Major League Pickleball (MLP) announces their first step into the international arena through a partnership with Pacific Pickleball League (PPL) in Australia.

Under the agreement, PPL will rebrand its teams format to Major League Pickleball Australia.

According to an MLP announcement, Pacific Pickleball launched Australia’s first professional pickleball league, signing 33 players to the Sydney Smash, Melbourne Mavericks, Brisbane Breakers, and Gold Coast Glory.

All teams will now play under the new Major League Pickleball Australia banner and Pacific Pickleball’s teams events will now align with the MLP format.

The Pacific Pickleball brand will be maintained for open and masters events in the traditional tour format.

Major League Pickleball Australia will hand out close to a million dollars in cash prizes over the next year.

MLP Australia's first event kicks off tomorrow, September 8th in Brisbane.

The Tour Wars: going international?

By expanding internationally, MLP has also broadened the scope of "pickleball's Civil War."

After spending the last two weeks snatching up players, MLP and the PPA Tour may now begin fighting for international expansion.

It should be noted that MLP isn't the first American pro league to expand outside of the US. APP has been sponsoring tournaments and pushing for international broadcasting all year.

We did just sneak a peek at MLP's founder conversing with APP's...so maybe they'll cooperate as they push themselves around the RISK board.

It seems unlikely that PPA will be so friendly if they start making moves.