Major League Pickleball (MLP) will introduce electronic line-calling across all matches next season after striking a deal with technology firm OWL AI. The advanced AI system will provide instant, tennis-style line decisions, effectively replacing human line judges and enhancing the game’s accuracy and consistency.
Jeremy Bloom, CEO and Founder of OWL AI, told Reuters, “We’re excited because this technology will take away the subjective nature of ball in, ball out in a really cost-effective way.”
MLP Commissioner Samin Odhwani said the league’s focus on technology is central to its growth plans. “By providing fans and players with clear, data-backed visualisation of our line calls, we can move forward in a way that shows how quickly pickleball is advancing,” she was quoted by Reuters.
A Software-First Approach
Bloom, a former Olympic athlete, said his experiences with subjective judging in skiing and football inspired him to develop OWL AI. The company has secured Google-backed seed funding and raised USD 11 million in venture capital as it expands into multiple sports.
Unlike hardware-heavy systems such as Hawk-Eye used in tennis, OWL AI’s technology relies on 4K cell phone video or broadcast feeds to make decisions, significantly reducing setup costs and improving accessibility.
Bloom said the system is already being trialled across a variety of sports, drawing interest from national federations and Olympic organisers. “Our approach is software, not hardware. We can do it with cell phones,” he said.
He added that the technology is designed to support judges rather than replace them, providing precise data to eliminate costly officiating errors. “Our goal is to remove any moment of a game or play that changes because of human error.”
As the discussions are underway for potential Olympic adoption, Bloom said the MLP deal is “just the beginning” of OWL AI’s wider ambitions in global sport.