09:30 – 12:00 (2 hours 30 minutes)

Attendees

David Sugden, CEO Premier Padel
Luigi Carraro, FIP President
David Serrahima, General Manager Premier Padel
Rob Mitchell, Commercial Director Premier Padel
Guillermo Alcaide, FIP Sporting Director
Stefano La Porta, FIP Legal Director
Jorge Mañe, President of the Mexican Padel Federation & Mexico Major (Major representative)
Stéphane Morel, CEO of FFT & Paris Major (Major representative) ONLINE
Arnaud Di Pasquale, Tournament Director Paris Major (observer / delegate of Stéphane Morel) ONLINE
Joan Cusco, President of Octagon Spain & Spanish Tournaments (P1 representative)
Vincent Laureyssens, Executive President Brussels P2 (P2 representative)
Alfredo Peñalver, Bullpadel CEO (Commercial Partners’ representative)
Nicole Gruber-Gil Lopez, Red Bull Head of Acquisitions & Rights Holder Management (Broadcasters’ representative)
Jose Luis Martinez, Head of Officiating & Tour Supervisor (Officials’ representative)
Enrique Buenaventura, Founder Hexagon Cup, Chief Business Affairs & Legal at Formula E (Independent member)
Maxi Sánchez Agüero, male player representative
Maria Teixidor, Executive Director of IPPA
Lorena Rufo, female player representative
Ana Catarina Nogueira, female player representative
Rosalie Van Der Hoek, female player representative ONLINE
Carlos Pozzoni, coach/trainer representative
Roberto Alvarez Martinez, Partner at Cuatrecasas (Committee Secretary)

Introduction (15 minutes)

David Sugden opened the meeting, welcoming attendees and thanking the Committees for their continued support in driving the growth and success of elite padel.

Premier Padel and the FIP noted that the unprecedented player boycott earlier in the year is now firmly in the past, and expressed thanks to the full committee - representing 11 stakeholder groups from across the entire sport - for their solidarity and collective response to what was an illegal and largely inexplicable action; encouragingly, all stakeholders and the Tour have since moved forward in a positive and unified manner.

Thanks were extended to the staff at Premier Padel and FIP, all of whom travel the world in support of the Tour, advancing the collective ambition of the padel ecosystem.

Sincere thanks were given to Joan Cusco and all the Octagon team for hosting the second meeting of the Steering Committees and also delivering an exceptional Tour Finals.

The Official Photography Album of the Premier Padel 2025 Season was presented to all members, highlighting the incredible events that took place across the globe last year. Printed copies of the FIP World Padel Report 2025 were distributed to all members. Personalised Airtags were also presented to all Steering Committee members.

Presentation (45 minutes) – The presentation deck is included in the Annex for reference.

David Sugden provided an overview of the second half of 2025, highlighting new hires from across the sports industry, with colleagues in marketing, design, partnerships, finance, and legal joining since the last meeting at Stade Roland-Garros.

Rob Mitchell provided highlights from an incredibly successful second half of the year – in particular noting the landmark global partnership with Heineken and also mentioning strong performance across other partners including Bullpadel and Wilson. Alfredo Peñalver referenced the growth and development of the Premier Padel collaboration in 2025, welcoming members to attend the second Bullpadel-Premier Padel fashion show at the Palau Sant Jordi later on in the Finals – a highlight for both partners.

Rob Mitchell provided an overview of international broadcast growth, noting an expansion to 244 territories and live tournament viewership across first 10 events of 2025 reaching 48.6M Total Live Views (+12% YoY) - 15.4m views from streaming platforms (+34% YoY) and 13.7m views from linear broadcasters (+27 YoY).

Nicole Gruber-Gil Lopez added data from Red Bull TV, noting growth in all areas of broadcast and in every single market, as well as impressive performance on social media. Particular highlights included the UK, South Africa, Germany, as these are new padel markets exhibition strong audience growth. Impressive performance in LatAm was also noted in 2025; top markets include Brazil (+59%), Argentina (+53%) and Mexico (+48%) since 2024.

