Major League Pickleball has signed distribution deals with Gray Media that will see select matches broadcast over-the-air in four markets where the league has franchises: Atlanta (via Peachtree Sports Network), South Carolina (Palmetto Sports and Entertainment Network), Columbus (Rock Entertainment Sports Network) and St. Louis (Matrix Midwest). Terms were not disclosed other than the deals being for MLP’s 2025 season, which begins April 24-27 with an event at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.
United Pickleball Association Chief Strategy Officer Samin Odhwani told SBJ that while these agreements do not carry a rights fee, they do afford MLP control of half of each broadcast’s ad inventory. The locally broadcast matches will not infringe on MLP’s nationally televised matches with partners ESPN, Fox and Tennis Channel; they will, however, be simulcast on Pickleball TV, a FAST channel developed through a joint venture between Tennis Channel and the UPA.
Odhwani said the locally televised matches will be a datapoint by which MLP gauges each of its franchise’s fanbases. The 4-year-old league’s 2025 schedule includes 10 regular-season events, a midseason tournament, two playoff rounds and a final, but these are centralized, festival-style events at rotating host sites. Odhwani hopes to eventually have local distribution in all 16 markets in which MLP has “premier level” teams.
“What we’ve found is fans are mostly excited by the atmosphere and then gravitate towards a team as they get more and more into it,” Odhwani said. “We’re too early to dictate, ‘Oh, these are [New Jersey] 5s fans, versus [St. Louis] Shock fans, versus [Orlando] Squeeze fans,’ and doing that sort of fan profiling. This will be the first chance to identify, ‘We have a consistent datapoint through 16 Premier team markets. What are we seeing in terms of audience engagement?‘”
