All The Angles Padel Business Podcast S2 E3: Focus on Padel in Africa

Episode 3 is another geographic focus episode: Africa.

A continent that doesn't get enough attention in global conversations, Africa has some of the fastest growing economies in the world. Countries like Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa are maturing at an incredible rate, and so it is no surprise that padel has started to gain traction in those (and more).

Joining us for this conversation, Sebastian Brokmann of South Africa's Balwin Padel and Ibrahim Nofal from Egypt Padel Tour give us a glimpse into how the sport is growing and developing on the continent and where the challenges and opportunities lie.

Transcript

Introduction

Alex 0:05

Ladies and gentlemen, damas y caballeros, Thank you for joining us for another episode of all the angles the business of padel podcast worldwide, powered by the hexagon cup. This week our objective is to give you our audience a unique insight into the grand old continent of africa. I'm joined this episode by Sebastian Brokmann, who is the founder and MD of Balwin padel. Which operates out of South Africa, currently has two venues and is opening another 10 in the coming months and years. Also joining me, I have Ibrahim Nofal, who has spent five years at Procter Gamble, two years at Decathlon Egypt, and launched Egypt padel Tour in 2020. before we get started, if you enjoy this episode or have benefited from previous ones, please like, share, subscribe, it helps. So without further ado, gentlemen, let's get started. So let's start zoomed out. So Africa is a continent with about 1. 5 billion people. So it's around 20, 25 percent of the global population. And we don't really hear much about it in global conversations around padel. Why do you think that is? Shall we start with you, Sebastian?

sebastian-brokmann_1_01-16-2025_170654 1:13

Yeah, sure. Well, I think it's natural, uh, countries with higher GDP have stronger economy or economies, high disposable income, better infrastructure, all of which support development of sports like padel. So it's, I think natural that padel has growing more rapidly in more developed continents. However, we do see a huge surge in the growth of the sport is particularly in South Africa, where we are currently already on 720 courts and we started here playing in November, 2020. So yeah, it's growing rapidly. A lot of people talk about it. I think that's a global trend, so it's very trendy. Hots like former rugby legends have started playing. And yeah, it's growing rapidly. We anticipate a market size around two and a half thousand courts in South Africa. So it's still quite a long way to go. There's currently around 160, 000 players and population is 60 million. So it's very small part of the total population. However, the demographics are quite different compared to, for example, Netherlands where I'm from. So, Yeah, I'm interested to understand the Ibrahim's, vision on this and how the sport is growing in his country.

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 2:35

So basically, I think you've covered one of the main reasons why, it's still not similar to the growth where it is in specifically Europe, Spain, and then all the neighboring countries. As we are lower income and lower GDP and all of these economical factors. That's why it took us a while before we hopped on this, uh, roller coaster. That's how I'd like to call it. But, we're getting there. We have other aspects that are making the sport grow very, very fast. 110 million population. we're close to, let's say we're the opposite side of Europe. So kind of not that far away. We're trying to get there. There's more European players come here for vacation, usually during the winter. So we're starting to benefit from these players who are coming here for their vacations. also right beside one of the hotspots in power in the world right now, which is the Gulf and all of the investments that are being poured there. Most of the Gulf countries now have launched very lucrative leagues. I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but Saudi has a very lucrative league right now, very lucrative championships for the locals and residents. That's how they like to call it. And before that, the country who led all of this evolution in the region was, of course, Dubai. And then Qatar now is also on board this. So coupling our Closeness to the Gulf and, speaking the same language and rapid travels between all of these, let's say neighboring countries, I think we're growing very fast too. I'm similar to the growth in South Africa. But we started a while back earlier for first courts appeared here in 2014. But They were not positioned in a, let's say, attractive way, to attract or to introduce it to the community. However, we started to see, the community here in Egypt, helping on board, this journey, let's say 2017, 2018, and of course skyrocketed during, The pandemic 2020. This is where it's skyrocketed and we have everything. Now the statistics are saying between 220 to 250,000 people play and practice, or, or have at least tried it more than two times. And then we have around more than, uh, 1,200 courts currently. I think the potential of the market here in Egypt is, is easily gonna reach between 3000 to 4000 within the next 10 years.

