Padel is booming in France. 850,000 players, more than 4,100 courts, 200% growth in six years. On the back of that momentum, a new generation of content creators has taken up the sport, and for clubs it is a marketing opportunity many still underestimate.
The problem? Most articles about padel influencers just list names and Instagram accounts. Useful for scrolling, less so for filling your courts.
Here we go further. As a marketing agency specialising in padel and tennis, we give you the concrete guide to finding the right profiles, choosing the right collaboration format and measuring the results. Whether you run a 4-court club or a national franchise, you leave with an action plan.
The padel boom in France: fertile ground for influence
Padel in numbers: 850,000 players and 200% growth in six years
In 2019, France had around 700 padel courts. In 2025 there are more than 4,100, spread across more than 1,000 clubs. The number of players followed the same curve: from a few hundred thousand to 850,000 regular players, according to the latest estimates from the French Tennis Federation.
It is no longer an “emerging” sport. It is a sport structuring its market, and it needs content to go with that growth.
Why influencers are taking up padel
Padel is social by nature. A glass court (everyone watches), a doubles format (always four players), a relaxed atmosphere: it is the most “Instagrammable” sport on the market. Add a passionate community and a novelty effect that sparks curiosity, and you get the perfect mix for content creation.
The result: there were barely a dozen active padel creators in France in 2020. In 2026, Padel Speak lists more than 60 influencers with meaningful visibility, mainly on Instagram and YouTube.
Who’s who: padel influencers in France
Not all padel influencers are alike. To collaborate intelligently, you need to understand the different categories and what each can bring to your club.
Specialist content creators
These are the most interesting profiles for clubs, because their audience is 100% padel.
Clément Filho, aka “Le Chiquiteur”, is the perfect example. Ranked in the French top 50, he has more than 28,000 Instagram followers, with content that mixes humour, teaching and performance. His viral videos have introduced padel to audiences far beyond the inner circle. His secret: he adapts digital trends (short formats, personal storytelling) to a niche sport, and it works.
Jules Marie embodies the bridge between tennis and padel. A former ATP player (world no. 203), he left the pro tour in March 2025 to focus on padel. With 130,000 YouTube subscribers and 92,000 on Instagram, he produces 7 to 10 videos a month. Today 80% of his content is about padel: tutorials, tournament vlogs, match analysis. His sporting credibility brings a legitimacy few creators can offer.
Media and authority figures
Padel Magazine remains the reference media, with complete editorial coverage: news, interviews, analysis. For a club, a mention in Padel Magazine brings immediate institutional credibility.
Laura Clergue, former French champion (2015 and 2016) and the first Frenchwoman to play on the World Padel Tour, has become a Canal+ pundit and content creator. With 42,000 Instagram followers, an active YouTube channel and ambassador roles for Bullpadel and Playtomic, she represents the “authority figure” profile: a respected player whose recommendation carries real weight.
Celebrities and streamers who boost visibility
Domingo (Pierre-Alexis Bizot) turned padel into a Twitch event. His Padel Invitational at the Roland-Garros stadium, co-organised with Webedia and the FFT during the Greenweez Paris Major, brought together 12 creators and celebrities live on his channel. Names like Squeezie, Gotaga, Xari and Etoiles took part, exposing padel to millions of young viewers who would never have watched a match otherwise.
Other streamers like Lebouseuh, Jiraya, Tiki and Said regularly take part in padel tournaments on Twitch, making padel a “gaming-friendly” sport with a unique audience.
And then there is Cyril Hanouna, a padel enthusiast for years, who talks about it regularly on his shows and on social. A mainstream influencer who gives padel a visibility no ad budget could buy.
Why your padel club should work with influencers
Local visibility and brand awareness
An Instagram post from a local creator-athlete playing at your club is native advertising. Not an ad interrupting the scroll: content people want to watch. And when that creator tags your club in a Story that gets 5,000 views, that is 5,000 people in your catchment area discovering your courts.
Acquiring new players and members
The 2025 influencer marketing data is clear: micro-influencers get engagement rates between 5 and 7%, against 1 to 2% for accounts with more than 500,000 followers. A local creator with 3,000 engaged followers in your city can convert more sign-ups than a €500-a-month Facebook ad.
Credibility and social proof
When a respected player chooses your club to film their videos, it is a quality signal for the whole community. It is more powerful than a Google review: it is a living recommendation, on video, with content people share.
The 5 collaboration formats that work for a padel club
1. The sponsored event (creator tournament, discovery evening)
The most impactful format. You organise a tournament at your club and invite local creators to take part. They film, they post, you fill your courts and you get content.
Domingo proved it at scale with his Padel Invitational at Roland-Garros. At local club level, the same principle works: invite 4 local creators to an “afterwork padel” tournament, let them film, and you get authentic content that reaches their community.
2. The account takeover (Stories/Reels for 24 hours)
You hand your Instagram account to a creator for a day. They show the behind the scenes, try your courts, film the atmosphere. It is fresh, authentic content, and it exposes your account to the creator’s audience.
An ideal format for clubs that want to boost engagement without producing content themselves.
