How Much Do Pro Pickleball Players Actually Make? A Full Breakdown by Tier

A note before we dive in: Godfather Pickleball represents a number of professional players on tour. Out of respect for our athletes and the confidentiality agreements that govern their contracts, we won't be discussing the specific earnings of any player on our roster. Everything stated in this article represents our best professional estimates based on industry experience, publicly available information, and our firsthand knowledge of how deals in this space are structured.

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Pickleball has a pay structure unlike any other professional sport, and most people get it completely wrong. Players aren't paid by team owners like in the NFL or NBA. Many don't even collect prize money. And yet the top names in the sport are earning more annually than the average player in America's biggest leagues.

Here's exactly how it works.

How Pro Players Get Paid

Professional pickleball income comes from four main buckets: league contracts, sponsorships, teaching and appearances, and miscellaneous business activity. The weight of each bucket depends entirely on where a player sits in the sport's tier structure.

The Tier System

There are effectively five tiers. At the top are the two faces of the sport — players like Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters, operating in a category of their own. Below them, A-tier covers roughly the next ten most marketable men and women on tour: highly ranked, highly visible, recognizable names with signature equipment deals. Players like Hayden Patriquin, Anna Bright, Tyson McGuffin, and Catherine Parenteau represent this group. B-tier players are legitimate professionals with solid rankings but smaller social footprints and fewer headline appearances. C-tier are newer signees and up-and-comers who got contracted at a less favorable moment. D-tier are uncontracted players grinding through qualifiers on their own dime.

League Contracts

The single biggest income source is the league contract, and its value was largely set during a ten-day bidding war in August 2023 when PPA and MLP competed aggressively for player signatures before an eventual merger. Players who were marketable at that moment cashed out at three to four times what they had previously earned. The newly unified tour settled at roughly $33 million in total annual player compensation.

Estimated annual league contract value by tier: the top S-tier players like Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters earn an estimated $1.5 million each from the league. A-tier averages around $750,000. B-tier averages $250,000. C-tier averages $30,000. D-tier earns nothing in guaranteed contract money.

Sponsorships

Paddle deals are the largest sponsorship category by a significant margin. Brands pay to have their equipment in the hands of the pros their audience watches. At the S-tier level, deals can reach $1 million per year with royalty structures layered on top. Anna Leigh Waters' reported deal with Franklin is estimated at $10 million over three years, while Ben Johns holds a long-term partnership with JOOLA valued at approximately $1.5 million annually including royalties. A-tier paddle deals average around $250,000. B-tier around $75,000. C-tier players might see $25,000 in combined paddle value and travel stipends. D-tier players are lucky to receive free equipment at all.

Other sponsorship categories — apparel, footwear, hydration, ball machines, and increasingly consumer brands in unrelated categories — roughly mirror paddle deal values across most tiers, with S-tier being the exception where the gap widens considerably. Anna Leigh Waters' additional deals with Nike and Ulta alone illustrate how far that gap can extend.

Teaching and Appearances

S-tier players command $50,000 or more per private or corporate appearance and realistically do six or more per year. A-tier players earn around $10,000 per appearance. B-tier pros run clinics at roughly $3,000 per day. C-tier players are doing more volume at lower rates, averaging around $15,000 annually from teaching. D-tier players often teach as their primary income, but that's a separate conversation from professional competition earnings.

The Real Numbers After Expenses and Taxes

Here's where the narrative shifts. Travel across 25 annual events is expensive. Agent fees run 5 to 20 percent of gross depending on tier. Content creation and social media management are now considered operating expenses for any player trying to maintain visibility. And as independent contractors, all players manage their own tax exposure across federal, state, and self-employment obligations.

After everything: Anna Leigh Waters takes home close to $4 million. Ben Johns pulls close to $3 million. A-tier players net roughly $750,000 — more than the average MLS salary and approaching NFL median territory. B-tier players clear around $200,000, which meaningfully exceeds WNBA average pay. C-tier players net approximately $15,000 to $17,000. D-tier players actually lose money — sometimes more than $30,000 per year — chasing a dream without a contract.

The Bottom Line

Pickleball's earning potential at the top is legitimate. The gap between tiers, however, is steep and largely determined by marketability, timing, and visibility — not just how well you play. For agents, brands, and anyone building inside this ecosystem, understanding where a player sits in that structure is the starting point for every deal worth making.