The Tour Wars captivated the pickleball community, and even the broader sports community, over the past couple of years.
The Dink Media Team
But after the groundbreaking merger between Major League Pickleball and the PPA Tour, the wars seemingly subsided. A truce brought the long saga, and biggest storyline the sport has ever seen, to an end in 2024. Or so we thought.
Zane Navratil and Thomas Shields recently alluded to the emerging international Tour Wars on an episode of the Picklepod podcast with guest, Armaan Bhatia, the #1 player in India.
This got me thinking - I bet even the most avid USA based pickleball fans don’t really know what’s going on in international pickleball. So, I did a deep dive into the "Tour Wars" currently happening at the international level.
"Tour Wars" has become a common term in professional pickleball. It is when two or more pickleball tours are competing to sign players to their league, in order to win a leg up on the competition.
If you want to know who the most influential people are, the players involved, who is signing where, and what tours are on the rise, buckle up! This is a longer read, but I promise it's worth it!
There are three main areas of “Tour Wars” happening going into 2025:
I will go region by region as best I can, but there are overlapping storylines, as you will soon see.
Australia
Australia is the closest in terms of both infrastructure and player skill level to the United States’ pro pickleball landscape, although it still has a long way to go in order to catch the USA.
Some top level Australian pros are Danni-Elle Townsend, Somer Dalla-Bona, Sarah Burr, Joey Wild, Mitch Hargreaves, and George Wall.
Important Figures
Adam Thompson
CEO & Co-Founder of PPA Tour Australia, formerly "Pacific Pickleball League"
Ron Shell
CEO of NPL Australia
History of the Two Tours
The PPA Tour Australia is partnered with the United Pickleball Association (UPA) in the USA. Much like UPA, the PPA Tour Australia has two entities under its umbrella: PPA Tour Australia and Major League Pickleball (MLP) Australia.
The PPA Tour Australia used to be known as the “Pacific Pickleball League” prior to the partnership with the US based PPA Tour, which took place in February 2024.
National Pickleball League (NPL) Australia has been in existence since April 2023. It mostly runs team based tournaments, but also has some traditional tournaments as well.
2024 Tour Comparison
PPA Australia and MLP Australia
In 2024, PPA Australia and MLP Australia held six events with $700,000 in prize money. The structure of PPA Australia and MLP Australia events in 2024 was to have a PPA stop and MLP stop at each event.
Each of the 12 teams has four players on the team, similar to how MLP is run in the USA.
NPL Australia
In 2024, NPL also ran two seasons. In both Season 1 and Season 2, there were five rounds of “pool play” and then a playoff. There were 18 teams, with six players on each team. Although it is a team sport, the format is much different than MLP.
The prize pool for the NPL was a combined $200,000 in both seasons ($100,000 each).
2025: PPA & MLP Australia Create $1m Tour
PPA Australia and MLP Australia are planning six events again in 2025, but the six events will all be part of one season. They are expanding to add eight Challenger Level teams and Masters (50+) division as well.
- Premier Level - 12 teams with four players = 48 players
- Challenger Level - Eight teams with four players = 32 players
- Masters Level - Eight teams with four players = 32 players
Total Number of Players = 112
Each Premier Level team is allowed one international player, which means a player outside the Asia area. Challenger Level and Masters Level teams are only able to choose players residing in Australia and New Zealand.
Prize money for MLP Australia and PPA Tour Australia exceeds a whopping $1 million:
- MLPA Premier: $510,000
- MLPA Challenger: $100,000
- MLPA Masters: $30,000
- PPAA Pro: $330,000
- PPAA Masters: $70,000
MLP Australia Tour Dates:
October 23, 2024 - Captain Applications DueNovember 30, 2024 - Premier Applications Due- January 22, 2025 - Premier Level Draft
- January 23, 2025 - Challenger and Masters Applications Due
- February 7, 2025 - Challenger and Masters Draft
2025: NPL Australia Aligns with Pickleball World Rankings (PWR)
In October 2024, NPL Australia and Pickleball World Rankings (PWR) announced an exclusive partnership. This means NPL Australia events will earn players PWR rankings points. There is an FAQ on the NPL website explaining the points structure.
Prize Money for NPL Australia totals to $250,000 ($125,000 each season):
- Season 3: $125,000
- Season 4: $125,000
NPL Australia Tour Dates:
- Season 3 is from March - May (Yes, I know, they should have just called it 2025 Season 1, not continue on from 2024)
- Season 4 is from August - November
There will again be 18 teams, with four players per team. Additionally, NPL is adding a Division 2 as a lower level of play, with 12 teams.
