It's the dawn of a star-studded league on the grounds of Mumbai's Brabourne Stadium. After years of hosting cricket matches, it is welcoming a new sport for the first time in over a decade - pickleball, as the sport gets a league of its own called the World Pickleball League (WPBL).
But what's new about a sports league? There are plenty already. Former tennis star and Arjuna awardee Gaurav Natekar, who co-founded the World Pickleball League, said not many sports have been able to make a debut in the league format so early on. What started in 2020 as a hobby for many, has now become a profession thanks to the boom in the sport.
"The kind of traction pickleball has seen I have not seen for any other sport. It is officially now the fastest growing sport in India," he said.
No surprises why Natekar along with his wife got down to building a league for the sport. And 80 percent of the franchise partners they initially went to came on board given the growing popularity and love for the sport.
Stars haven't shied away from trying this new sport and celebrities are putting money where their bat is, like Samantha Prabhu who was one of the first franchise partners, owning Chennai Super Champs. Then Bollywood couple Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh who own Pune United.
Celebrities and with corporations have built a strong franchise portfolio. Sudhir and Sunanda Mehta from EKA Mobility and Pinnacle Industries, educators Ajeenkya D Y Patil and Pooja Patil from Ajeenkya DY Patil University co-own the Pune United.
Food delivery platform Swiggy owns Mumbai Pickle Power along with cricketer Rishabh Pant who loves pickleball and was looking to invest in the sport.
Audience and investor interest
So, how much does it cost to own a franchise? Natekar says around Rs 7 crore. He expects the franchises and the league to break even in a few years. "A lot of people have gone ahead and tried to sell other leagues saying that the franchisees will break even in year one or two . That doesn't happen in a league. So, (pickleball) franchises know that this is a long-term game, and the break even operationally will take a few years. In terms of the valuation though, there are a couple of teams today who already have a valuation of 2x of what they have paid for owning the teams."
Natekar's idea when he had approached Arvind Prabhoo, President of All India Pickleball Association to start the league a year and a half back was not only to expose India and get Indian players to play with international players, but also make it commercially viable for all the stakeholders involved.
Like the team got its investors, so did the league when Sony Entertainment Talent Ventures India (SETVI) came on board as a private equity investor, the only one currently on the cap-table of Natekar Sports and Gaming (NSG) which owns the league. Natekar plans to raise fresh funds when they are nearing the second season. Last year, along with SETVI backing the league, NSG had announced an investment of over $10 million over the next 3-5 years in India and the Asia-Pacific countries to grow the sport.
Sony, along with funds, also brings its ecosystem as the league starts to air from January 24 on Sony Sports Ten 2 channels. In addition to TV, the league will stream digitally on digital sports platform FanCode.
Natekar expects the league to become huge on TV and social as compared to on ground traction.
"A pickleball court is only 1,800 square feet unlike a tennis court which is 7,200 square feet where you can have a 20,000 seater stadium and the person sitting right on top will still be able to view the match easily. That may not always happen with a pickleball court."
He is starting year one with 750 seats on ground. "We plan to triple it next year in season 2. But how much bigger will we be able to make the court? So, it's clear that this is a huge social media game. We have some very interesting brands who are in the community building space who have approached us to do some brand activations during our event."
Along with activations, the league has on boarded two sponsors including P&G Jewellers, Volvo and ABI Health. "If it is a one year sponsorship deal, there is nothing that we are looking at below the 8-figure," he said.
And it is not just sports Natekar is selling. He also has on offer, an entertainment piece after every game. The entertainment roster includes performances by American rapper and songwriter Raja Kumari, singer Dhvani Bhanushali, among others.
"I am confident that we'll fill up the seats because we're already getting inquiries from some who want to come for the sport while others for the talent that we're bringing in terms of entertainment.
More leagues, more chances
The World Pickleball League will have 48 players representing 14 different countries, giving Indian players the exposure to compete with global players.
Indian players have more opportunities knocking on their door with upcoming tournaments including Indian Open 2025 and Global Sports Pro and Challenger League by Global Sports founded by Hemal Jain. While the league is co-founded by Bollywood writer, director, and producer Shashank Khaitan, its brand ambassador is filmmaker Karan Johar.
Khaitan highlighted that the Pro and the Challenger League will have 110 players, of which 40 will be Indian. "In the near future, I am hoping that that number goes up to almost 70. I would love to see Indians be the first pick for all team owners."
