With over 1,000 courts built in 2025, padel’s growth in Indonesia is among the fastest in the world. With expectations among padel players in the country for a smooth digital experience, the sport’s rise is driving dramatic change across the sports technology ecosystem. Samuel Hadeli Lie, co-founder and CEO of Ayo, Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform, shares insights on the latest developments and assesses how the market is likely to develop in the future.
When padel courts started appearing in Indonesia a few years ago, I wasn't immediately convinced the sport would stick. Another imported sport, another wave of enthusiasm. But what we've seen over the past 12 months has changed my view, and that of the wider sports technology ecosystem in Indonesia.
With more than 1,000 padel venues built in a single year, padel here is not a fad. It’s something real.
Ayo is Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform, with over 2,100 venue partners and close to one million users across padel, badminton, tennis, mini soccer, basketball, and pickleball. We have a front-row seat to everything that is happening in sports technology, and what we're watching is genuinely exciting.
Digitally savvy players
What makes padel unique compared with established sports like badminton or tennis is that the players are digitally savvy and expect to be able book courts online.
That might sound insignificant and a small detail, but this matters so much in Indonesia’s sports ecosystem. Badminton has been our national sport for decades, and many venues have run on manual booking processes such as phone calls and WhatsApp messages for a long time.
Padel venues, from day one, treated online booking as the obvious default. Courts are now available across more than 100 cities and regencies in Indonesia – remarkable reach for a sport that was barely on the radar a few years ago. The players coming into padel expect a smooth digital experience, and the venues have had to meet that expectation from the start.
Samuel Hadeli Lie, co-founder and CEO of Ayo, Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform. Image credit: Ayo.
A rising tide for all sports
Here's what surprised us most: padel's digital-first culture is now dragging other sports along with it. It was the pull factor that Indonesia’s sport ecosystem needed to adopt technology. Badminton has been Indonesia's national sport for generations, but many venue operators have been slow to embrace online booking. As padel courts filled up through our platform, those operators started asking questions. Then they started listing their courts too.
The same story is playing out with tennis. Sports that were perfectly happy operating through WhatsApp groups and handwritten schedules are now coming online because padel has set a new expectation for what a modern sports venue looks like. That has a real impact on sports participation in a country where, by international standards, we still have ground to make up.
In addition, these sports venues which are coming online are not just giving their current customers more convenience, they are experiencing growth in revenue due to their increased exposure online on Ayo. To put that shift in perspective: the total value of bookings flowing through Ayo grew five-fold in 2025 compared to the year before.
Noble Samson Padel, located in PIK2, Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia, is the country’s largest padel venue with 16 courts, 10 of which have VIP rooms attached to them. Courts can booked via Ayo. Image credit: Noble Samson Padel.
Community behaviour
Padel players, as evident in Indonesia, engage with technology differently compared with players of other sports. They want to log their scores. They use apps to find opponents they've never met and arrange games with strangers. They're genuinely interested in tracking their progress over time.
These data points are meaningful for a sports platform like Ayo. When users generate their own data – match results, rankings, playing history – it gives us the foundation to build things that actually keep people engaged: leaderboards, rating systems, community challenges. This increases the stickiness of the platform, however, and more importantly this gives people more reasons to keep playing sport. The second part is Ayo’s mission and something that we really care about.
We're now starting to see similar behaviour spread to badminton and other sports. It's early, but the direction is encouraging. Padel has set a new reference point for what an active sports community on a platform can look like.
Courtyard Padel, located in West Jakarta, DKI Jakarta, in Indonesia. Courts can booked via Ayo. Image credit: Courtyard Padel.
The bigger picture
With 280 million people – of whom around 69% make up a massive productive population – sports participation in Indonesia still has significant room to grow compared with many other countries, and that's something that gives me fuel to keep improving Ayo.
Padel, perhaps unexpectedly, may be one of the catalysts that helps change that – not only because it's an enjoyable sport, but because of the relationship with data, community and technology it has brought with it.
The courts are being built. The users are showing up. The real work now is turning that momentum into something durable – and making sure the benefits extend beyond padel to Indonesian sport more broadly.
And the momentum isn't slowing – in Indonesia alone, we expect the total value of bookings on our platform to more than double again in 2026.
What's also becoming clear to us is this story isn't unique to Indonesia. And that's why we're starting to look beyond this country – we think the platform we've built here has a role to play across Southeast Asia.
We're seeing the same ingredients across the region: fast-growing padel communities, a young, connected population, and sports venues that are only just beginning to go digital.
· Samuel Hadeli Lie is co-founder & CEO of Ayo, Indonesia's largest sports venue booking platform. Visit ayo.app Email: [email protected]
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