Dundon evolved his thoughts on pickleball. Now he’s leading the sport’s evolution.
CONNOR PARDOE WASN’T LOOKING TO SELL the Professional Pickleball Association when he was introduced to Tom Dundon in 2021. The business was already well-capitalized and, in his mind, well-positioned to take advantage of pickleball’s surging popularity. Dundon’s vision changed his perspective.
“Tom’s attitude was that we have an amazing opportunity here to come in and control the sport from top to bottom, and we can widen the funnel,” Pardoe said.
Dundon, then in his late 40s, made fun of pickleball when he first came across the sport on vacation in Cabo a few years ago. At that time, however, it was becoming harder for Dundon to play basketball as competitively as he used to, and once he started playing pickleball, it became an obsession. He sought out the best players in his home area of Dallas to play against and, before long, converted the indoor and outdoor tennis courts at his home into pickleball courts.
Over the past two years, Dundon has also renoated the trajectory of the sport at the pro level. In addition to purchasing a majority interest in the PPA from Pardoe
(who stayed on as
CEO), he also bought the market-leading pickleball e-commerce site (Pickleball Central) and tournament organizing software (Pickleball Tournaments).
“It was fun, and since I’m interested in the sport anyway, I did it,” Dundon said. “It seemed like with a little bit of help, they could go a lot faster and a lot further.”
Dundon took over the PPA in early 2022 and moved its headquarters to Dallas. He offered exclusive contracts to top players in the sport, immediately putting the PPA at odds
with Major League Pickleball, an upstart teambased league featuring high-profile investors such as Tom Brady and Kevin Durant, and the APP (now the Association of Pickleball Players).
He also made moves to bring an air of professionalism to the PPA, such as investing in higher-quality TV productions.
“You can call yourself a professional, but there’s a way it has to be presented and look, and that’s what I thought was missing,” said Dundon.
The PPA and MLP completed a merger in February. The two will remain distinct entities, at least for now, under their newly founded parent company, the United Pickleball Association. The combination will allow the best players to compete in individual tour events and team events on different weekends.
Pardoe said the United Pickleball Association will generate revenue in the mid-to-high eight figures this year — about half from sponsorship — and projects to be profitable by 2026. That will depend largely on increased at-home viewership and in-person attendance for PPA and MLP events.
“Players are getting paid more than ever, they’re getting more fans, better venues, more TV,” Ben Johns, the sport’s top-ranked men’s player, said of Dundon’s influence. “As far as the pro landscape, I don’t feel that there’s anybody who’s done much more than him.”
Additional reporting by Chris Smith and Rob Schaefer.