Global Sports is trying to get the entire globe to India, the director said. "Our idea is that Indians over here should get the maximum exposure to play with the best talent. We have some of the top players coming in from all over the world like the US, Australia, Europe and all over Asia competing in the Pro and Challenger League."
The company last year took Indian players to the US, London, Vietnam and Bali. "The idea was that they compete, come back and spread the exposure with other Indian players," Khaitan said.
He is also looking at an increasing rate of player participation for the Indian Open 2025 to 1,350 players from 750 players last year.
"This 8-day tournament (Indian Open) happening in Mumbai also launches our league for the very first time, which is the Global Sports Pro as well as the Challenger League," he added.
In addition, the firm also has another tournament called the Monsoon Pickleball Championship.
"Other than that we also run small events across the country to boost the popularity of pickleball in those particular cities and states. This year we have already hosted a tournament in Baroda with 250-300 players. Just before that in November (2024) we did a tournament in Goa with 350 players. We are doing tournaments in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Dubai," Khaitan said.
Global Sports' Jain said that the popularity of the sport with each stage is increasing, so they are planning to do a Chennai Open and Bengaluru Open as well with expectations of 300-400 player participation.
The Indian Open, like WPBL, has seen a lot of celebrity and corporate interest for its 10 teams. Some of the owner names include Janhvi Kapoor of The Mumbai Chhatrapati Warriors, film director Luv Ranjan and standup comedian Anubhav Singh Bassi who own The Jaipur Jawans. These teams will compete for a prize pool of $1,25,000.
Another upcoming league around March this year called the PWR (Pickleball World Rankings) Indian league will have a prize money of $6,00,000 which will be shared among 30 players, said Aditya Khanna, co-founder, PWR.
Khanna estimates that in India there are 8 to 10 tournaments happening every week and around 300 tournaments happening every year including prized and non-prized events. The US has about 1,000 events a year.
At 1,00,000, while the number of recreational players is significant in India, professional players trying to make a career in the sport are a handful, Khanna added.
Player earnings
His evaluation suggests that a top professional Indian pickleball player can earn up to a few crores versus a million dollars earned by an American professional player. "Outside of the top five or seven players in India, they can earn more than about Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh in prize money and sponsorships," Khanna said.
Yuvraj Ruia, a professional pickleball player and scion of Essar Industries pointed out that the minimum payout for Global Sports Pro League is Rs 5 lakh for competing for a week. In the Challenger League, players can make anywhere between Rs 1 lakh to 3 lakh.
"A pro player in the pickleball market right now can make north of Rs 20 lakh a year, giving a concrete opportunity for people to pursue pickleball full-time," he added.
For the Indian Open the prize pool of $1,25,000 gives players an opportunity of making around Rs 7 crore in a span of 8 days, Khaitan noted.
Khanna said the kind of prize pool pickleball tournaments in India are attracting and the pool of professional players, all of it happened at a pace no one expected, which is great for the sport and the players. "In my association with sports in the last 20 years, I've not seen something like the kind of growth pickleball is showing. Former tennis, squash and badminton players have turned into professional pickleball players."
World ranking
Helping the India story, according to Khanna, will be the recognition of Pickleball World Rankings launched by him last year.
The ranking, like ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) rankings used to determine the qualification for entry as well as the seeding of tennis players, will identify the Djokovic and Nadals of pickleball.
"We are launching a pickleball World Series, which is the highest level, where we want the highest level of players to be participating. If we don't have an official ranking structure, we won't be able to define who the top players in the world are. So, an official structure recognised by the Global Pickleball Federation is needed," Khanna said.
PWR is in the process of getting recognised both internationally and in India and across countries that are playing Pickleball.
"At this stage, PWR is already adopted by many private enterprises in countries like Japan, where the Japan Pickleball Association independently has adopted it. Vietnam had a PWR 700 event. The Indian Pickleball Association has adopted the PWR ranking structure where the PWR 700 happened under the Indian Pickleball Association. We are working strongly with the Global Pickleball Federation for them to adopt it in their ranking structure," Khanna added.
India plans to host more than 25-30 PWR events of different categories from the highest to some base level events in 2025.
For pickleball, the next aim is to be an Olympic sport by 2036, Khanna said.
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