The boardroom has a dress code. The padel court doesn’t. Why the best business relationships are increasingly built in trainers and which sports actually work.

The Numbers At A Glance

• 92% of executives say golf is a good way to make new business contacts
• 43% say some of their biggest deals were done on the golf course
• 19.4 million padel players worldwide and nearly 14 new clubs opening every day
• 59% rise in running club participation in a single year
• 117 boats from 31 nations sailed Malta’s Rolex Middle Sea Race in 2025

Why Sport Beats A Business Card

Ask anyone who has closed a big deal where it really started and the answer is rarely a conference room. It’s a dinner, a round of golf, a long ride or a late game of padel.

There’s a reason for that. Plato is often credited with saying you can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. Sport shows you how someone handles pressure, losing, rules and a partner’s mistakes. It also gives you hours of easy, unforced time together, with no agenda on the table.

The best networking sports share four things: time to talk, a reason to meet again, a social ritual afterwards and a crowd worth meeting. Here are the seven that tick the most boxes.

The Seven At A Glance

Sport	Time together	Cost to start	Best for
Golf	4–5 hours	High	Senior clients, long-term relationships
Padel	60–90 minutes	Low to medium	Peers, founders, after-work deals
Cycling	2–4 hours	Medium to high	Ambitious executives, finance and property
Tennis	60–90 minutes	Medium	One-to-one rapport, hospitality
Sailing	A day to a week	Very high	Wealthy owners, deep team bonds
Running	45–90 minutes	Very low	Young professionals, start-ups
Pickleball	15–20 minutes a game	Very low	Mixed groups, lunchtime meet-ups

1. Golf: The Original Boardroom

Golf is still the gold standard and the data backs it. In a Starwood survey of 401 executives, 97% said golfing with a business associate is a good way to build a close relationship and 43% said some of their biggest deals had been done on the course.

Why it works: a round takes around four hours and only a few minutes of that is actually hitting the ball. The rest is walking and talking. The course also reveals character. Do they count every shot? Do they lose their temper?

The interesting bit: most deals aren’t made mid-round. More than half of executives in that survey said the 19th hole, the bar afterwards, is the right moment to talk business and 81% said deals usually close a few days later. Etiquette says save business chat for the middle of the round, never the first tee.

The catch: it’s slow, expensive and hard to learn. Malta has just one 18-hole course, the Royal Malta Golf Club in Marsa, so tee times are precious.

2. Padel: The New Golf

If golf is the old boardroom, padel is the open-plan office. The Playtomic and PwC Global Padel Report 2026 counts 19.4 million players and more than 58,000 courts worldwide, with nearly 5,000 new clubs opened in 2025 alone.

Why it works: it’s always played in doubles, on a small enclosed court, so four people stand a few metres apart for an hour. It’s easy to learn, so a beginner can still enjoy a game with an expert. And there’s almost always a bar beside the court. Former US Padel Association president Marcos Del Pilar called it a networking superconductor for like-minded, like-moneyed people.

The Malta angle: padel arrived here in 2020, when Padel Malta opened its first courts in Pembroke. Clubs have since spread from Valletta to Mosta and companies regularly book courts for team-building and in-house tournaments. When it launched, about 80% of players were expats. Now Maltese players make up a growing share.

3. Cycling: Golf In Lycra

The Economist was calling road cycling the new golf more than a decade ago and it has stuck, particularly in finance, tech and property.

Why it works: riding side by side at a steady pace is one of the easiest ways to hold a long conversation. A group ride is also competitive without being confrontational and finishing a hard climb together builds a bond quickly. Apps like Strava turn every ride into a social feed where clients and contacts can follow each other.

The interesting bit: the property industry runs entire multi-day charity rides that double as networking events, including women-only routes such as a 500km ride from Porto to Lisbon.

The catch: good bikes are expensive and talking gets harder on the hills.

4. Tennis: The One-To-One

Tennis is the sharper, more personal option. Singles is a straight test of character; doubles is a quick way to build rapport with a client or partner.

Why it works: an hour is long enough to connect but short enough to fit into a working day. Tennis clubs also come with a ready-made community and calendar of social events. And then there’s the hospitality: a seat at Wimbledon or Roland-Garros remains one of the most coveted corporate invitations in sport.

The Malta angle: historic clubs such as the Marsa Sports Club, which added padel courts alongside its tennis in 2022, are ready-made networking hubs.

5. Sailing: The Ultimate Inner Circle

Nothing bonds people like being stuck on a boat together. Sailing is the most exclusive sport on this list and the most intense.

Why it works: a crew has to trust each other. Days at sea strip away titles and the people you sail with become people you’d do business with for life. Regattas also come with an exclusive social scene.

The Malta angle: Malta hosts one of the world’s great offshore races. The Rolex Middle Sea Race, run by the Royal Malta Yacht Club since 1968, is a 606-nautical-mile loop around Sicily that starts and finishes in Grand Harbour. The 2025 edition drew 117 boats from 31 nations. For a week every October, Valletta fills with owners, sponsors and crews from around the world.

The catch: you need a boat, or an invitation to someone else’s.

6. Running: The New Networking Event

Run clubs have become one of the most popular ways to meet people, for friendship, dating and business. Strava reported a 59% rise in running club participation in 2024, and 58% of people in its survey said they had made new friends through fitness groups.

Why it works: it costs almost nothing and almost anyone can join. Everyone shares the same goal, so hierarchy disappears. In Boston, venture capitalists have met weekly for years to swap biotech insights at a nine-minute-mile pace.

The interesting bit: many run clubs end at a coffee shop or brewery. The real networking happens after the run.

The catch: it’s hard to talk at speed. Pick an easy pace.

7. Pickleball: The Quick Fix

Pickleball has been America’s fastest-growing sport for five straight years and it’s arriving in Europe. Its players are getting younger, with an average age of 34.8, down from 41 five years ago.

Why it works: a game takes 15 to 20 minutes, so you can play, chat and be back at your desk within a lunch break. It’s even easier to learn than padel. Only four people play at a time, so everyone else chats on the sidelines. In Brooklyn, tech founders run regular pickleball meet-ups instead of drinks.

The catch: it’s still small in Malta, which could also make it a smart first-mover play for a business community.

How to network through sport without being that person

1. Play first, pitch later. The golf data says it all: business talk belongs at the bar afterwards and deals close days later. Nobody wants a sales pitch between serves.
2. Be good company, not a good player. People remember whether you were fun, fair and gracious, not your handicap. Letting a client win is a cliché. Being a bad loser is a deal-breaker.
3. Make it a habit. One golf day is an event. A weekly padel slot or a Saturday ride is a relationship. Repetition is what turns a contact into a friend.
4. Mix the guest list. Pair a client with a peer they’d like to meet. Being the person who makes useful introductions is worth more than any shot you hit.
5. Follow up. Connect on LinkedIn that evening, mention the game and suggest the next one.