What is americano padel? Rules, scoring and how to host one

Americano is one of the most social formats in padel. You sign up on your own, play doubles with a new partner every round, and collect points for yourself. You don't need a regular partner, and you don't need to be the best player on court to have a good time. That is why americano is a popular format for club nights, groups of friends and company events.

This guide explains the rules, how the points are counted, how many courts and rounds you need, and how to host an americano yourself.

In short

• Everyone plays doubles, but competes individually.
• You change partner and opponents every round.
• Each match is played to a fixed number of points, for example 24, and every rally is one point.
• You get as many points as your team won in the match, even if you lost.
• Whoever has the most points in total after the last round wins.

How americano works

Scoring: every ball counts

In regular padel you count like in tennis: 15, 30, 40 and game, and matches are played in sets. Americano drops all that. Every rally is worth one point, and the match is over when the two teams' points add up to the agreed total.

If you play to 24, a match might end 15–9. Both players on the winning team then get 15 points each, and both players on the other team get 9 points each. The points in a match always add up to the same number, so it is easy to check that a result has been entered correctly.

That means it pays to fight for every ball. An 11–13 loss is worth almost as much as a win.

Rotation: a new partner every round

After each round you get a new partner and new opponents. In a full americano schedule, everyone plays with everyone exactly once. With 8 players that means 7 rounds: you have seven possible partners, and you play with each of them once.

The winner: most points in total

After the last round the points are added up. Your placing is decided by your total, not by how many matches you won.

Serving and standard padel rules

The game itself follows the normal rules of padel. The serve is underarm, hit after the ball has bounced, at or below waist height, and diagonally into the opponents' service box. You get two attempts. The official rules are set by the International Padel Federation (FIP), and the Norwegian Tennis and Padel Federation (Norges Tennis- og Padelforbund) follows them in national tournaments.

What is different in americano is who serves when. Since there are no games, the serve changes after a fixed number of points, so that all four players serve roughly the same amount. Agree on the rotation before the first match (see the table below).

How many players, courts and rounds?

Each court takes four players. A number of players that divides by four gives you full courts every round. If you have one extra (5, 9, 13), one player sits out each round, and you need one extra round for everyone to have played with everyone.

*Rough estimate: about 9–10 minutes of play per match to 24 points, plus 2–3 minutes to enter the result and change courts.

With a lot of players, a full rotation gets long. That is why many hosts book around two hours and play as many rounds as they can fit in. That is completely normal. Just make it clear in advance that the totals after the last completed round are what count.

What about the player sitting out?

Whoever rests for a round shouldn't lose out because of it. A common solution is to give rest points of around half the match total. In Bandi this happens automatically: the player sitting out gets half the match points plus one, rounded down. That is 11 points in a match to 21 and 13 points in a match to 24.

How many points per match?

There is no right answer. Choose based on your court time and the number of rounds. Fewer points means shorter matches and more partners in the same amount of time, while more points means longer matches where any single ball matters less.

The serve rotation follows the same logic throughout: all four players serve the same number of times during the match. The times for 24 and 32 points come from hosting guides (see the sources at the bottom). For 16 and 21 points we haven't found reliable figures, so there we only say that the matches are shorter.

In Bandi you can pick 16, 21, 24 or 32 points with one tap, or type in your own number.

What if two players are level on points?

Americano has no official tiebreak rule, so agree on one before you start. Common options are:

1. Head-to-head: who did best in the match(es) where the two of them met?
2. Points difference: points won minus points lost over the whole session.
3. Number of wins: who won the most matches?
4. A short playoff: for example, first to 3 of 5 points.

Americano variations

• Mexicano: New pairs are made after each round based on the standings, so players who are close on the leaderboard face each other. That gives more even matches as the session goes on.
• Team americano: You play in fixed pairs all session, but the opponents rotate.
• Mixed americano: Every team is one man and one woman in every round.

How to host an americano, step by step

1. Count your players and book courts. Divide the number of players by four to find the number of courts. Use the table above to estimate how much time you need.
2. Choose points per match. 21 or 24 is a safe choice for a two-hour session on two courts.
3. Agree on the rules before the first serve. Serve rotation, changing ends, rest points, the tiebreak rule, and what happens if time runs out in the middle of a round.
4. Make the schedule. You can do it by hand, but it is easy to make mistakes so that someone plays with the same partner twice. An app saves you that work.
5. Enter the results after every match. Check that the total matches the points target. That way you spot typos straight away.
6. Crown the winner, and have one more round. Americano is at least as much about the social side as it is about the leaderboard.

Host it in Bandi

Bandi is OPB's free americano app, made for exactly this kind of evening. You add the players and the number of courts and pick points per match. Bandi builds a fair schedule, hands out rest points and keeps the leaderboard up to date while you play. You can choose between individual americano and fixed teams, and when you enter a result, the app fills in the other team's points, so the total always adds up.

Would you rather join something that is already organised? See upcoming OPB events.