All The Angles Padel Business Podcast S2 E8: Focus on Hexagon Cup 2025

In just over a year, the Hexagon Cup has cemented its place as one of the most entertaining professional padel events in the world.

The 2025 edition, its second, showcased growth across every metric: attendance, viewership, social media content, engagement, number of teams etc.

In this week's episode, Managing Director Astrid Thams and COO Sergio Lewin join to breakdown how the event has evolved since its first edition early 2024, and what the future holds for this team franchise based competition that pits the best men, women and NextGen players against each other in Madrid.

Transcript

Introduction

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 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 Hexagon Cup 2025. I'm joined this episode by Astrid Tams and Sergio Lowen two months after the 2025 edition ended. And we are fortunate enough to explore with them. So starting off with Astrid, she's a returning visitor to this podcast. She's the managing director of Hexagon Cup. And before that, in a previous life, she's been a licensing and retail guru in the sports sector, working with Real Madrid for three years with Adidas for seven years, and then fanatics most recently for five years before joining the Hexagon Cup. And alongside her, we have Sergio, who is the COO and Co-founder of the Hexagon Cup. He started his career around TV production, but he's now spent almost 20 years in and around sports related marketing, including for companies like PDG. Best of View. I am Sports Solutions with a real focus on sports rights management. So thank you both for joining us. Before we get started, if you enjoy this episode or have benefited from previous ones, please share, subscribe. It really helps. So without further ado, let's start looking at the second edition, this latest edition of the Hexagon Cup 2025. And let's start with the location. So my first questions really focus around the arena and the city. So Madrid obviously just hosted the second fantastic edition at the arena. can Either of you talk a little bit about why Madrid and when I talk about Madrid, I mean both as a public government stakeholder, but also as just a location and population. Why has Madrid been so key to the start of this project's runway as you've set the event there for the first two years of its life?

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 1:56

Okay. Thanks for having us. Alex, first of all. It was a natural decision to go with Madrid as the first location. At the end, madrid is the epicenter of Padel is the capital of Padel at a global uh, view. And that's because we have the fans. Spain it's full with fans willing to spend time and money in in an event like ours. And of course the city itself, it's a big capital. It has the venue options you need. This is a very important thing, and not every city, it has the facilities to make an event with 7,000 people watching padel. It's not easy. And those two elements with the institutional support, that is another critical thing, were the key elements to take this decision. With an event like ours, top Padel event, but with the fan engagement, with the fan zone and the non sporting side, the entertainment side what you need is to have a solid foundations of attendance fans to bring some value to the proposition, to bring not just the endemic brands and the endemic ecosystem of Padel, but also the non endemic brands and the non natural fans of Padel. And for that, you need to have as I said, a foundation with the fans the Padel fans, and putting into the equation the newcomers, that can be new sponsors and new fans that are willing to have some fun in the fan zone with us. But as you said the public governance is a, it's a critical thing in this equation.

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 3:55

Maybe just to add on hi Alex. Nice to see you again. To add on what Sergio was saying. For the type of event that we are doing, a part of having this year over 30,000 people attending, we don't see the Hexagon Cup, although it's based in Madrid as a very Spanish event. If we go through the people who were attending we had lots of people traveling from all over the world coming both investors, club owners and everything. Yes, we have these local fan base that is gonna be attending physically there. But still we, we see that all the attraction through the broadcast, digital that we see can be surrounded by the event as well.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 4:34

And did you see a change, but did you also offer a change in the ticketing and the hospitality between 2024 and 2025? Was there a evolution between the first and the second edition?

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 4:46

yes. We had both. Like we, we want to be able to have people there from 11 euros onward. So that everyone can be attending. It should not be something too exclusive for people not to be able to come. So for this second edition we had, we lowered our prices from a grand stand point of view. Which had as well the positive impact not just the lower prices, but the event in general was sold out for over the weekend. Already having, yeah, as we said, more than 30,000 people attending. But on the hospitality side, we saw that we introduced the corporate boxes concept, that we did not have in the first edition. We had VIP in grand stands. This year we did it even more hospitality driven through the concept of corporate boxes where we had over 70 different ones. So we see that this appetite of a corporate world coming into Padel is there. And so we had local companies coming, but we had as well people from the UK buying boxes are coming, people from the us. So different kind of nationalities coming for these yeah, high-end, if you wanna say corporate box experience that we offer. That was different from the first edition to the second edition from a ticketing point of view and had very positive results. I.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 6:03

And is Madrid, the long-term partner for the Hexagon Cup, or are there any conversations about seeing where the Hexagon Cup can land in future editions?

