When Irish firm Padel100 recently announced that off-peak courts across all its current and future sites would be free, there was a somewhat stunned reaction across the industry.
Filling courts at off-peak times (usually midweek between 8am-4pm during school terms) can be the difference between the success and failure of a padel business. It’s a headache for all operators, particularly those – like Padel100 – who run outdoor sites.
So how are they just giving them away? As ever, The Padel Paper wanted to look behind the headlines, so we gave Padel100 CEO Ben Keohane a call. Here’s what he told us…
How can you succeed with such an unusual model?
“Instead of trying to monetise the quietest window of the week, we’ve chosen to use those hours to build the sport, remove cost barriers and accelerate participation in a market that’s still in its early stages.
It’s important to clarify that free hours apply only for 7.5 months of the year, during normal school-term weekdays. All evenings, weekends, Bank holidays, Christmas, Easter, midterms and the full summer period remain fully paid — and we expect those times to be extremely busy.
Those off-peak hours are not ‘lost’, they’re funded through sponsorship. Our sponsorship team has already seen strong interest in every location. For local businesses, becoming the sponsor that “funds free padel for the community” is far more meaningful than a standard logo placement.
We expect to secure eight sponsors per court at €1,200–€1,500 each, which comfortably replaces what would have been difficult daytime booking revenue. To match that amount through bookings, we’d need more than 680 paid daytime hours, requiring nearly 50% daytime occupancy — something that simply isn’t achievable outdoors in the Irish climate. Sponsorship gives us predictable, contract-based income up front.
What’s your response to those who say this will disrupt the market?
Some of the commentary has been quite aggressive, but we don’t see ourselves competing with the premium indoor operators. We are the Ryanair of the padel market; lean, accessible, fast to install, no upfront cost for clubs, hotels and schools we partner with, high availability, and community-first pricing.
The premium operators who are charging €50–€60 per hour are doing so because they have enormous capital costs — many have paid €50k–€70k per court and €50k–€70k per cover. When you’re spending that kind of money, you must maximise every hour. That’s not the market we’re in and not where we want to be.
In short, free hours are not a giveaway. They are a commercial tool, a market accelerator, and one of the reasons Padel100 is scaling so quickly.
We’re educating the market. Us offering free hours is getting more people on the court and when they fall in love with the game, they might go and look for indoor facilities. Our rivals should be paying me for free marketing and PR!
How does this strategy support your expansion?
We’re on track to have 100 courts installed by September, and the free-hours model helps us move faster.
We partner with sports clubs, schools and hotels and offer to add padel to their facilities at no upfront cost. We manage the installation, we take the financial risk and clubs earn fixed rent or profit share, making €100k–€150k over five or six years
The clubs, schools and hotels we approach see immediate community value, new footfall, new members, additional revenue streams, high visibility and local goodwill. Pair that with sponsorship income and it becomes a very attractive partnership model.
We’re fully committed to our free daytime hours initiative — that’s not changing. It’s a key part of our model and our community strategy.
What stage of growth are Padel100 at now?
We currently have 12 courts live, 38 courts being delivered over Christmas for January/February install, 50 more being prepared for delivery end of March, and a further 50 arriving in September.
We’ll have 12 courts in schools by March. We pay no rent, there’s a €2 royalty, the school children can use them all day and for us to recoup our investment we rent them out in evenings, weekends and school holidays.
Altogether, we have sites secured for 150 courts, and expect all 150 to be live by Christmas next year.
In addition, we’re rolling out a franchisee / brand-ambassador programme in January. It’s aimed at part-time padel enthusiasts who want to run coaching sessions, social days, school introductions, community events, etc.
Thanks Ben!
What do members of the UK padel industry think to Padel100’s model in Ireland? Let us know in the comments below or on social media.