Alex 4:58

And, Ibrahim, can you expand a little bit on what brought padel to Egypt? Who were the first people who brought it across? Who were the first people to started playing it? And has it evolved? You mentioned that between 2014 and 2017, there seemed to be a shift. Can you go into a bit more detail about how it was in 2014, 15 and how it shifted in 2015? So we can get that understanding.

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 5:18

Okay, so basically in 2014, we had two different people who coincidentally thought of the idea of bringing it to Egypt. There's always a debate who was the first one to do it, but they were around the same time. It was early 2014. Both of them Had Spain in the equation. So one of them was living there and came back to Egypt. The other one was there visiting a tennis event and they were both acquainted with the sport and one them with a squash background and the other with a tennis background. So both of them Previous racket players. That's usually where the sport starts, but globally, it's known more for the tennis background. And then they both sort of thought of how could you know, this is new we are seeing it booming Why is it not in Egypt? How about we just get Two courts and put them somewhere and let's see how it goes. And that's basically how it started. So these two courts: one was put in a space and they were put in high end residential compounds, so because it was introduced as an elite Activity or hobby for these people then these courts started there one of them tried to attract tennis players and these courts were placed right in front of a CrossFit venue. So basically it tried to introduce more CrossFit players and whatever. But it was, let's say, not that appealing back then. Okay. And then, in the region 2016 2017, as I mentioned, the Emirates, Dubai specifically, and one of the royal family members, the prince of Dubai was actually very excited about the sport and he started. You know, like playing it personally, investing, bringing a lot of Spanish coaches to coach them and everything. And that's where I think it became more, let's say, attractive for the community here in the Middle East, at least. And we started to, like, learn more about it and see it and, you know, like understand where does the sport come from? What is the World padel Tour and what's going on in the sport? And it started to become more attractive on the global scale too with all of the Let's say the commercialization happening specifically with World padel Tour and all of their coverage. Than the rebranding and the logo. And, you know, all these kind of things, I think, start to make the sport more attractive. In 2018, that's where the couple of private clubs here in Egypt. They started to incorporate it in their local activities Luxurious hotels started to incorporate them and this is where we start to see the let's say the rebirth of the sport here in Egypt and a couple of enthusiasts retired tennis players started to, you know, collect themselves daily and, uh, start to play, start to become better, start to organize like small meets and competitions. And they started to invite international players. We had a couple like, uh, Piquito, for example, he came here to Egypt, I think end of 2018 or 2019. And this is where the curve started to, like, Turn upwards and become more attractive for the sport. And then, of course. The pandemic where all of the let's say public places were locked down and only the course because they were started to be appear in luxurious compounds and residential neighborhoods where people were like bored because everything was locked down and they were so sick of staying home we didn't have the stay at home that strict, so a lot of people started to collect themselves and say okay this sounds like a fun activity we can do. Let's learn the sport and this is where it skyrocketed. So basically we have the pandemic to thank for the boom of the sport here in Egypt.

The Start of South Africa

Alex 8:53

I think Egypt is not the only country that can lay claim to having benefited quote unquote from the restrictions or the circumstances around COVID. Sebastian, you mentioned I think 2020 as the advent or when padel came to South Africa. So who was responsible for that? And how has the demographic of the people that play the sport evolved since 2020?

