The Pro Padel League (PPL) is North America’s first professional padel league: a city-based, franchise team competition launched in 2023 and built on the model of US pro sports leagues like the NBA and Major League Soccer. By 2026 it has grown to 10 franchises across the US, Canada and Mexico, attracted celebrity owners from Frances Tiafoe to polo icon Nacho Figueras, and closed a $15 million funding round. Here is how the league works, who plays in it, who has won it, and how to follow the 2026 season.
What is the Pro Padel League?
The Pro Padel League is the first attempt to package padel as a domestic, team-based spectator sport for North America. It launched its inaugural season in 2023 and is led by commissioner Marcos del Pilar, who also serves as president of the United States Padel Association. The concept is simple: take the world’s fastest-growing racket sport, wrap it in the franchise format Americans already understand from the NBA, NFL and MLS, and give US, Canadian and Mexican fans a league of their own to follow.
That makes the PPL very different from the global professional tour. It is not where the world ranking is decided; it is a domestic league with city identities, team standings and a season that builds to a championship. If you are brand new to the sport, our guide to what padel is covers the basics first.
How the Pro Padel League works
The PPL’s signature feature is its mixed-gender team format. Each franchise carries four active players (two men and two women) plus four alternates, and matches use the standard international scoring format. At every event, all teams play group-stage matches across both a men’s and a women’s division, earning points toward three separate tables: men’s, women’s and combined overall standings. The season then climaxes at the City’s Cup Finals, a single-elimination tournament that crowns a men’s champion, a women’s champion and an overall champion.
Mixed-gender teams
Each franchise fields two men and two women, plus four alternates, so every event has equal men’s and women’s competition.
Three champions
Every season crowns a men’s, a women’s and an overall team champion at the City’s Cup Finals.
Franchise model
City-based teams with their own owners and fans, like the NBA or MLS, with rosters built through an annual player auction.
The 10 PPL teams
The 2026 PPL is made up of 10 franchises: eight in the United States, one in Canada (Toronto) and one in Mexico (Cancún). Each builds a roster from a mix of established international pros and emerging North American talent.
| Team | Market | Notable |
|---|---|---|
| New York Atlantics | New York, NY | Reigning 2025 champions; backers include Frances Tiafoe |
| Florida Goats | Florida | 2024 champions; polo icon Nacho Figueras invested in 2026 |
| Miami Padel Club | Miami, FL | 2024 City’s Cup finalists |
| Los Angeles Beat | Los Angeles, CA | Roster led by 5-time world champion Sebastián Nerone |
| San Diego Stingrays | San Diego, CA | Southern California franchise |
| Houston Volts | Houston, TX | Texas franchise |
| Las Vegas Smash | Las Vegas, NV | Inaugural 2023 champions |
| D.C. Matrix | Washington, D.C. | Relocated from Arkansas for the 2026 season |
| Toronto Polar Bears | Toronto, Canada | Backed by Blue Jays / MLSE chair Edward Rogers |
| Cancún Waves | Cancún, Mexico | 2023 runners-up |
Star players and celebrity owners
Part of what makes the PPL fun to follow is the caliber of player on court. The Los Angeles Beat are led by Sebastián Nerone, a former world No.1 and five-time world champion, alongside Daniela Banchero. The Florida Goats pair the top women’s duo of Gemma Triay and Paula Josemaría with men’s stars Leandro Augsburger and Jon Sanz. Across the league you will see a blend of seasoned tour professionals and rising American players using the PPL as a development pathway.
Just as eye-catching is the ownership group. The New York Atlantics count tennis star Frances Tiafoe and Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Paes among their backers; the Florida Goats brought in polo icon Nacho Figueras for 2026; and the Toronto Polar Bears are backed by Edward Rogers, chair of the Toronto Blue Jays and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. That kind of celebrity and institutional money is a strong signal of where investors think US padel is heading.
PPL champions: who has won the City’s Cup?
Three seasons in, the title has gone to a different franchise each year, a sign of how competitive the league still is.
| Season | Champion | Final |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Las Vegas Smash | Defeated the Cancún Waves in the inaugural final |
| 2024 | Florida Goats | Defeated the Miami Padel Club at the City’s Cup in New York |
| 2025 | New York Atlantics | Won the City’s Cup at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom |
The 2026 PPL season
The 2026 season is built around five events across North America. It opens in New York, runs through Los Angeles and two events in Mexico (Playa del Carmen and Guadalajara), and finishes with the City’s Cup Finals coming to Miami for the first time. Concentrating the finale in Miami, the heart of the US padel scene, is a statement of intent for a league still building its audience.
| Event | Location | When |
|---|---|---|
| Event 1 | New York, NY | July |
| Event 2 | Los Angeles, CA | August |
| Event 3 | Playa del Carmen, Mexico | September |
| Event 4 | Guadalajara, Mexico | Autumn |
| City’s Cup Finals | Miami, FL | Season finale |
Planning to catch a live match? Our city guides for New York and Miami are good places to start.
