”Padel has the potential to become a top-3 sport in Denmark”
The Danish Padel Federation aims to make padel one of the three most practiced sports in the country within five years. Padel Alto had an exclusive interview with Frederik Bentler, the President of the federation.
— Padel has the potential to become a top-3 sport in Denmark, he says.
— The first padel court was built in Denmark in 2007, but it was not a standard padel court. It was, however the only padel court in Denmark for five years. In 2012 the first real padel courts were built. Five years later, in 2017, Denmark had twenty padel courts, and a group of local padel enthusiasts established the Danish Padel Federation.
”Three times more courts in one year”
— The last years, we have seen an explosion of both padel courts and players. It seems like no matter where a padel court is built; new players start playing padel. Currently, padel triples every year. This trend is seen in padel courts built and registered players. says, Frederik Bentler
About the expectations for the future of padel in Denmark, Frederik shows himself very optimistic.
–We strongly believe that padel has the potential to become a top-3 sport in Denmark within the next five years. We realize that we are currently behind great padel nations like Spain, Sweden, France, etc. We did, however also start playing padel later than many of the countries that we compare ourselves with.
Early 2022 The Danish Padel Federation and The National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark signed a letter of intent to accept the Danish Padel Federation as the 63rd member of the Sports Confederation of Denmark. This means that in the near future,, the padel federation will start receiving funds from the government to develop padel in Denmark, and it gives the Federation access to resources for developing talents, building, and professionalizing their organization.
”328 teams and more than 3500 players”
However, for a couple of years now, the Federation has been developing different tournaments for Danish players to compete and improve their level. In September 2020, they started a team league (Lunar Ligaen) with great success.
— We decided pretty early on to run two seasons every year,, ensuring that new teams do not have to wait a whole year before joining the league. The first season ran in the second half of 2020,, and 39 teams and 426 players participated. About two weeks ago, the fourth season began,, and we believe that the Lunar Ligaen is now the world’s largest padel tournament for teams, with 328 teams and more than 3500 players.
Although there are no professional players in Denmark, last month they launched Sportmaster Padel Series. Which is solely for the elite players and with a total prize pool of more than 20.000 euros. The finals from each round are broadcasted live on TV.
– In Denmark, top players have been a bit on their own for quite some time, but over the last 18 months, the Danish Padel Federation began to focus more on providing tournaments on the highest level for the top players. In the Lunar League Elite division (top flight), the top teams are matched against each other regularly, and the best four teams meet in a Final to decide the championship. This gives them great matches against other top players.
Padel in Denmark, as in the rest of the Northern European countries, is developing rapidly, but Frederick considers that they are still lagging behind the most developed countries in the region, such as Sweden.
– Generally speaking, we still trail the big nations, Sweden included. That is only natural as we did see padel introduced in Denmark some years later than, for example, Sweden. However, we are confident that we will catch up soon – just like we own Sweden in football, handball, badminton, and many other sports, he laughs.
”World Padel Tour is coming to Denmark”
— The Swedish and Danish Padel Federation are cooperating in some areas, and I am confident that we will only see his cooperation strengthened in the years to come.
In addition to hosting the world’s largest padel tournament for teams and starting a tour for the top players with great money prizes, the federation is promoting padel all around the country through many actions.
— On top of this, the World Padel Tour is coming to Denmark in May. But also, we are launching a reoccurring national padel day so people can try padel for free in the clubs all over Denmark; this summer, we will be hosting one-week padel camps for kids across Denmark.
He continues:
–On a broader scale, we are encouraging cities and municipalities to support local clubs financially so we can lower the cost of playing padel. Right now, most courts are provided by commercial padel centers meaning that padel is primarily for people who can afford it. We need more local clubs that can give padel and training for kids for an annual fee of app.100 euros. This is the only way the sport can reach its full potential as a sport for everyone across age and gender.
