Pickleball Now On Live TV

 

Pickleball, a racquet sport resembling a cross between ping pong and tennis, is booming. Participation in the sport grew from 5 million players in 2021 to more than 36.5 million in 2022. The sport could see even more growth in 2023, thanks to several new television contracts with big networks, such as ESPN, CBS, and ABC. The sport’s growing popularity has some people saying that watching pickleball live is more entertaining than watching tennis.

Where To Watch Pickleball Live

Fans and newcomers alike will have plenty of options to watch pickleball in 2023. Each of the major tours has live TV and streaming coverage.

Association of Pickleball Professionals Tour

The APP boasts the first and only tour officially sanctioned by USA Pickleball. The 2023 APP Tour features 16 events plus an International and Collegiate Series and its Next Gen Series, which aims to develop young players.

CBS Sports Network and ESPN2 will feature a combined 20 hours of pickleball coverage, including all 16 of the 2023 APP Tour Events. CBS Sports Network will broadcast 12 hours of highlights and pickleball live matches. ESPN2 will have eight hours of event recaps. Additionally, ESPN+ and APP TV will provide over 200 hours of livestream coverage. If you miss the live events, you can watch the replays on APP TV.

CBS Sports Network and ESPN2 are available to subscribers of most cable providers and major streaming services, such as Hulu, Fubo, DirectTV, and YouTube TV. You can find APP TV on Facebook and YouTube. ESPN+ is available as a standalone subscription or as part of the Disney+ bundle with Hulu.

Carvana Professional Pickleball Association Tour

The PPA is a professional pickleball tour that features some of the top pickleball players in the sport. The PPA has pickleball live broadcast partnerships with FOX, CBS, Tennis Channel, ABC, ESPN, Prime Video, YouTube, and Fanduel. There will be 25 live tournaments in 2023, more than 4,500 on-demand matches, and over 1,500 hours of pickleball content across the various PPA platforms.

FOX, CBS, and ABC are available free over the air and, along with Tennis Channel and ESPN, on most major cable and streaming services. Prime Video is a streaming service available to Amazon Prime subscribers. Fanduel is a popular sports-betting site.

Major League Pickleball Tour

Major League Pickleball distinguishes itself from the other professional leagues with a format that features co-ed team competitions. Many of the league’s 24 teams have high-profile celebrity owners and the league recently announced a unique format for 2023.

The 2023 season will have six events split into two seasons of three events each. Half the teams will play at the MLP Premier Level and the other half will play at the MLP Challenger Level in the first season. The teams will then switch levels and redraft for the second season. Tennis Channel, which aired the draft for the first season on December 15, 2022, will broadcast and stream some of the MLP events in 2023.

Minto US Open Pickleball Championships

The US Open Pickleball Championships bills itself as the world’s largest pickleball tournament combined with the world’s largest pickleball party. The 2023 US Open will take place April 15-22 in Naples Florida and CBS Sports Network will broadcast pickleball live for the women’s and men’s pro finals. You can also find coverage of the event on the Pickleball Channel on YouTube.

Pickleball Slam

The first Pickleball Slam will take place on April 2, 2023, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. ESPN will broadcast coverage of a celebrity showdown between tennis greats Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, John McEnroe, and Michael Chang.

Roddick will take on Chang in the first match. Agassi will square off against McEnroe in the second. The slam will conclude with a doubles match featuring McEnroe and Chang versus Roddick and Agassi.

A $1 million cash prize will be up for grabs, along with a $100,000 charitable donation. The event also features 96 doubles teams in an amateur tournament for a cash prize of $10,000 and a chance to play with the pros. However, the amateur event does not appear to have any planned television coverage.

Selkirk TV

Selkirk is the first and only free pickleball TV app. The app features pickleball live streams, pro lessons, past tournaments, podcasts, and on-demand shows. You can download the app on Google Play and the Apple App Store. It is also available on Apple TV, Android TV, and ROKU and will be coming to Amazon’s Fire TV.

Paramount Plus

Stephen Colbert hosted a celebrity pickleball tournament that aired on Paramount+ on November 17, 2022. The two-hour special features eight celebrity teams competing to benefit Comic Relief.

Celebrity competitors include Dierks Bentley, Phil Keoghan, Daniel Dae Kim, Luis Guzman, Max Greenfield, Jimmie Allen, Emma Watson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Aisha Tyler, Jaime Camil, Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Tig Notaro, Murray Bartlett, Kelly Rowland, and a mystery guest. Paramount+ subscribers can watch the special on-demand.