Luigi Carraro discussed the incredible success of the new FIP World Cup Pairs format, as well as the widely praised innovation of the “World Champion” shirt patch – which will be worn by the winners for 2 years until the next world champions are awarded the honour. Guillermo Alcaide and Stefano La Porta reiterated the value of this 2000-point event appearing in the Premier Padel calendar as the “Fifth Major”.

Highlights from the FIP World Padel Report 2025 were also discussed, with impressive growth and impact statistics presented, including:

Participation: 24,600+ clubs, 77 300 courts, 150 countries, 35 million amateur players, 850,000 federated players, 47% of players are female.
Performance: 11,125 professional players (with FIP ranking) from 117 countries, 4,219 players with a junior FIP ranking from 54 countries. o FIP organisation: 290 tournaments in 2025 (up from 182 in 2024), 49 countries host FIP tournaments in 2025 (in comparison to 36 in 2024).

David Sugden reminded participants of the incredible venues and experiences of the 2025 season, in particular highlighting the new stops on the Tour (e.g., Miami, Germany) and how padel’s physical global expansion is driving broadcast audience growth, building a global network of grassroots fans. The same is true of creative exhibition games, with FFT thanked for their role in delivering a high-impact activation in Place Vendôme, an iconic Parisian locale.

Luigi Carraro highlighted the commercial potential of the internationalisation of padel, with 34 nationalities of player (479 male players 241 female players) and 100 padel federations. This growth strengthens the rationale for broadcasters to cover padel, enhancing the marketing potential of Premier Padel and value for promoters.

It was also noted from the floor that the more access players gave to broadcasters and commercial partners of Premier Padel, the more visibility and investment would flow to all players.

Strong visibility statistics presented: 2B+ reach on social media, 344M+ on broadcast, 25,000 media articles and engagement with top tier influencer base, including Carlos Alcaraz, Zinedine Zidane, Paul Pogba, Thiago Alcantara, Alejandro Sanz, MrBeast, Andrés Iniesta, David Villa, Steven Gerrard, and DJ Nicky Romero.

Vincent Laureyssens praised Premier Padel for driving the importance of selling an experience at tournaments, noting how dynamic entertainment events can bring in new audiences that can be converted into padel consumers. Luigi Carraro agreed, observing people come for the fun of the event but leave padel fans.

David Sugden closed the presentation focussing on the drive for value-adding innovation across the board – including in merchandising (Bullpadel collection for the Finals), fan engagement (Finals mascot), broadcast (Red Bull new camera), and many other areas.

Committees’ discussions (60 minutes)

Promoter Financial Stability

David Sugden opened the discussion, reiterating Premier Padel commitment to making the entire ecosystem more profitable for everyone, in order to drive the sustainability of promoters’ business models. This feeds into player welfare and wellbeing – the stronger the sport, the better the conditions for players.

Heineken global deal is an important example of the strategic intention of Premier Padel. It’s a reshaping of the commercial model of the Tour to benefit partners. Designed to drive profitability and commercial sustainability.

Stakeholder consensus on the importance of focusing on exposure, shifting from pay TV to growing audiences and increasing visibility – this is a leading commercial priority for promoters and the Tour more broadly. Desire to build a virtuous circle where more exposure = higher value of partnerships. This was especially important in the context of high and growing costs of staging events – a reality for all markets globally.

Stéphane Morel thanked Rob Mitchell and others at Premier Padel for collaboration efforts to make a strong case to existing and prospective sponsors. Asked for upgraded media reports and more granular data in order to improve this even further, as partners need data they can trust. This was more important than receiving sponsorship money from Premier Padel. Also reiterated that weak numbers are not an issue – need to work as partners with honest and transparent data – but better quality information is needed. More social media exposure would also be appreciated.

