The 1908 Olympics is the only time that jeu de paume has been on the Olympic program. The sport is also known as court tennis, royal tennis, or real tennis, and is actually the original form of tennis. It is played indoors on a dédan, with a complicated scoring system. All of the 1908 entries were from the United States or Great Britain, although the sport was also popular in France in that era, but no Frenchman competed. The competition was held at the [Queen's Club] in West Kensington, London. It was a sporting club formed in 1886 which originally offered court tennis (jeu de paume), Eton Fives, rackets, lawn tennis, football, rugby, and athletics. The Queen’s Club hosted the jeu de paume, covered-court tennis (indoors), and rackets competition during the 1908 Olympics.

Jeu de paume was an event contested at the 1908 Summer Olympics. This was the only Summer Olympic Games to contain this sport as a medal event. An outdoor version called longue paume was a demonstration sport at the 1900 Summer Olympics. Real tennis, as jeu de paume is called in the United Kingdom, was an exhibition event at the 1924 Summer Olympics. In the Official Report of the 1908 Olympic Games, the sport is referred to as "Tennis (jeu de paume)" while tennis is named "lawn tennis."

The competition venue was the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London.