Midway through its inaugural season, the Premier Pickleball League (PPL) is shaping up to be an exciting and competitive showcase of some of the best pickleball talent nationwide.
The PPL, sponsored by Franklin, sees teams compete over six best-of-three matches to 15 in men’s singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles. If teams are tied at 3-3 after these matches a dreambreaker singles is played.
There are six teams in the league and each team plays each other twice throughout the league season. Standings from the league will determine teams’ seedings for the play-offs and championship match at the end of the season.
Edward Hares, one of the league’s creators, said he is “really happy with how the league’s gone so far.” He added: “Everything is still really tight, it’s very exciting.”
Edward said he and his PPL co-founders went on to say ‘players have loved the chance to play’ saying he has have taken the most pleasure in how the individuals have bonded within their teams. He said: “I didn’t realise how much teams would get behind it in terms of the social aspect.”
Plans have already started to formulate for beyond the end of this inaugural season. He explained: “There is potential for a greater number of teams in following seasons and a greater number of leagues, with a lower tier leading into the league.”
The PPL provides the potential for the top players in the country to be pitted against one another on a more regular basis. Up until now, Edward says, most activity in England has been focused on growing grassroots participation. “That is completely fair enough because it’s a completely new evolving sport, but we think it’s also about time that there should be some focus on trying to grow the professional side of the game as well.”
An expansion of both teams and leagues offers the perfect opportunity for this, as it provides the scope for greater coverage and showcase of the best pickleball talents that England has to offer.
Edward is also keen to implement better live streaming coverage and “create something that can be a viable product for broadcast” in the same way that Major League Pickleball (MLP) has appeared on ESPN and Amazon Prime. So far, the English PPL has encountered problems with connectivity at match venues.
With the help Sam Anderson, the live streaming has more recently got back on track and has included commentary, garnering a few thousand views.
PPL are also keen to coincide their fixtures with pickleball festivals around the country in a bid to increase their profile and bring a higher level of atmosphere and support to their events.
July’s fixture in Norwich coincided with a pickleball festival which had 75 recreational competitors enjoying the sport across 10 courts. This meant that when PPL fixtures took place, there were around 150 people with a good atmosphere.
Just like the sport itself, Premier League Pickleball has got off to a flying start and its profile and popularity is only heading in one direction.
