Singapore to host first international amateur pickleball championship in April 2026

[SINGAPORE] Singapore will be thrust into the global pickleball spotlight next year when it hosts the first-ever Epic World Championship – a four-day tournament for amateur players that has a guaranteed prize purse of at least US$50,000.

Well over a thousand players are expected to compete at the event that will be held from Apr 30 to May 3 at the Kallang Tennis Hub, a stone’s throw away from the National Stadium. The Singapore Sports Hub is the official venue partner.

This is also the first time that the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has officially supported an international pickleball championship, and the statutory board will be on board for three years.

The prize amount starts at US$50,000 and increases with every new player registration, said Victor Cui, one of the founders of Epic, in an interview with The Business Times.

“The amount will escalate with every new player registration. By the time the tournament starts, the prize purse is expected to be one of the largest in amateur pickleball,” he said.

Cui is a familiar face in Singapore’s sports scene. Most notably, he was the co-founder and chief executive officer of One Championship, and was an ever-present at many of the mixed martial arts organisation’s live events in Singapore and around the region.

The 53-year-old Canadian was also a senior executive at ESPN Star Sports and golf’s PGA Tour. He was also involved in marketing and communications for the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia.

On why he is now venturing into pickleball, especially for an event in the amateur category, Cui said he wanted to create a tournament that was both accessible and open to all.

“Pickleball is growing really fast but I don’t want this event to be in the professional space. This is about mass participation, like a marathon or Hyrox (a fitness race) or Spartan (an obstacle course race),” he said.

“You don’t have to be professional to join these popular events. So with the Epic World Championship, amateur players from all over the world have a chance to take part and we want to bring as many people as we can to Singapore.”

While participants will have to pay a registration fee, there won’t be any actual tickets that will be sold, said Cui.

“There won’t be tiered grandstands where there are thousands of people watching. We want to have a centre court, and around it there will be casual lounge spaces for people to mingle and enjoy activities like wine sampling. It will be a festival type of atmosphere,” he added.

In a media release issued to BT, STB’s chief executive Melissa Ow said that Epic supports the statutory board’s commitment to create distinctive and memorable experiences for both visitors and locals, while strengthening Singapore’s reputation as a “premier sporting destination”.

“We are proud that Singapore will host the first-ever Epic World Championship and look forward to witnessing the excitement that this fast-growing sport will bring to our shores,” she said.

Rise in popularity

Pickleball has grown in popularity in Singapore and around the world, especially in the last couple of years.

According to data from research agency Market.us, there are nearly 20 million players in the US alone and there is also a huge following in Asia, where over 800 million people have played the sport at least once. One estimate indicates that there will be almost 40 million players globally by 2030.

There are several ways in which competitors can obtain a spot at Epic.

They can do so either by being a top-ranked DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating) player in their respective countries, or by winning a local sanctioned tournament. There will also be a direct entry option that is meant for corporate partners and sponsors.

DUPR is the official rating system of the amateur and professional pickleball tours, with some 1.5 million players from more than 9,000 clubs and 175 countries in its database so far.

DUPR provides a skill rating for players that reflects their ability in both singles and doubles. The system updates a player’s rating based on new match results. Ratings range from 2.00 (beginner) to 8.00+ (professional), with different ranges for novice, intermediate and advanced players.

This rating system helps players find opponents at their similar levels, which makes the game more competitive and enjoyable for all, said DUPR’s chief executive officer Tito Machado.

“We are getting 20,000 new users a week, and half of them come from South-east Asia, places like Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and elsewhere. Asia is going to experience a pickleball boom,” he said.

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