SM Supermalls expands pickleball footprint with 86 courts across Philippines
SM Supermalls now has 86 pickleball courts in 29 malls, with a five-leg Trio Challenge running to July 12 and a six-court final in Pasay City.
SM Supermalls said it now operates 86 pickleball courts across 29 malls, a sharp step up from the 61 court locations it closed 2025 with across 25 properties, including 37 permanent courts. The scale matters because it puts amateur pickleball inside malls, where parking, food, climate control and steady foot traffic make the sport easier to find and easier to try.
SM also has a participation engine behind the courts. Its Active Hub platform had more than 110,000 members and more than 260,000 event registrations by its first anniversary, and pickleball was listed in 21 malls on the brand’s Active Hub page. That turns the courts into more than open play space. It gives the sport a recurring schedule, a visible audience and a repeat-use model that can catch beginners between errands instead of requiring a trip to a standalone club.
The clearest example is the SM Active Hub Pickleball Trio Challenge, a five-leg series that runs from May 17 to July 12. Qualifying stops are set for SM City Bicutan, SM City Sta. Mesa, SM City Santa Rosa, SM City Marikina and SM Center Muntinlupa, before the Grand Finals at Four E-Com Center in Pasay City on July 12. SM says the final venue will feature six courts, and the format requires three-player teams with at least one woman, creating a structured entry point for mixed amateur teams rather than an open-ended social hit-around.
The competition ladder is getting firmer outside the malls, too. The Philippine Pickleball Federation was established on April 15, 2019 as the Philippine Pickleball Sports Association and later began doing business as PPF. It has a partnership with Pickleball Global for sanctioned events and ranking points, and its official national ranking system took effect on January 1, 2026. Put together, the mall courts and the federation framework give amateur players a clearer path: more places to play, more chances to enter events and a better-defined route from casual rallies to ranked competition.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
