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Major League Pickleball is gaining new leadership as it looks to capitalize on the rise of the fastest-growing sport in America at the professional level.
The team-based professional pickleball league announced Wednesday that it has appointed CFO Giulio DiPietro as its chief executive officer and former NFL executive Bruce Popko as chief operating officer.
“The additions of Julio and Bruce signify another significant step forward in the evolution of the American Pickleball League,” said MLP founder Steve Kuhn.
DePietro and Popko would be tasked with guiding the league at a time when the sport of pickleball was experiencing explosive growth at the amateur level.
“We’re very confident that we have both the platform and the product in place,” DiPietro told CNBC. “We’re at the beginning of hockey’s growth.”
DePietro was previously a partner at Citadel where he worked alongside Kuhn for many years. In 2022, he bought a stake in the Florida Smash MLP team, describing the investment as a “no-brainer”. As part of his new role, he will soon be disposing of his stake in Smash.
DiPietro said that in the year-over-year he’s been an owner in the league, the team’s ratings have seen a 100-fold growth. He said the difference today would be as much as $10 million. Previously, teams were collected for as little as $100,000.
With over 36 million people playing Pickleball last year, DiPietro and Popko say their biggest challenge is converting all of the new casual Pickleball fans into MLP followers.
The rapidly growing sports league has attracted dozens of high-profile sports owners and investors including NBA stars LeBron James and Kevin Durant as well as Tom Brady and Drew Brees of NFL fame. In November, brewer Anheuser-Busch purchased a team.
Popko’s background includes more than 30 years working in the sports industry, with previous COO roles for the Buffalo Bills and Pegula Sports & Entertainment.
“One of the things I’ve learned over the years in sports is that the most passionate fans are those fans who are directly involved in the sport, and that’s why I love this sport so much, because we have such a great running start,” Popko told CNBC.
Popko said he will focus on three pillars once in office: growing sponsorships, building the media rights business, and licensing and marketing strategy.
As they continue to build their fanbase, DePietro says the MLP is just scratching the surface in terms of opportunities and monetization.
“We’ve hardly run any ad handles, let alone subscription handles, we think there’s a huge opportunity to capitalize on a lot of the installed base, the excitement behind it, the enthusiasm of the fans, the players, and there are tons of sponsorship and marketing opportunities for the league.”
Another challenge facing the MLP is marketing and positioning more of its players as household names. Part of that effort means finding a consistent media partner. Currently, MLP tournaments can be watched anywhere from YouTube and ESPN to Tennis Channel or MSG Networks, which can be confusing for fans.
“The good news is that we are in advanced talks with an A-plus broadcast partner who is interested in carrying our season live and all of our content for 2024,” DiPietro said.
The number of media viewership for the sport is constantly growing. MLP’s Premier League Super Finale on June 19 reached more than 975,000 viewers on ESPN2, according to the league.
MLP said its live YouTube channel saw a 500% increase in viewership over last year.
DePietro also said that MLP is in advanced talks with another household name production company to create a series about the players themselves. He declined to name the production company or broadcaster with whom MLP is in talks.
“They’re amazing athletes, and some of them have incredible stories. Using the human element in them, I think it’s going to be a huge part of bringing us viewers in,” he said.
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