Owl AI and Major League Pickleball Go Live with First-Ever AI Officiating System Powered by Broadcast Cameras and the Cloud

As the 2026 Major League Pickleball season kicks off this weekend in Dallas, it will mark the beginning of an all-new era in sports officiating. In a groundbreaking partnership with Owl AI, a sports technology company that is transforming how sports are judged, coached, and experienced, the world will witness the first-ever AI officiating system powered entirely by broadcast cameras feeding video into a cloud-based AI system.

It is paramount for MLP to strategically align with innovative companies like Owl AI to enhance the reliability of our challenge system and the overall production quality of the on-court product, says MLP Commissioner Samin Odhwani. Major League Pickleball has shown remarkable growth since inception in 2021, and we are constantly striving to make improvements and showcase the best version of MLP for our current and future fans, players, and teams.

The launch represents a major milestone not only for Owl AI and Major League Pickleball, but for the future of sports technology more broadly. Unlike traditional officiating systems that require specialized cameras, fixed hardware, or sensor-heavy installations, Owl AI operates completely in software. By leveraging existing broadcast cameras, artificial intelligence, and cloud infrastructure, Owl AI brings a new level of flexibility, scalability, and intelligence to sports officiating.

Owl AI will take Pickleball officiating to new levels beginning this weekend. Owl has become the AI intelligence layer behind every sports broadcast, adds Josh Gwyther, CEO of Owl AI. It's extremely exciting to be the leader in sports AI. Owl AI is opening up a whole new world of possibilities. What we are doing today is just the tip of the iceberg of what is to come.

For decades, sports technology has largely followed a hardware-first model: purpose-built systems designed to do one thing, with limited ability to adapt once deployed. Owl AI takes a software-first approach. That means the same camera infrastructure used for line calling today can support entirely new capabilities tomorrow, including player analytics, match insights, officiating enhancements, broadcast augmentation, and other future applications, all without changing the production setup.

The difference between hardware and software is more than technical architecture. Hardware systems are rigid and single-purpose. Software systems can be continuously improved, retrained, updated, and expanded over time. In Owl AI's model, the broadcast itself becomes the input layer for a much broader intelligence system. That means leagues and broadcasters no longer have to think about technology as a separate physical overlay requiring major operational changes. Instead, they can unlock new functionality from the camera feeds they already have. For Major League Pickleball, that begins with AI officiating. For the industry, it signals something much larger: a future where sports broadcasts are not just recorded and distributed, but interpreted in real time by an intelligent software layer that can evolve continuously.

The world's first end-to-end AI platform designed to bring fairness, clarity, and immersion to judged and referee-influenced sports, Owl AI, which was founded in May 2025, believes this software-defined approach will create a fundamentally more adaptable foundation for sports. What begins with line calling can expand into player tracking, performance analytics, decision support, officiating review, broadcast enhancements, and fan-facing experiences, all built on the same video inputs. Built by elite athletes and top technologists, Owl AI delivers real-time scoring, global commentary, and intelligent insights - transforming the athlete, fan, and league experience forever. The technology is built to serve as a new layer of intelligence and objectivity for athletes, fans, coaches, and officials alike -across all sports. Since its debut at X Games Aspen in 2025, where it made headlines for its ability to judge, predict and commentate professional snowboarding performance, Owl AI is experiencing unprecedented demand.

Major League Pickleball whose parent company, Pickleball inc., recently received a nine-figure investment led by Apollo Sports Capital generated a host of record-breaking metrics during the 2025 season, highlighted by sponsor revenue more than doubling year-over-year, 94% growth in ticket revenue, a 52% bump in total attendance, linear TV hours more than doubling via national broadcaster and local partnerships, and over 400% gains in social media impressions. MLP also set new all-time league highs for multiple team valuations in 2025, including the LA Mad Drops ($13 million majority stake sale record) and Palm Beach Royals ($16 million expansion franchise record).

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/05/22/owl-ai-and-major-league-pickleb...
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