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 6:13

For the long term Madrid is the perfect starting point. It's a place where you can grow and you can show the kind of event you're delivering. But as, Astrid said this is not an Spanish tournament. This is a, an international tournament Astrid is based in London. I am in Madrid, but we are looking into different options. And Madrid for us it's a natural place to be. And with the institutional involvement, we are very happy to stay here but we are not limited to, to be in Madrid. We are willing to take steps in other territories and regions. And actually it's something that, it's, that it's coming for sure.

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 7:01

I think to be able to have the atmosphere of the event that we like to have, you need to be in a place where you have that amount of fans coming. Madrid is offering that definitely. But yeah of course if this evolves and there are other Padel hubs, if we wanna call it like that somewhere else, we could definitely then potentially go there. But I would say short slash midterm as well with the institutional relationship that we have in Madrid, it's a good option for us.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 7:29

Got it. So let's move on a little bit to the commercial aspects of the business and the product. So let's start with sponsorship. Again, how has the sponsorship proposition evolved over the last few years? Myself, having been to both editions the big difference that I saw was Alpine really stepping up their activation on site. They had the car court site, but they also took out this incredible hospitality space in the neighboring pabellon which was incredibly well activated with merchandise, cars, logos history. It felt like a great showcase for the brand especially considering the kind of people that were going to be walking through that area. So that was the biggest one that I noticed. But obviously there's a lot of stuff that is not necessarily that obvious or that visible, but if you could give us a kind of a snapshot of how the brand has evolved in terms of the proposition to sponsors.

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 8:20

Yes, as you say, alpine, moved from just being our official car to being our title sponsor. The good thing is that it wasn't only them. Most of the sponsors of the first edition wanted to continue to be part of our proposition. Okay. So we, we have at Alpine as a title sponsor. We have Mahou the Spanish beer company as our other main partner. And then we enter the into a sponsorship pyramid, if you wanna call it like that, where we had over 22 sponsors this year. We were able to increase our sponsorship revenue by double, like we doubled it from the first edition to this second edition. And as well, if we go into the sponsorship value, we could see the same. We were close of hitting the 120 million sponsorship value this year. We were having not just the, I think Sergio called the endemic, but not just the brands that are traditionally already placed in Padel, but we're able to attract other ones and more global brands this year: as JBL were there with all the sound systems or bunq, which is a Netherlands neobank, I think you call them. So they're already brands coming to invest into Padel. Everyone knows it's the fastest growing sport, but then they need to start tapping into Padel as a sponsorship proposition. So yeah, from these 22 that we had this edition most of them as well activated in our fan zone, making it a very interesting place for all the fans attending where you had activations. We had a specific court set up there in the fan zone where all the brands could do different, not just content, but as well interact with the fans being there as well throughout. In the central court, throughout the tournament, there were as well every moment where we have free, there was engagement happening through the brands and the fans so that it was attractive

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 10:11

If I can add something, I think it's very interesting the way we work with brands being a competition as we are, like a boutique event that we are,it's easy for us for us Astrid and her team to adjust propositions to make the most of the sponsorship really. Brands when they come we did a corporate tournament, a competition inside the hexagon Cup just for our brands. And that's something that really brings a layer of networking, of intimacy and group sense that it's very powerful. And when you're experimenting the hexagon cap event as a sponsor, I think the deliver we, we do is, I think it's remarkable actually. I I think it's something that you cannot have in other sports. You cannot have in other competitions. And that's a value that we are very happy to give to our partners.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 11:11

And is the plan in 2026 to increase the number of sponsors or to actually maybe make the number of sponsors smaller, but deeper? Because there are different schools of thought. Some people are quantity, some people are quality, some people.

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 11:25

no, definitely we still have. I Mean Padel is starting and we are starting. So there's still main categories that we are looking to expand. Yes. Of course there's a, depending on the level of sponsorship that we enter, you have different assets but definitely we are still looking into growing both deeper and broader. If that's your question.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 11:48

And then just to touch on broadcasters, I think last year you had about 28 broadcast partners in 2024. Can you talk a little bit about how that number has changed and whether the kind of the mix has changed? Are you looking for terrestrial, are you looking for pay-per-view? Are you looking at social media platforms?

