Pickleball Injuries Could Cost $400 Million in Medical Bills This Year, Report Estimates

A new report from UBS Group AG indicates that an unlikely culprit may be behind an influx in healthcare utilization: pickleball.

As the popularity of the sport has soared in recent years, with the equipment market valued at more than $60 billion, the number of associated injuries has also increased.

According to Bloomberg, UBS estimates somewhere between $250 million and $500 million in medical costs associated with pickleball injuries this year.

Players continue to join the sport, with 22.3 million expected to participate in one way or another this year. The firm estimated that older adults make up about one-third of players who play the sport at least eight times a year. At large, pickleball players are estimated to have higher incomes.

The analysts used two studies related to pickleball injuries to crunch their numbers and found that the majority of injuries associated with the game happen to people ages 60 or older, and the rate the players go to the hospital is around 0.27%.

The firm estimates pickleball will be responsible for 67,000 emergency department visits, 366,000 outpatient visits, 8,800 outpatient surgeries, 4,700 hospitalizations and 20,00 post-acute episodes this year.

“We then use the nature of pickleball injuries and care setting to inform our estimates of unit pricing. All said, we estimate $377 [million] of medical costs related to pickleball,” the report read. Of that cost, 80% is attributable to outpatient and 20% to inpatient.