The Importance of Sporting Pedigree

sebastian-brokmann_1_01-16-2025_170654 9:18

Yeah. So, in March, 2020, the first lockdown started in South Africa. So it was quite a challenging, challenging period, not only for South Africans, but across the globe. And in November, 2020, And it was a Swedish guy. PK is his name. He opened two court in century city. It's, in Cape town, it's a suburb and he invited quite some people to the opening, I was there as well. That was actually the start of padel in South Africa. So, everyone was looking for social connections again, off this lockdown and also various people looking to lose some weight. So padel was kind of a solution for quite a couple of people. And then in camps Bay at the rotundas at the Bay hotels, quite a famous hotel there was like an indoor arena, which they converted into one padel court and then, yeah, that was also a huge boom for people living Atlantic seaboard in Cape town. So yeah, that was the start. Was around, say end of 2020, start of 2021. So Africa padel was the pioneer in South Africa. They currently are on 93 courts. So that's quite a substantial business. Uh, in terms of the people who are playing padel, so obviously a lot of people who've played racket sport in the past, like from a tennis club, they liked it. They liked to start padel and you see a lot of people converting from tennis to padel. So they actually only play padel. I see it in the Netherlands as well. Like if you look at the top 10, a lot of these guys, they used to be the better tennis players in the country. So if you look at income levels, it's still kind of mid to high level income in South Africa. So it's, yeah, it's not maybe as accessible as every other sport. And, we are as Balwin padel are trying to organize it also for all different levels in the society. So we've been running padel events for children from townships. To promote the sport in those groups as well. And yeah, so as mentioned, there's currently on 700 courts, mainly in Cape town, Johannesburg and Durban. And yeah, it's, it's still continues to grow. You also see a huge group of people in their thirties, forties and fifties who haven't played a racket sport, but they try it and within an hour, they think, wow, this is cool. And then, the learning curve is quite steep. So you can become from beginner to intermediate, you can go quite quickly and even to say, semi advanced. So we say it's, it's easy to learn, difficult to master. And in our team at Baldwin padel, we're very lucky and privileged. We've got one of the better players in the history of padel is Willy Lajos from Spain, two times world champion, four times Spanish national champion. He won also with Paquito 2014, the Spanish national championship. So he is, I would say the head of padel within Balwin padel, and he is coaching players from all levels. So including the most advanced players who we are trying to get to the Olympics, hopefully 2028 already and the next world cup. So in South Africa we didn't have, a federation so far, but we are, I received today the documents for nominations and it's going to be set up in February. So, at the moment everything is still done on Playtomic. So all the games are set up, they have a monopoly here at the moment. So everything goes on there. They actually probably the best business in this country on padel. But also the ratings, the ratings, everyone's looks at the platonic rating, whereas in the Netherlands, where I'm from originally, do you see the federation rating is more relevant because you can't really influence the results of tournaments. So, yeah, this is still, Kind of young in a way, and, still huge growth opportunity in terms of also professionalizing the sport. In terms of the level in South Africa, I know all the top 10 players. It's quite decent. I would say it's coming close to a Netherlands, maybe just a bit behind because of less coaching, but the level is picking up. South Africans are very competitive. They love sport and it started here originally as an outdoor sport. So everyone was playing outdoor and now you see a small shift into indoor. So most people actually, if they can, they book indoor, even when it's nice weather.

Alex 13:59

And, Sebastian, you touched on this sporting pedigree and sporting prowess, to the development of African markets. So, for example, Egypt obviously performs well across numerous sports such as football, volleyball. South Africa's got decades of excellence across rugby union, cricket, athletics, football. Does padel really tap into that sporting pedigree to really help it Grow at well to find a footing and then grow

sebastian-brokmann_1_01-16-2025_170654 14:25

um, yes, I think so because, South Africans are sociable people. So they love the concept, for example, of a braai, which is a barbecue. And they like to talk with each other on the street. It's quite nice to see. So I think they are kind of open minded and quite competitive. And padel is, you know, my daughter is six and my dad is 70 and we can play a nice game of padel, which is very small amount of sports. You can play with, this age group. So there is a huge market to tap into so far. It's really taken off and yeah, it doesn't seem like it's going to stop very quickly.

Alex 15:07

Ibrahim from your side what role does Egypt's, fondness and success in other sports feed into the padel phenomenon?