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 12:06

Definitely a, as a key takeaway, it's a brand awareness, okay? And sport awareness, if you wanna call it that. So in the point that padel is right now, and the Hexagon Cup is right now the more brand awareness we can reach, the better. It is reach, reach, reach is what we target. We had over 46 broadcast partners this second edition and managed to double here as well and hit the 4. 6 million audience number in broadcasters. Which is I think a growth of over 80% of what we had in the first edition. Which is definitely our strategy and what we are looking into. I assume most of the, or I hope to assume that most of the listeners of the podcast know, but as Hexagon, the idea behind it, having the celebrity owners that we have. Is to, through their social media channels as well be able to have the biggest impact in all the digital world as well. So for this social media impact we reached the 48 million video views for the Hexagon cup this year which is everyone involved, like all the celebrity owners when they were streaming, when they're connecting. So all our partners. So everything that put Padel and the Hexagon cup in the digital environment, which is key for us. We also put special value into our own YouTube channel. Where we had 2 million viewers as well here this year. So yeah good numbers. As you would say for the strategy we want everyone to be able to access our life broadcasting which excludes us normally from going to any pay-per-view exclusive contract that we could reach.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 13:38

And you touched on the content strategy just in that answer, which seems obviously quite critical. Because in today's age, you need that content strategy as part of a wider social media strategy, and that's critical for visibility, buzz, curiosity, engagement. Can you talk a little bit more about how Hexagon approaches that piece and how important the owners are, but also beyond the owners? Because obviously there are other content creators around the world of Padel, whether it's fourth set, other guys in Spain or outside who are creating content in and around coaching, in and around gossip, in and around players. How do you try and integrate them into the Hexagon story and the hexagon visibility?

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 14:18

Sure so, a hundred percent. So content creators is a main part of our marketing strategy as well. So at the end, when we look at what we have, what are our assets, we have our celebrity owners, we have their friends. We had a star cup happening throughout had Pierre Gasly playing with with his friends, where you had Varane coming to play. It's like our celebrity owners attracting other people from other sports. Like other football players, other Formula One drivers and so on. So this is clearly one side that we push a lot to have that support. On the influencer and content creator side. They're absolutely part of our strategy as well. To the point, we had them activating at Hexagon. We had them working with us because the good thing is that most of them play Padel. Which is the beauty potentially of the sport: that it's an easy entry sport. Lots of people play, so not just with other sports people, but as well with content creators. They clearly play. So they come to Hexagon and they engage with the people there and they play. And we are now looking into another this is a exclusive that we are looking into doing a Hexagon content creator, if you wanna say cup, where we will have content creator playing with next generation players: to have a even younger content driven approach there. So to that point, we understand them as a key part of our content.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 15:41

I like that. It's a good idea.

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 15:43

We had non padel content creators in Hexagon Cup because of their love for the sport. Because as we all know, Padel grows in you and it becomes like an obsession. There are a lot of people out there willing to do things with Padel and with the content creators. We we were able to bring non endemic content creators to support and make padel and hexagon as big as it gets.

Production & Data for the Event

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 16:16

A last question on the broadcast piece is the production side. So I understand that the production team changed between 2024 and 2025. Can you talk a little bit about how that affected what viewers at home saw? And also touch on how important data and data presentation is to the Hexagon brand, frankly, because I put a post up about it at the time with the heat map in hexagons being a really important piece of informing the fans about what's happening on court, but also a way of obviously enforcing the brand identity. As obviously Sergio, you are showing beautifully yourself with your own background. Hexagons are pretty critical To the hexagon cups, so anywhere the hexagons appear, it just keeps a nice continuity and professionalism for the visibility of the brand. So can you talk a little bit about how the production overlay is a critical piece of the mix?

