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Thedink Pickleball
The investment was led by Apollo Sports Capital CEO Al Tylis, who calls pro pickleball "the most successful emerging sports league of the past decade.”
A major new chapter in professional pickleball is underway after Apollo Sports Capital led a $225 million structured investment into Pickleball Inc., officially establishing it as the parent company of the Carvana PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball.
The deal creates what the company describes as the largest singularly operated pickleball ecosystem, integrating professional and amateur play with technology, retail, media, and infrastructure.
The newly combined business generated more than $140 million in revenue in 2025, alongside significant growth across multiple verticals.
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“This is a seismic day for the rapidly growing business of pickleball at all levels,” said Connor Pardoe, PPA Tour Founder and CEO of Pickleball Inc.
“This investment allows us to fully integrate the sport into one cohesive ecosystem — uniting professional pickleball, consumer goods, technology, and media under a single, unified platform.”Pardoe emphasized that the goal is to create “an end-to-end experience that serves every pickleballer on their journey,” while maintaining the sport’s defining culture and community.
Tom Dundon and the Pardoe family will remain majority shareholders in the business. The five-person board of Pickleball Inc. now includes Al Tylis, Connor Pardoe, Jason Stein, Zubin Mehta, and Brian Levine.
Apollo Sports Capital CEO Al Tylis called the investment a strategic move to accelerate pickleball’s evolution.
“Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the world… This is a unique opportunity to support the combination of these assets,” he said, adding that the company now has the resources “to get to the next level.”
The timing aligns with continued explosive growth in participation. Pickleball has been the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. for five consecutive years, reaching 24 million players in 2025 and ranking as the fourth-most played sport nationally, according to the 2026 SFIA Annual Report.
At the pro level, the ecosystem includes more than 150 signed players and a combined PPA and MLP calendar that spans the entire year. The tours have also set viewership records, including 791,000 average viewers for a PPA broadcast on CBS in January 2026.
The investment further underscores pickleball’s growing position in women’s sports. The top 60 women players average more than $260,000 annually — the highest average salary across all professional women’s team sports.
MLP Commissioner Samin Odhwani pointed to future expansion opportunities:
“This capital raise will allow us to expand our focus into new and scalable opportunities like content, media, and the development of infrastructure to support our fast growing events.”With assets spanning retail (Pickleball Central), software (Pickleball Play Solutions), media (Pickleball.com and Pickleball TV), and facility development, Pickleball Inc. is positioning itself as a fully integrated platform designed to scale alongside the sport’s rapid rise.
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