The Professional Pickleball Association has become the first pro pickleball organization to offer legalized betting — and starts this week at the Vulcan Kansas City Open.
FanDuel has opened PPA Tour betting markets in Maryland, Louisiana, Connecticut, Illinois, Wyoming, Michigan, Tennessee, Colorado and Washington, as well as Canada’s Ontario province, Forbes reports.
Available pickleball wagers will include bets on match winners, correct match scores, and total points (over/under).
The PPA Tour offers more than $5.5 million in annual prize money to its men and women players with 25 events scheduled for 2023. Amazon signed a deal in May to stream PPA Tour events on Prime Video, including this week’s Vulcan Kansas City Open.
Genius Sports has partnered with the PPA Tour to provide data and live match video feeds to betting operators, which the PPA expects will expand to all major U.S. sportsbooks. Sportradar also partnered with the PPA to develop a sports betting integrity policy for the league with an online learning course mandated for players, staff, and officials.
“This is a monumental moment for the PPA Tour and the game of pickleball as a whole,” PPA Tour Founder and CEO Connor Pardoe said. “We are excited to be paving the way in the pickleball sports betting space, and we couldn’t be prouder to lead the sport’s leap into such an innovative industry.”
