Step aside, pickle.
Tennis channel founder Steve Bellamy is launching a new racquet sport called typti, with support from hotel heir Tony Pritzker, motivational speaker Tony Robbins and Star Trek actor Chris Pine, among others.
Typti is played on a pickleball court, but uses a foam ball instead of a hard plastic ball. While the ball doesn’t move as fast, Bellamy said in an interview, the sport allows for longer rallies and longer shots than pickleball, which tends to spin compact, jerky shots near the net. Just like in tennis, typti uses a string racket.
“If tennis and badminton had a baby, it would be typti,” Bellamy said.
The entrepreneur, who was president of Kodak’s film business for nine years, has around 80 investors for his new company Typti, including actor Kyle MacLachlan, director JJ Abrams and comedian Tiffany Haddish.
He wouldn’t say how much he raised.
The effort is an attempt to expand growing interest in pickleball, which originated in 1965 and became popular decades later during the pandemic as people sought outdoor activities. Today, tens of thousands of such courts exist around the world.
Thanks to the foam ball, Typti is less noisy than Pickleball, which is where the noise comes from
often complaints from neighbors
. Like that sport, Bellamy said, typti is relatively easy to learn and doesn’t strain the body.
Typti’s backers plan to run a professional circuit with prize money starting at US$100,000 (S$128,600). The first game, open to all levels, is scheduled for Feb. 25 at the Calabasas Pickleball Club in suburban Los Angeles.
Mr. Bellamy, who founded Tennis Channel in 2001, has long been involved in racquet sports and invented another game: live ball, which is like a faster version of tennis.
Mr Bellamy said he had allowed the sport to fall into the public domain, missing the opportunity to charge the many tennis clubs who offer the sport. This time, he said, Typti investors will make money from tournaments and sales of rackets and balls. BLOOMBERG
