Major League Pickleball (MLP) has launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI) officiating system developed by Owl AI at the start of its 2026 season in Dallas. This brings machine-assisted line calling to the sport’s premier team league without a single piece of dedicated hardware installed on court. The system works through existing broadcast cameras, feeding video into a cloud-based AI platform that handles officiating decisions in real time—no sensors, no new infrastructure, just software doing the heavy lifting through equipment already in place.
It is an elegant solution to a problem that has dogged racket sports for decades: the reliability and consistency of line calls under pressure. MLP commissioner Samin Odhwani was direct about why the partnership matters.
“It is paramount for MLP to strategically align with innovative companies like Owl AI to enhance the reliability of our challenge system and the overall production quality of the on-court product,” Odhwani said. “Major League Pickleball has shown remarkable growth since inception in 2021, and we are constantly striving to make improvements and showcase the best version of MLP for our current and future fans, players, and teams.”
What Is Owl AI?
Owl AI is a young company with an already impressive résumé. Founded in May 2025, it previously deployed its technology at X Games Aspen 2025 for real-time scoring and commentary of professional snowboarding. The same software-defined approach that powered that deployment is now on pickleball courts—and the company says the architecture allows the same broadcast camera infrastructure used for line calling to support additional capabilities over time, including player analytics, match insights, and broadcast augmentation, all without changing the existing production setup.
For Owl AI chief executive officer Josh Gwyther, the MLP partnership is validation of a broader ambition.
“Owl has become the AI intelligence layer behind every sports broadcast,” Gwyther said. “It’s extremely exciting to be the leader in sports AI. Owl AI is opening up a whole new world of possibilities. What we are doing today is just the tip of the iceberg of what is to come.”
MLP Aims to Continue Momentum of Growth
The timing is significant. MLP reported record numbers across the board in 2025—sponsor revenue more than doubling year-over-year, ticket revenue up 94%, total attendance up 52%, linear TV hours more than doubling, and social media impressions growing by more than 400%. A league on that kind of trajectory investing in AI officiating is not just a technology story. It is a statement about where professional pickleball sees itself going.
The cameras were already rolling. Now they are working overtime.
