When you think of pickleball, you're probably thinking of this affluent
seniors playing the game on tennis courts or a country clubs.
But that sentiment is changing.
For one, the sport has a low barrier of entry.
All you need is a paddle, a plastic ball and a net.
It's social, it's fun, it's accessible, it's affordable.
It's got everything that the consumer wants or needs.
That's a big reason why pickleball has become the fastest growing sport in
America and is beloved by nearly 5 million Americans.
In recent years, thousands of players have been flocking to tournaments all
over the U.S., vying to make a name for themselves.
We introduced the highest prize money per event in all of pro
pickleball this year.
You know, more than $300,000 per event.
Some estimate that by 2030 there will be close to 40 million players worldwide.
And investors from everywhere are looking to seize on the opportunities.
But with anything growing as rapidly as pickleball has, there has been some
growing pains as pro leagues compete for supremacy hundreds of tournaments
each year, with some players finding loopholes in the rules, not enough
courts to meet demand, and a flood of TV deals, sponsors, equipment and
apparel brands looking to get in early on pickleball.
Pickleball is kind of the wild, wild West right now.
A lot of different tours kind of competing for for control of the sport.
So how exactly did pickleball evolve into the massive sport it is today and
how will the game, its players and administrators navigate the growth at a
time when everyone wants in on pickleball?
I train in the morning for like 2 hours.
I work with a trainer five days a week, and then I'll play a couple of hours.
So, I mean, it's probably 4 hours on the court a day plus in the gym.
Plus, you know, I study film and, you know, just
it's just on your mind all the time.
This is Ava Wilshire.
She was a D1 tennis player in college.
However, it wasn't until she became an empty nester that she started playing
pickleball.
This is like my second opportunity to be really good at something on my
terms. This is where I want to put my time.
This is where I want to put my money and this is the people I want to be
with.
Pickleball has been around since 1965, but its story really begins during the
pandemic. From 2016 to 2019, pickleball grew 7%.
The years of the pandemic, the sport exploded by 21% and nearly 15% growth
each year over the last five years.
Pickleball is average. Annual growth is an estimated 11.5%.
To put that into perspective, badminton and ping pong.
They both lost players while tennis grew by 4.2%.
Pickleball is also played by a wide spectrum of players from various age,
demographics and income levels.
Right here. Pump your ankle up and down five times.
17 year old Alex Tran got into pickleball during the pandemic
and is now a sponsored top player.
She's homeschooling so she could spend more time honing her skills.
I got into pickleball around two years ago.
I played my first tournament in July of 2020 with my dad and in a local
tournament. I ended up winning that tournament and I played a couple of
others throughout the year with my dad.
We ended up being undefeated for the entire year and I thought I was pretty
good at it. So ever since then I was hooked.
My typical day in my life, I'll wake up, I'll drive my brother to school,
I'll go to a café, study for two, 3 hours, get some work done, go out, play
some pickleball, drill a little bit, a couple of hours.
I'll come home, have a lunch break, then go back out, play some more
pickleball. So I'm playing every day, at least 3 hours a day.
Cowlitz, who's played since 2014, has turned pickleball into a full time job.
He runs his tournament here in Atlantic City, but Kyle is also a co-founder of
the brand PB1965.
In 2020.,
Covid hit. Everything stopped.
So there went my income.
There were no tournaments, there are no clinics, no teaching, nothing.
And I stopped playing.
I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my life.
And then once tournaments started coming back, year and half later, the
sport had changed. There were so many good players it was really hard to keep
winning prize money, so I figured I'd start to diversify.
I didn't really want to do anything other than pickleball, myself included.
Most of the pros actually have to make a lot of money on the side running
camps, clinics, teaching.
And that's why I started my apparel brand to help make a little money on the
side as more of a side income.
Pickleball has generated a lot of buzz as of late, and brands tailored around
the sport saw business boom in 2020.
Pickleball Central, the largest pickleball retailer in the US, saw sales
jump between 30 to 40% from 2020 to 2021.
Legacy brands like Nike and Adidas have jumped on the pickleball craze too.
Nike launched its own official buyer's guide, pointing customers to products
best suited to play the game.
Adidas launched their own paddles in 2021, with prices ranging from $60 to
$130.
Back when I started, there was only one paddle manufacturer and now there's
hundreds. So you're seeing tons of people jump in the sport trying to take
little slices of the pie.
By the end of 2021.
The global market size for pickleball paddles was estimated to be over $150
million. It's now forecast to grow to over $250 million by 2028.
A million people picked up a paddle during the pandemic and the
research says there's 5 million players today.
But those that look at bull sales and Google searches think it's much closer
to 8 million.
