The Hexagon Cup Brings Pro Padel to Global Audience

The Hexagon Cup returned to Madrid this past weekend as the opening event of the newly formed Hexagon World Series, signaling a bigger ambition for pro padel’s team-based future.

Launched back in 2024, the Hexagon Cup founders had a strong intuition that there would be interest in a franchise and entertainment model for pro padel. This fresh alternative to standard tour events kicked off with celebrity investors like Robert Lewandowski, Eva Longoria, and Andy Murray, presenting a new approach to the world’s fastest growing sport.

What happened next was a wave of success that led to new fans, top players wanting to join in, sponsors looking to get involved, and more investors looking to have their own teams. This perfect storm led to an even bigger opportunity for the Hexagon Cup to grow beyond one event a year.

Announced at the end of last year, the Hexagon Cup would no longer be just one tournament, but instead a “world series” with four events. It is an official global team competition circuit recognized by the International Padel Federation (FIP) as an official global team competition, operating in collaboration with Premier Padel.

“This partnership marks a new chapter in the history of padel,” said Enrique Buenaventura, Founder of Hexagon Cup. “Together with 54 [group], FIP and the support of, and fantastic relationship with, Premier Padel, we will build the first truly global team circuit, expanding the vision of the Hexagon Cup and creating something never seen before in our sport. Our mission is to help grow padel worldwide, unlock new commercial opportunities, and contribute decisively to its Olympic journey.”

Setting aside the entertaining format, high-profile investors, and top players, the key area Hexagon Cup excels in is broadcasting. Even with a great product, if people can’t figure out how to watch it, then it basically doesn’t exist in this modern day. But the Hexagon Cup team knew this and created global partnerships that make it possible for just about anyone to watch the action.

Whether you’re in the U.S, India, or anywhere else, providers like ESPN+ and DAZN offer high-quality streams of each exciting moment. As someone who watched the ESPN feed, the commentators take into account the new-ness of the sport in the U.S. and explain the rules so anyone can follow along. This allows any person, whether familiar with padel or not, to tune it and quickly understand what is going on.

For the Hexagon Cup to maintain its meteoric rise, a key next step is to make strong headwinds within the U.S. market to create greater visibility and commercial interest. The ESPN streaming deal is a big step in the right direction. It’s not farfetched to think that in a few years we may even see padel on national broadcast TV.