n7. L'Avenir, 23 April 2026: https://www.lavenir.net/sports/autres-sports/2026/04/23/la-folie-du-padel-ne-retombe-pas-le-nombre-de-terrains-a-plus-que-triple-en-cinq-ans-en-wallonie-et-a-bruxelles-3PQWE27XK5BGTORBZWV542BWYI/\n8. Custom Your Padel: https://www.customyourpadel.com/blog/padel-in-nederland-in-cijfers\n9. Waar kan ik padellen: https://www.waarkanikpadellen.be/faq/spelen-en-reserveren/hoeveel-mensen-spelen-padel-belgie/\n10. FIP, 14 October 2026: https://www.padelfip.com/2026/10/fip-world-padel-report-2026-is-online-more-than-40-million-players-courts-up-by-20-and-a-new-study-on-economic-impact-e8-6-billion-in-gdp/\n11. Playtomic: https://playtomic.com/global-padel-report\n12. PADEL1969 summary of the Playtomic 2026 report: https://padel1969.com/global-padel-report-2026/\n13. Padelbiz: https://padelbiz.it/en/2026/06/03/global-padel-report-ten-things-to-know-from-the-latest-playtomic-study/\n14. IOC: https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-session-approves-la28-s-proposal-for-five-additional-sports\n15. LA28: https://x.com/LA28/status/1937216282908328060\n16. Wikipedia, 2028 Summer Olympics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2028_Summer_Olympics\n17. The Padel Paper: https://thepadelpaper.com/european-games-turkey-2027-padel/\n18. Just Padel: https://justpadel.com/en-in/blogs/blog/gaat-padel-een-olympische-sport-worden\n19. Deloitte, Global Padel Report: https://www.deloitte.com/es/es/services/consulting/analysis/global-padel-report.html\n20. Actu Padel: https://actu-padel.com/en/global-padel-report-2026-world-padel-faces-the-challenge-of-overcapacity/"
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