Stéphane Morel and Arnaud Di Pasquale raised the issue of French broadcasting, leading to a wider conversation around assessing the Canal+ relationship to prioritise audience growth (i.e., over broadcast revenue).

Rob Mitchell reiterated commitment to expanding broadcast reach internationally and looking to provide value for all promoters. Need to honour existing commitments, but very mindful of need to balance domestic reach and access with commercial opportunity and will discuss with Arnaud Delaplace and other promoters during Barcelona Finals. David Sugden reiterated commitment from top management and ownership to resolve this issue – noting there is considerable growth potential, and that everyone is constantly working to support promoters on all issues.

Joan Cusco added that, as event costs are always growing, all stakeholders must prioritise audience growth over making money from broadcast deals. Red Bull TV has fantastic reach and potential – promoters would benefit from more information on audiences in order to market to partners and sponsors.

Jorge Mañe added that more detailed and specific information, delivered more quickly, from Red Bull TV and others in order to make a case to sponsors would be greatly appreciated. Promoters also need to understand local broadcast figures so they can market to a local audience.

Vincent Laureyssens asked for common KPIs for all promoters in order to improve collective knowledge base. Talked about learnings from other sports and experience of Qatar Sports Investment. Rob Mitchell agreed, suggesting such metrics can be used to drive growth for the Tour, noting Premier Padel already collects data in order to better support promoters.

Rob Mitchell updated the group on the work being undertaken to improve promoter access to quality, timely data at a local and global level – which is also a major priority for Premier Padel. Marketing team is capturing broadcast, media and social media and is investing considerably in new systems that can convert this information into valuable data for promoters.

Nicole Gruber-Gil Lopez reiterated Red Bull’s commitment to helping the Tour to grow and wanting to support promoters with broadcast data relating to their local markets.

In summary: strong focus from all on make the Tour and individual tournaments more visible with stronger broadcast, social and media exposure, as well as timely and specific data, in order to command greater sponsorship income.

Competition regulations and scoring system

Luigi Carraro opened the discussion around scoring systems and competition regulations, referencing a recent decision at the FIP General Assembly in Acapulco in November 2025, where padel federations voted to include a third option to the scoring system into the sport’s rules. Key to this debate is how best to reform the rules in a way that retains the spirit of padel whilst making the format work for broadcast, fans and other stakeholders.
The “Star Point” was introduced as part of a broader discussion on scoring system innovation to make matches shorter and more predictable. Different from the “golden point”, which is already used in padel, this innovative concept preserves the tradition of padel whilst providing a variety of benefits – also strong commercial potential with this new IP.
Luigi Carraro relayed conversations held at the FIP General Assembly in November 2025, where three options for scoring were discussed:
- Option A: Traditional advantage system (the standard within the Premier Padel Tour)
- Option B: golden point (formerly used by World Padel Tour, and currently used in FIP CUPRA Tour and Hexagon Cup) o Option C (new): “Star Point System” - two normal deuces followed by a Star Point.
The goal of any reform to scoring system is to balance tradition with innovation while improving match duration control – all stakeholders in attendance agreed on the importance of finding balance, particularly in the context of growing the sport through broadcast. Similar discussions are ongoing in tennis – as mentioned by Stéphane Morel.
A wide variety of reasons for considering rule changes such as the “Star Point” were discussed, including;
- Player welfare: Reducing match length helps players who often play multiple matches in short timeframes, especially the women, whose matches last longer on average than the men. Enrique Buenaventura suggested this was a key benefit at Hexagon, which uses this system.
- Broadcasting needs: Matches can last too long, making scheduling difficult for TV networks and linear broadcasters. Nicole Gruber-Gil Lopez reiterated that a more predictable duration helps prepare a better broadcast product, adding that the execution of any scoring system change would need strong audience education through commentators / socials / media. Reiterated Red Bull very much want to support and stay closely involved in how this evolves, to make it as high-impact for promoters, players, the Tour and all other stakeholders.
- Fan engagement: Enrique Buenaventura discussed lessons from Hexagon Cup, which uses the golden point, to explain how this format create high-tension moments that are exciting for spectators and can even be monetised (e.g., sponsorship opportunities for the Star Point) – bringing financial benefits to promoters and others.
- Better control of match duration: Jorge Mañe, Vincent Laureyssens and Joan Cusco stated this kind of reform would help promoters manage VIP hospitality and event schedules, again supporting revenue generation.
- Global trends in reforming / commercialising other sports: e.g., football with VAR, tennis experimenting with no-ad scoring, tennis considering “golden point”, evolve rules to adapt to modern audiences.
- Alignment with IOC Feedback: IOC President strongly advocated for a reform to the scoring system, noting that such a change would make padel more appealing to fans, further enabling the growth of the sport.

