Real prize money at every level, from intermediate upwards
The first Grade 4 event pays £150 each to the winning pair, £75 each to the runners up, and vouchers for the semi finalists.
Padel has arrived in Northern Ireland at a pace nobody quite predicted. Courts have gone up across the country, clubs are busy most nights of the week, and the standard of play has climbed faster than anyone expected it to. What has not kept up is the competition.
That is the gap NI Padel is here to close.
Started by Bradley and Warren, NI Padel is a tournament series built for players who want to test themselves properly. Regular events at clubs right across the country, men’s and women’s draws, real cash prizes at every level, and a ranking that means something.
Why now
Anyone who has played abroad knows the difference. In Spain, and increasingly in England, a decent club player can find a competitive event most weekends. There is a ladder to climb, a rating to chase, and opponents at your level waiting on the other side of the net. That ecosystem is what turns keen players into good ones, and good ones into players who can hold their own internationally.
Northern Ireland has the players and the venues. It has not yet had the calendar. Without regular competition, most people top out at whatever standard their usual four can reach on a Tuesday night, and the genuinely talented ones have nowhere local to push on to.
Competition is how a sport gets better at itself.
Put people in draws against players they have never met, at a level slightly above what they are used to, often enough that they learn from it, and the standard across the whole country lifts. That is the point of all of this.
Working with the clubs, not around them
NI Padel is not a club and it is not trying to become one. Every event runs at an existing venue, with that venue’s people, and every club in Northern Ireland is welcome to be part of it.
The clubs built this. They took the risk on the courts, they grew the memberships, and they are the reason there is anything to organise. NI Padel exists to add the layer on top that no single club can build alone: a shared calendar, a common ranking, and a standard of organisation that players come to expect.
The tournaments
The first event is at PADEL 54 in Moira on Saturday 17 October, and from there the calendar moves around. FEAT4, Let’s Go Padel, Padel Society, Powerhouse and others will host across the year, so there should always be something within a reasonable drive.
A few things we have set out to get right.
Every level, separately
Grade 4 is capped for intermediate players and is where most people will start. Above it sit Grade 3, Grade 2 and the NI Championships.
Men’s and women’s draws
Each its own competition, with its own ranking.
Run properly
A guaranteed minimum number of matches, a published order of play, and courts running on a rolling schedule. You will know roughly when you are on.
The NI rankings
Every result in a ranking event feeds a points total, and those totals build the NI padel rankings. Separate lists for men and women, updated as results come in.
The LTA covers padel in England and their ranking has taken off, with players chasing a number and entering the next event to climb it. That is what we are after here. It turns a scattered set of events into a season.
Points come from how far you go in the main draw, they count for fifty two weeks, and your best five results are what stand. Win a big one and it holds your ranking for most of a year. Win nothing for a year and you start again like everyone else.
Juniors
The part we are most interested in long term is the one that will take longest.
Padel in Northern Ireland is currently an adult sport almost by accident, because that is who found it first. Every country that has got good at this got good by starting people young. We want to work with clubs on a junior pathway: coaching, an academy structure, and competition that juniors can actually enter rather than watching from the side.
That is a conversation with the clubs rather than an announcement, and it will move at the speed they can support. But it is on the table from day one, not bolted on later.
Coaching
Alongside the tournaments we want to help clubs bring in coaching that would otherwise be out of reach. Camps, visiting coaches, and access to the kind of international talent that a single club would struggle to justify on its own but that makes sense when several clubs go in together.
Getting involved
Entries for the first event are open now. Create an account, enter as a pair, and you are in. If your partner is not on the site yet you can add them as you go.
If you run a club and want an event, or you coach and want to be part of the pathway work, get in touch at info@nipadel.com.
Padel here is about to get a lot more competitive.
Bradley and Warren