Pickleball Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball over a net until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played i ...

, a paddle sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis, was invented in the United States in 1965, on

Bainbridge Island Bainbridge Island is a city and island in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is located in Puget Sound. The population was 24,825 at the 2020 census, making Bainbridge Island the second largest city in Kitsap County. The island is se ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. Labeled the fastest growing sport in the United States since 2021, the sport is rapidly gaining popularity in Australia. In September 2024 AusPlay, a report issued by Australia's Clearinghouse for Sport, in coordination with the

Australian Sports Commission The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is the Australian Government commission responsible for supporting and investing in sport in Australia. The Commission incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport. From 2018 to 2022, it was known as S ...

, found that as of June 2024 over 92,000 Australians had played the sport in the previous year. Trilogy Funds, the

title sponsor Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

for the 2024 Australian pickleball championships, declared pickleball as, "Australia's fastest growing sport".

History

The first time pickleball is known to have been played in Australia was in 2010 in the

Sunshine Coast Region The Sunshine Coast Region is a local government area located in the Sunshine Coast region of South East Queensland, Australia, from which it takes its name. It was created by the amalgamation in 2008 of the City of Caloundra and the Shires o ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, but it wasn't until 2015 that the sport started to be taken more seriously. The first purpose-built Australian pickleball courts were installed in 2016, in

Caboolture, Queensland Caboolture () is a town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. It is located on the northern side of the Caboolture River. In the , the suburb of Caboolture had a population of 29,534 p ...

, with the first pickleball association, the Pickleball Association of Australia (PAA), formed in 2017. The original Pickleball Association of Australia was renamed the Pickleball Association of Queensland (PAQ) in 2020, when a new Pickleball Association of Australia was formed to act as the national governing body for Australia. From January 24th to the 26th, at the end of the

2025 Australian Open The 2025 Australian Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam level tennis tournament held at Melbourne Park from 12 to 26 January 2025. It was the 113th edition of the Australian Open, the 57th in the Open Era, and the first Grand Slam (tenn ...

tennis tournament, the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

(AO) held its first

AO Pickleball Slam Pickleball, a paddle sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis, was invented in the United States in 1965, on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Labeled the fastest growing sport in the United States since 2021, the sport is ...

tournament with one hundred thousand dollars in prize money.

Governing body

The Pickleball Australia Association (PAA), a

not-for-profit organization A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

, was formed in 2020 to act as a nationwide governing body for pickleball. The PAA held its first ''Pickleball Australia State Member Strategy Conference'' in February 2025. The PAA state members include the following subnational organizations: * Australia Capital Territory - Pickleball Association of the Australian Capital Territory (PACT) *

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

- Pickleball Association New South Wales (PANSW) *

- Pickleball Association of Queensland (PAQ) *

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

- Pickleball South Australia Association (PSAA) *

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

- Pickleball Association Tasmania (PAT) *

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

- Pickleball Victoria (PV) *

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

- Pickleball Association of Western Australia (PAWA) The following reflects the pickleball-related statistics reported in Pickleball Australia's Annual Reports.

Rating system

A rating system assigns each player an individual score based on their skill level. Their skill level can be assessed by evaluating the player against a standard table of progressively harder skills, or assigned using an

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...

based on actual game results. In March 2025 the PAA announced that the

Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating This list of pickleball organizations identifies key organizations around the world that promote or support the sport of pickleball. USA Pickleball USA Pickleball, established in 1984, was the first organization to provide oversight of the spor ...

system (DUPR), would be the official rating system for all PAA sanctioned tournaments.

Ranking system

ranking system A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

lists all players, or teams, in a hierarchical order based on accumulated points they earn at each tournament they play. In 2024 the PAA implemented its first nation-wide pickleball ranking system and revised it in 2025. Each PAA sanctioned tournament is assigned a tier level, 1 through 6, and each tier level awards points to players based on their placement in the tournament. The higher the tier, the more points that are available.

Professional pickleball tours and leagues

National Pickleball League Australia

The National Pickleball League Australia (NPLA) was established in January 2023, with its inaugural tournament held in July 2023 on the Gold Coast. The NPLA's first full season started in March 2024 with 18 teams across 3 states, each team having 6 players (3 men and 3 women). The competitions consisted of a specialized team format called NPLeague with a total prize of $100,000. The finals for season 1 were held in June 2023 with the Jalapenos of Victoria winning the $50,000 top prize. The Season 2 NPLA finals was won by the Queensland Caterpillars in November 2024. On October 23, 2024, it was announced that the NPLA would be the exclusive

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

league and tournament provider for

Pickleball World Rankings Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball over a net until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played i ...

(PWR). NPLA tournaments will be incorporated into the PWR World Tour where participants can earn points to qualify for the PWR World Series.

Major League Pickleball Australia

''Pacific Pickleball'', and the ''Pacific Pickleball League'', were founded by Adam Thompson and

Anthony Liveris Anthony Liveris (born 2 February 1992) is an Australian businessman and CEO of the biotechnology incubator, Proto Axiom. Anthony is the son of former CEO and chairman of The Dow Chemical Company Andrew Liveris. Early life and education Liv ...

. In September 2023, shortly after the Pacific Pickleball League was established, the organization worked out a cooperative agreement with

Major League Pickleball Pickleball, a paddle sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis, was invented in the United States in 1965, on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Since its introduction the sport has steadily increased in popularity. In 2022, ...

in the United States, and the Pacific Pickleball League was rebranded ''Major League Pickleball Australia'' (MLPA). All games are played following the

MLP team format Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball over a net until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played i ...

established by the MLP in the United States. Pacific Pickleball continued to operate the Australian Open and Masters pickleball tournaments following the traditional tour format.

PPA Tour Australia

In February 2024 the Pacific Pickleball organization was itself rebranded as the ''PPA Tour Australia'' after reaching an official partnership with the Professional Pickleball Association Tour in the United States.

Other tournaments

Australian Pickleball Championships

The Australian Pickleball Championships (APC) have been held since 2018, except 2020 and 2021, when the event was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

AO Pickleball Slam

Professional pickleball made its first appearance at the

in 2025 with a $100,000 prize purse. The

invitational tournament An invitational is a competition where only invited competitors may participate. Invitational can also refer to: Sport * Invitational tournament College sports * National Invitational Tournament, a U.S. men's college basketball tournament ...

had a total of 24 players, including many of Australia's top pros, as well as select international players. A team-based format with two men and two women on each team was used, with a total of six teams. Team names were selected from

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

's most popular laneways.

Popular culture

In 2024 Australia-owned

Moose Toys Moose Toys, also known as Moose Enterprises or The Moose Group, is an Australian-owned toy design, development, and distribution company founded in 1985 by Brian Hamersfeld. The company is headquartered Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia, has over ...

began selling Pickleball Blast, a table-top game inspired by the sport of pickleball. The two-player children's game requires players to use a hand-held mechanical paddle to hit a plastic pickle back and forth over a net while trying to flip the lids of the opponent's pickle jars.

Pickleball Rules In Australia

Pickleball in Australia is governed by the Pickleball Australia Association (PAA), which aligns its rules and regulations with the Global Pickleball Federation's standards. The official rules are detailed in their Pickleball Rulebook, accessible through the PAA's website. You can also find a more simpl
guide to pickleball rules in Australia
on the PAA's website.

References

External links

Pickleball Australia Association
home page. {{Sports governing bodies in Australia