Pickleball once dismissed as a recreational curiosity from American retirement communities has found an unlikely new frontier: urban India.
Over the past five years, the sport has exploded across cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune, turning apartment terraces, school courtyards, and unused tennis courts into miniature battlegrounds of plastic balls and paddles. With over 50,000 active players, India now ranks among the five fastest-growing pickleball markets in the world, alongside the United States, Canada, Thailand, and the Philippines. But behind the optimistic growth metrics lies a deeper story one of rapid commercialization, institutional conflict, and the sport’s uncertain path toward global legitimacy and Olympic inclusion.
The Economic Engine Behind the Boom
The secret to pickleball’s Indian rise lies not in celebrity endorsements or televised leagues, but in something much simpler: economics.
Building a standard pickleball court in India costs between ₹3–5 lakhs, a fraction of what it takes to set up a badminton court (₹15–18 lakhs). The game requires minimal space, limited maintenance, and versatile surfaces making it perfectly suited for India’s space-scarce urban centers.
This low-cost scalability has triggered what market analysts call the “high-density, low-CAPEX model” an irresistible proposition for entrepreneurs. In cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru, private operators report investment recovery within three months of launching courts. It’s a rare example of a sport functioning as both an athletic and a real estate venture.
The result is a dizzying expansion: India now has over 500 active courts, with 40–50 new courts being added each month. From gated housing complexes to repurposed school grounds, the sport’s footprint has widened faster than any other racket sport in the country’s history.
The Social Side of Success: Pickleball for Everyone
Pickleball’s design a fusion of tennis, badminton, and table tennis is deliberately democratic. The smaller court and slower pace make it accessible to older players, while its tactical depth appeals to younger, competitive athletes. At the IPA Nationals, players as young as 12 and as old as 65 share the same courts in different categories, something no other racket sport in India can claim. The sport’s “all-age, all-fitness” appeal has been critical to its organic expansion.
Corporate wellness programs have also taken notice. Tech parks in Pune and Gurugram have begun adding pickleball courts as part of employee recreation infrastructure, citing its low injury risk and high social engagement value. This mix of accessibility, inclusivity, and profitability has given pickleball a unique dual identity a sport and a lifestyle business.
A Market Divided: The League Wars
If grassroots pickleball is a story of growth, professional pickleball in India is a case study in chaos.
Two parallel professional leagues the World Pickleball League (WPBL) and the Indian Pickleball League (IPBL/PWR) are locked in a battle for legitimacy, money, and control.
World Pickleball League (WPBL): The Player’s League, promoted by Natekar Sports and Gaming, headed by former Davis Cupper and Arjuna Awardee Gaurav Natekar, the WPBL has the credibility of athletes and a clear development structure. Its debut edition at Mumbai’s Cricket Club of India (CCI) in early 2025 featured six franchises (Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, and Bengaluru) with a commitment to mandatory Indian and junior player inclusion.
The WPBL’s ongoing “On Tour” program, which spans 57 outreach events, including 24 women-first tournaments, positions it as a league trying to build from the grassroots upward.
Indian Pickleball League (IPBL/PWR): The Corporate Giant, on the other hand, the IPBL/PWR, backed by The Times Group, claims to be the “official” Indian league sanctioned by the Indian Pickleball Association (IPA) — the recently recognized governing body. The league’s logo was unveiled with Bollywood fanfare at the 70th Filmfare Awards in Mumbai, promising a $15 million prize pool and global superstars.
With no tournament held and repeated postponements since January 2025, IPBL’s credibility is collapsing — leaving players, sponsors, and fans wary of the entire professional ecosystem.
In short, the very success that was supposed to take pickleball mainstream has become a warning about India’s fragile sports governance.
The Governance Crisis: AIPA vs IPA
Beneath the league wars lies an even deeper institutional fault line: the civil war between two governing bodies the All India Pickleball Association (AIPA) and the Indian Pickleball Association (IPA).
The AIPA, founded in 2008 by Sunil Valavalkar, is India’s original pickleball federation and was among the founding members of the International Federation of Pickleball (IFP). For over a decade, it led national championships and helped establish India as an early Asian hub for the sport. But in April 2025, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) formally recognized a rival body the Indian Pickleball Association (IPA) as the official national authority.
This government recognition gave the IPA control over official grants, school-level inclusion, and national event sanctioning but triggered fierce resistance from AIPA, which called the move “unlawful and politically motivated.” AIPA has since approached the Delhi High Court, which has directed the Ministry to produce all documents related to the recognition decision.
The outcome will determine who represents India internationally a critical decision, since the global governing bodies themselves are in the midst of their own reorganization under the Unified World Pickleball Federation (UWPF). Until the legal dispute is resolved, every domestic tournament and professional league in India operates under a cloud of uncertainty.
The Global Game: Pickleball’s Olympic Ambition
Globally, pickleball is no longer a backyard pastime it’s becoming an international movement.
The sport now has over 5 million players across 84 countries, with the United States accounting for nearly 2 million participants a 311% growth since 2021. North America remains its commercial core, but the real engine of expansion is now Asia, where participation has surged across India, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
India’s rise is strategically vital for the sport’s global legitimacy. The country’s player growth has helped the UWPF (formed after the merger of the International Pickleball Federation and World Pickleball Federation in 2025) reach 77 recognized member nations just over the IOC’s universality threshold of 75 countries needed for men’s inclusion in the Olympic program.
But there’s a catch: Olympic recognition isn’t just about popularity.
The Olympic Hurdles: Compliance Over Hype
To qualify for Olympic inclusion, a sport must satisfy three key IOC requirements:
- WADA Compliance: The sport must adopt and enforce the World Anti-Doping Code.
→ Pickleball currently does not. - Universality: Played by men in at least 75 countries and women in at least 40.
→ The UWPF meets the men’s count (77 nations) but lacks verified competitive depth across continents for women. - Timing: A sport must be approved seven years before the Games it wants to enter.
Given these timelines, Los Angeles 2028 is impossible. Even Brisbane 2032 is highly optimistic. Most analysts forecast 2036 as the earliest realistic Olympic debut assuming WADA compliance and continued global growth. That may sound distant, but for investors and national associations, it provides a clear decadal horizon for structured planning and commercial scaling.
Investment, Risk, and the Way Forward
For investors, India’s pickleball boom presents both extraordinary opportunity and extraordinary risk. On one hand, it’s a high-yield, low-capital market. Setting up courts offers fast ROI, community engagement, and potential tie-ins with real estate and hospitality sectors. On the other, governance instability from league corruption to legal disputes demands caution.
Analysts recommend a “ground-up” investment strategy:
- Focus capital on infrastructure development and grassroots academies, not speculative franchise leagues.
- Partner with credible organizations like WPBL or AIPA-affiliated circuits that emphasize youth and women’s participation.
- Implement strict fund control mechanisms and international auditing standards to rebuild trust with global players and brands.
If executed correctly, India’s market could easily cross 200,000 players by 2030 positioning it as a top-three global hub behind the US and China. Pickleball’s story in India mirrors that of the country’s sports economy itself dynamic, ambitious, and chaotic.
It thrives because it fits India’s realities limited space, rising disposable incomes, and a hunger for new recreation. It struggles because it also reflects India’s weaknesses fragmented governance, short-term profiteering, and weak institutional oversight. The road to the Olympics may take another decade, but the opportunity is here and now: to stabilize governance, protect player rights, and turn pickleball’s popularity into a professionally sustainable ecosystem.
If India can achieve that, it won’t just be a fast-growing market it could become the Asian anchor of pickleball’s global revolution.