Committee members reiterated the need for clarity and consistency of any changes to scoring systems, noting that strong communication campaigns would be key to informing the public and ensuring popular support.

Players in attendance stated that, whilst many players prefer the traditional advantage system, there is widespread understanding that the sport needs to change in some ways in order to mainstream properly. Some players and coaches supported the mixed system (Option C) as a good compromise.

Rosalie Van Der Hoek – a player and a commentator with Canal+ – agreed that for broadcasting on TV, matches are too long and Canal+ is struggling with this. She agreed on the need to innovate and thought the Star Point was a strong potential option – especially as it currently works well on the CUPRA FIP Tour. A particular benefit in this context is player welfare.

Maxi Sánchez Agüero commented that discussing the Star Point System at the Steering Committees was useful for everyone – emphasising that such a rule change would bring real benefits to player welfare. When it was decided in WPT, it changed dynamic of game, and it was ultimately decided to return to the advantage system. It’s an innovation the players need to understand because it benefits the wider padel ecosystem. The majority understand the ecosystem involves other brands and that it all functions better when we collaborate together.

David Sugden summarised the discussion, reiterating QSI commitment to innovation and growth, suggesting that such a reform made strategic and commercial sense but would be an experiment that could be revisited if unsuccessful. He extended thanks to FIP for consulting widely on this issue, noting how unusual such a move is in global elite sports. For example, FIFA creates new formats without any consultation – this is a huge improvement.

Tour calendar

David Sugden reiterated the value of the inaugural meeting of the Steering Committees at Stade Roland-Garros in September 2025 where male and female players, promoters, partners and others were able to discuss potential locations and formats for tournaments. As previously agreed – important that the Tour expands its international footprint, but enters into the right markets at the right time.

Committees were briefed on the plans to announce the 2026 calendar w/c 15 December. Three new locations were discussed: London, Pretoria and Valencia. All three are indoor tournaments.

Particular excitement around London as a global capital for sporting events and sports business. This is a natural destination for Premier Padel and brings a range of visibility and exposure benefits to the wider Tour.

Pretoria reflects the strategic importance of African expansion, moving beyond Egypt to consider Sub-Saharan Africa, with the Tour broadening its global footprint. Rob Mitchell explained the strength of the venue and tournament infrastructure, detailing how Premier Padel is focusing on strong delivery for first SSA tournament.

Nicole Gruber-Gil Lopez asked if Premier Padel could publish the full calendar earlier in the year to enable better planning for broadcast – for example, in September.

Lorena Rufo added that players would also benefit from more time to plan.

Rob Mitchell reiterated this was a strong preference for Premier Padel also, however due to a variety of factors the calendar is subject to meaningful changes right up to December.

David Sugden explained the commercial and contractual conditions across the global Tour, which lead to flux in calendar planning. Emphasises that this is a strategic priority for the Premier Padel Executive Committee also, with all working towards a stable and predictable calendar.

