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Anthony Joshua joins Andy Murray and his team of [+]
co-owners of padel team AD/vantage. The winning team of the inaugural Hexagon Cup tournament in Madrid.
getty
Anthony Joshua is trading knockouts for aces. The former two-time heavyweight champion boxer is the latest superstar to invest in Padel. The Olympian is joining Andy Murray’s Team AD/vantage as a co-owner. Team AD/vantage is the defending and inaugural champion of the Hexagon Cup, padel’s leading professional competition. Joshua and Murray share ownership duties with London-based businessman Arran Yentob and Murray’s former tennis coach Dani Vallverdú.
Joshua has been captivated by the sport’s continued growth, which he says is “really impressive.” The British boxer says, becoming and co-owner and working with Andy “was an opportunity I had to take.” Joshua may not be the first name that comes to mind when thinking of a racket sport, but co-owners Yentob and Murray are sure the boxer embodies the team’s values. Yentob says that Joshua will help them “build on recent success,” and “further unlock the sport’s potential and bring a new set of players to the court.” He added that “Both AJ and Andy will be critical in guiding us both on the professional side of the sport, as well as picking the right ways to expand into other potential parts of the value chain (whether that be the amateur game, facilities or beyond) and to support the broader growth of the sport in the UK and globally.’’
Murray meanwhile, says, “Having Anthony join Arran, Dani and I on the team leadership is a huge win for us, and will provide us with momentum as we seek to defend our title in Madrid just weeks from now.”
Andy Murray
For Murray, investment in padel is a matter of passion. The former Wimbledon winner first played padel when he was 15 while honing his tennis skills in Spain. When he wasn’t training, he was on one of the two glass-enclosed courts playing padel with his friends and against his coaches. After moving back to the U.K., he says the game disappeared from his life for a few years, but he never forgot about it.
Several years ago, Murray invested in Game4Padel — a U.K. court builder and operator — to help grow the game on the British Isles. But his appetite for further involvement remained. When co-owner Arran Yentob’s team got in touch with him and offered him the chance to get involved in professional padel, Murray couldn’t resist.
The Scotsman says he “thought it would be fun,” and noted that at the time there were “not many major padel competitions yet.” Murray wasn’t very active during his first year of ownership because he was still playing professional tennis. Having retired recently, he is hoping to be more involved moving forward. He hopes padel will “gain more popularity as a spectator sport,” and thinks the Hexagon Cup has the potential to bring that about.
Murray expects the sport to grow naturally, noting that “as more and more people play it, socially there will be a greater interest.” With more people playing, eventually, more people will want to watch it. The sport is already “the fastest growing sport worldwide” according to Padel USA, although the popularity remains rooted in participation rather than viewership.
Game4Padel Westfield London Pop-Up
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 07: Andy Murray plays [+]
Padel at the Game4Padel pop-up event. Game4Padel brings the world’s fastest growing sport to Westfield London with a pop-up at Westfield White City on November 07, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Luke Walker/Getty Images for Game4Padel)
Getty Images for Game4Padel
What the former tennis star loves about padel is its accessibility, its transferable skills, and the fact that it’s a social game. Murray considers padel easier to learn than tennis and thinks it will encourage more kids to pick up racket sports and join clubs. In the future, those kids could transition to tennis, continue playing padel, or even play both. Murray says, “A lot of people are worried about tennis,” but he sees padel and pickleball as complementary sports.
By investing in padel, Murray is doing his part to help grow one of the sports he loves. He admits, he is “not focused too much on the business side,” but says he plans to get more involved this year and come along to events, depending on his schedule, which is now centered around coaching former rival Novak Djokovic.
Murray hopes padel will continue to take off, and expects the Hexagon Cup to set up more events in different locations around the world to help spread the sport. Personally, Murray hopes he can play a game of padel with some of the other team owners, most notably Lionel Messi. Crossover matches like the NBA vs NFL golf tournament in recent years have helped drive viewership, so maybe a Murray vs Messi clash is just what padel needs.
Hexagon Cup
The Hexagon Cup is a Madrid-based tournament focused on celebrating padel and driving global participation. The first edition took place in January 2024 and reached over 4.6 million views across social media. It also had over 1 million views on YouTube and was broadcast to over 190 countries thanks to deals with DAZN, ESPN, Fox Sports Australia, Tencent, and other major sports broadcasters.
The 2025 edition will take place in Madrid from January 29 to February 2. French car manufacturer Alpine remains the title sponsor, and the cash prize for the winners is €1 million.
The tournament is the brainchild of the same team behind Formula E. On the court, the Hexagon Cup is a pairs competition. Each franchise has three pairs: one female, one male, and one Next Gen pair. This year’s Hexagon Cup Nex Gen teams will also be female. Off the court, the tournament seeks to use celebrity power to accelerate viewership. Other team owners include Hollywood heartthrob Eva Longoria, F1 driver Pierre Gasly, and soccer greats Robert Lewandowski, Sergio Agüero, and Lionel Messi.
Both Team AD/vantage and Hexagon Cup executives expect that Joshua’s addition to the ownership roster will help bring more eyeballs to a sport that is growing in popularity. By the end of 2023, the U.S. had roughly 100,000 padel players and over 450 courts, compared to just 20 courts in 2019. The first season of the U.S.-based Pro Padel League had 22 million views on YouTube, strong numbers for a growing sport, but still nowhere near those of top sports leagues.
Still, padel increasingly has fans everywhere, and Arran Yentob is convinced that the Hexagon Cup’s model will only continue to boost support for the sport. He says, “Ownership of a franchise team and involvement in the Hexagon Cup stood out among many options we looked at as a way to participate in the dramatic growth in padel globally.” As winners of the inaugural Hexagon Cup, Team AD/vantage looks to continue acing the opportunities that come with padel’s growth.
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