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 15:16

Basically similar to the South African model here. The Egyptian people, especially we're talking about the middle class. They're all fond of sports and having their kids, into sports. Almost all of the families, at least during their young, ages and starting from like when they're in kindergarten all the way to middle school. It's, it's kind of a necessity more than a luxury. All kids have to be doing sports. And, one of the things that have contributed to this is our, for example, global presence on the winners lists in sports, like for example, squash. So we are the global leaders in the sport, and accordingly, you'll find we have thousands of young athletes who are doing this on a very, very, very competitive and professional level. And accordingly, we are taking this as a model, and we're trying to mimic, for example, for padel. This is where actually the birth of EG padel Tour came from. To turn it into a, let's say, a competitive and professional circuit tour. And, uh, use the model that was, applied, between the, uh, P. S. A. And the global squash tour. And, world padel tour too, to turn it into some kind of a very attractive, lucrative tour to encourage people to take it professionally. I saw that this sport would, Skyrocket once it turns into a professional sport. Not I didn't want it to just continue being an amateur or leisure activity that people do After work or on fridays here because it's it's similar to your sundays or whatever. And this is how we said, okay guys, we want people to start investing, start training, taking it serious, You know doing the fitness, doing the footwork, investing in Proper apparel and equipment. And they're not going to do that if this thing doesn't have a future for it, or they cannot make a living out of it. And this is how we started to, like, build on the knowledge and the experience and the awareness that was present in the sports market here in Egypt, and the familiarization with how squash, for example, could turn into an attractive sport for, young players, and their families actually encouraged them to do this because it has a bright future. They can make good money out of it. And hopefully now squash players, they get like scholarships in world class universities and, we're betting on that padel somewhat in the near future can have a similar, uh, promising future for, young, padel players in Egypt.

Alex 17:44

of course, role models and ambassadors play a key role in the growth of sports celebrities. Different markets, it's different people. In the Middle East, it might be a shake. In Italy, it might be a Formula One driver. In India, it might be Bollywood stars. So who were the kind of current or potential equivalents in the African continent who can really get the young people, the impressionable people, the buzz followers picking up a padel racket? From your point of view, Ibrahim, who's going to move that needle?

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 18:14

Okay. So, this already happened. We've seen globally, world famous football stars, playing the sport too. And for us and for you guys, I'm sure you're all aware of Mo Salah. He's one of the most famous players in the world right now. Especially in the British, league currently right now. When he's in Egypt, he's been captured, seen a couple of times playing the sport, and he's been playing actually in one of the courts near where I live. And the moment he's there, we get calls and messages like, you know what, Mo Salah is playing padel at this place. So following what he's doing also, and most of his friends are, of course, football players, so a lot of the Local, stars here, and especially in football, they play the sport, on the other side too. We have a lot of, current and former, squash champions. Right now we have, for example, Rami Ashour, who used to be the world champion in squash. And now he's retired from squash and he's coaching, but he's been seeing, multiple times playing, him and his brother also were former top rank squash players. Both of them have been playing multiple times here, padel with people in the community. So for me, I think football stars and former world champions, in squash, what might be the key figures who can help promote the sport in the Egyptian market.

Alex 19:32

And Sebastian, in South Africa, who are the most prominent padel players who are, making everyone else stand up and take notice?

