Are you thinking about getting rich trying to be a pro pickleball player?
OK, well, better think pretty hard about it.
Pickleball is new and popular and, to some extent, uncharted, so the possibilities to make money as a pro are wide and varied, but unlike traditional sports like football, basketball, baseball, and even tennis, not very many pro pickleball players are making a lot of money.
How Do Professional Pickleball Players Make Money?
The earnings of professional pickleball players can vary significantly depending on their skill level, tournament results, sponsorship deals, and other factors.
Let’s go through the factors that would be considered important to making money at pickleball.
First of all, you have to be highly skilled. The more you win, the more money you can make. There are a variety of tours, including the PPA and Major League Pickleball, but they, for the most part, are performance-based.
In other words, if you don’t win a lot, you won’t make a lot. Typically first place through fifth place is paid. Some levels of professional pickleball also offer appearance fees, but those only come to players who have demonstrated the highest level of pickleball skill as well as players who have marketability or other factors which make them popular among fans, sponsors, and tournament directors.
Players who don’t win on a regular occasion will find it hard to make a living at pickleball. Unlike the major professional sports, contracts aren’t long-term, so there’s no guarantee of sustainable money for years at a time.
In major pickleball tournaments, the prize money for professionals has been steadily increasing. In 2021, some of the top tournaments offered total prize purses ranging from $25,000 to $100,000, with the winners of the men’s and women’s divisions typically receiving the largest shares. These dollar figures will certainly increase as pickleball continues to get more popular.
The PPA Tour will distribute $5.5 million this season, which is spread across 25 events. That’s 80 percent more than the tour paid out last season, so the money is increasing.
According to ZipRecruiter, most professional players are earning between $29,500 and $52,000 per year. Only about 10 percent of players are making more than $80,000.
And the good news is, there are more entry points for people to make money than ever before.
Thanks to the popularity of the sport, television networks are more apt to broadcast pickleball. That means more money is being poured into the sport and that means, ultimately, more money can be paid out. In addition, internet streams with thousands of viewers per tournament are putting more eyes on the sport, so even if a player isn’t the most-prolific winner, that same player could possibly draw more money from sponsors and the like for personality, swagger, and attitude.
Personality goes a long way. Winning goes a long way, too. Sponsorships are based on both. You win enough, people will find you and want you to represent their company. If you have a strong enough personality it can help drive people toward a product.
A lot of pro pickleball players on the PPA Tour have podcasts and a strong social media presence. Travis Rettenmaier, Zane Navratil, James Ignatwowich, and Anna Bright are just some of the names who are regularly out in the social media world.
Those kinds of activities tend to interest sponsors and that’s an excellent way to supplement salary as well as cut down on costs for tournaments, equipment, and more.
Some pros are earning as much as $80,000 per year in sponsorship deals. This includes earnings from product endorsements.
Another way pros make money, and it’s a lucrative business, is by giving lessons and doing clinics. The PPA has dozens of events throughout the country so it’s not uncommon to see players traveling to these tournaments and running drills and clinics for the locals.
Some can charge more than $100 per hour for lessons and several hundred dollars for multi-hour clinics.
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