Apollo leads $225M investment, creating Pickleball Inc. parent company

Apollo Sports Capital has led a $225 million structured investment in Pickleball Inc., a newly formed parent company that will house the Carvana PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball presented by DoorDash, according to the company's announcement¹. The deal consolidates what Pickleball Inc. is calling the largest singularly-operated pickleball ecosystem in the sport¹.

Tom Dundon and the Pardoe family will remain majority shareholders, rolling in additional pickleball assets that span facilities, courts, ecommerce, and technology¹. Apollo's capital comes through its Apollo Sports Capital platform, an arm of Apollo (NYSE: APO)¹. The announcement does not disclose Apollo's equity stake or the specific terms of the structured investment.

The combined business verticals generated more than $140 million in 2025 revenue, according to the company¹. Beyond the two pro tours, Pickleball Inc.'s portfolio includes Pickleball Play Solutions (software), Just Courts (court construction), Pickleball.com and Pickleball TV (media), and investments in Picklr and DUPR, the rating system that the company says now counts more than one million rated players¹.

The five-person board will be made up of Apollo Sports Capital CEO Al Tylis, PPA Tour founder and new Pickleball Inc. CEO Connor Pardoe, Jason Stein, Zubin Mehta, and Brian Levine¹.

"This is a seismic day for the rapidly growing business of pickleball at all levels," Pardoe said in the announcement. "This investment allows us to fully integrate the sport into one cohesive ecosystem – uniting professional pickleball, consumer goods, technology, and media under a single, unified platform."¹

Tylis framed the transaction as a structural bet on the league model itself. "This is a unique opportunity to support the combination of these assets, effectively reimagining how to create a professional sports league under a single ecosystem and platform for growth," he said¹.

MLP Commissioner Samin Odhwani said the capital will be directed toward content, media, and event infrastructure¹. The company also pointed to its compensation data on the women's side, claiming that the top 60 women average over $260,000 in annual salary, which it characterized as the highest average pay in professional women's team sports¹. That figure is sourced from the company itself and was not independently verified.

Citing the 2026 SFIA Annual Report, Pickleball Inc. said pickleball reached 24 million players in 2025 and is now the fourth-most played sport in the United States¹.