People play pickleball at Central Park in New York, U.S., April 15, 2023. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
LOS ANGELES, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Major League Pickleball is set to introduce electronic line-calling for its matches next season, following a deal with technology firm Owl AI, the company's founder Jeremy Bloom told Reuters.
Owl AI's software-based system will be used to make real-time line calls in pickleball matches, replacing human judges and promising "pennies on the dollar" costs.
The move comes as pickleball, one of America's fastest-growing sports, seeks greater accuracy and fairness in officiating.
"We're excited because we think this technology will take away the subjective nature of ball in, ball out in a really cost-effective way," Bloom said.
Major League Pickleball further established itself as a force in sports in 2025, with sponsor revenue more than doubling, ticket revenue up 94%, and total attendance rising by 52%.
"Technology is essential to any sports property as they look to grow," MLP Commissioner Samin Odhwani told Reuters.
"By providing our fans and players with clear, data-backed visualisation of our line calls, we will be able to move forward in a way that shows how quickly pickleball is advancing."
WIDER AMBITIONS
Bloom, a former Olympic athlete and CEO of X Games, said his experience with subjective judging in sports such as skiing and football drove him to develop Owl AI's technology.
After testing early versions for X Games events and with seed funding from Google, Bloom raised $11 million in venture capital, recruiting top AI talent to expand into other sports.
Unlike some other systems such as Hawk-Eye, which is widely used in professional tennis and relies on specialised cameras and hardware, Owl AI's system uses 4K video from cell phones or broadcast feeds to make decisions, lowering costs and increasing accessibility for leagues and venues.
Bloom said the technology was already being trialled in a variety of sports, with interest from national governing bodies and Olympic organisers.
"Our approach is software, not hardware," Bloom said. "We can do it with cell phones."
Bloom envisions the technology empowering human judges rather than replacing them, providing precise analytics on tricks, landings, or line calls and eliminating costly errors that have marred major sporting events.
"Our goal is to absolutely remove any degree of a game, an inning, or a play that changes because of human error," he said.
With discussions underway for future Olympic use and interest from sports ranging from figure skating to snowboarding, Bloom sees the MLP deal as just the beginning.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los AngelesEditing by Toby Davis)
