India’s pickleball mania is not just that, an ecosystem is taking shape

Invented as a backyard game for kids in 1960s America, pickleball remained largely under-discovered until the pandemic. It finally took off in the US post-2020, thanks to its simplicity, short game duration, and growing patronage from celebrities. Prominent Hollywood entertainers such as Selena Gomez, Ellen DeGeneres, Emma Watson, and Leonardo Di Caprio, and top-tier sportspersons, including Andre Agassi, Serena Williams, LeBron James, and Michael Phelps have all dabbled in the sport—a blend of tennis, badminton and table tennis—turning it into a global phenomenon.

In India, pickleball has particularly blown up over the last 12-15 months, with the number of active players reaching ~60,000 by the end of 2024. If the not-so-active players who’ve played at least one game are accounted for, that number ticks up to nearly 100,000. From kids and teens to the middle-aged and retired, everyone seems to be warming up to the recreational sport that is not only gentle on the joints but also ensures a good cardio session and some healthy socialising.

The number of operational pickleball courts in India has also surged from ~200 in early 2024 to over 1,200 today, with 3-4 new courts coming up every week in cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Surat, according to multiple facility operators, startups, investors, league organisers, and pickleball association executives The CapTable spoke to.

“In the last 8-9 months, a new facility has opened up every week. Supply is falling short of demand now. There are courts coming up even in Tier-4 towns like Sangli in Maharashtra and Pathankot in Punjab,” Ujwal Deole, co-founder & COO of KheloMore, a sports venue booking and coaching platform, tells The CapTable.

On KheloMore, which was founded by former Indian cricketer Jatin Paranjpe, pickleball court listings have shot up 6X-7X in the last 10-odd months. Bookings, too, are growing 2X-3X month-on-month. “We’ve seen the highest growth in bookings from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Gujarat, and Pune, with the next wave of growth coming in from Hyderabad and Kolkata. Chennai is also catching up fast now. We’re looking at India having about 2,500 courts in the next 2-3 years, considering all markets and 50 cities,” Deole shares.

According to estimates from the All India Pickleball Association (AIPA)—the sole governing body of the sport in India—there will be one million active players in the country by 2028, and pickleball could well become an Olympic sport by 2036. (Globally, there are an estimated five million players across 84 countries).