Tony Pritzker and Chris Pine among backers of new racket sport typti

Move over, pickleball. 

Tennis Channel founder Steve Bellamy is launching a new racket sport, called typti, with backing from hotel heir Tony Pritzker, motivational speaker Tony Robbins and Star Trek actor Chris Pine, among others.

Typti is played on a pickleball court but uses a foam ball rather than a hard plastic one. Although the ball does not travel as fast, Mr Bellamy said in an interview, the sport allows for extended rallies and longer strokes than pickleball, which tends to revolve around choppy, compact shots close to the net. Like tennis, typti uses a racket with strings. 

“If tennis and badminton had a baby it would be typti,” Mr Bellamy said. 

The entrepreneur, who served as president of Kodak’s motion picture film business for nine years, has about 80 investors for his new company Typti, including actor Kyle MacLachlan, director J.J. Abrams and comedian Tiffany Haddish.

He declined to say how much he has raised.

The effort is an attempt to expand upon the growing interest in pickleball, which was created in 1965 and surged in popularity decades later during the pandemic as people looked for outdoor activities. There are now tens of thousands of such courts globally.

Because of its foam ball, typti is less noisy than pickleball, the din of which

often draws complaints from neighbours

. Like that sport, Mr Bellamy said, typti is relatively simple to learn and easy on the body.

Typti’s backers plan to operate a professional circuit with prize money starting at US$100,000 (S$129,000). The first competition, open to all skill levels, is planned for Feb 25 at the Calabasas Pickleball Club in suburban Los Angeles. 

Mr Bellamy, who founded the Tennis Channel in 2001, has long been involved in racket sports, inventing another game, live ball, which is like a faster version of tennis.

Mr Bellamy said he let that sport go into the public domain, missing the chance to charge the many tennis clubs that offer it. This time around, he said, Typti investors will make money from the tournaments and by selling the rackets and balls. BLOOMBERG