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 17:08

Yeah. I think we did improve the broadcasting production. There are some challenges producing Padel. It's not easy to bring data into the broadcasting because it's not like tennis that you have 30 seconds between serves. Here the speed of the game is much higher. So you cannot even put long replays So it's a challenge to improve the deliver. Actually I think we took a step up and we are trying to bring some education to the broadcasting, trying to reach new markets and trying to educate them into Padel. And that's something that, we did with Sandy and obviously with Mauri as a speaker. But yeah. What we try to achieve in the broadcasting production, is to give the sense of what you are living at the arena. That it's not easy. Bringing the owners into the equation. That it's something very new and something that it adds a lot of value content. But as I said, it is not easy to put them on air because you don't have enough time to take advantage of the amount of content that you can create. So we are learning from that and we are trying to make new formats and bring in new content for the social media and also thinking about new contents in new platforms.

The Players

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 18:36

And let's turn now to the competition itself, the event itself. Let's start with the players. Can you talk a little bit about the players? So what is the feedback of the group? Because the opportunities that are available to them is changing drastically on a year by year basis. They obviously have the main tours. They have these international tournaments that FIP creates. They have exhibitions popping up, left and center. India, America, France. It's all happening. So how do you continue to really get them to engage with the Hexagon Cup and, really prioritize the Hexagon Cup at this important part of the season for them?

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 19:14

Yeah. At the end the feedback from the players it's super positive. This is a very unique event, not just for the Fansa or the sponsors, the corporate clients that we have, but also for them. At the end, they are playing with pair that it's not the typical company that they have, and they have also the owners that are bringing a lot of value to them just because of knowing them, just because of the opportunities that are bringing to the players. At the end, these owners are willing to make an impact in Padel in their regions. And that's something that the player understands. They really value being in Hexagon, not just for the fun and the way we take care of them because we take care of every detail and just for them to focus on enjoy and play. But also because they understand the opportunities that the network that we are bringing to the table can give to them. It is true that it's a preseason tournament. And that may collide with their preparation with their training. But we also take care of having the best facilities, the best gyms, court for them to keep on with the pre-season schedule that they have. So at the end, the way we keep the talent is just taking care of them and bringing them a good tournament and a good in a business view, a good opportunity for them. So you have been there when you are in the VIP area, in the hospitality and you see the players around, they are with a very happy face. And that's the sign that you want. Seeing happy faces and people enjoying it. That's the key.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 21:11

One of the things I love about the Hexagon Cup is it throws these different pairings that, you don't see the same pair playing again and again. But I would've thought as a player, you're about to start the season. Either you're an established pair like Coello and Tapia. You really want to hit the ground running. You wanna make a great impact in the first few tournaments of the season. Or you're a brand new pair and you really want to bed yourself in together so that you can really hit the ground running at the beginning of the season. So my assumption would be that they don't want the distraction of playing with a completely different player Before the season begins, but somehow it seems to

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 21:44

I think it's also that playing without your regular pair: it takes off a little of pressure. And you start the year competing in a super high level. Hexagon has top 16 players. So from the eight pairs, you have the top players maybe you're missing a couple of them, but you are competing with the top you can compete. But you're competing in a way that that allows you to have I don't know how to put this. Mistakes. Okay. I was not with my partner. It was, okay. This is giving me the chance to compete with the people I want to compete. And it's giving me some of practicing without the pressure of having to win. And that's something that I think it is good for them too. So it's a way to to begin the competition without the pressure of having to win from the, from day one.

Next Gen: The Impact of the Women & THAT Final Decider

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 22:44

As we wrap up the competition piece, I wanted to touch on the next gen section. So can you talk a little bit, first of all about how you saw a difference between having the next gen men last year and the next gen women this year. Was there any kind of difference in terms of viewership or sponsor feedback or player feedback, just generally? And then the second part of the question is, I really want to drill a little bit into the final, right? So there was a lot of conversation around the idea that this whole event could be decided by a next gen match. And the traditional way of thinking is that you usually try and build a crescendo to an event, right? Where the biggest players fighting in the biggest match for the decider. And this felt different because people were what wouldn't you have the professional women close the match? Or wouldn't you have the professional men close the match? And you guys obviously you had to make a conscious decision to say, do we continue with the structure? Which means that if there is a decider, it's gonna be next gen, whether that's the final or the semifinal or whatever, and we accept that there might be surprise or there might be pressure, or there might be commercial impact or viewership impact. It's difficult to predict, right?'cause it's not been seen before. So I just would love to understand how you approach that position. Do we continue with what we've set? And if it's the next gen that decide, it's the next gen that decides. Was there a conversation like, do we need to change things? Do we need to change the order just in case it is a decider so that we finish on the grownup pros so to speak?

