(Reuters) – Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) has acquired World Padel Tour (WPT) from its organisers Damm and unified the world’s professional tour under one entity, QSI said on Thursday.
The tour of the racket sport that has been growing in popularity over the last few years will be called Premier Padel and will be governed by the International Padel Federation (FIP).
Financial terms were not disclosed.
A power struggle in the sport which involved the privately-owned WPT, established in 2013, has effectively been quelled after QSI acquired its business assets and resolved “outstanding disputes between the parties”.
However, the separate WPT and Premier Padel tours will continue as planned until the end of 2023 before competitions are unified under the banner of the FIP’s Premier Padel next year.
“This is an historic moment for the sport of padel, ultimately seeing the two leading professional padel tours unified as one single global Premier Padel tour,” QSI chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi said in a statement.
“As the fastest-growing sport globally, QSI is proud to be at the heart of driving the development of padel professionally all around the world, always placing the players at the centre of our mission to grow the sport everywhere.”
QSI also owns French Ligue 1 soccer champions Paris St Germain, where Al-Khelaifi is the club’s president.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter)
