Major League Pickleball Gets Rebranding After Securing Major Sponsorship from DoorDash
Major League Pickleball (MLP) is set for an exciting rebrand after securing a lucrative sponsorship from food and grocery delivery company DoorDash. As part of the three-year partnership, MLP will now be called MLP by DoorDash.
MLP, which counts high-profile athletes like LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes as team sponsors, is the fourth U.S.-based league signed to a deal with DoorDash. Since 2020, the company has already sealed partnerships with the NBA, WNBA and MLS—along with agreements with multiple teams throughout sports.
According to a source with knowledge of the MLP-DoorDash deal, the sponsorship runs in the seven figures and is the largest in the league’s history so far.
“It’s important … to have a partner that brings value and has some creativity behind it,” said George Killebrew, the chief revenue officer of MLP’s holding company, United Pickleball Association, in a video interview. “If you look at all the things DoorDash has done in much bigger sports leagues than ours, that’s what got us really excited. I think it brings us up a level to be in the same conversation as those other leagues.”
The MLP-DoorDash deal is set to include promotions for DoorDash users at MLP events and at home. It will also give DoorDash naming rights of the league finals in New York City’s Central Park. Back in 2024, the high-profile event attracted nearly 5,500 fans over four days.
“Brands look at this and they say the sport is exploding,” Killebrew aded. “If we can take a fraction of the people that are playing the game and turn them into DoorDash customers, or have some loyalty to DoorDash, or any other brand, you’re winning the game. The scale of this is growing leaps and bounds.”
The Carvana PPA Tour, which merged with MLP last year, offered up a blueprint as to what the MLP wanted in terms of sponsorship agreements.
“The perfect sponsorships are ones that make sure they pay the property X amount of dollars to be involved, but then they bring it to life in so many different ways,” Killebrew said. “And I think that’s what really became mutually attractive to both us and to DoorDash.”
DoorDash will replace Margaritaville as the MLP’s official sponsor.
