Pickleball looks towards tennis for a professional tour model

The Gulf Cooperation Council, the region of the states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, will be the home of the first event in a new pickleball world calendar in March 2025.

Pickleball World Rankings (PWR) is launching a global ranking system along with a world tour and major tournaments like Grand Slams.

Currently the PWR website is sparse and lacking information but with major backing from very wealthy countries we’d expect the interest to grow fast as with other sports the region has invested in.

Pranav Kohli, CEO and Founder of PWR said: “Pickleball originated from relatively humble beginnings in the backyards of America in the sixties, and has now become one of the most exciting sports enjoyed by millions around the world. It is with great honour to be part of the creation of Pickleball World Rankings, PWR World Series and PWR World Tour and we are delighted to be the team taking Pickleball to the next level both on and off the court.”

According to news source, “Professional pickleball has previously been made up of disparate organizing bodies but the launch of the World Tour, World Series, and accompanying Pickleball World Rankings (PWR) aims to ensure the highest quality gameplay for spectators. A total $15 million prize pot will be up for grabs on the PWR World Tour, with $1.5 million of that coming in the Gulf events.”

Kohli went on to say “In this region you can never have too much ambition and this is what we imagine with the World Series. We are looking at different locations here and around the world that are iconic - like The Sphere in Las Vegas and the Spanish Steps in Rome.”

Obviously the USA is the current ‘home’ of pickleball with a number of ex-pro tennis players like Sam Querrey, Jack Sock and Eugenie Bouchard having pledged their allegiance to the sport, but we’ve still to see if they will want to commit full time to playing the sport professionally or if the lure of the $ was what prompted their switch from tennis.

If the main PWR Tour events take place in the Gulf region then the challenge will be about persuading the leading players from the USA to travel that far. Similar to how the PGA golf tour currently works with few American’s ever needing to travel abroad thanks to the volume of big money golf events available in their home country.