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

LOS ANGELES – Major League Pickleball (MLP) is set to introduce electronic line-calling for its matches in the 2026 season, following a deal with technology firm Owl AI, the company’s founder Jeremy Bloom said.

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 United States’ 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.

MLP further established itself as a force in sports in 2025, with sponsorship 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.”

Bloom, a former Olympic skier and chief executive officer of X Games, said his experience with subjective judging in sports such as skiing and American football drove him to develop Owl AI’s technology.

After testing early versions for X Games events and with seed funding from Google, he raised US$11 million (S$14.2 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 mobile phones or broadcast feeds to make decisions, lowering costs and increasing accessibility for leagues and venues.

Bloom also said the technology was already being trialled in various sports, with interest from national governing bodies and Olympic organisers.

“Our approach is software, not hardware,” he said. “We can do it with cell phones.”

Bloom envisions the technology empowering human judges rather than replacing them, providing precise analytics on tricks, landings or line calls and eliminating costly errors that have marred major sporting events.

“Our goal is to absolutely remove any degree of a game, an inning or a play that changes because of human error,” he added.

With discussions under way for future Olympic use and interest from sports ranging from figure skating to snowboarding, Bloom sees the MLP deal as just the beginning. REUTERS