MLP Asia takes shape: THE DOTS TOKYO and Viet Panthers join the inaugural season
Short answer: MLP Asia's first season opens November 13 with six teams, a Tokyo opening night hosted by TBS and dentsu's DOTS TOKYO, and the Viet Panthers launching in Ho Chi Minh City.
Major League Pickleball's Asian edition has its first teams, its first dates and its first opening match. The inaugural MLP Asia season begins Friday, November 13, with six teams in the field, and two of the newest to reveal themselves, THE DOTS TOKYO and the Viet Panthers, arrive from very different directions with the same stated goal: building a pro pickleball culture at home. Four of the six teams will advance to the finals, with semifinals on December 11 and the first MLP Asia champion crowned on Super Saturday, December 12.
THE DOTS TOKYO: broadcaster money, ad-group muscle
The name is the concept. Every dot is a person, the team explains, a player, a staff member, a fan in the stands, each with a different background and story. Pickleball is what joins them up. Connect enough dots, the thinking goes, and you get something bigger than any single one: a team, a home crowd and a new sporting culture in Japan.
Behind the concept sits serious Japanese corporate weight. THE DOTS TOKYO was established jointly by TBS Holdings, one of Japan's major broadcasters, and dentsu Sports & Entertainment, part of the country's largest advertising group. The two will run the team together, build the brand and bring in partners, with a wider aim of growing the game in Japan from player development to fan communities. A broadcaster plus an advertising giant is about as strong a launch combination as a new league franchise can draw.
The timing backs the investment. The number of pickleball players in Japan is estimated at around 330,000 in 2026, roughly seven times the figure a year earlier, and until now those players have had no pro team at home to follow. Yuta Funemizu captains the six-player roster, which also includes Daniel Moore, Nasa Hatakeyama, Rika Fujiwara, Aiko Yoshitomi and Mihae Kwon.
The first match in league history is in Tokyo
MLP Asia is handing Japan the opening night. The very first match in league history will be played in Japan, with TBS and dentsu hosting the opening match day. The Dots face Manila Helios and then the Malayan Stripes on night one, and a win in both would put the hosts on top of the standings before the season is a day old. For a league selling a new market, a home team with broadcast owners playing the first-ever game is about as clean a launch script as exists.
Viet Panthers: Vietnam plants its flag
The Viet Panthers officially launched at the GEM Center in Ho Chi Minh City, marking the arrival of MLP Asia's team format in Vietnam. The team is backed by Ascend Sports Partners, an organisation that invests in and operates sport properties with a long-term view. Vietnam has been one of the region's fastest-adopting pickleball markets over the past two years, and a branded franchise gives that growth a focal point the same way the Dots give Japan one.
The wider Asian build-out
MLP Asia does not arrive in an empty landscape. PPA Asia staged its Hong Kong Slam at Kai Tak Arena earlier this month, billed as the region's largest event, and the Philippines' Maharlika Pilipinas Pickleball Tour just completed its second invitational leg with a wave of tennis converts crossing over. Japan's sevenfold player growth in a single year is the steepest national curve in the sport. The region now has tour events, a team league and national federations racing to organize the same surge, and the November 13 opening puts a team franchise at the center of it.
For sponsors and broadcasters, the appeal is packaging. A month-long season with a defined finals weekend is a sellable television product in a way a rolling tour calendar is not, and TBS's ownership stake means at least one major broadcaster is already inside the tent rather than negotiating for rights from outside it.
What the format means for the region
MLP's team model, established in the United States and already exported to Australia, turns individual pros into attached rosters with local identities, and Asia is the third region to get it. The structure matters for fans: instead of following a floating draw of individuals, a city gets a team, colors and a table. For players across Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia, it also creates a new payscale route that does not require relocating to the American tour calendar.
The six-team field and the December finals compress the whole first season into about a month, which keeps every match meaningful. With the opening day in Japan and the Philippines' Manila Helios drawn against the hosts immediately, the league is starting with the region's two most established markets on center stage. If the American and Australian editions are the template, expect the season to end with at least one market demanding an expansion slot for 2027.
Sources
Sources checked 20 Oct 2026. Header image is illustrative, not a photo of the events described.
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