Pickleball is a growing paddle sport that has now gained enormous popularity in North America and Southeast Asia. The paddle sport also has national and international governing bodies but has three different tours to govern it. The Professional Pickleball Association (PPA), the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) and Major League Pickleball (MLP) are front-runners in hosting various global events of the sport. Players are also ranked based on their performances in these tournaments.
2022 saw a steep increase in the prize money that the associations had to offer to the players. The PPA Tour’s payout was $3 million and that of APP and MLP was $1 million respectively. A documentation of Top 20 Pickleball players of 2022 revealed that the leader of the pack earned a whopping $115k that season. The earnings of players after the Top 3 dropped to $57k and the 20th player in the list earned $25k.
A handsome pay in Pickleball is heavily dependent on the player’s rankings irrespective of their endorsements. Players also have to take into consideration the pay they are to give to their coaching staff and the travel expense for each tournament. Other costs include their gear and equipment which at times needs to be customized as per their style of play.
Considering all the above factors, excluding the sponsorships, one can say that the average earnings of a higher ranked professional Pickleball player can be between $45k to $50k per season. However, when it comes to lower ranked players still struggling to make a mark in the sport, the number can drop to as low as $25k to $30k.
