Hong Kong’s TGG Group Launches LIT Sports Global, Goes All-In on Pickleball Right Away
TGG Group, a well-established family office and private investment firm based in Hong Kong, is branching out into sports—and it’s got bold ambitions to say the least. It already has a sports arm, in fact, in LIT Sports Global, whose first foray into sports is by going all-in on…
Pickleball!
LIT Sports Global recently flexed its might—and its seriousness—by signing Ryan Lam Chun-hei, Nikita Tang Nok-yiu, and Agnes Fung into professional contracts. Chun-hei, Nok-yiu, and Fung happen to be three of Hong Kong’s best pickleball players, having won championships outside of Hong Kong while also coaching the country’s young generation of picklers.
With Chun-hei, Nok-yiu, and Fung’s recent signing, the three will be among the first faces of LIT Sports Global’s pickleball push, which is also expected to get a big boost from LIT’s acquisition of TLP Pickleball Club of Hong Kong. The plan in this case is to transform the club into a professional pickleball team.
LIT Sports Global’s Big, Bold Dream
LIT Sports Global, in particular, wants to turn Hong Kong into a pickleball powerhouse, says TGG Founder Barry Lau in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post. To accomplish this ambitious goal, LIT Sports Global is planning to build a state-of-the-art facility, establish a pickleball academy to discover Hong Kong’s pickleball stars of the future, and hold high-level competitions, like the Greater Bay Area Tour next year and the World Pickleball Championships in Discovery Bay in December.
“Why shouldn’t we be good at it [pickleball]?” Lau asked. “Why can’t it be like fencing? And when sports become much more developed, then the city or the nation becomes better off.”
Of course, TGG Group, through LIT Sports Global, has bigger plans ahead outside of pickleball, with the ultimate goal being Hong Kong’s transformation as a powerhouse in the world of sports. But it’s looking like LIT Sports Global’s focus at the moment is pickleball.
“Pickleball is our starting whistle,” said Andre Lajeunesse, Managing Director at TGG Group. “The real game is much bigger—and we’ll be making moves that resonate with fans of the world’s great sports in very short order.”
Indeed, pickleball is much bigger now—and it will only grow bigger and bigger. Already, estimates say there will be over 20 million pickleball players globally next year, with some 300,000 already playing it in mainland China. LIT Sports Global, for its part, forecasts about 20,000 Hong Kongers playing pickleball by 2027 and raking in an annual market value of between HKD $150 million and HKD $200 million by 2030.
So, yes, LIT Sports Global and TGG Group are all-in on pickleball. It’s hard not to see why.
