Running a padel tournament has two parts: getting a few decisions right at the start, and not drowning in logistics afterwards. This guide walks through the decisions in order, with numbers to help you plan.
1. Dates, courts and available hours
Start with what you cannot change: how many courts you have and for how many hours. That sets the size of the tournament. A two-set padel match lasts 60 to 90 minutes; with 90-minute slots, each court fits about 8 matches in a 12-hour day.
- Example: 6 courts × 8 matches = 48 matches a day.
- A full weekend on those courts fits roughly 90-100 matches.
You will find the detailed calculation in our template to calculate matches per court.
2. Categories
Split by gender (men’s, women’s, mixed) and by level (first, second, third…). A few categories with enough pairs beat many half-empty ones: a category with fewer than 6 pairs usually falls flat.
3. The format
The format decides how many matches each pair plays and how long the tournament lasts:
- Knockout: quick, but half of the pairs play only once. A consolation bracket fixes that.
- Groups of 4 plus a final stage: every pair plays at least 3 matches. It is the most common format for club tournaments.
- League: everyone plays everyone, ideal for competitions that run over several weeks.
We compare them with numbers in Tournament formats: which one to choose?.
4. Registrations and payments
Open registrations with a form that asks for what you need: the pair’s names, category, level and time availability. Set a closing date a few days before the draw and decide whether players pay online or at the club. Taking payment on registration greatly reduces last-minute dropouts.
5. Draw and brackets
Once registrations close, it is time for the draw: splitting pairs into groups or placing them in the bracket, keeping the seeds apart. If the number of pairs is not a power of 2 (8, 16, 32), some go straight through to the second round: these are the byes.
6. Scheduling: the big puzzle
This is where afternoons disappear. Every match needs a court and a time, with no pair playing two matches at once and respecting the hours each pair can play. With 50 or 60 matches, doing it by hand in a spreadsheet takes hours, and any change means starting over.
7. Results and communication
During the tournament, everyone wants to know how it is going: results, brackets, standings and the next match. Publish it all in one up-to-date place instead of sending photos of the whiteboard to the WhatsApp group.
How eSportics does it
In eSportics, every one of these steps is covered: you create the tournament and its categories, open online registrations (with card payments if your plan includes them), choose from seven formats, run the draw in one click and the algorithm assigns courts and times with no overlaps. Results show live on the tournament page, and brackets and standings update themselves.