Major League Pickleball announces major rule changes, eliminates rally scoring for doubles

Alex Lantz

Director of Written Content

Last Edited

Jan 22 2025

Category

News

Major League Pickleball announced several major rule changes Wednesday, including the elimination of rally scoring in doubles matches and the expansion of Premier Level roster sizes to six players (three men, three women).

The league also released its schedule of events as well as dates for free agency and waiver wire periods.

MLP officials said in a news release that the league continues to evaluate match scoring options to maximize sports betting and may introduce further changes in the future, but traditional side-out scoring will be the gender and mixed doubles format for 2025, with the following rules:

Games will be played to 11 points, with a winning margin of at least two points.
DreamBreakers will still be played under the existing rally scoring format and played to 21 points, with players switching out every four points. The freeze will remain at game point, meaning the DreamBreaker must be won on serve.

The expansion to six-person rosters for the 16 Premier Level teams is also a major development and will allow teams the flexibility to make lineup changes on a day-to-day basis as well as make substitutions in the event of injuries.

Premier Level teams must set their daily lineup the day before each match day. In the case of an injury during an event, a Premier Level team can use their bench player of the same gender as an injury replacement.

In this scenario, the injury replacement must play in all team matches for the remainder of that day, in addition to all team matches on the following day (i.e.: a player serving as a mid-match injury replacement on Thursday must also play all Friday matches, but the originally injured player is eligible to be in the team’s Saturday and Sunday lineups, if applicable).

As for building out those rosters, players must meet the following requirements in order to be eligible to be kept by a team for the 2025 MLP season:

Was one of the 88 originally drafted players by either a Premier or Challenger team in 2024.
Ended the 2024 MLP season on a team roster.
AND is under UPA contract through at least 2025.

Teams may keep eligible players under the following parameters:

Two players can be kept for up to three years.
One player can be kept for up to two years.
Every team will be required to drop at least one player from their 2024 season-ending roster by the keeper deadline of Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025.

Teams can also make trades starting Wednesday until Feb. 15.

After teams have made their keeper selections, there will be Premier and Challenger Level free agency operated by dynamic bidding for each selection slot (minimum bid amounts to be shared at a later date). This gives teams the chance to utilize whatever bidding strategy they see fit in order to build the best full roster, in a process similar to the 2024 Premier Level draft.

Premier Level teams will acquire between three and six players (depending on how many players they keep) during a free agency draft on Sunday, March 2.

Challenger Level roster sizes will remain at four players (two men, two women) and the free agency draft for Challenger players will take place on Monday, March 3. All players acquired via 2025 free agency will be eligible to be kept for up to three years, with 2025 counting as Year 1.

Trades will then be allowed at the conclusion of the Challenger Level draft until the trade deadline on July 15.

The 2025 MLP season schedule will consist of 14 total weeks of events:

10 regular season events (April-August), all hosted in MLP team markets for the first time.
2025 Mid-Season Tournament (July).
Two weekends for 2025 MLP Playoffs (August).
2025 MLP Cup (November)

Full schedule

April 24-27: Orlando

May 1-4: Columbus

May 22-25: Austin

May 29-June 1: Scottsdale

June 5-8: Salt Lake City

June 26-29: San Clemente

July 3-6: Washington, D.C.

July 10-13: Beer City Open Mid-Season Tournament

July 17-20: St. Louis

July 24-27: Dallas

July 31-Aug. 3: St. Petersburg

Aug. 15-17: San Diego (playoffs)

Aug. 22-24: New York (playoffs)

You can find information on tickets and registration for select amateur events running alongside MLP events here.

All teams will participate in five of the 10 regular season events, with each team scheduled to play a total of 25 regular season matches.

A total of three standings points will be earned in every regular season match.

Standings points are earned in every match as follows:

3 Points: Regulation win (i.e.: 3-1 or 4-0 win; no DreamBreaker needed).
2 Points: DreamBreaker win (i.e.: 3-2 win).
1 Point: DreamBreaker loss (i.e.: 2-3 loss).
0 Points: Regulation loss (i.e.: 1-3 or 0-4 loss; no DreamBreaker needed).

The top 10 Premier Level teams and top six Challenger Level teams will make the playoffs.

Other notes

Waiver Wire: There will only be one waiver wire period in 2025, following MLP Salt Lake City. Only players under UPA contract will be eligible to be claimed on waivers.

Injured Reserve: If a player is placed on IR, they will be ineligible to play for the remainder of the season.

Player Loans: Will no longer exist as an avenue for player acquisition, as a result of expanded Premier rosters.

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