Most padel tournaments still run their group draws by hand in a spreadsheet. A volunteer spends half an evening splitting 16 pairs across 4 groups, weighing skill level, club, experience and logistics. A week before the tournament something changes, and the whole schedule has to be redone.
In 2026 that's unnecessary. Software solves it in seconds. Below is how it works, what the criteria are, and what to watch out for.
Why manual group seeding grinds to a halt
Three reasons:
- Too many variables: skill level, club, available time, partner pairings, mixed or single-gender. A person can juggle 3-4 variables at once, not 6.
- Irreversible decisions: if you realise halfway through that group 3 doesn't work, you often have to start over.
- Changes right up to the wire: players withdraw, move around, ask to switch partners. Every change has to keep the seeding correct.
What good automatic group seeding does
A good algorithm takes into account:
- Skill balance within a group: all pairs in a group inside a reasonable rating range.
- Skill gap between groups: group A is the strongest, group D the weakest (or deliberately mixed, depending on what you want).
- Club spread: avoiding a situation where everyone from the same club ends up in the same group (especially relevant for regional tournaments).
- Number of courts and playing schedule: the group seeding also has to factor in how often each court is in use and how long the whole tournament runs.
