How Much Money Do Pro Pickleball Players Make?

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]How much money do pro pick Pickball players make? On the one hand, you have Annalie Waters winning everything and taking home millions of dollars in sponsorship alone. And on the other hand, you have the players struggling to make ends meet just to pursue their passion. Pickle ball has a unique pay structure unlike any other sport.

[00:00:15]Players don't actually get paid by their team owners. And many don't even actually make prize money. But all the while, top players in the sport make more money than some NBA, NFL, and MLB players. Unlike these other pro sports, we don't have any publicly available data on their salaries, which is why I partnered up with Alex Weaver and the Dink to do a deep dive into how much pro players make and spend pursuing their dreams. And I guarantee that you're going to be very, very surprised. If you're new to the channel and you don't know who I am, I'm Zay Navertil and I'm a professional pickleball player. I was ranked as high as number one in the world in singles. I'm a four-time MLP champion, two-time PPA champion, and 17time AP champion. I currently play both major league pickleball and the pro pickleball association, but prior to pro pickleball, I was actually an auditor and CPA for Deote. So, this video combines my knowledge of pickleball and my background as an accountant. Some numbers in this video are published and some are educated estimates based on conversations with other pros and industry knowledge that I've accumulated over the years. If you want to follow along with the exact numbers that I'm using, click the link in the description for the full numbers, proforma, all that stuff. Pro pickupball players have various income sources, but the most common are tournament appearance fees, prize money, sponsorships, teaching income, and then there's a bunch of other random stuff. In 2024, Ben John's told CNBC that he was making $2.5 million per year. And Annalie Waters's agent told Forbes that she would make $3 million, but that was 2024. And as you know, if you follow the channel, a ton has happened since then, including Annalie Waters huge deals with both Franklin and Nike. Spoiler alert, those numbers are going way up. For each income stream, we're going to go through what a pro player can reasonably expect to make. But obviously, this looks way different for Annalie Waters than it would for a bum like Travis Retimire.

[00:01:58]So, I'm going to break down the different pro tiers. Ben Johns and Analie are the faces of the sport. So, I'll address them individually. The next 10 most marketable players are what I'm going to consider a tier. This group consists of players like Gabe Tardio, Christian Alshon, Anna Bright, Tyson McGuffin, Katherine Pinto. These are players that are highly ranked and highly marketable. Btier consists of players that are very good, but maybe they have smaller social media presences or aren't quite regular faces on Championship Sunday. These would probably be your Connor Garnett, Auggie G, Lacy Schneean, Elise Jones type of players. Ctier are players that are recently signed to the tour and upandcomers. There are some really good players in this category that got smaller deals because of when they signed and not necessarily how good they are. More on that later. This would be your Noah Clee, Alexrum, Liz Trulock types. Finally, Dtier are non-contracted players that are trying to make it through qualifiers. Plenty of amazing up-anding players, but right now they're either not signed with the tour or don't have amazing results yet. While I can't tell you exactly how much money I make due to confidentiality clauses and contract stuff, I can tell you that I consider myself to be somewhere between A tier and Btier, mostly at this point because of the YouTube channel, podcast, and other stuff. But I will tell you exactly how much I spend down to the dollar funding a pro pickleball career to help you get a better sense of the bottom lines of players. Also, since I don't make as much money as Ben and Anna Lee, please just bear with me as I try to sell you my online course. All right.

[00:03:22]Wait, wait. Before you fast forward, okay, it is free. Well, I mean, not forever, but for two weeks, the transition zone solves a huge problem that I've identified with online instruction. There is endless advice on the internet. But which advice actually applies to you? Our step-by-step and skill by skill level approach ensures that you're getting the right advice for your skill level. We have over 220 videos and 750 members already. So, help me help you by taking advantage of your twoe free trial by using the link down below. The biggest source of income is a player's contract with the league. And this depends primarily on how marketable they were on one particular date, August 24th, 2023, which is the starting date of the infamous Tour Wars. For those who don't know, back in 2023, PPA and MLP were set to merge, but the talks fell flat and MLP started swooping up players to exclusive and guaranteed salary deals. PPA responded by doing the same, and there was an allout bidding war for the best players. For about 10 days, both sides were rolling out the infamous signed graphics, trying to influence more players to hop on their side and win the tours. Then just a few weeks later, MLP and PPA announced another merger and the end result was players cashing out for three to four times as much money that they had been making in previous years. This is a huge oversimplification of the Tour Wars and I have another deep dive into that subject coming soon. So, if you're interested, make sure to subscribe so that you don't miss that. When the dust settled on Tour Wars, the newly formed UPA landed at approximately $33 million of annual compensation to their players.

