Opportunities in Pickleball?

[The Sandman]

What pickleball needs is a quiet ball so it stops sounding so bloody obnoxious.

 

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[Runum]

If you haven't noticed, Pickeball has picking up steam and is growing as a sport. It looks like it won't be a trend, and more of an emerging industry that will be here to stay.

Tom Brady and Lebron recently bought into pro teams.

In my state, local cities are rushing to convert tennis courts and/or add pickleball courts to meet increasing demand.
Indoor pickleball arenas are popping up all over the place here in my county, S of SLC.


Via the DailyUpside

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What opportunities could present itself in this space?

I would think the overhead on indoor court rentals would be pretty low and not capital intense other than commercial space, like the self-storage industry.

Your thoughts?

I've played pickleball and enjoy it. It's a great workout, and generally better for the joints than tennis.

Looks like 4000 people are coming to my area to play this weekend,

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[biophase]

Just got a new dexa scan. Between May and Nov this year, I drop 4.5lbs of fat and maintained muscle. All from playing doubles pickleball 5X a week, not changing my diet at all.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

 

[biophase]

Played pickleball at an huge indoor facility. When you have a good rally if you go press a save button next to the court, it automatically saves the last 30 seconds and adds it to your account. So when you come home you can watch all your awesome plays!

Really cool feature to save and watch fun points.

Take a look at this upsell, you can watch more replays by paying for them. Ingenious!

 

[StrikingViper69]

Played pickleball at an huge indoor facility. When you have a good rally if you go press a save button next to the court, it automatically saves the last 30 seconds and adds it to your account. So when you come home you can watch all your awesome plays!

Really cool feature to save and watch fun points.

Take a look at this upsell, you can watch more replays by paying for them. Ingenious!

View attachment 55565

That’s a genius idea.

And so simple.

It reminds me of the photographer studio model, paying for extra photos

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Played pickleball at an huge indoor facility. When you have a good rally if you go press a save button next to the court, it automatically saves the last 30 seconds and adds it to your account. So when you come home you can watch all your awesome plays!

Really cool feature to save and watch fun points.

Take a look at this upsell, you can watch more replays by paying for them. Ingenious!

View attachment 55565

Where's the video of the great volley!

Is this in the Vegas metro?

 

[ThomasTLM]

View attachment 54687

This is wild. I remember being taught how to play pickleball in gym class back in 2015 during my freshman year of HS, and wondering why we were learning this random sport.

About a week ago my wife went on a walk in the park in our small town. The park just recently build a few pickleball courts, and now my wife wants to play. It sounds like a ton of fun so we are looking into getting some equipment to play this summer.

But seeing this chart is crazy. I can't believe how much this simple sport has exploded in popularity. I'm definitely going to put my "problemologist" hat on when we start playing.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The park just recently build a few pickleball courts, and now my wife wants to play. It sounds like a ton of fun so we are looking into getting some equipment to play this summer.

I consider my wife a longevity expert; she literally has consumed 1000s of hours of expert testimony from people who study long, healthy life. She ventures into all types of echo chambers in search of truth (the proverbial vegan eavesdropping in the carnivore camp and vice versa).

In her study, she said pickleball is one of the best sports for longevity as it promotes breathlessness, quick movements in short bursts (fast-twitch muscle), and is not that rough on the joints. It also usually is played outdoors.

 

[ThomasTLM]

Last Thursday, my wife and I played Pickleball with a few friends. It was the first time I had played it in almost 9 years since HS gym class.

It is so much fun to play. I can understand why it had grown in so much popularity. It is a somewhat low-effort sport, but still forces you to move and think quickly. Each volley happens quite rapidly, so if you aren't playing attention you will miss your time to strike the ball.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Last Thursday, my wife and I played Pickleball with a few friends. It was the first time I had played it in almost 9 years since HS gym class.

It is so much fun to play. I can understand why it had grown in so much popularity. It is a somewhat low-effort sport, but still forces you to move and think quickly. Each volley happens quite rapidly, so if you aren't playing attention you will miss your time to strike the ball.

As you get older, fast-twitch muscle fibers are the first to deteriorate, this is why old people fall and break hips.

Pickleball is the antidote as it requires quick movements which keep fast-twitch muscles active, and they also will help you avoid falling when you get to your 70s and beyond.

 

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[ThomasTLM]

they also will help you avoid falling when you get to your 70s and beyond.

I am very clumsy (along with my entire family) so hopefully this helps!

 

[Bounce Back]

Interesting concept I saw last week or so when walking around a mall: Pickleball At The Mall | San Juan

It didn't seem very expensive to set up - it looked like they just plopped it in an ex-retail spot. Perhaps a business idea for someone to replicate. It was packed in the middle of the week / middle of the day.

 

[bc0510]

Pickleball is getting big recognition at the world level. I recently started playing pickleball and I truly say "It's an addiction". I used to play tennis in the past but it got me so many injuries and you always have fewer tennis players around. Pickleball is something that anybody can start at any age and an play really good. In the Cayman Islands, a private business recently launched a pickleball club with 24 courts, one restaurant/bar, play area. This club is now the most famous club on the island. It made a world record for the highest number of members (8000 members). I see lots of opportunities in pickleball sports and I still think it is going to grow more and more in the coming years. The new business idea could be
1. Manufacturing (paddles, balls, accessories)
2. Shoes, sunglasses, and many other products
3. Services
4. Food
5. Training
and many more

Here, in the Cayman Islands, we do not have any big sports supply, no Amazon or Best Buy. All the products we import from US/China and other parts of the world.