PPL II: the new developmental league
In 2026 the league launched PPL II, a developmental tier designed to widen the talent pipeline. It features 10 pairings competing across four regular-season events, with total prize money of more than $350,000 and a path for the top teams to compete at the PPL’s flagship City’s Cup. PPL II opened its inaugural season on March 15 to 18 in Miami, and its own City’s Cup runs December 3 to 6, also in Miami. For ambitious American players, it creates a structured professional rung between the amateur circuit and the main league, something US padel has lacked until now.
The money behind the PPL
The clearest sign that the PPL is more than a passion project is the capital backing it. In March 2026 the league closed a $15 million Series A round led by Charlotte Hornets co-chairman and governor Rick Schnall, following a $10 million seed round in March 2025. Add the celebrity team investors above, and you have serious money betting on padel’s US growth, at a moment when the sport has just passed one million players in the United States.
How to watch the Pro Padel League
PPL events are streamed globally on the league’s official YouTube channel, where you can watch full matches, replays and highlights for free, plus follow updates across the PPL’s website and social channels.
Pro Padel League vs Premier Padel: what is the difference?
This is the most common point of confusion, so it is worth being clear. The Pro Padel League is a domestic, city-franchise, mixed-gender team competition for North America. Premier Padel is the global professional tour, contested by individual pairs for a world ranking, and its only US stop is the Miami P1.
| Pro Padel League (PPL) | Premier Padel | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | North America (US, Canada, Mexico) | Global world tour |
| Format | City franchises, mixed-gender teams | Individual pairs |
| Decides | League champion (City’s Cup) | World ranking |
| US presence | 5 events incl. City’s Cup in Miami | One stop: the Miami P1 |
Keep reading: the full picture of the world tour in our Premier Padel and the Miami P1 guide, how to compete yourself in our padel tournaments guide, and the complete padel in the US hub.
The bottom line
The Pro Padel League is the closest thing North America has to a home-grown professional padel competition, and 2026 is its biggest year yet: 10 city franchises, star players, celebrity owners, a five-event season finishing in Miami, a new developmental league, and $15 million in fresh funding. It is still young and still building its audience, but the trajectory is unmistakable. If you want a team to follow as US padel grows up, the PPL is where to start.
The Pro Padel League (PPL) is North America’s first professional padel league, a city-based franchise competition launched in 2023. It uses a mixed-gender team format and crowns its champion at the season-ending City’s Cup Finals.
Each franchise fields four active players (two men and two women) plus alternates. Teams play group-stage matches across men’s and women’s divisions at each event, earning points toward overall standings and qualification for the City’s Cup Finals, which crowns men’s, women’s and overall champions.
Ten franchises: the New York Atlantics, Florida Goats, Miami Padel Club, Los Angeles Beat, San Diego Stingrays, Houston Volts, Las Vegas Smash, D.C. Matrix, Toronto Polar Bears and Cancún Waves. Eight are in the US, one in Canada and one in Mexico.
The Las Vegas Smash won the inaugural 2023 title, the Florida Goats won in 2024, and the New York Atlantics are the reigning 2025 City’s Cup champions.
The PPL closed a $15 million Series A in March 2026 led by Charlotte Hornets co-chairman Rick Schnall, after a $10 million seed in 2025. Individual teams have celebrity backers including Frances Tiafoe, Nacho Figueras and Edward Rogers. Marcos del Pilar is league commissioner.
PPL events are streamed for free on the league’s official YouTube channel, with full matches, replays and highlights, plus updates on propadelleague.com and the league’s social channels.
No. The PPL is a North American city-franchise team league. Premier Padel is the global professional tour for individual pairs, whose only US stop is the Miami P1. They are separate competitions.
Isabella Torres is originally from Madrid, Spain, and has been playing Padel as a semi-professional for the past five years. After completing her education as a journalist, she discovered her true passion in life was writing about Padel.
She loves staying up late watching intense rallies on YouTube, and is excited to share her knowledge about the sport with SimplePadel’s readers.