PBM PARTNER INSIGHT: From court to content – how smart court technology is reshaping the economics of padel

As competition intensifies and margins tighten, forward-thinking padel operators are treating digital infrastructure such as PlaySight’s SmartCourt^TM technology not as a luxury add-on, but as a core asset capable of driving retention, sponsorship, and recurring revenue.

When padel’s global growth narrative is recounted, the first chapter invariably opens with numbers about court builds, player growth, and new markets.

According to the latest FIP World Padel Report, there are now estimated to be over 35 million padel players worldwide, with 2025 delivering a 16.1% increase in clubs, 15.2% rise in courts, and 42% growth in members registered with national federations compared to the previous year.

The report states that in 2025 the number of padel clubs globally rose by 4,775, surpassing 24,600, with 14,355 new courts bringing the total to 77,300, spread across 150 nations and 20 dependent territories, up 26 on the previous year.

This expansion has driven remarkable opportunities for developers, operators, and investors. Yet beneath the surface of facility buildouts lies a more subtle, and commercially significant, shift: the emergence of digital infrastructure as a core driver of value in padel clubs.

Smart court technology, once a novelty confined to high-performance sport, is now positioning itself as a standard business tool for clubs seeking differentiation, deeper engagement and diversified revenue streams. As padel moves from rapid expansion into a more competitive maturity phase, this shift could redefine how venues compete and monetise their assets.

Beyond the ‘tick-the-box’ installation

Padel courts have historically been a physical asset: you build it, you fill peak hours, you generate predictable booking revenue. But that model is under pressure. Rising operating costs, intensifying competition, and elevated player expectations mean that simply having courts is not enough. As highlighted in recent Padel Business Magazine reporting on club facilities and revenue diversification, operators are thinking less like landlords and more like experience providers, as they look to generate value beyond the court. 

Enter smart court technology. These systems integrate video capture, AI-driven analytics, remote streaming and automatic content generation directly into the court experience. What was once the preserve of elite training or broadcast environments is becoming accessible to clubs across the ecosystem of padel, along with several other sports.

This evolution is being driven by platforms such as PlaySight, with its SmartCourt™ technology.

With solutions for over 30 sports including tennis, padel and pickleball, PlaySight has led many aspects of the smart court market since the company was founded in 2014. Its video technology is also used in sports such as basketball, baseball, American football and soccer.

PlaySight’s SmartCourt™ platform uses advanced AI to deliver highlights, statistics and insights for teams and players to improve their performance, featuring 60FPS zero-distortion cameras with a wide field of view, multi-angle capture as well as remote broadcast production.

Instant replays can even be viewed – for example in padel to see if the ball was in or out – by using PlaySight’s VAR option, with some clubs connecting PlaySight’s TagMe solution to their TV screens to review immediately.

The technology, which comes with dedicated customer support, can be integrated with booking apps and is designed for easy sharing and scalability across venues, further helping democratise the possibilities of smart court platforms.

Ultimately, it means that PlaySight’s solutions – which have a proven reliability among professional sports organisations, including several NBA teams – are now open to players of any ability when they step on to a court with smart technology.

Experience matters, and players expect more

The business opportunity driven by the likes of PlaySight isn’t just technological, though, it’s cultural. Smart courts are changing how players interact with the sport, how clubs tell their stories, and how value is captured and monetised.

Today’s padel players are digital natives, club loyalists and content creators all at once. Their engagement is not confined to the 90 minutes on court. Instead, it extends to the digital moments before, during and after play.

Smart courts amplify this. With the integrated multi-angle cameras, automated replays, AI-generated highlights and performance analytics offered by the likes of PlaySight, every match becomes a moment of content and insight, not just a booking on a calendar. Whether players are reviewing a tactical decision, reliving winning rallies, or sharing highlight clips on social media channels, the game extends beyond the court boundaries into digital ecosystems.

At P3 Padel Club in Hamburg, Germany, for example, players share highlight shots and amusing moments captured by the PlaySight platform on social channels, with a select few featured on the club’s Instagram account, including a ‘Fail of the Month’ highlighting a shot which didn’t quite work out.

The commercial logic is straightforward. When players can access recordings, highlights and performance data immediately after play, the club relationship does not end when they walk off court. Digital touchpoints extend engagement beyond the physical session, reinforcing loyalty and increasing the likelihood of repeat bookings. While formalised retention data in padel is still emerging, adjacent racquet sports markets have already demonstrated that integrated video and analytics deepen player engagement and social sharing behaviour.

