SUMMARY OF 2026 COMPETITION UPDATES

The 2026 Major League Pickleball season is almost here!

Read below for a comprehensive overview of competition structure changes to take effect this season.

MLP will feature 20 teams and no level designations this year

• The NY Hustlers (ownership merging with Brooklyn Pickleball Team; BKPT will operate as normal), Nashville Chefs and DC Pickleball Team (exploring sale agreements) will not play in 2026
  • All players on those respective team rosters will go into the 2026 Free Agent Draft player pool
• The Premier and Challenger Levels are no longer being used for MLP’s 20 teams
• All teams – including those that played Challenger in 2025 – will roster six (6) players in 2026

Trade Window #1 & Keeper Deadline Timings on Sunday, Feb. 15

• Trade Window #1 will close on Feb. 15, at 10 a.m. ET
• Keepers will be due that day, at 4 p.m. ET
• Team keepers will be announced within 24 hours of the selections being in

Trade Window #1 – teams who ended the 2025 season with rostered player(s) no longer under UPA contract

• If a team ended the 2025 season with player(s) on their roster that are no longer UPA-signed, they:
  • May trade cash for player(s), so long as the deal is approved by the league and a team never has more than a total of six (6) UPA-signed players – three (3) males and three (3) females – rostered at any time
    • In the case where a cash for player(s) trade happens, the team who acquires cash does not have to have three males / three females on their roster
• Players no longer under contract will count as drops at the keeper deadline
• Language is being updated from “every team must drop at least one player” to “teams may keep + hold a maximum of five (5) players at the Keeper Deadline” (i.e.: if a team has only four currently UPA-signed players eligible to be kept and held, they may do so, with the no longer signed players counting as drops at the keeper deadline)

Active teams that played 2025 Challenger (BAY, CAL, FL & LV) may trade for additional keepers

• Challenger rosters were capped at four (4) in 2025, but all teams will roster six (6) for 2026
• BAY, CAL, FL & LV may make trades for additional players, under already existing parameters, should they choose to do so
• Cash-for-player trades are now allowed ONLY by teams that have fewer than six (6) currently UPA-signed players on their roster (ascending Challenger teams & teams who ended the 2025 season with rostered players that are no longer under UPA contract)

Further clarification on the rule exemption that allows eligible teams to acquire & keep eligible 2024 Draftee

• Those exempt teams (ATL, BAY, CAR, CHI, MIA, PBR, SoCal) may only keep a maximum of UP TO TWO (2) 2024 Draftees, should they choose to do so
• This designation is based on the end of 2025 season rosters; no team may trade their way into the exemption at this point (i.e.: if a team has three players from the 2024 Draft eligible to be kept on their roster and trades away two of them, they are NOT allowed to then acquire and keep a different 2024 Draftee)

Player acquisition process for the expansion Palm Beach Royals

Palm Beach may add a total of up to four (4) players ahead of the Feb. 15 keeper deadline via two avenues (MAX OF TWO players per acquisition type):

• TRADES during Trade Window #1 (Jan. 28-Feb. 15), should they choose to exchange cash for player(s) – no more than one male and one female
  • May acquire player(s) who were: drafted in 2024 and kept for 2025 – Palm Beach would be able to hold this/these player(s) ONLY for the 2026 season
  • Alternatively, they can acquire players selected in the 2025 Free Agency Draft – These player(s) can be held for up to two (2) seasons (2026 and 2027)

• FREE AGENT PICKUPS OF NON-ROSTERED, UPA-SIGNED PLAYERS ahead of the Feb. 15 keeper deadline – no more than one male and one female
  • These players may be held for up to three seasons (2026-2028) at their Draft Points value
  • UPA-signed players by the time PBR’s selections are due on Feb. 15 can be selected
    • Existing free agents who were eligible for the 2025 Free Agency Draft and did not end the 2025 season on an MLP roster have a Free Agency Draft Points value of 10,000
    • New or emerging talent added to the league’s approved player pool following the 2025 Free Agency Draft and were not eligible to be drafted in 2025 will have a Free Agency Draft Points value of 80,000

Event-by-event participating team schedules will be shared soon

• All teams will participate in a collection of five (5) of the nine (9) regular season events
• All events will have 11 participating teams with the exception of Walt Disney World, which will have 12 teams
• There will be one group of 5 and one group of 6 at each event; Walt Disney World will have two groups of 6
• All teams will be placed in a group of five (5) teams at two events, and a group of six (6) teams at three events, for a total of 23 group play matches

2026 Free Agency Draft – Fri, Feb. 27

• Per usual, ONLY UPA-signed players may play MLP
• The 2026 Draft will operate similarly to the 2025 version with dynamic bidding for each draft slot
• The draft will be broken into two parts, and teams will draft to complete their full roster of six (6)
• All teams must have four (4) players before any team bids on a 5th player
  • Teams that are eligible and choose to hold five total players may not select their sixth player until all other teams have at least four rostered players
  • In the instance where a team keeps three (3) players of the same gender and fewer than two (2) of the other gender (3 females and 1 male, for example), that team WILL BE ABLE to select their second starter (male, in this example) in the first part of the draft
• A draft slot that will be used on a player filling a teams’ first four roster slots will have a minimum bid of $10,000; draft slots that will be used to select a player to fill a fifth or sixth roster slot has a bid minimum of $1,000

Lineups

• Teams may set a starting lineup for a match that utilizes more than four (4) players as long as it is part of the lineup submission (i.e.:, teams may use a different male player for men’s doubles and mixed doubles)
• If necessary, DreamBreaker™ lineups will be determined by teams following the second Mixed game, and teams may choose any four (4) players from their roster – two men and two women – regardless of any substitutions used during doubles

Regular Season Events & Standings Points

• Regular season event formats will feature 10 total teams, split into two (2) groups of five (5), playing round robin Thursday to Saturday with the top four teams in each group advancing to Sunday
• Group standings will be determined by standings points earned during group play, with each match worth a total of three (3) points (regulation win = 3; DreamBreaker™ win = 2; DreamBreaker™ loss = 1; regulation loss = 0)
• The same seeded team in each group will play each other on Sunday (i.e.: Group A #1 vs. Group B #1, etc.), with event standings points on the line, based on Sunday match results
• Event Standings Points for each event will be 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-1-1, based on final results (winner of the #1 vs. #1 match will receive 25 event standings points with the loser earning 18 points, etc.)
• Standings points will be earned based on overall performance at each event, NOT from each match

Waivers

• Teams will be allowed to participate in one (1) waiver wire period to swap out up to one of their players ONLY for one UPA-signed, MLP non-rostered player during the 2026 season on Wednesday, July 1, following regular season event #6, which ends Sun, June 28

Playoffs

• Playoffs will expand to three weeks and 12 teams for 2026, allowing for an additional round of high-revenue, high-quality, high-stakes events

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