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Field Notes — Vol. 02 Updated weekly

Field notes.

Behind the build of Jawla, the Saudi sports scene from the inside, and the operators rewiring how the Kingdom plays. Updated every week from the Riyadh office.

VOL 02 · ISSUE 14 · 28 APR 2026
Featured
Saudi sports scene · 6 min read

Why padel became the fastest-growing sport in Saudi Arabia — and what comes next.

Three years ago there were 12 padel courts in the Kingdom. Today there are over 600. We mapped the inflection points, talked to the operators who saw it first, and looked at where the next 600 are going to land.

RH
Rehan Hyder
Founder · Jawla
Read the piece
Product
The 58-second match.
14 Apr 20264 min read

Inside the open match algorithm: how we fill a court in 58 seconds.

A look under the hood at how Jawla's matchmaking turns one open seat into a full court, fast — and what we learned tuning it for Saudi prayer times.

A
Ahmed F.
For venues
Four pricing levers.
02 Apr 20268 min read

Dynamic pricing playbook: the four levers every Saudi court operator should pull.

Hour-of-day, day-of-week, peak vs. off-peak, and the prayer-buffer hour. We break down how the top quartile of operators on Jawla price.

N
Noura K.
Saudi sports scene
Vision 2030, on-court.
21 Mar 202610 min read

How Vision 2030 rewired Saudi recreation — and why it shows up first on the courts.

The Quality of Life Program is the biggest leisure-infrastructure bet of the decade. We map where the money has gone, and where it's heading next.

RH
Rehan H.
Player story
From 0 to 4.2.
17 Mar 20265 min read

From level 1.5 to 4.2 in eight months: a Riyadh padel story.

Khalid started padel after watching a friend post a match on Jawla. Less than a year later, he's running his own crew of 18 and competing in city tournaments.

SK
Sara K.
For venues
From 60% to 91%.
11 Mar 20267 min read

Case study: how Padel Plaza Olaya hit 91% utilization in one quarter.

A frank breakdown of what changed: open-match seeding, two pricing tweaks, one staffing decision, and a referral loop with their three loudest regulars.

N
Noura K.
Product
Skill ratings, redone.
04 Mar 20266 min read

Why we threw out self-rated skill levels — and what we replaced them with.

Self-rated skill is broken. Players overestimate. Beginners get crushed. We rebuilt the rating around the people you actually played.

A
Ahmed F.
Saudi sports scene
Cricket finds its ground.
25 Feb 20269 min read

The cricket community Saudi Arabia has been quietly building.

There are over 200 organized cricket teams in the Kingdom. We spent a Friday with the captains of three of them and asked them what they actually need from a platform.

RS
Rohit S.
Behind the build
From Midan to Jawla.
18 Feb 20265 min read

Why we renamed the company. (And what we learned about names along the way.)

Six months in, we changed the name. Here's the unedited reason — and the story of how a single Arabic word gave us a tagline, a brand and a missing piece.

RH
Rehan H.