By making content automatic, immediate and shareable, clubs turn players into advocates, and courts into always-on media assets, accelerating community building without the overhead of dedicated media teams.

Commercial levers: monetising the digital layer

Because smart courts transform every session into a data and content event, they unlock meaningful commercial levers that were previously difficult to scale in padel:

1. New membership and premium tiers: Clubs can offer tiered access to analytics packages, advanced match breakdowns or highlight archives, which strengthen recurring revenue profiles and member stickiness.

2. Sponsorship and brand visibility: Automated overlays, studio-grade live streaming and sharable content create new sponsor inventory. Brands now have measurable digital exposure, not just logo boards. This makes clubs more attractive commercial partners.

3. Social media and community: Clubs without smart courts must buy content. Clubs with smart courts generate it continuously. This organic content engine cuts marketing costs and increases reach as members share their own moments.

4. Coaching and performance services: Video analytics and tagging tools transform coaching from intuition-based to data-informed, allowing clubs to package coaching pathways as premium value-adds.

These levers matter in a landscape where players are more digital, more interconnected, and less loyal to single venues than ever before. With padel’s global player base continuing to grow rapidly, operators that exploit the digital touchpoints around play will have a structural advantage.

Operational simplicity, strategic integration

A persistent barrier to technology adoption across sports has been complexity. Systems that require manual activation, specialised operators, or complex workflows are difficult to scale across multiple venues.

The next wave of smart court platforms is designed to mitigate this friction. Integration with booking systems, automatic match activation, cloud storage, and remote analytics mean minimal human intervention is needed to capture full value. Clubs don’t just install cameras. They embed a connected digital ecosystem that works seamlessly with daily operations.

This operational simplicity matters for owners and investors who want scalable, low-touch solutions that compound value over time, especially across larger portfolios.

The potential of this evolution has already been signalled by padel operators using PlaySight’s technology, such as Padel Haus in the US.

Through an expansion of their partnership announced last August, PlaySight’s SmartCourt™ platform is to be installed at each court across five new Padel Haus locations – Atlanta, Nashville, Denver, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg, building on the existing installation at the operator’s flagship Dumbo venue.

The expansion includes over 30 newly equipped courts and 35 AI-powered cameras, bringing the network total to over 35 courts and more than 40 cameras.

Players at each Padel Haus location will be able to access the PlaySight TagMe platform, featuring multi-angle video capture, automated highlights, advanced AI analytics, and detailed match statistics.

Padel Haus will also deploy PlaySight’s GoMobile portable system across each city to enhance flexibility in content creation, remote event production, and portable broadcasting.

What this means for investors, operators and developers

The playbook for padel facilities is now evolving rapidly. Whereas early adopters could differentiate with design or court numbers alone, the bar for competitive advantage is rising. Venues that integrate technology deeply into the player journey will see stronger retention, higher engagement metrics, richer data capture, and more diversified revenue streams.

For example, a six-court club running four matches per court per day (24 matches / 96 players daily) could simply incorporate a €1 SmartCourt™ fee into the court booking price, generating close to €29,000 annually in incremental revenue – before sponsorships, premium analytics, or event streaming.

For investors, operators and developers, this digital layer also signals sophistication, future-readiness and a higher ceiling for monetisation – all factors that can materially influence valuations and long-term ROI.

Generative AI enhancing personalised insights

And as the technology develops, the shift towards smart court platforms is only likely to accelerate, ushering in a new era of data-driven sports intelligence – as indicated by the strategic collaboration between PlaySight and Microsoft unveiled last September.

Through this partnership, PlaySight is integrating Generative AI into its platform to further enhance the personalised insights for elite athletes and everyday players alike.

Built on Microsoft Azure, the platform delivers automated video production, multi-angle replay, and real-time insights designed to help players enhance their skills and achieve their full potential.  

The aim is to move beyond traditional statistics, with the technology empowering players and coaches to improve performance, outplay opponents, select the optimal racquet, and understand their true rating.

Smart courts beyond novelty

The shift toward smart court adoption is not a fad. It reflects broader trends across sports where digital experience is entwined with physical participation. From broadcast-quality live streams to AI-generated highlights and performance insights, technology is no longer an add-on, it is infrastructure.

Padel’s continued growth, and its movement into new markets with rising consumer expectations and more sophisticated competitors, means the competitive advantage lies as much in digital strategy as in location, surface, or build quality.

Smart court technology is not replacing the court, it is redefining what the court means in a digital, connected age.

• For more insight about PlaySight and its technology, read Padel Business Magazine’s interview with the company’s co-founder Chen Shachar published in March 2025. 

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