sebastian-brokmann_1_01-16-2025_170654 19:39

Yeah, so, good question. At Balwin Padel, we have one of the best players from Spain over. His name is Willie Lajos, two times world champion, four times Spanish national champion. And he won the world pedal tour with Bella when he was 43 years old. So he holds the title to be the eldest player of winning a World Pedal Tour and he is also a great coach. So he's been coaching for a long time as well. And, yeah, people now starting to see, Hey, he's not only very friendly, he's an exceptionally good player because last year he won nine tournaments playing against 20, 30 year olds and he's 53. So. He is a legend in Spain. I've been to him in Spain a couple of times, and then I see the Galans and Lebrons, how much respect they have for him. And that's now also happening in South Africa. So he is actually one very key figure. Then we have some rugby legends like Ryan Kankowski playing padel. And rugby is also very famous here or very popular. Especially with South Africa winning the world cup a couple of years ago. So I played padel here with the deputy mayor of Cape town a couple of weeks ago. Eddie Andrews. And yeah, it was great fun and he seems to love it. Yeah, he's actually asked me to play another game next week. So yeah, it's politicians, it's sports celebrities. And I think also what we notice is that padel is hot on social media. So as part of the growth is said a drive on Instagram and you see a Lionel Messi playing padel. Cristiano Ronaldo is opening a club now in Portugal and investing 5 million. Now it started in America. I saw a video the other day of Phoenix Williams playing a first time of padel. So yeah, all these ambassadors globally also assist in the growth in particularly in South Africa. And football is obviously a huge sport. And people like to see football players play. Now I've seen Beckham holding padel records. Myself, I played against Ronald de Boer, former Barcelona player and Rafa He played for Spurs and Ajax. We played against them in September and they absolutely love padel. I think Ronald de Boer plays around three hours a day. So in the Netherlands, he is an ambassador for Plaza padel is quite a big company. I think they're running now eight clubs and yeah, this whole ambassador strategy is also part of our strategy of Balwin Padel. So we have 18 ambassadors across the country, including like the rugby legend, Ryan Kankowski, Willy LaHose, but also the best players in the country. So the number one in South Africa, Jason Blakey Milner, he plays for Balwin Padel as well. So when he is playing padel, you see the logo on it. So that's part of our marketing and branding strategy, but, this ambassador program is very relevant for the sport.

Alex 22:45

And how does the sport resonate with women in your respective countries or in the broader African continent? Do you find that it's a sport that hasn't quite been picked up or is actually remarkably close to 50 50 in terms of participation and interest? How does it figure in your respective countries? Sebastian?

sebastian-brokmann_1_01-16-2025_170654 23:05

I think it's at the moment around 70, 30. So it's 70 percent is men, 30 percent ladies. It is, it is picking up Within the ladies market as well. But overall it's more men playing still. I think that's a global trend. So it's not far off the global trend. Yeah, like my daughter's playing. I only started lessons a couple of months ago. She loving it. She's six year old. At the schools, there's only at the moment, I think three schools in South Africa have padel courts. So I assume when that picks up that also will be more girls coming through.

Alex 23:46

And from your point of view, from Egypt's point of view, Ibrahim, how has the participation

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 23:51

So here I would like to differentiate between two different sectors of the people who play the sport. We have the professional ones and then we have the amateur or leisure participants. On the professional level, it's like 90 to 10, for example. for a lot of reasons, I don't want to go there right now. But on the leisure side or the, general, participation or whatever. No, it's a very big percentage. I would say maybe 60 40 right now. basically because it's an easy sport for them, it's easy for them to pick up. It doesn't require a lot of effort or or physical abilities. And also it's becoming a very social sport where It's easier for a girl to play with three guys or you have a mixed doubles or whatever. So it's something that they do like on an outing or a double date or whatever you want to call it. And, it's fun, you know, it's something both of them can do, which is, a physical activity. Not just like a normal board game or whatever and it doesn't require that significant Let's say skills To be acquired. So basically for the people who are general Practitioners of the sport or just do it for fun or doing it as a weekend activity There's a high percentage of girls right now doing it. Especially that it gives them the ability to do A shared sport, with guys that's, you can do that with, for example, a football or basketball or, or all these other sports, there's a physical difference between men and women by nature. So, here, that's why this sport, padels becoming very popular among, both, genders, to have a common sport to do together.

Alex 25:30

Understood. And you touched, Ibrahim, on the professional side of padel. How do you feel the professional side is evolving in Africa? Obviously, Africa has the new Giza, p2 event, which is, highly visible, uh, a vanguard, event for the African continent. How important do you think the professional player showcase is to driving fandom and participation? And what do you think is the future of international or even continental and national circuits going forward in order to help that more serious, more professional side of the game?

