Welcome to the MLP 2023 Season Two Premier Level Live Draft Feed – follow along as we share up-to-the-minute live updates on player draft picks and team news!

UPDATE
The draft will begin promptly at 9 AM ET…

UPDATE 9:00 AM EST. Exciting news, pickleball fans! Major League Pickleball is thrilled to kick off MLP 2023 Season 2 Draft live from CityPickle in Central Park, NYC, starting now. Stay tuned for the first draft pick of the Premier League, as we unveil the player chosen by the Chicago Slice.

Update 9:05 AM EST. Alert! The moment we’ve all been waiting for! The highly anticipated #1 draft pick for the MLP Season 2 Premiere Level is none other than the legendary Ben Johns, reigning world #1 ranked player! Ben Johns will be joining the Chicago Slice!

Update 9:07 AM EST. Update The 2nd Premier Level draft pick has been claimed by the Utah Black Diamonds, and they’ve chosen the undisputed #1 ranked female player and pickleball prodigy, Anna Leigh Waters.

Update 9:09 EST. Trade News. The Orlando Squeeze made a trade with the D.C. Pickleball Team, who are on the clock for the #3 pick.

Update 9:16 AM EST. Exciting news! The D.C. Pickleball Team has made their selection, and they’ve chosen none other than Riley…

Here is the available draft pool for the upcoming Season 2 Draft happening on July 12th in NYC. The pool is broken up into 2 tables – Women and Men. The names are sorted top to bottom by highest Doubles DUPR. Visit our previous post here for team draft pick order.

Women

	First and Last Name	Doubles DUPR	Doubles Half-Life	Singles DUPR	Singles Half-Life	Doubles DUPR 3/13	100 day trend
1	Anna Leigh Waters	6.161	44.5	6.282	21.0	6.182	-0.022
2	Anna Bright	6.057	58.5	5.986	7.6	5.964	0.092
3	Jackie Kawamoto	6.005	21.8	3.500	0.0	6.024	-0.019
4	Catherine Parenteau	5.959	47.0	6.117	22.0	6.048	-0.089
5	Vivienne David	5.921	41.5	5.525	0.4	5.948	-0.027
6	Parris Todd	5.916	69.0	6.034	17.0	5.778	0.137
7	Callie Smith	5.882	51.0	6.043	6.5	5.923	-0.041
8	Jade Kawamoto	5.879	26.9	5.819	0.2	5.823	0.056
9	Lea Jansen	5.854	52.0	6.022	22.5	5.888	-0.034
10	Marietta Wright	5.836	43.0	5.525	1.5	5.798	0.038
11	Allyce Jones	5.835	47.0	5.756	12.3	5.857	-0.022
12	Simone Jardim	5.834	56.0	5.825	10.4	5.809	0.025
13	Lauren Stratman	5.811	52.0	5.690	14.3	5.646	0.165
14	Meghan Sheehan-Dizon	5.781	50.5	5.549	4.5	5.666	0.115
15	Jessie Irvine	5.771	53.5	5.168	1.5	5.742	0.029
16	Susannah Barr	5.763	65.0	5.516	3.3	5.595	0.168
17	Mary Brascia	5.761	52.0	5.845	22.8	5.693	0.067
18	Jorja Johnson	5.759	48.0	5.844	8.5	5.794	-0.035
19	Monica Paolicelli	5.753	17.6	5.197	0.5	5.644	0.109
20	Megan Fudge	5.744	62.0	5.895	26.5	5.775	-0.032
21	Irina…

The MLP 2023 San Clemente Challenger Level Shuffle Draft Pool is in! The players below declared their intent to participate in MLP San Clemente 2023 and are eligible to be drafted in the Shuffle Draft.  Doubles and Singles DUPRs are included with half-life. If a player is highlighted in orange, that means their half life is below 10 for DOUBLES DUPR and that generally means there is not enough recent data or data at all to assure that rating is reliable.  Half-life measures how many matches you’ve played and how recent they are.

Recent match data can be found at http://mydupr.com for any players by searching their profiles. Women are displayed first, then men. The Shuffle Draft is happening on Thursday, May 4, 2023.

