Steve Bellamy, the former president of Motion Picture and Entertainment at Kodak who previously founded several sports-themed cable networks, has launched a new sports league and inked a deal with Tennis Channel to air the inaugural championships.
TYPTI is described as a racquet sport, played on a standard pickleball court with a 22-inch strung racquet, a 3.5-inch channeled foam ball and “a new scoring method that uniquely marries risk and reward.” Unlike pickleball, it’s nearly noiseless and said to be easy on the body, with high shockless ball strikes and no overhead serve. It has its own governing body with amateur and professional tours.
This weekend, the inaugural U.S. Open TYPTI Championships will take place Saturday and Sunday at the Calabasas Pickleball Club in Los Angeles featuring $100,000 in total prize money. All five of the championships on Sunday will be broadcast on Tennis Channel 2 starting at 11 a.m. PT; Saturday’s matches will be streamed on the Tennis Channel app and YouTube.
“Tennis Channel has curated such an incredible national racquet sport audience,” says Bellamy, CEO and chairman of TYPTI. “They will love TYPTI because it’s so perfect for television. The points are long, the rallies are dramatic, the action is constant, there is a refined bedlam, and the strategy reads so beautifully on camera. It’s the perfect marriage of competition, audience and distribution platform.”
