Lucra and TrackIT Labs launch free-to-play fan competition for padel

Lucra and TrackIT Labs launched a free-to-play fan competition across professional padel on Aug. 4, a move aimed at turning passive viewers into repeat digital participants. The deal is as much about business infrastructure as it is about fan interaction: padel’s growth now depends on whether rights holders can convert people who play the sport into people who keep watching it.

TrackIT Labs brings the data layer. The company says it holds official data rights with professional padel tours and licenses betting-grade feeds to sportsbook operators, while describing itself as the official data infrastructure for professional padel. Its site says it offers 18 in-play markets and sub-second insights, giving the sport the kind of live feed architecture that can support interactive products built around match-by-match engagement. TrackIT’s LinkedIn profile places the company in Madrid and lists 2-10 employees.

Lucra supplies the fan-facing product. Its company profile says it provides white-label social competition software that helps brands drive revisitation, build customer loyalty and unlock new revenue, while handling payments, compliance and risk management. In padel, that model can matter beyond the biggest finals because free-to-play prediction games can keep fans tied to early-round matches, draw updates and live scoring even when they are not in the arena.

The timing fits a sport that is still building its commercial spine. Premier Padel has already announced a long-term partnership with Fanatics covering e-commerce, in-venue retail and licensed merchandise. The Pro Padel League says it is North America’s premier professional padel circuit and plans to unite 10 franchise teams in 2026. USA Padel also said in June that it planned National Padel Month in October, with clinics, the US Open Padel Championships and the inaugural USA Padel Awards.

Lucra has already been pushing into padel from another angle. On Feb. 26, the company announced a separate partnership with Epic Padel and Zero.40 to bring real-money competitions to the sport. The TrackIT Labs deal extends that push into a free-to-play format that can help tours and sponsors collect first-party fan data, build year-round engagement and make professional padel feel less like a one-off event business and more like a modern digital media property.