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 24:20

From the first consideration between male and female nexGen? The only consideration is a schedule wise consideration: female matches takes longer than male matches. That's the only consideration that we as a competition, we can see. We have the same view for the next gen. Either way if it's a male or female.

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 24:42

Yeah just Alex for everyone to understand the fans voted that the first season that the next gen should be male the first season. So we are very open always to having the fans being center part of the competition. So it was decided by the fans through a vote. So that meant that it was female this year. And from, as you say, from a sponsorship point of view, it's an extremely interesting category because you are in contact with it's not grassroots. Okay. But like really with the newcomers with their 16, they're 17. Some of them are 19. Because the rule that we set is that one under 18 and one under 22, but you have as well, 16-year-old one. We saw a lot of interest from brands to sponsor the category in them concretely. We had, for example, this year, IMG giving them a scholarship, a commercial scholarship, which was a very interesting approach of saying, you're 16, I'm gonna show you how to get better in social media, get better commercially. And we always say we are equal for men, for women, of course. But like giving the opportunity to this new generation players coming and letting him be there and sitting next to the rest of the team through all the matches. So it's big and it's truly inside of our NDA. Next year it's gonna be male again. That doesn't mean that, of course we are gonna be using these other players that have participated already in Hexagon are going to do lots of other activations, as I was explaining you before. So yeah definitely very interesting. The entire category, I wouldn't say more male or female. It's a, it's an interesting category.

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 26:13

And about the final: from an outsider perspective may be shocking to have the NextGens the tiebreaker game. But in order to give importance to each and every category that we have: the female, the males and NexGen; the only way to do it is this way. Is having the, as you said the big pros, playing the important matches, the first and the second match. And then having a type breaker with the NextGen. This is the only way to make the equation work because you want to give importance to the male category and the female category. If you have the NextGens playing first, one of those games are going to be non-important because you can have a two zero. So that's the way to put it. And for us, really our proposition of value is giving chances to the next gen. It is true. We are doing our claim for the fans, for the players, for the game. It's something that we brought, very thoughtfully. We put the fans and the players first. We really think about the newcomers, as we want them to have a real opportunity to show their value. And this is Padel, is not as football. Where you can be a big talent, and because you are in a roster of 21, and 11 players plays each game, you can have an opportunity to have five minutes here, five minutes there. Here is not: you have to have the ideal pair in order to get into the quarter finals, semifinals, and that's not easy for a newcomer. And this is something that we brought thinking about the opportunities for the youngsters and having the final with this tiebreaker, it was natural thing. And at the end, we have to understand that Padel, the way I see it, we have to bring importance to the finals. The final in Doha is very similar to the final in Miami. Each tournament, they don't have a very big personality or very big history. With Hexagon, we are trying to bring something new and part of that new thing that we are bringing, it's making the NextGen importance and giving them the opportunity to shine. If it brings a tiebreaker with a 16-year-old and a 20-year-old that's great. You're watching the next stars. And that's true actually. You see Chozas he was, last year he was a NextGen player and now he's competing at the highest level. Same cardona. It is going to happen with the girls. I think it's a good opportunity.

Expanding the Number of Franchises

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 29:18

So let's talk a little bit about the expansion of the Hexagon Cup. Obviously in 2025 you added two franchises with Pierre Gasly's X Brand and, and then the Kru Padel with Taktika franchise with Sergio Aguerro. Can you give us sense of how many people were interested in those two slots? And why did these two, how did they come out on top?

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 29:42

Quick on my side like the rationale behind the owners is always territory and impact on Padel. So they need to come from a territory that we think are supporting the growth of Padel. Think one of the targets when Hexagon was founded as well was to, yeah, to support this growth of Padel as a sport and to make it Olympic. So you definitely need be able to get awareness in different territories. So as the players are not there yet. Which is the next step that needs to come if you want, have people cheering or supporting a team, if the owner comes from that location and it gives that impact. And then you have Eva Longoria from the us or you have Andy Murray in Pierre Gasly in France, that's gonna give the viewers, the broadcast viewers that are watching it a more sense of belonging. And we clearly see how broadcast numbers get increased in these territories. Okay. That's clearly one key one key factor. And then the other one is that the team or the owners are gonna be investing into Padel. Be it in courts and academy and whatever. But that it's companies and people and celebrities who are gonna be supporting this investment in all the different components that you have in the Padel industry. So that's that theory. Now that I've told you on paper how it works, and maybe Sergio, you wanna give Alex A little bit more of a touch on why at the end we went with Gabriel from Takitka Aguerro and Messi, and the other one, as you said with the French team from Pierre Gasly and Loic as an investor.

