The National Pickleball League on Wednesday announced a new media deal with CBS Sports – the deal comes just in time for the upcoming 2024 pickleball season and gives the sport some much-deserved national recognition. Head below for more details.
The new partnership between the National Pickleball League and CBS Sports arrives right as the forthcoming 2024 pickleball season is about to begin.
In 2023, the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) crowned pickleball as the fastest-growing sport in America for the third consecutive year in a row; it’s estimated that roughly 36.5 million people participated in a pickleball game at least once throughout the course of the year.
A combination of ping pong, tennis, and badminton, pickleball has certainly taken the country by storm, as manifested by the abundance of nationwide pickleball leagues and pickleball facilities popping up all over the country. With the new media partnership between the National Pickleball League and CBS Sports, the sport and its champions will be given a level of exposure that they have yet to experience.
NPL is the premier nationwide team competition for the pickleball professional players’ Champions Division (with players ages 50 and over), which features the top professional players from around the world. Paul Bamundo, CEO of the National Pickleball League:
We are delighted to bring the unique and entertaining experience of professional pickleball to CBS Sports and their platforms as we launch Year Two of the National Pickleball League. This partnership is a clear indication of the demand for pickleball programming in North America, providing NPL more national television exposure to tell stories about our players, teams and fans who have such a passion for this sport. We are entering an exciting new era for the NPL, both on and off the court, and we are thrilled to be working with CBS Sports to bring our league to new heights.
The partnership will begin with a 2-hour exclusive special of the Gamma Sports National Pickleball Championship taking place on January 31, 2024, at 10:30 p.m. EST. According to Awful Announcing:
The CBS Sports Network two-hour special will showcase the entire championship weekend, where in a thrilling showdown, the Indy Drivers team– comprising stars Rick Witsken, Kim Jagd, Nathalie Bagby, and Tao Thongvanh — who claimed the inaugural championship title against the Austin Ignite.
Will you be tuning in to CBS Sports to watch the Gamma Sports National Pickleball Championship? Let us know!
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