Pickleball Contract Tiers Explained
How Gold Card, Standard, Futures, and Unsigned tiers work on the PPA and MLP tours — and why the APP has no tier system at all.
Update — August 2026
The APP Tour began contracting players in March 2026, the first player signings in its history. The Unsigned and APP sections below reflect that change, and explain why a DinkBank tier badge describes a player's UPA standing only.
Overview
The PPA and MLP tours use a tiered contract system that directly affects how much players earn in prize money. There are four tiers: Gold Card (highest), Standard, Futures (new), and Unsigned (no UPA contract). A player's tier determines the multiplier applied to their prize money on the PPA Tour. A reported 2026-2028 MLP proposal also lists tier-specific per-player amounts, although implementation and recipient eligibility remain unconfirmed. The APP Tour does not use a tier system — all APP players receive the same payouts.
Tier Breakdown
| Tier | PPA Multiplier | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Card | 1.0x (full payout) | All distributed | The highest tier. Full published prize money at every PPA event. No new Gold Cards are being issued. |
| Standard | ~0.4x | Active | Most common tier among contracted professionals. Receive approximately 40% of the published Gold Card payout for the same placement. |
| Futures | Tier-specific grid | Active | The entry tier for new UPA/PPA signings under the reported 2026 framework, with a six-month minimum before review. |
| Unsigned | Lowest | Open entry | No UPA contract. Players enter through open qualifiers and receive the lowest payout tier at PPA events. |
Gold Card
Gold Card holders receive the full published prize money — a 1.0x multiplier on all PPA payouts. This makes the Gold Card the most valuable contract tier in professional pickleball. Key facts:
- All Gold Cards have already been distributed to top players
- No new Gold Cards are being issued by the PPA Tour
- Gold Card players also receive guaranteed contract payments independent of tournament performance
- The combination of full prize money plus guaranteed contracts means Gold Card players have the highest earning floor in the sport
Standard
Standard contract players receive approximately 0.4x of the published Gold Card payout. This is the most common contract tier among professionals who compete regularly on the PPA Tour. While the payout multiplier is lower than Gold Card, Standard players still receive contract guarantees that provide baseline income independent of results.
Futures
Futures is the entry tier for emerging UPA/PPA players. Public reporting on the 2026 framework says new PPA players signed after November 1, 2025 remain on the Futures prize-money grid for at least six months before they may be reviewed for Standard.
Passing that date does not guarantee an upgrade. DinkBank keeps a player classified as Futures until credible public reporting supports a Standard contract.
Unsigned
Unsigned means no UPA contract. Unsigned players enter PPA events through open qualifiers and receive the lowest tier of prize money payouts, and the UPA pays them no guaranteed contract money — on the PPA, tournament performance is their only source of prize income.
The label describes a player's UPA standing and nothing more. Since March 2026 a player DinkBank lists as Unsigned may also hold a contract with the APP Tour, which signs players without placing them in tiers. The APP section below explains how DinkBank handles that.
APP: No Tier System
The APP Tour (Association of Pickleball Professionals) does not use a contract tier system. All APP players receive the same prize money for the same placement, regardless of contract status. This means an Unsigned player who wins an APP event earns the same prize as any other winner.
APP events use a six-category system based on purse size and prestige, but these categories affect the total prize pool — not individual payouts by player status.
The APP does contract players. On March 3, 2026 it announced the first player signings in its history — an opening group that included Megan Fudge, Simone Jardim, Jack Munro, Sofia Sewing, and Quang Duong — and by August 2026 reporting put the roster at nearly 70 players under contract. These are non-exclusive multi-year agreements: a signed player owes the APP a minimum number of events each season — four per season in Quang Duong's deal, the only one whose terms have been reported — and stays free to play PPA, MLP, and international events above that floor. No APP contract value has been made public.
Because the APP publishes no tier system and contract status does not change an APP payout, DinkBank does not show an APP contract badge. A tier badge on DinkBank describes a player's UPA standing only. An APP-contracted player who holds no UPA contract still appears here as Unsigned, and a player who holds both an APP and a UPA contract shows the UPA tier alone.
The absent badge is not a statement about the money. An APP guarantee is contract income in exchange for a commitment to play, the same exchange a UPA contract makes, and DinkBank records it as contract income on the same terms as any other — it is missing today only because no per-player APP figure has been published.
MLP: Team Placement and Contract-Tier Proposals
Historical MLP awards were often published as per-team amounts. The reported 2026-2028 contract proposal instead lists tier-specific per-player amounts based on the team's placement.
MLP has not publicly confirmed that the proposal was finalized or which rostered players receive each payment. DinkBank therefore treats the 2026 values as estimates rather than confirmed payouts.
Impact on Career Earnings
Contract tier is one of the most significant factors in a PPA player's total earnings. Consider two hypothetical players with identical results across a full PPA season:
| Scenario | Gold Card Player | Standard Player |
|---|---|---|
| Published winner payout | $10,000 | $10,000 |
| Actual payout received | $10,000 (1.0x) | ~$4,000 (0.4x) |
| Season total (10 wins) | $100,000 | ~$40,000 |
This 2.5x earning gap between Gold Card and Standard players for identical results is why contract tier is one of the most discussed topics in professional pickleball economics.
Methodology
DinkBank tracks player contract tiers alongside tournament results and prize money. Tier assignments are based on publicly available information and tour announcements. All prize money figures on DinkBank account for the player's tier multiplier.
For more details on how DinkBank calculates and verifies prize money, see the Methodology page.