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 31:12

It is what Astrid is saying. What we want is to bring value to Hexagon and Padel and make product growing in every region. And as we were talking previously about content creators, Kun Aguerro it's a very unique addition for us, because he's a tremendous well-known former player football player, but he's also a content creator. And that combo, it is super interesting for us. This with Messi as a partner and having Gabriel with Taktika equity along, it was a no brainer for us. It was a very simple choice for us to choose them to be part of Hexagon. And in case of Pierre and Loic it is a, it's a super combo again. Loic is a president and owner of a football team in France. He knows the sport industry. He knows how to develop a property. And Pierre Gasly, he has a deep love for the game. And he was super excited to be part of Hexagon. So that combo for us again, was a winner. Because having as a great entrepreneur and businessman with the knowledge that he has in sports at the end, all these owners are partners of us and they help us to grow and they help us, advising us and we move together with hexagon to next challenges. So of course there, there were other options. Year one we had this amount of interested possibilities. Year two we were having even more. But at the end, as Astrid said, it has to make sense. Maybe now we are looking for expand to new territories, to new places that where padel is growing because we think that it's going to be good for us and good for them. But again, it has to make sense in order to be part of Hexagon.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 33:25

And is there a sense whether you guys are gonna expand for 2026 at this stage? And is the ultimate aim to have 12 franchises, and

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 33:33

Yeah.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 33:34

I'm just trying to get a sense of what's happening for 2026 and what's happening

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 33:37

Yeah. What we thought at the beginning is having 10, 12 franchise as the most. But again, we did a super league, the format that we are having nowadays eh, the super league that we bring we brought this edition. It is a solution that bring us the capacity to grow. And with even numbers, we can be nine, we can be 11, or we can be 10, or we can be 12 teams in the competition. That's why we did the super league: In order to be able to grow with no pressure. We don't need to be 10. We don't need to be nine, neither. We are going to take steps as they come and taking the decisions with all these rationales that Astrid said.

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 34:24

I think Alex you ask yes, we are in conversations with a couple of others: couple, not two, like more that are interested. But as we are expanding as well, the strategy of Hexagon is changing and we have now the agreement that we have with Premier Padel and with FIP. And then there will be more dates on the calendar. There are so many moving parties that we need to make sure all is settled in the calendars and everything is clear, to then make sure that as well the strategy around teams make sure makes sense.

Hexagon Cup, Premier Padel & FIP Accord

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 34:53

Astrid, you just touched on the relationship or the partnership that you as Hexagon Cup formalized with Premier Padel and fip. Can you talk a little bit about why that relationship now is so important in terms of security, longevity opportunity to grow the brand and the events. So what will it unlock and how are you guys gonna work together?

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 35:15

As we said at the beginning. So we've been in conversations with them since actually Hexagon was established. OK. so we have the same target as of having a sustainable growth for padel. And I think that approach has position our events as a more yeah, high end, fan experience and hospitality event, with a mixed teams, like all what we've talked. So it's not competing. It's more a way of completing the offer of the existing calendar. So with this with the agreement or with the partnership that we have now, the different things that we are gonna be working at we are gonna be working around having additional events where and when it makes sense. Okay. We understand that the calendar's already fully it's packed. But yes, the idea is to have additional Hexagon Cups and then, depending on the number of teams that we have, that then based as well on, on what Sergio was saying, that we'll see how it's gonna work: is it gonna be like different legs and then a finals in Madrid? So that is definitely one. Having that set dates in the calendar moving forward for 2026 and for 2027. As well, looking into the possibility: does it make sense that Hexagon actually gets an official calendar and gives points. That's the discussion we've been having with them. We need to see as well, but could be on the table. And then yeah, definitely all the the other events like outside of the official competitions, like it's the Intercontinental cup now that we're gonna be as well part of all those projects that are being developed in partnership with them. But yeah, that, that's very top line, the conversations we have with them. Maybe Sergio you wanna deep a little bit more in some

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 36:50

Yeah, I I think the importance of this agreement is having the main players of this ecosystem working together and not against each other. That this is a very rare thing. The natural perspective would be having us as competitors, just competitors. And we think that we really bring to the table a different product, a different tournament and event. And we are not here to compete with the regular circuit of Padel. That's not our standpoint. So for us, having these alliance and having these agreement of collaboration and make Padel grow together is something that, first of all, validates all of us as I think smart business men. Like why compete if we can, if we can collaborate and grow together. And second for us means that in two years we are positioned as what we are: the second main event in the world. And that's something that, that bring us some new opportunities for go along with Premier and FIP to grow and make Padel at the end Olympic. That it's something that we will want.