When To Watch Pickleball Live

With hundreds of hours of livestream and television coverage, there will be no shortage of chances to watch pickleball in 2023.

2023 APP Tour Television Schedule 

All 16 of the APP tour stops will be broadcast.

Date	Tournament	Time (ET)	Network
Sunday, Jan. 15	Punta Gorda, FL	4:30-6:30 p.m.	CBS Sports Network
Sunday, Feb. 12	Daytona Beach, FL	8:00-9:00 p.m.	ESPN2
Monday, March 20	San Diego, CA	9:00-10:00 a.m.	CBS Sports Network
Monday, April 3	Mesa, AZ	9:00-10:00 p.m.	CBS Sports Network
Sunday, April 30	Sacramento, CA	7:00-9:00 p.m.	CBS Sports Network
Sunday, May 14	Cincinnati, OH	12:00-2:00 p.m. (LIVE)	CBS Sports Network
Monday, May 29	New York City, NY	7:00-8:00 p.m.	ESPN2
Monday, June 26	San Jose, CA	7:00-8:00 p.m.	CBS Sports Network
TBD	Newport Beach, CA	TBD	ESPN2
TBD	Philadelphia, PA	TBD	ESPN2
Tuesday, Sept. 5	Chicago, IL	9:00-10:00 p.m.	ESPN2
Monday, Sept. 11	Avalon, NJ	8:00-9:00 p.m.	CBS Sports Network
Sunday, Oct. 1	Atlanta, GA	12:00-2:00 p.m. (LIVE)	CBS Sports Network
Sunday, Oct. 8	Dallas, TX	8:30-9:30 p.m.	ESPN2
Sunday, Oct. 29	Hilton Head, SC	12:00-2:00 p.m. (LIVE)	CBS Sports Network
TBD	Houston, TX	TBD	ESPN2

2023 Carvana PPA Tour Television Schedule

You can watch all of the pickleball live PPA Tour events on PPA TV.

Date	Tournament	Event	Start Time	End Time	Time	Channel
2/2/2023	JW Marriott Desert Ridge Open	M/W Singles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
2/3/2023	JW Marriott Desert Ridge Open	Mixed Doubles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
2/4/2023	JW Marriott Desert Ridge Open	M/W Doubles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
2/5/2023	JW Marriott Desert Ridge Open	Champ Sunday	10:00 a.m.	4:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
2/16/2023	Carvana Arizona Grand Slam	M/W Singles	11:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
2/17/2023	Carvana Arizona Grand Slam	Mixed Doubles	11:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
2/18/2023	Carvana Arizona Grand Slam	M/W Doubles	11:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
2/19/2023	Carvana Arizona Grand Slam	Champ Sunday	10:00 a.m.	4:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
2/23/2023	Indoor National Championships	M/W Singles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	CT	PPA TV
2/24/2023	Indoor National Championships	Mixed Doubles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	CT	PPA TV
2/25/2023	Indoor National Championships	M/W Doubles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	CT	PPA TV
2/26/2023	Indoor National Championships	Champ Sunday	10:00 a.m.	4:00 p.m.	CT	PPA TV
3/9/2023	Florida Open	M/W Singles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	EST	PPA TV
3/10/2023	Florida Open	Mixed Doubles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	EST	PPA TV
3/11/2023	Florida Open	M/W Doubles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	EST	PPA TV
3/12/2023	Florida Open	Champ Sunday	10:00 a.m.	4:00 p.m.	EST	PPA TV
4/5/2023	Selkirk Red Rock Open	M/W Singles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
4/6/2023	Selkirk Red Rock Open	Mixed Doubles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
4/7/2023	Selkirk Red Rock Open	M/W Doubles	10:00 a.m.	6:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV
4/8/2023	Selkirk Red Rock Open	Champ Sunday	10:00 a.m.	4:00 p.m.	MST	PPA TV

Major League Pickleball Tour

Tennis Channel broadcast pickleball live for the finals and semi-finals of the MLP tournament in Mesa, AZ, on Jan 26-29. MLP is working to finalize broadcast agreements for additional tournaments.

The remaining tournaments on the 2023 MLP schedule take place:

• March 23-26 in Dayton Beach, FL
• June 15-18 in San Clemente, CA
• September 21-24 in Peachtree Corners, GA
• November 2-5 in La Quinta, CA
• December 7-10 in San Clemente, CA

The September event in Peachtree Corners marks the start of season two.