If you look at the numbers growing 30% every year, there
will be 40 million pickleball players by 2030.
And that will make pickleball not just the the fastest growing
sport, but probably the the sport with the greatest participation numbers by
double.
Pro league centered around pickleball have also formed, all of which are
competing to become the Premier League for pickleball.
There's the App League, the PPA and the MLP.
The app and the PPA are sort of the regular tours week in and week out and
they have singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
They each have 20 or 25 events, so like 50 events for the year.
Major League pickleball is completely different.
It's like the Ryder Cup or the Davis Cup of pickleball.
This, this coed team format equal playing time for men and women,
equal prize money for men and women.
And Major League Pickleball offers the highest prize money per
event in all of pro pickleball.
The winning team takes home 100,000 $25,000
per player, which is a huge payday in professional pickleball.
Competition amongst these leagues are healthy for the overall growth of the
sport and the business of pickleball.
Leagues like the PPA signed some of pickleball top players to exclusive
contracts, essentially barring them from playing in other leagues like the
MLP.
Definitely seeing Major League Pickleball step up, get some big time
sponsors, big time companies coming in and putting serious money into it.
And so it's exciting.
We'll see where it ends up.
The value of a team has increased exponentially in just one year.
We're very lucky because we have all kinds of iconic owners like Gary
Vaynerchuk. Marc Lasry, the co owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, James
Blake, former top ten ATP men's tennis player.
And of course we recently added Drew Brees, LeBron James
to buy an expansion team.
Even though the MLP was launched in 2021, the league is already looking to
becoming the sport's crown jewel.
The leagues partnerships with investors are unique and has made it clear that
not everyone with a blank check can become an owner or investor.
We choose team owners as it relates to really looking for strategic
partners. Media experience and resources,
sponsorship, connections and experience.
Lebron's group is already leaning in and working with us on three different
projects. It's very important to us not just to have somebody who can write a
check, but who buys into our goal of growing the
sport from the top down with pro pickleball Major League Pickleball.
As of right now, the MLP is looking to expand their league from 12 teams to 16
and shallow over $2 million in prize money, and the cost of investments have
grown into the seven figure range as the league continues to add celebrity
investors like LeBron James and most recently Tom Brady.
We have had an avalanche of interest from prospective sponsors
and media rights.
Our media rights this year are with CBS Sports Network.
We're having conversations with all the major linear and streaming broadcasters
about 2023 and beyond.
Mlp generates revenue from merchandizing and licensing programs when that will be
launched back in 2021.
They only had five sponsors after expanding its ownership to include the
likes of LeBron James and Drew Brees.
The league was flooded with new sponsors and potential media rights
deals.
Celebrity ownership really helps because let's look at Drew Brees.
100 million people saw that news.
And just imagine if half of 1% of of those
viewers who saw that news picked up a paddle for the first time, that's
500,000 new players to pickleball.
As America establishes itself as the mecca of pickleball, there's also a push
to shore up growth internationally.
The hope is to bring the games to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Pickleball is also the fastest growing sport in Canada, according to
International Federation of Pickleball.
Pickleball is played in 70 countries.
75 is needed for the sport to be played at the Olympics.
However, the sport needs to overcome some of its growing pains.
Just take tournaments as an example.
They've exploded with the game's popularity as thousands of players
descend to events in hopes to win prize money or simply to compete.
Yet there's been a deluge of tournaments to keep up with demand and
player safety is becoming a growing concern for players and event organizers
like Kyle Yates.
The sport's evolved so much, but the tournaments are still relatively the
same as they were 5 to 10 years ago.
And the sport is changing.
It's getting very physical, very grueling.
And so there's a lot of new players coming in that are training and playing
a lot of tournaments. And physically it might be too much to them.
The sport's evolved quite a bit and and right now some players are playing too
many matches in a day.
They're not getting enough break in between.
They're not being supplied with enough water.
Even so, there's a lot of little growing pains that I'm trying to fix and
make sure that the next generation of players are taking care of.
Another crucial pain point.
There is just not enough courts to keep up with demand.
The lack of courts means some pickleball players are taking over
existing tennis courts, which has caused friction between the tennis and
pickleball communities.
There's been vandalism, noise complaints and confrontations on the
courts. As of 2021, there were over 38,000 pickleball courts in the US,
all of which struggled to meet the demand of almost 5 million players.
By 2030, there would be nearly 40 million players and there would need to
be an estimated 280,000 courts to meet that massive demand.
A few cities around the country have started making that investment.
Since its humble beginnings as a simple pickup game for families to enjoy.
Two major investment opportunities with an estimated 40 million players by 2030.
Pickleball is Goldrush doesn't look to be ending any time soon.
In fact, it's just getting started.