How scoring works

Whoever runs your league picks one of these when they set a night up. They all end with a table; they disagree about what a heavy defeat should cost you. If you only read one line: in Americano you keep what you won, and in everything else you play for the result.

Through a season

One of these runs for the whole league, and every night adds to the same table.

League points — the football one

Win, draw or lose a fixed number of games.

You play a set number of games — six, say — and whoever wins more takes the points. Your host chooses what a win is worth and whether a draw scores anything; the usual is three and one. Anyone level on points is split on game difference: games you won less games you lost, across the season.A 4–2 win is three points and +2 on difference. A 3–3 is a point each and nothing on difference. Lose 1–5 and you get nothing, and −4 follows you down the table.

Proper sets — actual padel

First to six games, two clear, tie-break at 6–6.

The real thing, scored the way a match on television is: 6–0 up to 6–4, or 7–5 if it goes close. At six games all it is a tie-break, first to seven points and win by two. There are no draws, so somebody always takes the points.

Americano — what most clubs run socially

Every point is shared out, and you keep the ones you won.

The match runs to a shared total rather than a number of games. Every rally is worth a point to whoever wins it — no 15/30/40, no deuce — and the match stops the moment the two scores add up to the total. Lose 10–14 and you still bank 10, which is the whole point of it: nobody finishes a night on nothing and nobody is out of it by the third round. Level is a draw. Twelve apiece at twenty-four is a result and the match is over.The target is set by your host. The serve divides four ways, so 16 is 4 serves each, 21 is 5 serves each with 1 over, 24 is 6 serves each and 32 is 8 serves each.

One night only

A Crown night is a one-night league: a separate competition, everyone plays the same number of games, and somebody is crowned at the end of it. Its points never touch the season table — you can take the crown and stay bottom of the league.

Crown points — rewards winning

3 for a comfortable win, 2 for a narrow one, 1 each for a draw.

Three points if you win by three games or more, two if it was closer than that, one each for a draw and nothing for a loss. The format that most rewards turning up and winning, and the least forgiving of one bad round.

Americano — rewards staying in it

You bank the points you won, every round.

Exactly as above, counted over the night instead of the season. You play for yourself rather than for your pair, partners change every round, and whoever has banked most at the end takes the crown.

Plus/minus — rewards hammering people

Games won less games lost, as a running total.

The opposite of Americano. A hiding costs you rather than merely scoring you less, so a card can go negative and a 6–0 is worth six times what a 3–2 is. Use it when you want the night decided by margins.

However it’s scored

Who you play with: Partners can be drawn at random each round, balanced on rating so the strongest plays with the weakest, or fixed for the whole night. A full-rotation cup goes further: everybody partners everybody exactly once, and the number of rounds follows from the number of players.
Level on points: For the crown itself, level on points means a play-off: one match, the players who are level on opposite sides of the net, to decide first and second. Further down the table, game difference splits anyone tied, then games won. If people have played a different number of matches (latecomers on a round-by-round night), a Crown night ranks on points per match instead — otherwise the crown goes to whoever sat out least.
A wrong score: Results stay changeable for 24 hours after the night. Whoever runs the league can put a score right; anyone who played can challenge one, which takes it out of the table until the host has looked. After that the record is the record.
Your rating: Separate from all of it. Every league starts you at 1200 and moves it on results alone — your personal rating carries across competitions, your league rating starts fresh in each one.

Not here yet: Mexicano

Mexicano scores like an Americano but redraws each round off the standings — first plays fourth, second plays third — so the pairings chase the table and the last round is usually the decider. MatchNight doesn't run it. If your group wants it, say so and it goes on the list.

These are scoring formats, not the laws of the game. For how padel itself is played — the court, the ball, the walls, lets and faults — see the rules of padel.