Minto US Open Pickleball Championships Television Schedule

This multi-day event features both amateur and professional players. CBS Sports Network will broadcast the men’s and women’s pro finals live from 5:00-7:00 p.m. EST on April 22, 2023.

Pickleball Slam

ESPN will broadcast the legends tournament starting at noon ET on April 2, 2023. Additional Pickleball Slams will take place at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino locations around the country. The organizers have yet to announce the locations, times, and any planned television coverage for future events.

What You Need To Know Before Watching Pickleball Live

If you are new to the sport, you may enjoy watching the matches more if you learn some of the basics first.

What Is Pickleball?

Pickleball is a racquet sport that combines facets of badminton, tennis, and ping-pong. Participants play the game on outdoor and indoor badminton-sized courts with a slightly altered tennis net.

Players use paddles that look like big ping-pong paddles to hit a plastic ball with holes in it that looks similar to a Wiffle ball. Matches can be doubles or singles matches. Players of all ages and skill levels enjoy the sport, which has contributed to its increasing popularity.

How Did Pickleball Get Started?

Three dads, Bill Bell, Joel Pritchard, and Barney McCallum, invented the sport on Bainbridge Island in 1965 as an activity for their bored children. The first known tournament took place at South Center Athletic Club in Tukwila, Washington, in 1976.

In 1982, Sid Williams helped grow the sport by organizing tournaments in Washington state. Organizers formed the United States Amateur Pickleball Association in 1984 to help grow the sport on a national level and by 1990 people were playing pickleball in all 50 states.

The inclusion of the sport in the Arizona Senior Olympics in 2001 helped grow pickleball’s popularity with older Americans. Advocates for the sport formed the USA Pickleball Association in 2005. The organization held its first national tournament in 2009 and established a grant program to help players create new sites. USAPA created the International Federation of Pickleball to help grow the sport worldwide in 2010.

The Pickleball Channel became the first professional media group for the sport in 2014. CBS Sports Network hosted the first pickleball live broadcast with the US Open Pickleball Championships in 2016. ESPN3 live-streamed more than 17 hours of pickleball coverage from the Margaritaville USA Pickleball National Championships at Indian Wells Tennis Garden in 2018.

USAPA became USA Pickleball in 2020. The sport’s popularity grew exponentially during the pandemic, fueling high-profile investments in the various professional pickleball leagues.

What Makes Pickleball Fun To Watch?

Pickleball has widespread appeal as a recreational sport because almost anyone can play it, but what makes it fun to watch?

Fast-Paced Games

Professional tennis matches can take several hours. Most professional team sports have similarly time-consuming games. By contrast, you can watch an entire pickleball match in less than 20 minutes. The short matches appeal to fans who do not have an evening or afternoon to devote to watching sports and to bettors who want to see quick returns.

Variety of Formats

Most tournaments follow a similar format to tennis as an individual sport. However, if you enjoy rooting for your local sports team, the MLP format features 24 teams, comprised of two men and two women, located in cities around the country.

Cool Vibe

Pickleball live matches strive to create a festival atmosphere complete with loud music. If mainstream sports are too self-serious for you, consider giving pickleball a try.

What Are Some Challenges Pickleball Faces?

With its smaller court size, pickleball does not have the dramatic sprints to run down a ball or deep serves that tennis does. The action is smaller and may appear less exciting to casual viewers. However, enthusiasts appreciate the more subtle strategy and tactics of the game.

While pickleball has a growing list of celebrity owners, such as Lebron James and Naomi Osaka, it does not yet have a Roger Federer or Serena Williams on the court. It has also yet to prove that it can pull in substantial viewership ratings on television or streaming services. However, there is hope that the increasing availability of TV and streaming coverage will boost the star status of the top players and elevate the sport to mainstream status.

How Does the Scoring Work?

Players can only score points when they are serving. Most games end when a player or team scores 11 points. However, at some tournaments, matches go to 15 or 21 points. Players must win by 2. If there is only a one-point difference when a player reaches the winning score, the game continues until a player with enough points to win has a two-point advantage.

How Is Pickleball Different From Tennis?

Pickleball servers must allow return shots to bounce before hitting them, so there is no serve-and-volley game in pickleball live matches. Additionally, players can not volley while inside the seven-foot kitchen on either side of the net.