Women’s Draft Pool:

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Men’s Draft Pool

The order of picks, based on Season One standings, is listed below. Teams may only drop 0 or 1 players during the Shuffle Draft. Trades can be made, but a maximum of 1 player may be dropped from a team. Injuries are an exception to this rule. Players may be subbed in after the Shuffle Draft if a player can not compete due to injury, per the rules.

1. AZ Drive
2. D.C. Pickleball Team
3. Columbus P.C.
4. Orlando Squeeze
5. Brooklyn Aces
6. Miami Pickleball Club
7. Texas Ranchers
8. Atlanta Bouncers
9. Dallas Pickleball Club
10. Utah Black…

Check back all day long for game updates, scores, and the inside track on MLP Daytona Beach! First up at 9 AM is the New York Hustlers up against the SoCal Hard Eights on the Championship Court and the New Jersey 5’s squaring up with the Las Vegas Night Owls. Let’s go!!!!

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UPDATE 8:54PM – The Semi-Finals are set for Sunday! 

LA vs. Seattle hits at 9am and BLQK vs. NJ happens at 11am. Both matches are on Championship Court!

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UPDATE 8:29PM – The New Jersey 5’s beat St. Louis 3-0 and are headed to the Semi-Finals

The 5’s ladies Waters and Jansen were down in Women’s Doubles in game 1, but came back to beat Jardim and Jones 22-20. The 5’s men Patriquin and Ignatowich took the momentum from the win and beat St. Louis (Lange/Devilliers) 21-15. Hayden “Big H” Patriquin (our Ora Athlete of the Day yesterday) continued showing up big and making plays. In MX1, Jansen and Ignatowich initiated firefights early and often and moved comfortably to victory 21-15.

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UPDATE 6:37PM – The Los Angeles Mad Drops beat the NY Hustlers 3-1 and move on to the Semis.

WD – In game 1, The LA Mad Drops Catherine Parenteau and Irina Tereschenko faced off against the New York Hustlers Lacy Schneeman and Anna Bright in an energetic first game of the match. Schneemann and Bright played an aggressive…

The 2023 Major League Pickleball (MLP) calendar has been released, featuring six events across Arizona, California, Florida, and Georgia. The year will be divided into two “seasons” of three events – in the first season, 12 teams will compete in the MLP Premier Level (the first 48 drafted players) and 12 will compete in the MLP Challenger Level (the next 48 drafted players), with rosters consisting of two men and two women. The teams will then flip levels and re-draft players for the second season. With the expansion to 24 teams, MLP is offering up to $5 million in prize money and payouts to its players in 2023.

Additionally, Brian Levine, who spent 25 years at Goldman Sachs, including 13 years as Partner, has stepped in to serve as Interim CEO of MLP, working with the current leadership team in the search for a permanent CEO and world class C-suite executive team.

“I’m honored to take the helm of Major League Pickleball and lead our fantastic organization through this transformative period,” said Levine. “With the explosive growth of this sport, we’ve witnessed the remarkable positive impact pickleball has had in creating a vibrant community, bonding people from all walks of life. I am extraordinarily excited to continue to innovate how we bring this sport to more…

While 364 days a year we may be MLP, today we’re excited to announce that on every November 14^th we will officially be changing our name to MLVee in honor of Gary Vee’s birthday.

Unless you’ve been living under a pickleball court you’ve no doubt heard of pop culture and media icon Gary Vee.

But in case you have (been living under a pickleball court), pull up a paddle and let us proclaim.

Gary Vaynerchuk, widely known as Gary Vee, is not just the man behind industry juggernauts VaynerX, VaynerMedia, and VeeFriends as well as one of the leading global minds on what’s next in culture, relevance, and the internet…he also happens to be a champion for the sport of pickleball and a foundational guiding force for MLP.

This April, Gary Vee alongside Ryan Harwood became co-owners of MLP team, The 5s, which they have built up into one of the most competitive and exciting contenders in Major League Pickleball. For Gary, The 5s is a labor of love, one that he has poured his heart into every aspect of, even down to its name.

As Gary puts it, “5 means the world to me in the context of sports as it was the first jersey number I received and wore when I came to the US. My mom knitted that jersey for me, and the number 5 has…

Thursday, December 15^TH, Live at 9 PM ET on the Tennis Channel.