[00:04:49]We know the total pay amount and we know the number of players that they signed during the tour wars. Since then, we've had contract negotiations, contract terminations, new signings, and a change to partial prize money. But based on my conversations with players and the league, I believe the total compensation has stayed approximately the same. I estimate that Ben Johns and Annalie Waters earn at least $1.5 million from the UPA, respectively. The A tier of the top 10 men and top 10 women on average about 750,000 per year. The Btier group of the next 25 men and 25 women earn about $250,000 per year. And the Ctier group of the remaining 80 players average about $30,000 per player.

[00:05:28]Remember, these are a lot of numbers.

[00:05:30]So, if you want to follow along a little bit easier, click that link down below.

[00:05:32]The Dtier earns nothing but prize money.

[00:05:34]And since they're not signed PPA players, they don't earn the same amount as contracted players. They're also not likely to advance deep into draws. So, we're going to assign a generous amount of $10,000 to the Dtier. Something else to note, when you see that a player was drafted to an MLP team for $700,000 or traded for cash in MLP, that money doesn't actually go to the player, it goes to the league. So, when the Jersey Fives drafted Annalie Waters for $680,000 back in 2024, that money went to the league, not Analise's pocket. The next huge income bucket is sponsorships.

[00:06:05]Players endorse so many different things. There's the obvious, like paddles, clothes, shoes, hydration, and ball machines. There's the random like grocery store chains, feminine hygiene products, apples, meat companies, and then there's just about anything and everything in between. Paddles are the largest sponsor by far, and it makes sense. Brands want to advertise that pros use their equipment. At the highest level, companies make these players the face of their brands. You have Ben John's with Yola, Annalie Waters with Franklin, and of course, me with Paddlettech. Now, I believe that Ben John's has a lifetime deal with Yola, and I believe it to be around a million dollars per year with some form of royalty on any Yola paddle sold. They sell a lot, so I'll estimate royalties and other incentives at another $500,000 for Ben. He signed this deal back in early 2022, and pickle ball has just continued to skyrocket since then.

[00:06:54]Annalie has clearly taken over as the face of the sport since then, which is why I estimate her deal to be worth $10 million over three years with Franklin.

[00:07:02]Things drop off significantly in the A tier. These players have great salaries, signature paddles, and probably some equity depending on the company, but the deals pale in comparison to S tier. My estimate is that an average A tier paddle sponsorship is $250,000. In Btier, you don't have much opportunity for signature paddles, royalties, or equities. So, my estimate is $75,000 on average. In Ctier, these players might be getting $1,000 per month and some travel stipens, and that probably equates to like $25,000 per year.

[00:07:30]Finally, in Dtier, these players are lucky to get even free paddles. Many of them are spending their own money on paddles, and they're absolutely not cheap these days. If they use one Selkerk paddle per month, they're looking at a whole of $4,000 for the year. I actually did a very deep dive into how pros choose their paddle sponsors here. There's definitely more to it than just the money. Check that one out as well. individually. Other sponsor categories pale in comparison to the paddle deals, but there are more categories to earn income from.

[00:07:56]Clothing, shoes, hydration, ball machines, facilities, and all other random stuff I mentioned before. Players can have three to 10 other sponsors. And these smaller deals can add up nicely.

[00:08:06]Across all tiers, I would say the combination of other sponsorships probably tends to approximate the dollar amount made by their paddle deals with the likely exception of Annalie Waters.

