Previously, we looked at pickleball as pure entertainment, the sport popping up on screens, sneaking into storylines, and getting packaged as something you can watch even if you don’t play.
This week is the flip side: pickleball building its own programming.
Pickleball doesn’t really “arrive” globally when more people try it, it arrives when more people can follow it. When there are standings that update weekly, rankings that mean something, teams you start to recognize, and finals pathways you can explain to a friend in one sentence…that’s how casual interest turns into a repeatable product for media, sponsors, and fans.
So consider this issue a little passport stamp, with four circuits you might not know yet.
→ This Week: The other pickleball tours | Defense this good should be studied | Malaysia’s badminton-to-pickleball boom
Beyond the “Big Three”
Photo: WPBL
PICKLEBALL’S EMERGING CIRCUITS
You may have heard that Andre Agassi is launching the World Series of Pickleball out of Las Vegas, positioning it as a new “championship property” built for sponsors, hospitality, and global media distribution.
That got us thinking: beyond the circuits everybody knows like APP, MLP, and PPA Tour, pickleball also has tours and leagues overseas with real rankings, points races, and standings worth following.
Here are four promising series you might not know (but should pay attention to):
1) Europe: RTA Pickleball Tour (the “Road to Finals” model)
RTA feels like a season, not a calendar. Players can enter widely, but only a capped set of results can count (forcing strategic scheduling), and the whole thing ladders into a finals pathway branded around the Arlberg Pickleball Championship (“Road to Arlberg”).
2) Spain: Pickle Pro Tour (federation-backed + public spectacle)
This is Spain’s RFET national circuit, built by B3 Sportainment and it’s deliberately staged in emblematic public spaces with 6–8 stops, more like a traveling sports festival than a club tour. Plan a vacation around one of their tour stops.
3) Canada: CNPL (team league, optimized for viewing)
CNPL is explicitly designed for broadcast: rally scoring to 21 (win by 1), team match formats, and a season built around regional splits + majors.
WPBL leans into “sportainment,” launched as a city-based franchise league with big-venue staging (Brabourne Stadium; now Jio World Garden).
How to tune in: follow the official rankings/standings pages (that’s where the season story lives), and watch streams where offered. CNPL is broadcast on Game+ with matches also on Game+’s YouTube, and Pickle Pro Tour finals have been streamed via the tour’s official YouTube channel.
HAVE YOU SEEN DEFENSE THIS GOOD?
Given our stop in Malaysia this week, we felt it only fitting to include this highlight from a recent match there demonstrating one of the best displays of defense we’ve ever seen.
It takes touch to reset a fast ball, like the player on the ground does…but even more so to do it from that position. Clean, calm, under control.
The Foam Paddle That Feels Like It’s Listening
Some full-foam paddles feel like trampolines. The RPM Q2 is not one of them.
This surprise release just dropped, and RPM is keeping it tight: pre-order is open, but the first run is limited.
Co-developed with paddle nerd-in-chief John Kew, the Q2 dials in foam density, CarbonBite surface grit, and perimeter/neck inserts so the paddle stays stable, applies spin like crazy, and doesn’t send balls flying when you miss the dead center.
Drives jump, rolls bite, and kitchen hands feel connected instead of hollow. If you’re going to blame your gear, at least upgrade it first.
Use code clinic15 for 15% off your order.
Number You Should Know
143,000
That’s the reported number of active users on Malaysia’s Reclub app, a proxy for how big (and how digitally organized) the local scene has become.
Source: The Star.
BADMINTON NATION, PICKLEBALL BOOM
If pickleball is a social sport anywhere, it’s Malaysia: fast bookings, faster group chats, and packed nights are the norm there.
Organizing chair Marc Chua says participation has reached true national scale, and a huge share of the scene is organized digitally. The Star notes Malaysia has over 143,000 active users on the Reclub app, and demand is converting badminton and tennis spaces into pickleball lines faster than purpose-built facilities can keep up.
Outside Kuala Lumpur, the boom is just as real, with Penang alone now packed with venues and courts.
The most Malaysian twist is that badminton icons are helping legitimize (and build) the sport, with Olympian Goh Liu Ying playing and Chan Peng Soon backing a major center.
The Bulletin Board
Interesting tidbits from within the pickleball community:
NEXT WEEK…
Can you guess where we’re headed? Respond to this email with your guess. First one to get it right will receive something nice!
Here’s a hint:
Letter from the Editor
THE STANDINGS ARE THE STORY
When we talk about pickleball “growth,” we usually mean more courts, more paddles, more people trying it. But there’s another kind of growth that matters just as much: the sport becoming followable.
That’s what caught my eye this week with Andre Agassi’s World Series of Pickleball news; not just the celebrity gravity, but the idea of pickleball as a “championship property.” That’s basically code for: a season you can track, a product you can package, and a storyline that travels.
That’s already happening outside the Big Three. Tours and leagues in Europe, Spain, Canada, and India are building the kind of structure that turns a fast-growing sport into a habit: rankings pages, points races, team tables, finals pathways.
So here’s a tiny challenge for this week: don’t just watch highlights, follow one standings page.
Do not hesitate to email Adam or connect with him on LinkedIn with questions, concerns, or story ideas!
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