What are your thoughts about Pickleball sports and opportunities?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Pickleball is getting big recognition at the world level. I recently started playing pickleball and I truly say "It's an addiction". I used to play tennis in the past but it got me so many injuries and you always have fewer tennis players around. Pickleball is something that anybody can start at any age and an play really good. In the Cayman Islands, a private business recently launched a pickleball club with 24 courts, one restaurant/bar, play area. This club is now the most famous club on the island. It made a world record for the highest number of members (8000 members). I see lots of opportunities in pickleball sports and I still think it is going to grow more and more in the coming years. The new business idea could be
1. Manufacturing (paddles, balls, accessories)
2. Shoes, sunglasses, and many other products
3. Services
4. Food
5. Training
and many more

Here, in the Cayman Islands, we do not have any big sports supply, no Amazon or Best Buy. All the products we import from US/China and other parts of the world.

What are your thoughts about Pickleball sports and opportunities?

Moved to an existing thread, we started talking about it a few years ago!

 

[TheLearner]

It is wildly popular around me, I can go to the local high school on a Monday evening and there are people playing pick up games of pickleball. It is a great way to meet people too!

 

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[PursueLiberty]

Prediction was on point MJ, it's already becoming huge here in The Netherlands in the form of paddle. Some entrepeneurs picked up on this and opened indoor halls, for which as far as I know it's pretty hard to book a spot last minute in the big cities. A lot of younger students are playing together as well, not for golden oldies only. I wonder if it's here to stay.

 

[bc0510]

Moved to an existing thread, we started talking about it a few years ago!

What I am finding today you had already dug that years ago..

 

[biophase]

What I am finding today you had already dug that years ago..

I went to Europe this past summer, Czech Republic and Vienna. Found a pickleball Facebook group and the next day was playing pickleball in Prague with 3 expats and a local. Then in Vienna there was pickleball tourney that weekend. We didn’t join because my friends’ wives were like we didn’t come all this way for you guys to play pickleball! Lol

 

[ResilientRise]

Combining AI/ML opportunities with Pickleball right now is really promising to me, if anybody wants to collaborate let me know!

 

[biophase]

Combining AI/ML opportunities with Pickleball right now is really promising to me, if anybody wants to collaborate let me know!

How so? How does AI fit into pickleball?

 

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[bc0510]

How so? How does AI fit into pickleball?

Oh, you will have 1000s of use cases related to AI. You can use it for training app, match summary, analytics and lots of other things.

 

[John TenBrink]

What opportunities could present itself in this space?

I would think the overhead on indoor court rentals would be pretty low and not capital intense other than commercial space, like the self-storage industry.

Your thoughts?

I've played pickleball and enjoy it. It's a great workout, and generally better for the joints than tennis.

Pickleball is not going away anytime soon, and as the population ages, the growth seems pretty good. Makes me think of what ancillary industries could spawn from the sport and make one a millionaire.

 

[biophase]

Oh, you will have 1000s of use cases related to AI. You can use it for training app, match summary, analytics and lots of other things.

I can see that. I think there’s currently an app that will track all your shots and show close line calls. I believe it uses AI to determine the type of shot, whether it’s a dink or drop or drive.

 

[DeeCof]

I can see that. I think there’s currently an app that will track all your shots and show close line calls. I believe it uses AI to determine the type of shot, whether it’s a dink or drop or drive.

DUPR is the app I know of that is a crowd sourced ranking system. Everyone signs up for the app and then as you play each other you ranking level fills in based on who you played and how you scored.

 

[Private Witt]

There is an interesting property where I'm at in Mexico that was built as a social club. It has a pool, pool table, foosball, bar, restaurant and area for poker and other card games. The concept tanked but one thing, the pickleball court which has lights. They charge 5 bucks to play and the one court is packed all day/night which than has people using the bar and restaurant. It's fun going up having a drink and watching 70 year olds going nuts out there, they love it so much.

 

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[TheLearner]

There is an interesting property where I'm at in Mexico that was built as a social club. It has a pool, pool table, foosball, bar, restaurant and area for poker and other card games. The concept tanked but one thing, the pickleball court which has lights. They charge 5 bucks to play and the one court is packed all day/night which than has people using the bar and restaurant. It's fun going up having a drink and watching 70 year olds going nuts out there, they love it so much.

It’s a great concept, I’ve seen a few clubs/bars open up that are centered around the pick ball courts. It’s fun for an evening, it is easy enough for anyone to play ages 7 to 75.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

It's fun going up having a drink and watching 70 year olds going nuts out there, they love it so much.

They really threaded the needle with it ... its communal, it's easy on the joints, it improves flexibility and reaction times (helps old people from not falling) and its low impact cardio (more so on singles v doubles).

 

[biophase]

DUPR is the app I know of that is a crowd sourced ranking system. Everyone signs up for the app and then as you play each other you ranking level fills in based on who you played and how you scored.

Many places require a DUPR rating to get into more competitive games. The algorithm is very inaccurate at the beginning. I don’t know if they use AI. The only data points they have is opponent and partner DUPR and the game score.

Interestingly, the algo can’t accommodate local skill level so a 4.0 DUPR player from Scottsdale can be much better than a 4.0 from Chicago.

Then when they play and intermix the algo gets balanced a little.

 

[Xeon]

How is pickleball different than badminton other than the racket? lol If you play badminton casually, it's the same as pickleball.