Pickleball-Owl AI to bring electronic line-calling to pro pickleball, eyes wider sporting impact

LOS ANGELES, Dec 4 : Major League Pickleball is set to introduce electronic line-calling for its matches next season, following a deal with technology firm Owl AI, the company's founder Jeremy Bloom told Reuters.

Owl AI's software-based system will be used to make real-time line calls in pickleball matches, replacing human judges and promising "pennies on the dollar" costs.

The move comes as pickleball, one of America's fastest-growing sports, seeks greater accuracy and fairness in officiating.

"We're excited because we think this technology will take away the subjective nature of ball in, ball out in a really cost-effective way," Bloom said.

Major League Pickleball further established itself as a force in sports in 2025, with sponsor revenue more than doubling, ticket revenue up 94 per cent, and total attendance rising by 52 per cent.

"Technology is essential to any sports property as they look to grow," MLP Commissioner Samin Odhwani told Reuters.

"By providing our fans and players with clear, data-backed visualisation of our line calls, we will be able to move forward in a way that shows how quickly pickleball is advancing."

WIDER AMBITIONS

Bloom, a former Olympic athlete and CEO of X Games, said his experience with subjective judging in sports such as skiing and football drove him to develop Owl AI's technology.

After testing early versions for X Games events and with seed funding from Google, Bloom raised $11 million in venture capital, recruiting top AI talent to expand into other sports.

Unlike some other systems such as Hawk-Eye, which is widely used in professional tennis and relies on specialised cameras and hardware, Owl AI's system uses 4K video from cell phones or broadcast feeds to make decisions, lowering costs