Total Number of Players: 120
Additionally, NPL will hold five traditional tournaments in 2025, with a prize pool of over $300,000:
2025 Player Signings
The two tours began signing exclusive contracts with the top players in an attempt to stake claim as the top tour. A good break down of these signings can be found in this podcast recap from SlamJam.
MLP Australia just had it's Premier Level draft and here are the results:
NPL Australia has signed the following players to exclusive deals for 2025:
- Joey Wild
- Zach Grabovich
- Tom Evans
- Danni-Elle Townsend
- Somer Dalla-Bonna
- Michaela Haet
- Selina Turulja
Closing Thoughts on Australia
This Tour War is very similar to the USA Tour Wars in the summer of 2023.
What is interesting here is that NPL Australia has the best Australian man (Joey Wild) and woman (Danni-Elle Townsend) signed for 2025. Somer Dalla-Bonna is another top-tier woman in Auxstralia as well. As of publishing, it looks like NPL will have a few of the best players, with many mediocre players filling out rosters.
On the other hand, MLP Australia has more high-end players and a larger prize pool. My sources are telling me that sign to either tour exclusively, most of the above players are making around $5k-$30k AUD in 2025 in guarantees on top of whatever prize money they could potentially make.
There are two very different strategies between NPL and PPA/MLP Australia. PPA/MLP Australia is going after the best players they can get, as seen by many Americans playing on the tour in 2025. Only 12 of the 48 MLP Australia players drafted are Australian.
NPL, with less prize money guaranteed, seems to be more grassroots - trying to build pickleball in Australia from the ground up. By focusing on Australian players, the NPL is looking to develop the pro sport from within. Nearly all players in NPL are Australian based.
The last note about NPL/PWR and MLP/PPA Australia is exclusivity. If a player plays NPL they can't also play MLP, and vice versa. However, that is not the case for individual tournaments (not team events). For example, Joey Wild is playing NPL, but he is playing in the PPA Australia in a couple of weeks with Zane Navratil and Danni-Elle Townsend.
It will be interesting to see throughout 2025, which entity starts winning the Australian Tour Wars battle: PWR and NPL Australia, or PPA Australia, MLP Australia, and UPA.
India
India is in the infancy of pro pickleball becoming a mainstream sport. The player talent levels other than the top two or three men’s players in the country (Armaan Bhatia and Harsh Mehta) is lower than that of the Australian contingency.
This is not because the players are not good, but more a reflection of how long pickleball has been a regular sport at the pro level. India is known for having a fervor for racquet sports and will be catching up to Australia and the United States within the next 3-5 years, in my opinion.
Important Figures
PWR & Pickleball United
Pranav (Pran) Kohli
Founder & CEO of Pickleball World Rankings (PWR) and Pickleball United
Global Sports
While there are several investors/owners in Global Sports, there are three main drivers of the company:
World Pickleball League (WPBL)
Arati Ponnappa Natekar (L) & Gaurav Natekar (R)
Co-founders of the World Pickleball League (WPBL)
History of the Tours
Pickleball World Rankings (PWR)
Pran began his voyage into pickleball with Pickleball United USA in November of 2022. Pickleball United is a USA-based company with manufacturing operations in India.
Pran then added Pickleball World Rankings (PWR) in early 2024 and has since sponsored many pickleball events on a global scale.
Pickleball United is listed as a partnership/sponsor for PWR, so both entities still exist. Although the Pickleball United USA website that links from the Instagram account no longer works, I believe the company to be still running.
PWR ran its first-ever competition in October 2024 - the India Masters. Armaan Bhatia made headlines worldwide for winning a triple crown in the event.
Erik Tice
One additional note for the PWR regarding partners - The PWR is aligned with and sanctioned by the "Indian Pickleball Association", which is also associated with Pran. The Indian Pickleball Association competes with the AIPA (described under the WPBL section) in governing pickleball in India. This tragically resembles the UPA-A in the USA competing with USA Pickleball for governance.
Global Sports
Global Sports was started in January 2022. They started by running the “Dink’n’Smash” pickleball league in August 2022. Global Sports then ran the India Pickleball Open in February 2023, in Goa. Following that, Global Sports ran the Global Sports Pickleball Championships in May 2023, in Mumbai.
In August 2023, they hosted the inaugural Monsoon Pickleball Championship, and was sponsored by the APP Tour, PWR and Pickleball United. The top players from that tournament in August also won a chance to get an intensive training with US based player, Rob Nunnery in October 2023.