3. The club ambassador (long-term partnership)
The most strategic. You find a local player-creator and offer a 3 to 6-month partnership: free court access and visibility on your channels, in exchange for regular content mentioning your club.
It is the model CrossFit boxes popularised, and it works because repetition creates familiarity. After 3 months, the creator’s audience naturally associates their favourite player with your club.
4. Co-created content (tutorials, challenges)
You create content together. A “How to nail your bandeja” tutorial filmed at your club, a TikTok challenge with a recurring format, a “Before/after 3 months of padel”: the creator brings their audience and know-how, you bring the venue and the legitimacy.
5. Product placement and the genuine review
The simplest format: the creator uses your facilities and talks about them naturally in their content. No forced script, no “thanks to my partner”: just authentic content where your club appears as the natural setting of their game.
Want to build influencer marketing into your club’s digital marketing strategy? Book a free call with Arthur.
Micro vs macro influencers: which is right for your club?
The advantage of local micro-influencers (engagement, proximity, cost)
The numbers are clear. In 2025, 70% of brands prefer working with micro and nano-influencers rather than celebrities. Why? Because the average ROI of influencer marketing is €5.78 for every €1 invested, and it goes even higher with local micro-influencers.
A padel creator with 2,000 to 10,000 followers in your city is exactly what you need. Their audience is local, engaged, and trusts them. The cost? Often free court access and cross-promotion on your channels. No five-figure budget needed.
When to bet on a macro-influencer (launch, major event)
Macro-influencers (50,000+ followers) make sense in two specific cases: launching a new club or a major event (opening, anniversary, prestige tournament). The goal isn’t direct conversion: it is launch buzz that puts your club on the map.
How to approach and negotiate with a padel creator
Find the right profiles (engagement > follower count)
The golden rule: engagement rate matters more than follower count. An account with 3,000 followers and 8% engagement (240 interactions per post) is more valuable than one with 50,000 and 0.5% (250 interactions). Also check where the audience is: a Lyon-based creator with an 80% Lyon audience is perfect for a Lyon club.
Free ways to check: public Instagram stats (likes, comments), and a simple calculation: (likes + comments) / followers × 100.
First contact: what works and what scares people off
What works: a personalised DM that shows you know their content. “I saw your video about [specific topic], we have a club that would be perfect for your next piece. Can we talk?”
What scares people off: generic copy-paste, asking for free content with nothing in return, or a 3-page brief sent as the first message.
Structure the partnership (brief, deliverables, timeline)
A good partnership fits on one page: goal (visibility, sign-ups, event), deliverables (number of posts, Stories, formats), what they get (access, payment, cross-promotion), timeline (publication dates), and usage rights for the content.
Keep it simple. Padel creators aren’t media agencies: they want to make authentic content, not fill in a 20-page specification.
The legal framework for influence in France: what your club needs to know
The law of 9 June 2023 on commercial influence
France is the first European country to adopt a legal framework dedicated to commercial influence. Law no. 2023-451 of 9 June 2023 strictly regulates collaborations between brands and creators.
What it concretely changes for your club:
Since 1 January 2026, any contract between an advertiser and a creator where total payment exceeds €1,000 must be in writing. The contract must include: the identity of the parties, the nature of the tasks, the payment terms, and rights and obligations (notably on intellectual property).
Mandatory labels and good practice
Any promotion by a creator must be explicitly identified with the label “Publicité” (advertising) or “Collaboration commerciale” (commercial collaboration). This is non-negotiable, even for free court access in exchange for a post.
In practice: ask your partner creators to add #pub or #collaboration to their posts. It protects you and them legally. Better to be transparent: the audience appreciates it, and your club gains credibility rather than suspicion.
Measuring the ROI of a collaboration with a padel creator
The KPIs to track
Don’t get lost in vanity metrics. Track what connects back to your club: traffic, sign-ups and bookings you can attribute to each creator.
Simple, accessible tracking tools
No need for expensive tools. A UTM link (free via Google’s Campaign URL Builder) on every partner post lets you trace traffic precisely. Add a unique promo code per creator (“JULES10” for Jules, “CLEM10” for Clément) and you know exactly who converts.
Before launching your first influencer activation, make sure your digital fundamentals are in place. A digital audit of your online presence helps you find what to strengthen (website, social media, local search) to get the most out of every collaboration.
Padel and influence: a winning match
Influencer marketing is no longer reserved for big brands. With 850,000 players in France, a fast-growing digital community and passionate, accessible content creators, padel clubs have a card to play, now.
Start small: identify 2 or 3 local creators in your area, offer a simple partnership (court access + cross-promotion), and measure the results over 3 months. That is how the clubs filling their courts in 2026 make the difference: not with a bigger ad budget, but with authentic content carried by people their community listens to.
Optimise your padel club’s social media in parallel, so every visitor who arrives through a creator finds a consistent, engaging digital world.
Representing a brand and want to structure your racket-sports sponsorship strategy? Our guide to tennis sponsorship in 2026 covers formats, budgets and ROI measurement for brands that want to activate tennis or padel.
Want to build influencer marketing into your padel club’s digital strategy? Book a free call with Arthur. We look at your online presence and social media together, and you leave with a personalised action plan, influence included.