Changes for 2026

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 38:20

And as we get towards the end of this conversation, we've obviously talked a lot about, we've touched in different places about what 2026 holds for the Hexagon Cup. Is there anything that we haven't touched on that you can talk about? What people can start to expect for 2026? What will be different? Obviously we talked about the next gen will be men's again. Uh, there's obviously lookout for potential new franchises, although that's not, that's not guaranteed. But there may well be announcements around that. What else are we missing or that we should keep our eyes open for?

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 38:52

We are currently maybe that's worth mentioning it, working on the amateur league of Hexagon. So we've together with Playtomic an Amateur League, the biggest team amateur league in Spain, and we are developing it in Spain and as well worldwide. So we are gonna have it in the UK here as well in the next month. the idea is that this amateur category is as well included and part of the Hexagon Cup. So we are currently this concept of Road to hexagon and that the amateur can feel like a pro as well, is gonna be part of next edition in Madrid as well. And we are then gonna see how they're gonna be incorporated to our offer. So that is one difference clearly that is gonna come. And then as well we already worked on it in the format this year, but due to the long games was a little bit unseen, but we had a lot of additional yeah, fan engagement experiences around the Hexagon cup and including all this entertainment as well being the concerts the parties afterwards the DJs and this part is gonna be definitely a key part of what we bring as well, again, to the table for the fans attending the Hexagon cup.

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 40:00

So there is a world in which I could win the amateur Road to hexagon and then sit alongside stupaczuk and give him advice while he's playing.'cause I'm part of his team and

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 40:10

I wouldn't go that far but yes. They will be in, in Hexagon and they will be part of Hexagon. We have to be careful with the players as we said at the beginning. And give the amateur player the best experience they would have in their lives as an amateur player. And yeah, we will see where that can be done. Yeah.

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 40:33

Sergio's doubt is not around your level or style. Don't worry, Alex.

Could 2025 have been Different?

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 40:39

No, I'm sure my input to stupaczuk would be invaluable to him. That's not in question of course. Is there anything in the 2025 version that you would've changed if you could have?

astrid_1_04-10-2025_101039 40:50

To be honest the, we did not develop any merchandising, like for the teams or for Hexagon per se, because we were focusing on other parts and that maybe having specific team merchandising, we, we were not ready yet there with the brands. And I think maybe that has been a lost opportunity because the. way that fans were already engaging and being part of teams with how they were cheering for them. And, yeah, how you could clearly see a belonging to them. Yeah. I think we could have clearly tapped into that, which will be next season, so that we can offer both people there and online to everyone the option of being even more part of the Hexagon Cup. This one Sergio if you have another.

sergio-lewin_1_04-10-2025_111057 41:31

I wouldn't change the finals. That's for sure. I think it, it was great actually to have some young females playing for the tiebreaker. And they did they, they did a great job actually. It was a great tiebreaker game. I think I would start the matches earlier in order to end each day, like 10:10 PM instead of 1130, some days days, 12:00 PM. So was due to a lot of little elements, but easy one is to begin earlier. So maybe that's something that you will find in the next hexagon Cup 2026.

Outro

alex_1_04-10-2025_101057 42:14

Okay. I think as we look forward to the edition in 2026, I think this is a probably a good place to wrap up the episode. Again, please share and subscribe if the content was thought provoking. Please comment on LinkedIn if you have any recommendations around our format, topics we should devote an episode to, questions we should ask, speakers we need to bring on. We want you all those driving the next phase of this industry's future to tell us what you want to hear about and who from. Thank you Astrid and Sergio for joining us today and being so open with us. We will keep doing our best to cover all the angles of the business around Padel episode after episode. Until the next one. Thank you.