And now for something completely different! We can now reveal the launch of Game4Padel Australia (G4PA) as our first overseas expansion is now live.
While we continue to work hard on our UK pipeline (36 venues currently secured), our expansion into Australia has been funded by a fifth oversubscribed fundraising round that has ring-fenced funds for this exciting development. Australia (like the UK five years ago) is just on the verge of the same exciting padel growth trajectory as seen in many other countries across the globe.
Game4Padel Australia now owns and operates the first-ever padel club in Melbourne and the State of Victoria in partnership with an experienced management team. ‘Game4Padel Melbourne’ is in the Docklands area of central Melbourne, in a stunning location overlooking the Yarra River. It has four covered padel courts with potential for more courts and other community sports facilities as we look to develop it into an elite padel club.
We are delighted to have partnered with Tennis Australia – the governing body of Australian padel. TA hosted and supported the first ever Australian Padel Open this month with prize money, promotion and branding attracting elite international and Australian players competing for $20,000 prize pool and the title of Australian Padel Open Champions. More than 150 players took part. The tournament began at the Game4Padel Melbourne club in Docklands, before moving to the purpose-built pop-up court at Melbourne Park’s all-new, eye-catching ‘AO Tennis Club’.
Padel – still in its infancy in Australia – will benefit significantly from Tennis Australia’s marketing and TV viewership, helping to raise awareness for the sport across the country.
Game4Padel Global CEO, Michael Gradon commented: “Australia is one of the world’s greatest sporting nations with a much better climate for outdoor sport than the UK, so it is perfectly primed for padel. We are really excited at the potential for padel in Australia and look forward to using our experience of growing padel in the UK to quickly expand throughout Australia, and then potentially further into APAC.”
Reflecting on the wider opportunities in the Australian market, G4PA will not only design, build and operate its own padel venues but will market and distribute courts for third party padel venues and assist in helping people looking to open their own padel club. G4PA has been granted the rights to be exclusive distributor in Australia and New Zealand for Instantpadel courts – a unique and versatile, pop-up court concept that doesn’t need any major groundwork and can be erected in just 4-6 hours (as used at Westfield).
To find out where to play padel in Melbourne, visit www.game4padel.com.au