Banker Rowland launches Britain’s most lucrative padel tournament
Redwood Bank founder Jonathan Rowland’s R3 Sport is launching Britain’s most lucrative padel tournament in association with Bullpadel, one of the game’s leading brands.
The R3 Bullpadel Cup will consist of up to six events taking place across the country from April this year and culminating in the Cup Finals in December. It is understood that prize money will total £100,000 and that venues could include London, Manchester and Bristol.
Each two-day event will be an LTA Padel Grade 1 competition featuring 32 pairs of players drawn from Britain and overseas, as well as juniors. Those expected to compete include British No1 Christian Medina Murphy and No2 ranked Sam Jones and Catherine Rose.
“Padel tennis is surging in popularity but needs an event to take it to the next level, which the R3 Bullpadel Cup will do,” said Rowland.
“All sports need role models for young players to aspire to be and the Cup is designed to achieve that by providing current players with the platform and finances to be the best they can be.
“We want to help the sport meet its potential as well as getting British players into the world top 20 and helping to build a strong GB team so that the country can be competitive when padel is, as expected, included in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.”
The R3 Bullpadel Cup is the latest development in the sport’s adoption in the UK, where there are now 190,000 registered players and an estimated 600 padel courts.
It is also a stepping stone to a Bullpadel Super League featuring privately owned teams backed by celebrities, like the Hexagon Cup, which R3 plans to launch in 2026.
“Through more regular top-level domestic competition, we want to give British players more chances to showcase their skills, and for those looking to pursue careers playing padel, more regular opportunities to compete against the country’s best on home soil,” said the LTA’s head of padel Tom Murray.
“This stronger domestic tour offering, combined with a more developed junior competition structure, will help to boost not only our current crop of British performance padel players, but also the next generation, looking to follow in the footsteps of current British number ones Aimee Gibson and Christian Medina Murphy.”
Rowland building towards ‘padel super league’
Serial entrepreneur Rowland and padel player Nikhil Mohindra launched R3 last year with a view to developing the sport in Britain.
“Our plan is to create a business around the Great Britain team with the best brands, the best players, the best venues and the best tournaments,” he told City PM at the time.
He added that the R3 Bullpadel Super League would be “a Champions League of padel in the UK – the highest prize money, the most prestigious event at a purpose-built place”.
Fernando Manzanares, head of sponsorship at Bullpadel said: “We’re delighted to support R3 Sport in the delivery of a series of premium tournaments for top British padel players.
“Bullpadel has a background of supporting elite competition and players and we are excited to bring this support to padel in the UK.”