Because pickleballs do not bounce as much as tennis balls, there are fewer clean winners and overhead smash shots are not as effective. Winning is more about skill and strategy and less about physical ability. Much of the action in pickleball matches takes place between the kitchen line and the baseline. Unlike tennis, where the singles game is the star of the show and doubles are often an afterthought, doubles matches are the most popular and prestigious on pickleball tours.

Who Are the Top Players?

Some of the professional leagues have exclusivity deals that prevent some players from playing in other leagues. Each league has its own ranking system.

APP Top Players

The top five pro men’s doubles players are:

1. Steven Deakin
2. Tyson McGuffin
3. Adam Stone
4. Patrick Smith
5. Jay Devilliers

The top five pro men’s singles players are:

1. Jay Devilliers
2. Zane Navratil
3. JW Johnson
4. Ben Johns
5. Dekel Bar

The top five men’s pro mixed doubles players are:

1. Jay Devilliers
2. Steve Deakin
3. Ben Johns
4. Riley Newman
5. Patrick Smith

The top five women’s pro doubles players are:

1. Andrea Koop
2. Corrine Carr
3. Sarah Ansboury
4. Regina Franco
5. Simone Jardin

The top five women’s pro singles players are:

1. Lea Jansen
2. Megan Hall
3. Michele Esquivel
4. Irina Tereschenko
5. Lauren Stratman

The top five women’s pro mixed doubles players are:

1. Simone Jardin
2. Corrine Carr
3. Lauren Stratman
4. Regina Franco
5. Sarah Ansboury

Rankings can change throughout the year as players accumulate points by playing in tournaments.

PPA Top Players

The top five pro men’s doubles players are:

1. Collin Johns
2. Ben Johns
3. Matt Wright
4. Riley Newman
5. Tyler Loong

The top five pro men’s singles players are:

1. Ben Johns
2. Tyson McGuffin
3. Jay Devilliers
4. Federico Staksrud
5. JW Johnson

The top five men’s pro mixed doubles players are:

1. Ben Johns
2. Riley Newman
3. Matt Wright
4. AJ Koller
5. Jay Devilliers

The top five women’s pro doubles players are:

1. Anna Leigh Waters
2. Callie Smith
3. Lucy Kovalova
4. Catherine Parenteau
5. Leigh Waters

The top five women’s pro singles players are:

1. Anna Leigh Waters
2. Catherine Parenteau
3. Lea Jansen
4. Salome Devidze
5. Irina Tereschenko

The top five women’s pro mixed doubles players are:

1. Anna Leigh Waters
2. Catherine Parenteau
3. Lucy Kovalova
4. Jessie Irvine
5. Callie Smith

PPA players also accumulate points by playing matches that can affect rankings as the tournament season progresses.

What Are Pickleball Ratings?

When you watch pickleball live, you may hear announcers talk about player ratings. Pickleball ratings represent a player’s skill level. They start at 1.0 and go up to as high as 8.0, depending on the scale. There are three types of ratings.

Self-Ratings

Players can assign themselves a rating based on their approximate skill level. Brand-new players should rate themselves in the 1.0-2.0 range. Once they have some experience, know the basic rules, and can keep a short rally going, they can rate themselves as a 2.5.

When players have a basic understanding of strategy and can hit some basic shots, they can rate themselves a 3.0. As they gain more control over their shots and improve their strategy, they can move up to 3.5.

When players can hit all of the basic shots with consistency, control, and pace and have a moderate number of unforced errors, they can rate themselves a 4.0. When they start being able to add spin and changes of depth and direction to their shots, and they can change their game to exploit their opponent’s weaknesses, they are ready to rate themselves a 4.5.

To earn a 5.0 rating, players must master all of their shots and pickleball strategies. They should also be making few unforced errors. Players with a 5.5 rating or above are elite. To self-rate in this category, players should be winning matches against professional players.

USA Pickleball Tournament Player Ratings

This rating system is only available to USA Pickleball members. Players’ scores range from 0.000 to 6.999 based on their performance in pickleball tournaments. Players can choose to play matches against players at or above their skill level but not below. This prevents players from entering brackets where they can easily beat the competition to get a medal.

Dreamland Universal Pickleball Ratings

DUPR is the official rating system of the PPA. DUPR bases player ratings on both tournament and recreational play. It also takes every point a player scores into account, instead of just wins and losses. DUPR weights the weaker player’s skill level in a doubles match higher because of the assumption that the weaker player will receive more shots. Additionally, it only has one rating, unlike the UTPR, which has separate ratings for mixed and gender doubles.

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