[00:08:16]Even though she has deals with Nike, Ulta, Pillow Eyewear, and more. I can't imagine this approaches the Franklin deal. So, I'm going to guess $1.5 million in other sponsorships for her.

[00:08:26]We'll add $250,000 to the A tier players, 75,000 for the Btier players, 25,000 for the Ctier players, and zero for the Dtier players. Finally, we get to the last income buckets, teaching and events. Back when Pro Pigball was just getting kicked off, pro Pigball players actually made the vast majority of their money teaching clinics. I still teach a ton of clinics through pigballros.com, so if you want me to come teach at your club, check them out as well. Vanana League get paid to show up to private corporate events as well, like the US Open or the Pickle Ball Slam. I'm guessing that these are infrequent but very lucrative for them at $50,000 per appearance. Let's estimate six appearances per year for a total of 300K. A tier probably gets more opportunities, but at a lower price point. We're going to estimate 10 events per year at $10,000 for a total of another $100,000. B tier does more clinics. These can probably earn them $3,000 per day. and we'll keep with the same average of 10 events per year for $30,000. Ctier are probably doing a bit more teaching at a bit lower price points. We'll approximate $1,500 for a day's work. 10 of these per year puts them at $15,000 in teaching. Finally, you have Dtier. Unless they're a weekend warrior with a normal day job, these players are grinding lessons, but I would consider that to be more of a job and less of part of the professional pickleball income stream. They could easily make 75,000 to 100,000 teaching, but that's not the idea of this video.

[00:09:44]So, we're going to put them at $5,000.

[00:09:46]Many players generate revenue in other ways, such as consulting or businesses within the space, but those vary so widely and don't tie into the core of being a pro pickleball player, so we're going to leave those out as well. Before we get into my personal expenses associated with pro pickleball and the expenses of players like Ben, Annie, and more, let's take a look at their topline revenue.

[00:10:04]>> How much money do you make a year before taxes?

[00:10:07]>> I've got Annie at $6.6 million. Ben's at $4.8 million. A tier players are at 1.35 million. Btier is at 430,000. Ctier is at 95,000. And Dtier is at 11,000. I bet you didn't see that coming, but before you quit your job and play pro pickleball, let me paint the crazy expense picture for you. First, the tournaments. Most contracts with the UPA are for about 25 events per year. So, that's what we're going to base our travel expenses on. All signed players get their entry fees covered, and so that expense is zero. But unsigned Dtier players pay $125 for tournament registration plus $250 per event. Let's say the average player plays two events.

[00:10:44]That's $625 per event for 25 events or $15,625 on the year. How much you spend on travel depends mostly on your tier. All players have to book flights, cars, housing, meals, and other travel related expenses, but some players stay at the rits and others sleep on couches. This is going to vary widely from player to player, but last year I spent $19,400 on flights, $9,500 on rentals and Ubers, $9,100 on lodging, and $5,300 on meal for a total travel spend of $43,300.

[00:11:17]For me, this also includes travel for clinics and sponsors obligations. I also travel quite frugally, just like I did when I was starting out. So, I'm going to use $40,000 as the estimate for C-tier pros. Dtier pros usually share rooms, share cars, eat a bit cheaper, and don't have as many sponsorship events and clinics to attend. So, we'll put them at $25,000 for the year. Btier probably spends a little bit more than I do. We'll put them at $50,000. A tier begins to get nicer hotels, meals, cars, and the occasional first class flight, $100,000. And S tier blows this out of the water. Both Ben and Annalie have their buses that come with them, as well as nice meals, hotels, and surely some first class flights. This could be much more, but we'll say $250,000 for S tier.

[00:12:00]Unlike tennis and other sports, most players don't have coaches, physios, or anybody else that comes with them with the exception of a few. We'll put this expense at $100,000 per year for Ben and Anna Lee only. Even though some A tier players like Paris Todd, Katherine Prento, and Christian Alshon do have physios and coaches that come with them to events. Agents, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals are necessary with the amount of contracts and deals pro pickleball players make. Agents take a percentage of any deal that players make. Higher tier players pay a lower percentage of earnings and lower tier players pay a higher percentage of earnings. Ben works with family members, so he doesn't pay any agency fees.

