Overland Park, Kansas, is officially the most pickleball obsessed city in the United States, according to a new online ranking.
Betting and gambling site Offer.bet analyzed Google searches around the country to find out which city was the most obsessed with Pickleball. It named Overland Park because of internet search patterns in the city, and the abundance of venues dedicated to pickleball.
Overland Park ranked number one over cities like Salt Lake City, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Tempe, Arizona. St. Louis also made the list coming in at 26 out of 50 cities.
Pickleball was created nearly 60 years ago, after three men tried to improvise a game of badminton and wound up inventing a brand new paddle sport.
Today, the game is one of the fastest growing sports in America, according to Pickleheads.com. The ranking site that named Overland Park number one said that one in six Americans play pickleball. Searches for the sport increased by 284% since 2020.
A combination of tennis, badminton and pingpong, pickleball is played on a surface one-third the size of a tennis court with paddles and a whiffle ball.
Although some claim that the name “pickleball” was derived from one of the men’s family dog, Pickles, others state that the name actually came from the term “pickle boat,” referring to the last boat to return with its catch.
The sport has shifted from primarily being popular among senior citizens to becoming beloved by all age groups. According to a survey by Offer.bet, the site that ranked pickleball-obsessed cities, 77% of participants said the sport is for young and old generations.
According to the USA Pickleball Association, the number of places to play pickleball has doubled since 2010, and there are more than 150,000 players around the world. There are more than 10,300 pickleball courts nationwide, according to Pickleheads.
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(Colby Gordon contributed to this report.)
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