How I Became Obsessed With Padel: David Eisen
We sit down with the new owner of the LA Beat...
Editor’s note: The following (lightly edited) feature article is the second installment of a new ”How I Became Obsessed With Padel” series we’re rolling out from regular guest contributor, Scott Matulis, a former PR Director for the Worldwide Senior Tennis Tour who discovered padel in Vegas two years ago and can now hit balls off of the glass occasionally. He is the author of the LinkedIn and Substack serial novel The Applicant.
You could say David Eisen and I are pretty much the same guy (other than I’ve have both my knees replaced and he’s only had one). We’re the same age. We discovered padel around the same time two years ago. We’re both tennis players.
I live with my Mom and write articles about padel. He built a padel court in his backyard and bought a Pro Padel League (PPL) franchise, the LA Beat, for $10 million.
So, yeah, we’re pretty much the same guy — at least in our passion for padel, anyway.
Here’s how David became obsessed…
How did you find out about padel and how did you get started playing it?
So, honestly, I didn’t know much about the sport at all until about two years ago.
I live in a community called Addison Reserve in Delray Beach, Florida, which was one of the first premier communities in the country to build padel courts.
I was introduced to the sport by the pro there, who is now the coach of my team, the LA Beat.
I had played tennis for almost my whole life. I started playing pickleball, too, but as soon as I started playing padel, I became so obsessed and addicted to the sport that I stopped playing tennis and pickleball entirely. I devoted all of my time to playing padel.
That was about two years ago. Having the background of playing racquet sports my whole life, I picked it up pretty quickly. I started taking a lot of lessons with the pro to learn the game, the angles, the glass, and all that, and quickly became pretty good at it.
And it also started to really take hold in Addison itself, a bunch of my friends there started playing, and now we have a group of 15 plus people there that we play with during the season.
It’s funny, I started playing about the same time in Las Vegas. What do you think it is about padel that causes people to be so obsessed with it?
It’s the energy of the game. It’s the pace of the game. It’s being in what I call almost a cage-like environment. And it’s the camaraderie between you and your partner, and even your opponents.
I mean in tennis, when I played, honestly, my mindset was to dominate my opponent. I didn’t even talk to my opponent when we switched sides, I wouldn’t even look at them.
In padel, we bump rackets, we slam hands when we switch sides. It’s just a much more enjoyable game, quicker pace, like I said, higher energy. A lot more interaction with your partner and your opponents. And it’s much more engaging.
I mean, when you’re playing, the pace of the game keeps you much more engaged than any other racket sport I’e ever played. I think those are the factors that really contribute to people wanting to play the game, to continue to play the game and honestly, to a certain extent, becoming obsessed with the game.
So when I was talking to Nicole (Eisen) she said you built a court in your backyard. Tell me about that.
Yeah, so that’s a little bit of a funny story.
Here in Long Island, where I come for the summer months outside of Florida, I had originally put in a permit to build a pickleball court because I already have a tennis court.
So, I put in a permit to build a pickleball court, and this was a few months before I was introduced to padel. As soon as I started playing padel, I called the builder and I said I want you to change the permit from pickleball to padel. And honestly, I was one of the first private homes here in the Hamptons to build a court.
Ever since I built that court, good things have started to happen. That’s how I got introduced to the PPL and wound up purchasing the LA franchise. I’ve met an unbelievably interesting group of people that I play with. My older son got introduced to his current partner in private equity via the padel court playing with people here in the Hamptons during the summer.
You’re the third person I’ve spoken with this week who got obsessed with padel and promptly built a court in his backyard. What are the ins and outs of that?
Honestly, I engaged my builder to handle all of that. I had gotten some information about building a court and what it entails. I gave that information to my builder and he sourced out a company that builds the courts, and it turns out that company is one of the larger installers and builders of courts here in the Hamptons, and I think around the country.
There wasn’t much that I actually had to do other than monitor the status of the build because I wanted it completed before I came here for the season last summer. I’m only here for about three and a half months. So, the court got finished in early June of 2025, which is exactly when I wanted it to be completed.
The manufacturer, Padel Lux, was the company that sourced it and installed it, and they did a great job. I mean, they’re building a whole bunch of courts here in the Hamptons in private homes.
I understand the permitting process to get a padel court built is fairly arduous. Was it difficult for you?
It’s very difficult to get the permit in the Hamptons.
I believe it took probably eight months for me to get my permit, here in Southampton. There’s very specific rules and regulations about clearing and other types of landscaping in the various towns in the Hamptons. So it’s not that easy here. It may be easier elsewhere. I’m not really sure.
So you built your court and now you own a professional padel team. Can you take me through how all that occurred?
Again, it all started with building the court here. We got introduced to some of the executives at the PPL. We had them play at the house here with my sons.
When I sold my business in 2023, which was a family business for 64 years, I was thinking to myself, what could be my next thing where I could continue that family type of atmosphere, that family business feel. And when I started speaking to people at the league they mentioned to me that a franchise might be becoming available.
They saw my passion for the sport, obviously, my investment in the sport by building a court here at the house, my kids’ interest in the sport, and their background in private equity and running and operating a business.
So although there was pretty high demand for the LA franchise, which, in my opinion, is probably one of the best franchises in the league, they offered it to us to bid on, and we came back with a very attractive bid to the league.
It was not only purchasing the franchise, but also investing in the league itself. Because again, you know, I had high conviction for the tremendous upside for potential for this sport down the road. And I think this was a great avenue to be a part of the boom in padel.
I mean, honestly, I was playing it so much. I still play, probably if I can, two to four hours a day as long as my body holds up. That’s my limiting factor now. And I follow the sportintensely here in the United States and around the world.
I see the interest really bubbling up here in the U.S. You see all these clubs that are being built. Any of my peers and my kids, and friends that play the game, all they want to do now is play now.
Anyone who plays the game and becomes interested in the padel experience, they’re hooked on it. They’re really hooked on it. I don’t think there’s any other sport that’s more popular now in South Florida than padel, or on the Hamptons or Long Island.
You can watch David’s pro padel team, the Los Angeles Beat, kick off the Pro Padel League’s 2026 season at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City from July 9 - 12.
The Beat are scheduled to play Friday, July 10th at 6 PM (Group Stage Session #3) and Saturday, July 11th at 9 PM (Group Stage Session #5) with Sunday match schedules to be determined. Tickets can be purchased here.
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