In September 2023, Global Sports and Pickleball United (PWR affiliate) announced the signing of Harsh Mehta, one of the top three men’s players in all of India. At that time, Global Sports and Pickleball United were partners of sorts.
In October 2023, Rob Nunnery ran a pro clinic for the best players from the inaugural Monsoon Pickleball Championship.
You should recognize names like: Harsh Mehta, Armaan Bhatia, Yuvi Ruia, Aditya Singh, Pei Chuan Kao, among many others.
Yuvraj Ruia (from now on referred to as “Yuvi”) announced he was part of the Global Sports team in late 2023.
In February 2024, Global Sports hosted the Indian Open, partnered with Pickleball World Rankings, Pickleball United, and the APP Tour. The tournament took place in Mumbai, India. Pickleball United became the Court Sponsor and PWR became the Software Sponsor.
At this same time, Yuvi took a much more active role within Global Sports, essentially becoming the face of Global Sports and a player ambassador.
In April 2024, it was announced that Global Sports partnered with the United States UPA (PPA x MLP) to offer PPA India and MLP India. According to my sources, sometime between April and now, the partnership collapsed and the United States based UPA currently does not have a partner in India, at the moment.
PWR and Global Sports Break Apart
In August 2024, Global Sports also ran the Monsoon Pickleball Championship 2.0. Of note, this was the first tournament Global Sports ran without PWR and Pickleball United in over a year. I don't know the exact reasoning behind the split, but since then, PWR has been running its own league and tournaments and so has Global Sprots.
World Pickleball League
The World Pickleball League (WPBL) made their first post on Instagram on August 20, 2024, announcing Samantha Ruth Prabhu as the owner of the Chennai team. Prabhu is a widely known Indian actress and social media influencer, with over 35 million followers on Instagram.
The vision for the WPBL:
To develop the sport of pickleball in India, leveraging its power to foster communities and social connections, while bringing families and friends together.
Additionally, WPBL has two very important partnerships:
First, WPBL is aligned with, and is the only professional league sanctioned by the All India Pickleball Association (AIPA), of the competing governing bodies of pickleball in India. According to WPBL’s website, “this partnership underscores a commitment to elevating pickleball in India and its ambitions to shine on a global level, while developing India's next sporting icon.”
For the US fans, this is very similar to the alignment with USA Pickleball and the APP Tour. The PWR is not sanctioned by the AIPA, but it is sanctioned by the Indian Pickleball Association.
The other partnership is with Sony Entertainment Talent Ventures, Inc. (SETVI), which is a collaboration between Sony Pictures Network in the USA and Sony Music in Japan. As strategic and financial partners with the league, SETVI is “dedicated to pioneering sports entertainment innovations that redefine the way audiences engage with global sporting events.”
2025 Outlook and Player Signings
PWR
PWR has announced 35 signings for their PWR Indian League, even though all details are not yet known. The league will be between 10 and 20 days in length. The draft will take place in late February, and play will be sometime in March, to the best of my knowledge.
These players are guaranteed a minimum of $15,000 and could win up $45,000 if they win the entire league. Because these are the biggest name players that are not signed with the US based UPA, some of these players may even be receiving an appearance fee on top of the winnings.
Here are the top players signed by PWR:
USA based women: Megan Fudge, Jill Braverman, Susannah Barr, and Yana Newell
USA based men: Will Howells, Jack Munro, and Erik Lange
Indian based men: Armaan Bhatia, Harsh Mehta, and Aditya Ruhela
Other top international women: Danni-Elle Townsend (AUS), Somer Dalla-Bona (AUS), Pei Chuan Kao (GB), Emilia Schmidt (AUS)
Australian men: Joey Wild (AUS), Zach Grabovic (AUS), and Tom Evans (AUS)
PWR World Tour
Additionally, PWR has announced a world tour, with over $4.5 million on the line in terms of prize money in 2025. Of note, no actual dates or locations are set yet for the PWR's 2025 schedule, as of publishing. Additionally, when first formed, PWR had set the prize money total as $15 million and has pushed back and/or canceled events.
Global Sports
In terms of tournaments, Global Sports is running the Vadodara Open in early January. Next, they are hosting the Indian Open tournament in early February. I assume they will run the Monsoon Championships, Goa Open, and expand their tournament offerings throughout the year.
Even more importantly, Global Sports is hosting a pro pickleball league from February 3rd through February 9th, in direct competition with the PWR and World Pickleball League. The league is called the Global Sports Pickleball League (GSPL).