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 26:06

Basically, till very recently, two or three years ago, Egypt is across all the sports. We always like to invite and host and showcase, Egypt through sports across multiple sports. So we have, especially squash. We've had squash by the pyramids. We've had squash on the Red Sea and all that kind of stuff. We've had other multiple events. I've personally organized a couple of events across multiple sports. That's where my experience comes in the sports scene. We have basically, use our rich history to promote sports. And that's what we do to attract world class players, especially using the pyramids, for example. So, we had an exhibition match this year for the new Giza P2 was held at the grand new Egyptian museum with the pyramids as the background. So these are the things we like to use, like in terms of commercializing and marketing and all that kind of stuff. Recently, during the past couple of years, this has declined due to I'm sure you guys are aware of the economical situation here in Egypt and the unrest in the region and a couple of other things, which has has made it a hefty ticket price to host such events. But I'm sure once the economy starts to recover again, and now we're on the Positive side of the economical growth and recovery. I'm sure we're going to see more events like this happening here. We're going to see more, FIP events. We had a couple of FIP events happening here. The P2, I'm sure, I hope it still continues to happen. Uh, the new Giza one. And I'm sure we're going to have a lot, we had a lot of exhibition matches also, like I mentioned, between 2018 and, uh, 2022. So capitalizing on current world figures in the sport and bringing them to Egypt is going to promote the sport locally. And we're hoping that it promotes the sport globally too, through capitalizing on, iconic, destinations like the pyramids, for example.

The Future of Padel in Africa

Alex 27:59

And Sebastian, when's Premier padel coming to Cape Town? Yeah. Got it. so Sebastian, you bring the next kind of set of questions, which is really about looking to the future. So Obviously you mentioned right at the beginning about the GDP being a really important factor in the pickup of padel in different markets in Africa. So I think the four biggest GDP countries in Africa are South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Nigeria. So the top two are on this call. We were going to have someone from Nigeria as well, Tunde from iPadel Nigeria. So that would have been three of the four countries that are biggest in terms of GDP seem to be leading the way, or at least in pole positions for growing the sport. What do you think going forward? The growth in Africa as a markets is impressive. 11 of the 20 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa. So Whether it's looking at padel in Egypt and South Africa or looking at padel on the continent of Africa more holistically, what do you think the future is for the next 5 10 years of the sport? And Ibrahim from your side, what's your perspective?

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 32:58

I think there's still a lot of room for growth in the continent as a whole. And in Egypt specific. I'm expecting between, maybe three X to five X currently what we have right now during the next 10 years, and accordingly also with the flourishness or the development of these economies and the enhancement or an improvement of their GDPs and their purchasing power. And let's say the availability of. local producers and equipment and, the cost of practicing this sport will start to lower because now basically it's a supply and demand issue. So, for example, in South Africa, the supply and demand, what you're saying now is the supply is less than the demand. But you'll find that the prices are kind of maybe a little high, for example. Now in Egypt, it's kind of different, the growth and supply and demand is kind of slowing down a little. Prices now are becoming more. Let's say attractive and appealing. We have one of the cheapest, rentals per hour in the world. We're now at around 6 to 7 per hour, which is very, very, very appealing for the sport to grow. But we're still Not there when it comes to the cost of the equipment, especially the high end equipment. And I think this is where it's still going to be an obstacle in the development of a professional padel. On the amateur level, I think we're doing good on the professional side. I still wish there's a lot of room where you have very high expensive rackets priced at. 350 to 400 euros. So that's kind of a little high for for the Egyptian economy right now. And I think once we find solutions or our national GDP, like you said, improves a little more, or we have more sponsors and people willing to invest in the Egyptian market. I think this is where the real power of this sport is going to prevail.

Alex 34:51

And what do you think is the key to unlocking young interest in the sport? School kids, school girls through to universities. That I think for a lot of countries, especially the new additions to the padel craze, They're very good at securing middle class middle aged people who pick it up as a hobby Some of them take it really seriously or they get retired tennis players who look for a kind of a final chapter to their career By picking up the padel racket and going, down that avenue. I think The next big developmental leap is trying to really integrate padel into school and youth consciousness. Is that the same for both your markets? And what do you think is the key to really unlocking that pathway for younger children?