Join us for the MLP 2023 Premier Level Draft live from Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Tune in as we reveal the lineups of all 12 teams of our new MLP Premier level in the company of some of the famous owners in professional sports.

Bookmark this page as we provide live updates from the show and reveal each team as they’re selected!

UPDATE: 6:14PM

Kicking off the draft, the New Jersey 5s with the first pick and by no surprise selected the current top-ranked female player in the sport, 15-yr old Anna Leigh Waters followed by rising star James Ignatowich, #3 singles player Lea Jansen and the “Big H”, Hayden Patriquin!

UPDATE: 6:15PM

The Pioneers choose top-ranked male player Ben Johns to lead the team, followed by Etta Wright, new to the scene and peaking at the perfect time. Next, hard-hitting, consistent top-20 player Meghan Sheehan-Dizon was selected with top lefty Tyler Loong as their 4^th pick!

UPDATE: 6:18PM

ATX took the #1-ranked doubles man JW “Just Win” Johnson as their first pick, followed by Newport co-MVP Jackie Kawamoto, then doubled down on twin sister Jade Kawamoto and rounded it out the chemistry with Gabriel Tardio, who regularly trains with JW!

UPDATE: 6:22PM

The Hustlers…

‍America’s leading brewer enters ownership space in new Major League Pickleball expansion team for 2023 season

NEW YORK, New York (November 8, 2022) – Anheuser-Busch, one of the largest and most influential sport sponsors in the U.S., is building on its commitment to bringing fans closer to the sports they love with the purchase of a Major League Pickleball (MLP) team starting for the 2023 season.
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“We have a proud and longstanding history as a sponsor across all of major sports, and we’re excited to partner with Major League Pickleball – a sport with incredible growth and fan participation,” said Matt Davis, Head of U.S. Sports Marketing and Partnerships at Anheuser-Busch. “Anheuser-Busch knows that fans are always looking for ways to engage with the sports they love, and we’re thrilled to be getting in on the ground level to bring them closer to Pickleball. We have already seen world-class individuals invest in teams and partnerships, and we share in their belief and excitement for the future success of this league and sport.”

In this unique ownership model, Anheuser-Busch will be able to build meaningful connections with fans like never before, unlocking new opportunities for growth and creativity. This agreement will give Anheuser-Busch a founding…

We are proud to announce that Major League Pickleball and the PPA Tour’s VIBE Pickleball League have agreed to a strategic merger to unify the sport of pickleball as a global, co-ed, team-based league featuring the greatest players, biggest events, and visionary owners. This league will continue to live under the “Major League Pickleball” brand name and format.

Pickleball is the fastest-growing and most popular participatory sport in America – and soon the world. MLP and the PPA have independently fostered this growth by supporting world class players, driving powerful marketing, and creating unbelievable live experiences. Coming together as one team league allows us to build much bigger events, offer more prize money, enhance player development, pursue larger media and sponsorship deals and, most importantly, grow the game we all love.

Our league is starting with the best professional players in the world and a group of iconic leaders from sports and business including LeBron James, Tom Brady, Kevin Durant and Kim Clijsters. Just yesterday we announced Anheuser-Busch is our newest team owner – and we are just getting started.

Today marks a real milestone in the evolution of pickleball. In a world desperate for more social connection and reasons to celebrate, we are so…

Life Time to host multiple MLP tour events during 2023 season and adopt DUPR as official rating system.

Chanhassen, Minn. — Nearly five million people are now playing pickleball according to the latest data from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association and today, Major League Pickleball (MLP) and DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating) announced a strategic alliance with Life Time (NYSE: LTH) to continue elevating the sport through hosting tournaments and events at iconic Life Time locations, adopting the DUPR official rating system across all Life Time clubs, partnering on improved technology and offering shared marketing support.
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“This is an exciting time for all of us involved in making pickleball a sport that everyone chooses to play – whether competitively, for fun, for physical and mental health, to be a part of a welcoming community or all the above. I’ve never seen a sport so unifying,” said Life Time Founder, Chairman and CEO Bahram Akradi. “Through this strategic alliance among our organizations, we will take pickleball to the next level through elevated events, experiences, ratings and execution with one standard in mind – being the best. We are thrilled to be working with MLP and DUPR.”
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As a part of the partnership, Life Time will adopt…