[00:12:37]Annalie works with Vayner Sports Group and I'd estimate she probably pays 5% off the top of tour and sponsorship deals for a total of $330,000. A tier players pay 10 to 15% of their income to agents for an average total of about 169,000. E-tier players pay 15 to 20% for an average of 75,000. Ctier players pay 20% for a total of 19,000. And Dtier players probably don't have agents. And even if they did, 20% of nothing is still nothing. Then there's the professional fees. I paid $7,152, but I would say that I probably spend a bit more than others on this type of stuff since I have my hands on a lot of different things. Ben and Anna Lee need very good lawyers and accountants. I'm going to put them at $75,000, especially since Ben doesn't have an agent to take care of some of this stuff. He tier probably pays 10K, Btier 5K, Ctier 2500, and Dtier 500 bucks for somebody to do their taxes. Just about every player has a social media manager that helps them fulfill some of their sponsor requirements. Last year, I spent $81,000 on content creation and social media.

[00:13:39]So, please, for the love of God, subscribe so I don't go bankrupt. My number is not really representative of other players. I estimate that Ben and Anna Lee pay probably 5K per month. A tier pays 3,000 per month, Btier 2,000, Ctier a thousand, and D tier is probably handling it themselves for nothing.

[00:13:56]There are a bunch of other random expenses like court fees, equipment, recovery service, and we're just going to estimate this as 2% of gross income across the board. Finally, we've got the taxes. And I won't bore you to death with this. We're independent contractors with a PPA. So, we have our own LLC or escorp, which allows us to offset our expenses against our income. We have to pay federal taxes and state income taxes or job taxes based on where our work was completed as well as self-employment taxes. Using my own knowledge, my CPA and trustee Chad GBT, we're going to estimate that Ben and Analie have a 31% effective tax rate. A tier is at 27%, Btier is at 22%, Ctier is at 15%, and Dtier likely doesn't make enough to pay taxes on. When we deduct taxes, we're left with the final answer of how much money do proball players make? Analy takes home almost $4 million. Ben pulls in almost three. A tier makes unbelievable money, taking home almost $750,000 per year. Btier makes very good money, taking home almost 200k per year.

[00:14:54]But that's where things stop making sense financially. Ctier makes just above minimum wage at about 15K. And Dtier, well, they better have saved up some money because pursuing your dreams and playing a full schedule of PPAs without stellar results or a contract will cost you over $30,000 per year. But how does this compare to other sports?

[00:15:11]The median NFL salary is approximately $860,000.

[00:15:15]The NBA is 6 million, the MLB is 1.3 million, and the NHL is 2 million. So, you can generalize that Ben and Analie are making about the same as an average big four sports player. Obviously, they don't come anywhere close to show Otani or Patrick Mahomes, but hey, I take it.

[00:15:29]That's a pretty good living. The A tier pickball players are taking home about $750,000 per year, which is a decent chunk more than the average gross pay of the next largest American sport, Major League Soccer, where the average salary is about $630,000. And the median salary is about $338,000.

[00:15:45]Btier players are taking home very respectable 200,000 per year. And that actually far exceeds the WNBA average of about 110,000. Even the top contracts in the WNBA are about 250,000. And that's about four tax figure. So, it's pretty fair to say that Btier pickleball players likely exceed WNBA salaries.

[00:16:03]Ctier is where things stop making sense at about 17,000 per year. The annual salary of a minimum wage employee in the US is 15K. Minor league baseball players typically earn somewhere between 20 and 35K pre-tax. So, C-tier pickball players earn about as much or as little as they do. But the goal is obviously to break through to Btier, A tier, or even S tier at some point. and Dtier are just pure weekend warriors that are doing it for the love of the game. They're not making any. So, there you have it. That's how much pro pickball players make. Let me know what you thought about this video and whether you want to see deep dives into other topics in pickleball like this. And if so, what do you want to know about? If you liked this, shoot me a subscription. Help me offset the $81,000 that I spent last