Pickleball’s Billion-Dollar Potential: Inside The Investors, Leagues, And Media Deals Powering Its Growth
From neighborhood courts to network television, pickleball’s growth has stunned the sports world. But can it evolve into a league that lasts?
Pickleball is one of the world’s fastest-growing sports and also one of its most controversial. No matter where you live, there has likely been a pickleball dispute nearby. Tennis fans are upset that their courts are getting converted, while homeowners complain about the repetitive “pop-pop-pop” sound during gameplay.
However, these noise complaints and lawsuits have had virtually no effect on the sport’s growth. According to a study by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), pickleball now boasts 19.8 million participants in the United States. That means over 5% of the U.S. population now plays pickleball, with SFIA ranking pickleball as America’s fastest-growing sport for the fourth consecutive year in 2025.
And beneath the headline numbers is an even more impressive story. Professional pickleball has evolved from a fast-growing recreational activity into a legitimate business with blue-chip sponsors and tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue.
To an outsider, professional pickleball might be confusing. Throughout 2023, two of the sport’s most popular professional leagues — Major League Pickleball (MLP) and the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) — went through a chaotic period known as the “tour wars.” The top two leagues almost came to blows, paying out more than 100% of revenues in player contracts due to an unsustainable bidding war for talent.
The only way to fix this problem was to join forces, so that’s exactly what they did. In 2024, MLP and PPA officially completed their merger, raising $75 million from a group of investors to form a single unified pickleball entity. These two leagues still exist separately today, but a parent company, the United Pickleball Association (UPA), was created to facilitate cross-promotional sponsorships and streamline operations.
In simple terms, the PPA Tour is pickleball’s individual competition, while MLP houses the co-ed team-based competition. Both of these leagues now report into the UPA, a holding company formed in 2024 to oversee the league’s business operations.
The pickleball story is so interesting because many people don’t realize how big the professional game has become. For example, PPA and MLP generated $46.6 million in top-line revenue in 2024, $60 million this year (+30% YoY), and are now expecting to generate approximately $74 million in revenue next year. That puts the UPA in the same ballpark as the Premier Lacrosse League and the WNBA (pre-Caitlin Clark).
The UPA generates this revenue through a few primary sources. Roughly half of the company’s revenue comes through sponsorships, including a three-year, multi-million-dollar agreement with DoorDash. The UPA also sells a lot of tickets, with 110,000 tournament attendees contributing to more than $7 million in ticket sales this year.
In fact, the biggest professional pickleball tournament of the year — the Pickleball World Championships — is happening right now in Texas. This single event will generate $4 million in revenue, with 3,500 players competing and 60,000 attendees.
UPA Financial Overview 2025
Annual Revenue: $60 million (+30% YoY)
Sponsorship Revenue: $30 million (+25% YoY)
Tickets Sold To Date: 110,000 (across MLP & PPA)
Total Annual Player Compensation: $33 million
As a result of this growth, investors have started to take notice. In addition to the $75 million raised during the 2024 merger, celebrities such as LeBron James, Tom Brady, Kevin Durant, Drake, Michael B. Jordan, Patrick Mahomes, and Gary Vaynerchuk have taken ownership positions in MLP franchises. These teams were selling for just $100,000 in 2021, but several have recently changed hands at $13 million to $16 million.
Buying an MLP franchise is still considered a long-term bet. This year, the average MLP team is expected to generate less than half a million dollars in revenue, while incurring expenses in excess of $800,000. That’s why MLP has started letting its teams host events in their home markets, with MLP and its teams sharing in the economics.
But these institutional and celebrity investors aren’t committing capital based on the current state of professional pickleball; they are betting that the UPA can convert its newfound fan base into a profitable sports league with durable enterprise value.
More importantly, growth trends suggest that these investors may be correct. The UPA has a significant amount of inventory, with 150 event days in 2025 between the PPA and MLP, and they have also capitalized on the sport’s growth by developing a unique model that allows professionals and amateurs to compete alongside each other.
For less than $200, amateur players can compete in a separate bracket. This may not sound like a substantial amount, but 27,000 players competed in the UPA’s amateur tournaments last year, generating an estimated $5 million in additional revenue.
These amateur events have also become a tool to transfer casual players into long-term fans and viewers. The PPA and MLP have doubled their linear distribution reach over the last twelve months, with more than 250 hours of event coverage across national broadcasts, cable, local, and RSN partnerships this year. Furthermore, the DoorDash MLP Finals in New York City’s Central Park averaged 499,000 viewers on CBS. And for the events that aren’t available on cable, there is always streaming.
The UPA teamed up with the Tennis Channel in 2023 to co-launch Pickleball TV, a 24-hour digital network dedicated to pickleball. Customers pay $6 per month or $60 per year, with about 800 million minutes viewed on the Pickleball TV platform this year.
Ultimately, pickleball’s future looks bright. What started as a backyard game is now shaping into a full-fledged professional sport with real commercial traction.
The sport’s participation rate continues to surge at the grassroots level, drawing in everyone from retirees to professional athletes. This steady base of casual players provides the foundation for long-term growth. But unlike other fitness trends that faded once the novelty wore off, pickleball is laying the groundwork to successfully bridge the gap between community participation and professional entertainment.
This is where the UPA comes in. By merging MLP and PPA under one umbrella, the organization has created a structure capable of transforming recreational enthusiasm into a commercially sustainable sports league. With expanding sponsorship revenue, strong attendance figures, and growing media exposure (through both traditional broadcasts and Pickleball TV), the UPA has established itself as a legitimate business.
Don’t get me wrong, professional pickleball still has a long way to go. Media rights deals need to become more valuable, and franchise economics are in their early stages. But the sport’s fundamentals are now in place: a fast-growing audience, an active player base, a steady stream of investment, and a unified business structure. If the UPA can continue to build on that momentum, its earliest investors will be thrilled.
In other words, pickleball’s rise isn’t just about the game—it’s about the business built around it. The sport’s sound might annoy a few neighbors, but that “pop-pop-pop” is quickly becoming the soundtrack of a rapidly maturing industry.
Pickleball’s growth story is no longer about novelty; it’s about execution. The game has evolved from neighborhood courts to network TV, and with the UPA guiding the professional side, it’s starting to look less like a trend and more like a true sports property.
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