Apollo Sports Capital invests $225M into Pickleball Inc., the new parent of PPA Tour and MLP

On May 1, 2026, Pickleball Inc. announced a $225 million structured investment led by Apollo Sports Capital, with co-investment from Dundon Capital Partners. The deal makes Pickleball Inc. the parent company of the Carvana PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball, plus a portfolio of assets previously held by Tom Dundon (Pickleball Central, PickleballTournaments.com, Just Courts). It is the largest single financial move in the sport's history.

The numbers, cross-reported across CNBC, CBS News, Yahoo Sports, and confirmed in the PPA Tour primary-source announcement:

• $225 million: the new investment, structured, led by Apollo Sports Capital (CEO Al Tylis).
• $315 million: total capital raised by Pickleball Inc. to date, including this round.
• $750 million: implied valuation from the round.
• $140 million-plus: combined 2025 revenue across the consolidated businesses.
• $60 million: 2025 combined top-line revenue for the MLP plus PPA Tour.
• $30 million: 2025 sponsorship revenue across MLP and PPA.
• $74 million: projected combined MLP+PPA revenue in 2026.
• 791,000: average viewership of the January 2026 PPA broadcast on CBS.
• $260,000: average annual earnings for top 60 women players.

The leadership structure: PPA Tour founder Connor Pardoe stays on as CEO of Pickleball Inc. Tom Dundon (Carolina Hurricanes and Portland Trail Blazers owner, longtime pro-pickleball investor) and the Pardoe family remain majority shareholders. The expanded board now includes Al Tylis (Apollo), Connor Pardoe, Jason Stein, Zubin Mehta, and Brian Levine.

What changes operationally: Pardoe's framing is "fully integrate the sport into one cohesive ecosystem." Under one corporate umbrella now: PPA, MLP, the consumer-goods arm (Pickleball Central, founded 2006), the tournament-platform business (PickleballTournaments.com), the court-construction business (Just Courts), plus the broadcast partnerships (CBS, Tennis Channel, ESPN). The capital is earmarked for further integration at all levels and expansion into content, media, and infrastructure development per the press release.

For rec players, the immediate implication is that pro pickleball just got a real institutional backstop. Apollo is one of the largest alternative-asset managers in the world; their sports-capital arm has been investing across emerging leagues for several years. A $225 million round at a $750 million valuation signals the pro side of the sport is past the experimental phase and into the long-haul-business phase. That stability has knock-on effects for tournament prize pools, broadcast availability, and the general "is pro pickleball going to still be here in five years" question that has hung over the boom.

For the long-term skeptics: the round still requires Pickleball Inc. to hit the projected $74M revenue in 2026 to look reasonable on the multiples. That is a 23% revenue jump on a category that has been growing fast but with the boom decelerating in some segments. The math works if 2026 broadcast viewership keeps climbing and the consumer-goods consolidation produces the synergies the press release claims. It does not work if pro pickleball plateaus.

The Tylis quote: "Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the world... to get to the next level." Pardoe: "This investment allows us to fully integrate the sport into one cohesive ecosystem." Apollo's framing positions this as an emerging-sport play similar to their other recent investments.

For the longer-form context on going pro and how the tour structure works, see our how to go pro guide. We will update this brief as the integration of PPA + MLP under the new parent rolls out.