Saudi Arabia Padel Boom: Why the Kingdom is Becoming a Global Padel Hub

The Speed of Saudi Padel Growth

The growth curve for padel in Saudi Arabia reads like a startup metrics deck — exponential from a low base, then accelerating as network effects kick in. In 2020, there were fewer than 50 padel courts across the Kingdom, almost all in Riyadh, almost all at hotel or compound facilities. By 2023, that figure had crossed 250. By the end of 2025, estimates from the Saudi Arabian Federation for Community Sports put the figure above 400 courts, with a pipeline of new builds that should push it past 600 by end of 2027.

The drivers are structural. Saudi Arabia has a young population — over 60% of citizens are under 35 — with rising disposable income, increasing female sports participation following the 2017 social reforms, and a government mandate to raise physical activity rates from around 13% of the population (2016 baseline) to 40% by 2030. Padel is ideally positioned to serve this mandate: it is accessible for beginners, quick to learn relative to tennis, highly social, and its compact court footprint makes it deployable inside existing sports facilities, hotels, and commercial developments.

Social media has also played a role disproportionate to other markets. Saudi padel players are highly active on TikTok and Instagram — courts are photogenic, rallies are shareable, and the celebrity effect of Premier Padel broadcasts has driven aspirational demand among young Saudi professionals.

PIF and Vision 2030: The Investment Backdrop

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) — which manages over $900 billion in assets as of 2026 — has been the principal engine behind the Kingdom's sporting transformation. While PIF's most visible sports investments (LIV Golf, Newcastle United, the Asian Games bid) dominate international headlines, the less visible but arguably more impactful work is the domestic sports infrastructure programme.

The Saudi Vision 2030 Sport Strategy, administered through the Ministry of Sport and delivered in part through PIF portfolio entities, targets the construction of 330 new sports facilities across the Kingdom. Padel is explicitly included in this programme as one of the racket sports earmarked for community infrastructure investment. The SAFCSP (Saudi Arabian Federation for Community Sports) has certified padel as an official community sport and operates a national league structure with regional divisions in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Khobar.

Beyond the domestic programme, PIF's entertainment and tourism subsidiaries — particularly the Public Tourism Commission and the Royal Commission for AlUla — have made padel a featured amenity at destination resorts. The rationale is clear: padel attracts the affluent, active, international traveller demographic that Saudi Arabia's tourism pivot is targeting. At the Maraya Concert Hall complex in AlUla and at several NEOM-adjacent facilities, padel courts are positioned alongside golf, spa, and cultural programming as premium leisure offerings.

Riyadh: The Capital of Saudi Padel

Riyadh is the undisputed epicentre of Saudi padel. The city accounts for roughly half of all courts in the Kingdom and hosts the most competitive recreational scene. The density of courts in the northern districts — Olaya, Al Aqeeq, Hittin — means that premium indoor facilities are within 15–20 minutes of most residential zones where the active professional class is concentrated.

Among the standout facilities, Padel District in the Olaya corridor has emerged as a flagship multi-court complex, offering 8 indoor courts with tournament-quality glass and LED lighting, a coaching academy, and a café that functions as a genuine social hub. Al Nasr Club — one of Riyadh's historic sports clubs — has added padel infrastructure to its multi-sport offering and runs structured leagues. Smash Padel and several boutique clubs in the diplomatic quarter cater to the international community with English-language coaching and a strong social calendar.

Court hire rates in Riyadh range from SAR 150–200 per hour at community facilities to SAR 250–400 at premium indoor clubs, particularly during peak evening slots (7–10 PM). Weekend mornings are increasingly competitive to book at top facilities — the same supply-demand dynamic that drives investment in the sector is the lived reality for recreational players.

Jeddah, Dammam, and the Eastern Province

Jeddah is growing faster than Riyadh in relative terms. The coastal city's padel scene has benefited from its traditionally more socially liberal atmosphere and its large expatriate community, but the real acceleration has come from local Saudi players. New multi-court facilities in the Al Hamra and Al Rawdah districts have opened to strong demand. Jeddah's climate — marginally more humid than Riyadh but with cooler sea breezes in winter — makes it more suitable for outdoor courts than the capital, and several beach-side padel venues have established themselves as distinctive social destinations.

The Eastern Province (Dammam, Al Khobar, Dhahran) was traditionally an expat-heavy market driven by the oil industry. That remains a feature, but local demand has grown significantly. Al Khobar in particular has seen a proliferation of commercial padel venues in the last two years, serving both the Saudi professional community and the large Aramco expat population. The Bahrain causeway creates a natural cross-border padel community — players routinely cross from Bahrain to use Saudi facilities and vice versa, and inter-club leagues spanning both markets have emerged.

Al Ahsa, an inland oasis city in the Eastern Province, has also developed a surprisingly strong padel scene driven by a local community sports initiative — evidence that padel's growth in Saudi Arabia is now penetrating beyond the major metropolitan centres.

AlUla: Destination Padel at Scale

AlUla is the most ambitious entry on any padel destination list in the Middle East. The Royal Commission for AlUla has invested billions in transforming this ancient oasis city in the northwest of Saudi Arabia into a year-round cultural and adventure tourism destination. Padel sits within the active leisure portfolio alongside hiking, rock climbing, and hot-air balloon tours.

The Ashar Resort and the Banyan Tree AlUla — the flagship accommodation properties — both include padel facilities as part of their amenities. The courts are set against the extraordinary landscape of rose-red sandstone formations, Nabataean rock carvings, and ancient palm groves that make AlUla one of the most visually distinctive places on earth. Playing padel here is less about the sport and more about the experience — and that positioning is deliberate.

The RCU's sport event team has hosted padel exhibitions and corporate events at AlUla as part of the destination's sporting calendar, which also includes international marathon events, golf, and cycling. For serious players visiting Saudi Arabia, AlUla is worth building into an itinerary: the standard of the courts is high, the facilities are resort-quality, and the surrounding destination is genuinely world-class.

Saudi Arabia on the Global Tournament Circuit

Saudi Arabia's arrival on the Premier Padel calendar has been rapid and unambiguous. Riyadh hosted a Premier Padel Major in 2025, and the Kingdom is expected to host two or more events on the 2026 calendar — including a potential P1 event in Jeddah. The facilities constructed for these events (purpose-built temporary arenas with capacities up to 4,000 spectators) have left a legacy of high-quality courts and raised the sport's profile dramatically among local audiences.

The commercial logic is straightforward. Saudi Arabia is following the same sports-washing playbook that has proven effective in golf, football, Formula 1, and boxing — but padel has a dimension those sports lack: genuine community participation. Premier Padel in Riyadh is not just a spectacle for spectators; it creates a direct pipeline of aspirational amateur players who want to play the game they just watched world-class athletes perform. That dynamic is enormously powerful for the sport's grassroots development.

Saudi player development has also accelerated. The national team programme, supported by SAFCSP, has produced players competing at continental level, and the domestic league structure now generates a meaningful pathway from beginner community play to competitive amateur tournaments.

Visiting Saudi Arabia to Play Padel