Players such as Rob Nunnery, Collin Shick, Richard Livornese, Jr., Kyle Yates, Pei Chuan Kao, Riley Bohnert, Rianna Valdes, and Roos van Reek make up the marquee players for this league. On January 2nd, Global Sports announced the players who will be playing. The full draft is on January 13th.
The Global Sports Pickleball League (GSPL) will consist of 10 teams: Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Goa, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkatta, and Hyderabad.
Each team will have five players - a playing Captain, and four other players. In the GSPL, it is mandatory for every team to have at least two Indian players and to also have at least two men and two women on every team.
The format for play is different from MLP style pickleball. There are four matches: Men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, and singles. There is a tiebreaker in place as well.
The player payout is dependent upon where a player is chosen in the draft:
- 1st Round (Captain) - $20,000 USD
- 2nd Round - $14,000
- 3rd Round - $10,500
- 4th Round - $8,000
- 5th Round - $5,900
The application deadline for the GSPL was December 15th.
This will be Season 1 of the GSPL and a Season 2 is in store for Global Sports in the latter half of 2025.
World Pickleball League
The WPBL recently had their draft for their team based league that will take place from January 25th - February 2nd.
On December 6th, the six coaches listed above were announced for the WPBL. The draft took place on December 18th, with eight players drafted to each of the six teams.
Here are the full WPBL teams:
The biggest US based names on this list are: Tanner Tomassi, Max Freeman, Jack Foster, Ross Whittaker, Brandon Lane, William Sobek, Alexa Schull, Brooke Revuelta, and Lauren Mercado.
While I don’t have any definitive numbers in terms of contracts, I believe the WPBL players, as a whole, are paid somewhere between $3,000 and $20,000 for appearing in the league - every contract is different, according to sources.
I would guess that this is just the start for the WPBL. More tournament and/or league offerings will be made in the future, but nothing is set right now after the WPBL in February.
Closing Thoughts on India
This is all fascinating stuff! One thing I want to bring to your attention is the Australians and Americans on the list (just a few examples): Danni-Elle Townsend, Joey Wild, Megan Fudge, and Will Howells, etc.
There is really only one exclusivity contract for these players and that is with PWR. If a player plays PWR, they are allowed to play anywhere in the USA - MLP, PPA, APP Tour, etc. Whether UPA in the United States will allow these PWR players to play in the MLP or PPA is a completely separate issue.
However, if a person plays PWR, they are not allowed to play MLP Australia (team based), but can play PPA Australia events. Vice versa, players that play MLP/PPA Australia are unable to play PWR team events, but can still play PWR individual events.
If they choose to play any PWR events, their prize money is cut in half. This may have been a cause for some of the top Australian players to choose to play NPL Australia and PWR on an international level, rather than choosing MLP/PPA Australia.
The PWR obviously has the most money in India right now, or is at least willing to spend the most money. $4.5 million in prize money in 2025 is a ton of money for a tour that is just beginning.
Global Sports, with the backing of its investors, also have money in the coffers to make moves. It will be interesting to see if all three of these leagues can coexist past 2025, or if one or more will merge with another.
Asia
Out of the three areas mentioned in this “tour wars” battle, Asia is by far the least developed, in terms of pickleball and pro pickleball infrastructure. There are very few pro players and those players are mostly playing outside of Asia right now, to get higher level reps with better players.
Important Figures
Pranav (Pran) Kohli
Founder & CEO of Pickleball World Rankings (PWR) and Pickleball United
History of the two tours
We already discussed the PWR history in the “India” section of this article.
UPA Asia
On November 25th, 2024, PPA Asia and MLP Asia were announced by the US based PPA Tour.
Erik Tice
In the announcement, it mentions that the four countries included in UPA Asia are China, Japan, Vietnam, and Singapore. Additionally, it was announced that PPA Asia would begin play in 2025, with a marquee event scheduled for October 2025.
2024 Competition
PWR
In December 2024, PWR ran its first event in Asia, the “PWR Thu Duc HTV DJOY Open Warrior Cup”. This event was a PWR 700 Series event, meaning players earned PWR points and qualification for the three big PWR tournaments in 2025 was on the line.
UPA Asia
While UPA Asia didn’t exist until late November 2024, MLP/PPA Australia actually ran an event in Vietnam earlier in the year.
In October 2024, the second tour stop of Season 2 of MLP/PPA Australia was held at the Carmelina Beach Resort in Southeast Vietnam.
Joey Wild and Danni-Elle Townsend won mixed doubles at the PPA Australia Vietnam Open
Obviously, with the UPA partnerships, PPA/MLP Asia and PPA/MLP Australia will likely stay in their respective regions.
