Apollo Sports Capital backs $225 million deal uniting pickleball’s top pro leagues

Apollo Sports Capital’s $225 million structured investment did more than rewrite pickleball’s ownership chart. It created Pickleball Inc., the new parent company above the Carvana PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball, and it put the sport’s two most visible pro properties inside one commercial machine.

The scale matters for players and travelers because the deal pulled together more than $140 million in combined 2025 revenue across the newly merged business verticals, while Tom Dundon and the Pardoe family kept majority control. Pickleball Inc. also folded in facilities, courts, ecommerce and technology, which is the kind of mix that can turn a pro league into a full experience business, not just a tournament operator. Fresh capital also changed the valuation math: CNBC reported the raise brought total investment in Pickleball Inc. to $315 million and put the company at $750 million.

That money is landing in a sport that keeps widening fast. The Sports & Fitness Industry Association said about 24.3 million Americans played pickleball in 2025, up 22.8% from 2024 and 171.8% over the past three years. That growth explains why one umbrella company now makes sense. A unified pro structure can coordinate calendars, sponsorships, athlete development, media and consumer products around the same audience, instead of forcing the tour and the team league to sell separately.

For everyday players, the clearest near-term signal is the event calendar. MLP Dallas is set for May 22-25 at Pickler Universe in Dallas and will open the 2026 season with 11 teams in action. The league’s regular-season finale will be held at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, the first time Major League Pickleball has scheduled an event there. That is exactly the kind of destination placement that can pull in fans who want a full trip, not just a day pass.

Connor Pardoe called the transaction a seismic moment for the business side of the sport, and that is the right frame. Once the pro game is organized under one roof, the next wave is likely to show up far beyond the bracket sheets, in sponsor-backed retreats, better clinic programming, branded travel weekends and resort programming built around the same players who now fill the stands.