If you’ve tried to follow pro pickleball and felt lost in an alphabet soup of PPA, MLP, UPA, and APP, you’re not alone. Here’s the whole landscape in plain English, current as of the 2026 season.
Who runs pro pickleball now?
Until 2024, two companies were fighting an open war for the sport: the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball. They signed competing player contracts, scheduled events on top of each other, and forced pros to choose sides. Then they merged. The combined entity is the United Pickleball Association (UPA), and it now owns both properties. Each keeps its own name and identity, but they share ownership, scheduling, and a pool of contracted players — which is why the top names now appear on both.
What is the PPA Tour?
The Carvana PPA Tour, founded in 2019, is the individual-competition circuit — the closest thing pickleball has to the ATP or PGA Tour. Players compete as individuals (or with a doubles partner) across three disciplines: men’s and women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. It runs a full calendar of tournaments across the country, each with a bracket that crowns champions in every discipline. This is where you watch the best players in the world go head-to-head to settle who’s actually number one. If you want to follow a specific star through a weekend draw, the PPA Tour is your circuit.
What is Major League Pickleball (MLP)?
MLP is the completely different, team-based half of the sport — think NBA or MLB, but pickleball. Instead of individuals, city and brand franchises each roster four players (two men, two women) who compete in a mix of men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed, with a fast tiebreaker format deciding close matches. The 2026 MLP season features more than 100 athletes across 23 teams, running a regular season, a mid-season tournament, and an expanded three-week playoff from May through August. It’s built for a live, loud, fan-experience event rather than a quiet golf-style gallery. We break the format down fully in our MLP guide.
So where does APP fit in?
The APP (Association of Pickleball Players) is a separate tour that sits outside the UPA umbrella. It runs its own tournaments and has historically been a strong platform for amateurs, seniors, and up-and-coming pros, plus some sanctioned events. It’s a real and active part of the ecosystem, but it’s not part of the PPA/MLP merger. So the mental model is: UPA owns PPA + MLP, and APP is the independent third circuit.
How do the two UPA tours fit together?
The merger’s whole point was to stop the two from cannibalizing each other. In practice the calendar now alternates: blocks of PPA Tour tournament weekends interspersed with the MLP team season in the summer. A top pro might play PPA singles and doubles one weekend, then represent their MLP franchise a few weeks later. For a fan, that means you don’t have to pick a side anymore — following “pro pickleball” now means following one connected schedule with two different flavors: individual gladiator matches (PPA) and team-vs-team drama (MLP).
Where can you watch?
Coverage has grown fast. PPA Tour and MLP events stream across broadcast and streaming partners, with marquee matches landing on major networks and the rest on the tours’ own channels and YouTube. Schedules, brackets, and live scores live on the official sites — ppatour.com and majorleaguepickleball.co. We’ll round up the results and storylines that matter right here in the Pro Corner so you don’t have to track five sites.
How did we get here? A quick history
Understanding today’s structure is easier if you know the fight that produced it. In the early 2020s, as money poured into pickleball, two organizations raced to control the pro game. The PPA Tour locked top players into exclusive contracts and built a polished tournament circuit. Major League Pickleball, backed by a group of high-profile investors and team owners, countered with the team-league model and its own player deals. For a stretch, pros were literally forced to pick a side, events were scheduled on top of each other, and the sport’s energy was split. The 2024 merger under the United Pickleball Association ended that cold war — not by one side winning, but by folding both into a single company. That’s why, if you read older articles, you’ll see the two described as bitter rivals; that framing is now out of date.
Which one should a new fan follow first?
If you’re just getting into watching, start with whichever format matches how you like to consume sports. Prefer individual drama and clear stakes — one player chasing a title, head-to-head rivalries, a bracket that narrows to a champion? The PPA Tour is your entry point, and following one or two players through a weekend is the easiest way in. Prefer team energy, short swingy matches, and a season-long story with standings and playoffs? Start with MLP, pick a franchise, and ride the summer. Most serious fans end up following both, because the same stars appear in each — you just watch them in two very different competitive settings.
What about the amateurs and other tours?
The pro game sits on top of a much larger pyramid. Below the touring pros, the APP and sanctioned amateur events give club players real competition and a path upward, and USA Pickleball governs the rulebook and official ratings the whole sport runs on. If you’re a recreational player wondering how the pros relate to your Saturday games, the answer is: the same rules, the same skills, a different altitude. Curious where you’d land? Our ratings guide explains the ladder from 2.0 beginner to 5.0-plus pro, and how DUPR — the rating system the pros use — actually works.
Frequently asked questions
Did the PPA and MLP really merge?
Yes. In 2024 the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball merged under a new parent company, the United Pickleball Association (UPA). Both tours still run under their own names, but they share ownership and scheduling.
What is the difference between the PPA Tour and MLP?
The PPA Tour is individual competition — singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in tournament brackets. MLP is a team league where city and brand franchises of four players compete against each other.
Is the APP part of the PPA?
No. The APP (Association of Pickleball Players) is a separate tour that is not part of the UPA/PPA/MLP group. It runs its own independent tournaments.
Who is the best pro pickleball player?
Ben Johns has been the dominant men’s player for years, and Anna Leigh Waters leads the women’s game. Rankings shift through the season, so check the official PPA Tour rankings for the current order.
Where can I watch pro pickleball?
PPA Tour and MLP events stream on broadcast and streaming partners plus the tours’ own channels. Schedules and live scores are on ppatour.com and majorleaguepickleball.co.