Australia, India, and Asia – The New “Tour Wars” Frontiers
The Tour Wars captivated the pickleball community, and even the broader sports community, over the past couple of years. 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:
- Australia
- India
- Asia
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 Due
- November 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.
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.
