Tribune News Network
Doha
Premier Padel, the world’s leading professional padel tour – founded by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) together with the International Padel Federation (FIP) and the Professional Padel Association (PPA) – have appointed Eno Polo as CEO to lead the ambitious next phase of Premier Padel’s sporting development, commercial growth and global expansion. Eno Polo will report to the Board of Premier Padel and begins his appointment on 16th November 2023.
Eno has had a wide-ranging and accomplished career in sport – including extensive experience in padel and tennis – spanning senior roles in Nike across Europe and North America; subsequent positions as President of Havaianas EMEA and North America; President of Global Brands Group Europe; and as senior consultant to FIFA.
Eno joins Premier Padel most recently from LeDap Group – an international group of padel companies, operating more than 120 clubs with over 700 padel courts worldwide – where he was CEO. Since January 2021, Eno has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the ATP Tour.
Last month, QSI and FIP announced that an historic agreement had been reached with Damm for the acquisition of World Padel Tour (WPT) by QSI, with Premier Padel and WPT to be unified as a single global professional padel tour – called Premier Padel – in 2024 under the governance of the International Padel Federation, subject to customary regulatory approvals. Eno’s immediate responsibility will be to manage the merger of the two tours, then drive the sporting and commercial step-change of Premier Padel into being one of the most dynamic, modern and professional tours in global sport.
Premier Padel was only launched in 2022 and within its first year has become one of the fastest growing tours in world sport. Over 500 players from around the world competed in Premier Padel tournaments in its first year, played in some of the most iconic venues in sports history, including at Stade Roland-Garros in Paris. Premier Padel has secured multi-year broadcast agreements that cover 180+ countries reaching over 150 million households, while the inaugural 2022 Premier Padel season attracted 22.7 million views on YouTube. Over 110 leading professional female players joined Premier Padel in March this year.
Nasser Al Khelaïfi, Chairman of Qatar Sports Investments and Premier Padel, said: “We are very pleased to appoint Eno as CEO of Premier Padel. Eno brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and relationships to the tour, having had a fantastic career across sport – including racket sports – for nearly 30 years. He understands how to build an elite global tour, and also the importance of players to any project. We look forward to Eno driving forward the next great phase of development of Premier Padel.”
Luigi Carraro, President of the International Padel Federation, said, “Eno is an outstanding executive appointment to lead Premier Padel’s next stage of ambitious growth. As the governing body of Premier Padel, FIP is proud to be at the heart of the development of padel professionally all around the world, placing the players and National Federations at the centre of our mission to grow the sport everywhere. Eno’s experience with all stakeholders within the sports ecosystem – especially with players on the ATP Tour – will be invaluable as we look to take Premier Padel to the top of world sport.”
Eno Polo, newly-appointed CEO of Premier Padel, said, “I am delighted to join Premier Padel as CEO to lead – without any doubt – the most exciting project in world sport. Through the vision and ambition of the owners, what has been achieved by Premier Padel in such a short time is incredible. But what’s most exciting is that we have barely started to unlock the brilliant potential of this world-leading tour. I cannot wait to bring my experience, energy and leadership to drive Premier Padel forward, working with stakeholders across padel, sport and business to build something very special for the men’s and women’s professional players – who are our most important constituent – and everyone connected to the fantastic sport of padel.”