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 35:39

So I'll reply here and jump here. Basically, What I see it because I've seen this across a lot of sports. Okay, previously, and maybe this is the behavior or the reaction of the young kids here in Egypt, basically, when they see an ecosystem. And a future. This is where kids you can do something called luck to your customers. So once you feel that there's an ongoing, activity happening or there's a regular tournaments or they're getting acknowledgements from their, let's say the community or the social media or whatever, for an accomplishment they do. For kids, this is all what they want. They want to have fun and they want to be acknowledged and, you know, stand out among their friends and their peers and everything. Now, this can be only achieved when you have like a strong, let's say, national league, when you have sponsors there, when you have incentives from schools and universities, scholarships, whatever you want to call it. And when you have the clubs and the government subsidizing, providing equipment, providing training opportunities, establishing a nice local national team, and, taking part in regional and world events. This is where a sport is going to grow, and this is where it's going to be look attractive for for young kids. Okay, we here in, I'm going to just tell you what we're happening here. We have a federation, luckily, that was established maybe two years ago. And 2021, this is when we started it, three years ago right now. And then, We started taking part in, of course, the World Cup. Egypt qualified the first time to the World Cup with a men's team. And last year, we qualified with a women's team. And also, we started taking part with the juniors. And, Honestly, this is something I see happening here. That's good that the Federation decided, okay, look, we're not going to invest that much in the professional circuit for the older people, and we're going to focus our investments on the young generations to build a nice base for the upcoming, let's say, five to 10 years, where we're going to start, you know, reaping off, these efforts and having a strong, national team. Here, they launched a program called the road to 1000, which is, I think it's a good initiative where they're investing and subsidizing and providing coaches and providing good training opportunities for kids, and we started to launch also initiatives with schools, so we go to schools, then incorporated in the university games incorporated in the schools games. So all of these things now, I think, are going to contribute. During the next couple of years, we're going to start seeing the effect of these efforts, taking place where more and more kids start playing it; more and more families, encouraged their Children to play it. And then hopefully within the next 5 to 10 years, we start seeing Egypt on the global platforms and competing, hopefully within the top players of the world.

Supporting Africa's Padel Journey

Alex 38:34

And Sebastian, from your side, what's the, how do we get the youngsters in? Yeah. Yeah, fair point. And we're on to our last one or two questions. We've talked a lot about what can happen in the future what needs to be happening in the future of African padelSince the e listeners of this podcast are international, how do you think international stakeholders and international businesses and international interested parties can participate and support in what is going on in the padel scene in Africa?

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 41:08

Sure. So, we have, I think, maybe three different, pathways to get the global, stakeholders involved out in Africa. First, I think supporting with, talents. Specialized coaches, professional players and all these kind of things like initiatives to promote the sport and to help develop the levels because, for example, like here currently in Egypt, we don't have any foreign coaches and I think this is kind of a challenge that we have right now. Like I told you, due to the economical situations and a couple of Challenges that we have right now. So basically, I think what would develop this is we have like a development program or stakeholders would like to, let's say, help develop the talents here in Egypt with professional coaching and, good talents, from Europe, which we are very close in exchange, you know, they get the chance to live in Egypt and learn from the culture and see the culture and have a nice weather and all these good things that we'd like to talk about. The other thing is, in terms of equipment and sponsors, I see that the big brands, they have big, big, big role in developing sports, to open their markets. Basically, this is how the sponsorship model works, and they need to invest more, to make their brands and their products available in these markets. And this only happens by global initiatives also to sponsor and partner with the local tournaments and the local academies and courts. And finally, I honestly, honestly, honestly believe the power of networking, especially through the sport. This is where either professional padel players and padel leagues and padel championships and all these kind of things, they put the continent as an objective and a target. That they make it, on their list that we need to be present in the continent. And, we need to have our tournaments and our competitions take part in these places. Okay. Because we do not have the same ecosystems like Europe right now. And we're not mature enough as, the sport there. So we need some, let's say, aids and subsidization options. So that we can still continue to host and and have such events happening here, or it can be part of like camps and destinations for them during their off seasons and their trainings to come here and benefit from, let's say, good weather and and good atmosphere and all these type of things. So these are the three accesses I believe that the global industry, and the global stakeholders of the sport need to put into consideration if they want to see a continent, like Africa, its presence on the global platform, in the sport.