Luigi Carraro commented that, in response to discussions with male and female players, and as explored by the Steering Committees at Roland-Garros in September 2025, new indoor venues are being prioritised. These venues are under the highest demand in all local markets due to the variety of events organisers seek to hold there (e.g., music / sports / entertainment), meaning finding full weeks can be challenging. Whole team working day and night to confirm the calendar.

In summary: all stakeholders present are working towards calendar predictability and sustainability.

Ambitious future: strategic alliances

David Sugden opened the discussion, reiterating Premier Padel is constantly working with bigger brands to elevate the sport and disrupt the market. He talked about the incorporation of different sports and new partnerships – e.g., FIFA Club World Cup and European Football Clubs activation in Miami; MotoGP and Formula 1 in Qatar; UEFA, FIFA, NBA and others planned in future.

Luigi Carraro noted that QSI has already invested well-over $50 million in the Tour to date, all to raise standards for the players and all participants in the professional sport – and QSI’s wider relationships across sport were enormously helpful in raising awareness.

David Sugden and Luigi Carraro thanked Enrique Buenaventura for the continued collaboration – especially with regards to the new partnership – Hexagon World Series – led by FIP, with 54 and Hexagon Cup, and with which Premier Padel is also a shareholder and major strategic partner.

New Formula 1 x Premier Padel collaboration concept presented – based on the highly successful Qatar Grand Prix collaboration – planning strategic partnerships around the Dutch GP, Las Vegas GP, Monaco GP and Singapore GP. Strong support for this concept from the floor.

Maria Teixidor – we need more partnerships with women – the room fully agreed and Premier Padel reiterated commitment to working with IPPA and others to ensure this.

David Serrahima added that, in addition to collaborations across sports, there is continuing focus from Premier Padel on attracting new partners, sponsors and influencers to drive visibility and growth – to elevate the whole Tour. New partners to be announced soon.

AOB (30 minutes)

Ana Catarina Nogueira raised the discussion being had amongst female players about the draw size at Majors, highlighting the challenges faced by lower-ranked players with regards to the top four seeds having a double bye (where the top four seeds don’t start in the round of 64 or 32, beginning in the round of 16 and thereby playing fewer matches overall and experiencing less fatigue).

Carlos Pozzoni emphasised that the draw size for the women’s Tour is currently better than the men’s Tour (which did not reduce the draw size in 2025). Currently top men play the lowest ranked men, leading to excess fatigue for top players playing too much. With a smaller draw, the lowest ranked players don’t play in the first and second round with top players – an ideal system. He conceded that due to the draw size differences between the men and the women, there was a points discrepancy between top four seeded men and top four seeded women – as these male players only have one bye (joining in the round 32) meaning they are able to accrue more points than the top seeded women (who begin in the round of 16).

Luigi Cararro and Jose Luis Martinez discussed how a bigger draw means there is a better chance of entering the draw for lower ranked players. He also noted that, in response to the reduced draw in women’s game and discussions with IPPA, more CUPRA FIP tournaments were added, giving the women a chance to gain more points. However – the women’s draws in these and other tournaments are often incomplete (i.e., there aren’t full sign-ups).

Ana Catarina Nogueira highlighted structural issues with gender balance, particularly the shorter history of the women’s game and a strong need to promote and develop professional women players.

Maria Teixidor added that the female players reduced the draw size on the basis that male players would follow suit the following year (2026). This compromise was made in support of the wider Tour and its sustainability.

David Sugden recognised the various issues experienced by some players with regards to the reduced draws and acknowledged Ana Catarina Nogueira’s point with regards to the double bye, though noted that there are always trade-offs in professional sports.

Premier Padel and the FIP will continue talks across the padel ecosystem about draw sizes and plan to provide an update in January, with decisions to follow in due course by the FIP ranking committee.

The meeting was drawn to a close, with David Sugden and Luigi Carraro thanking everyone – especially the male and female player representatives – for such constructive and engaging debates.

It was noted that the next Committees meetings would take place during the Italy Major in June 2026 and that the agenda for the meeting will be sent to all representatives with due notice.