2025 Outlook
PWR
According to the 2025 calendar of events published by PWR on September 16, 2024, there was only one PWR Tour stop in Asia:
- February 2025 - PWR DUPR Indian Tour - Tsu, Japan
However, a new Instagram post suggests there will be more events throughout Asia in 2025:
There are six PWR 700 events listed in Asia, without specific dates yet. The countries of Vietnam, Japan, and Singapore are all listed (shocking that these are the countries that MLP/PPA Asia have also mentioned).
In addition to the PWR 700 Series in Asia, PWR has partnered with The Dink MiLP to provide over 300 events for amateurs in China.
As MiLP China launched with only two months left in the 2024 season, club and regional directors brought on by Full Send Pickleball from across the country put on more than 30 events (DUPR 12/14/16) in several majors cities including Tianjin, Shenzhen, Hengqin, Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, leading up to the championships that were set for Dec 28-29 in Chongqing at the China-renowned Simple Touch pickleball facility.
2025 will see more than 300 MiLP China events take place across the country in 15 cities.
UPA Asia
No set schedule of events has been marketed yet by UPA Asia. The only thing that has been mentioned is the “marquee event” previously mentioned in this article in October 2025.
Closing Thoughts on Asia
Asia is so new to the pro pickleball game that it really does feel like the wild, wild west.
Of note, a source I spoke with did tell me the PPA/MLP Australia ruffled some feathers with the Vietnamese government, so Kimberly Koh will have to do some damage control in order for PPA/MLP Asia to continue operating in the country.
I believe that China is going to be the superpower of pickleball within the next 7-10 years. It will be very interesting to see which tour is able to gain a stronghold in the country, if either of them can.
With Asian countries having a long and storied racquet sport background, some of the top talent will be coming from the region in the next year or two.
Final Thoughts on International Tour Wars
Outside the USA, the real tour wars seem to be the US based UPA vs. Pickleball World Rankings. The UPA is taking international pickleball very seriously, with partnerships in Asia and Australia.
PWR seems to have a very global viewpoint and is focused mostly outside the USA. However, they even have a large event scheduled in Las Vegas later this year. PWR seems to have the money backing it, with $4.5 million in prize money in 2025.
The real winners of these “tour wars” are the players. Players continue to have multiple options in terms of which tour(s) and/or league(s) they want to play in. With choices, players have negotiating power and more viable options to make pickleball their full-time role.
Glossary
I have never done a glossary in an article before, but there are so many new acronyms and new people mentioned, that I think this may add value.
All items/people are listed in alphabetical order
Acronyms/Terms/Influential People
- Adam Thompson - CEO and Co-Founder of PPA/MLP Australia
- Arati Ponnappa Natekar & Gaurav Natekar - Co-founders of the WPBL
- AIPA - “All India Pickleball Association” - A governing body of pickleball in India. AIPA is very similar to USA Pickleball in the USA. AIPA sanctions WPBL competition and is in direct competition with Indian Pickleball Association for governance
- Global Sports - A league in India that is run by Hemal Jain, Shashank Khaitain, and Yuvi Ruia, among others
- Hemal Jain - Co-founder and Partner of Global Sports
- IPA - Indian Pickleball Association - A governing body in India that sanctions PWR events. The IPA is in competition with AIPA for Indian pickleball governance
- Kimberly Koh - Managing Director of UPA Asia
- NPL Australia - “National Pickleball League” - A league in Australia that is partnered with PWR
- Pickleball United - A pickleball company that was founded by Pranav Kohli, and is partnered with PWR
- PPA/MLP Tour Asia - AKA UPA Asia - Two leagues operating under the same umbrella and partnered with the US based UPA (United Pickleball Association), including China, Japan, Vietnam and Singapore
- PPA/MLP Tour Australia - - AKA UPA Australia - Two leagues operating under the same umbrella and partnered with the US based UPA (United Pickleball Association)
- Pranav Kohli - “Pran” - Founder and CEO of both Pickleball United and PWR
- PWR - “Pickleball World Rankings” - A league that has global aspirations, with Pranav Kohli as the founder and CEO
- Ron Shell - CEO of NPL Australia
- SETVI - “Sony Entertainment Talent Ventures, Inc.” - A strategic and financial partner of the WPBL
- Shashank Khaitan - Partner and co-owner of Global Sports and film executive
- WPBL - World Pickleball League - A league in India that is partners with AIPA and SETVI
- Yuvraj Ruia - “Yuvi” and also known as the “Pickleball Prince” - partial owner and player ambassador for Global Sports