Areas of Improvement and Roadblocks for the Continent

Alex 43:42

From your point of view, Sebastian. Yeah. And last question before we sign off. What would you like to see improve in the region? Are there any roadblocks that currently exist or that are developing that you think are really critical to really unlock the full potential of the sport in your respective countries or in Africa more generally? What do you think, Ibrahim?

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 46:44

The roadblock currently right now is, let's say learning from the people who have, took further steps or more experienced people in the sport. Basically, we would like to see the appetite from, former, let's say international players or experienced coaches or even current young players. Their appetite to say, okay, I'm going to go for let's say vacation in Egypt. How about I managed to play while I'm there and all that kind of stuff. I think these type of things, of course it's a big responsibility on us here and the locals to promote and to reach out also, but we would like to see this happening. I've seen a couple of the international players. They come here in Egypt and you know, suddenly they just ask like the hotel They're staying in where's the nearest padel court, whatever. They just go there. They train their own trainings separately or ask the You know like the local coach at that tennis club or whatever How about you come and play a little padel with me? For me, I would like to This is a couple of things I've talked to the couple of other people, especially in the region, you know, we do like a group or a forum or whatever, where if you're traveling to this country, please connect with the local, let's say, leading tour operator or competitions operator or whatever, or leading community leaders, and we'll find you proper players to play with. Like once I was in Sharm El Sheikh in Sinai, and then, We just found out surprisingly that there was a whole, Italian, group of, clubs or a league or whatever. And they had, planned, a trip and like a three day competition during. It's like a tourism company and they trip and they incorporated, a padel tournament in it. And somebody was like, are you here for the Italian cup of like what Italian cup, and they even reach out to us, you know, as a locals and and this is something I think. Like with enhanced the growth of the sport locally and I was like, okay guys next time you come just let me know I'll I'll be happily inviting a couple of the local players here who are actually good levels and we can have like let's say a mixed cup or whatever. Or an exhibition match with a champion of your cup with the local champions, whatever. I think these type of things when we all connect together, and see how we can benefit from from these people actually being here would help the sport a lot. And I think currently this is kind of a roadblock where I don't know, is it a language barrier or I don't know if we're not promoting our sport, the country on the sport international scene that more, but hopefully that would have been overcome with it with having a premiere in here in Egypt. And also I think locally or regionally countries like Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya now, all these, Ivory Coast. We're seeing the sport booming in all these countries and each one is, there's a lot of investments pouring in. Why don't we like join forces together? Why don't we have joint competitions? We have, the more wealthier countries attract the less wealthier ones, or let's say we have options of, exchanging programs between us countries to help the continent at least grow, All together, rather than each country taking its own initiative and trying to grow.

Outro

Alex 49:54

How would you close, Sebastian? What needs to change? What do we need to get rid of in terms of obstacles? Well, I think that's a great place to end this episode. Again, please like, share and subscribe if the content was thought provoking. Please comment on LinkedIn or Twitter if you have any recommendations around our format. we should devote an episode to, questions we should ask, speakers we simply have to bring on. We want you each of you driving the next phase of this industry's future to tell us what you want to hear about and who from. Thank you sebastian and ibrahim for joining us today

ibrahim-_1_01-16-2025_170654 52:15

Thank you for your help.

Alex 52:16

keep doing our best to cover all the angles of the business around padel episode after episode. Until the next one