Pickleball went pro. Can it profit?

As pickleball takes over the

and courts of America, investors are pouncing on the opportunity to turn a favorite casual pickup game into a massive professional sport.

The Super Bowl champion Tom Brady invested in a pickleball expansion team alongside the tennis star Kim Clijsters in 2022. This year, Drake and Michael B. Jordan backed a Brooklyn team. Major League Pickleball, one of the sport’s two professional leagues, which was…