MLPA 2025 Shuffle Draft: Timeline, Rules & Roster Strategy Unveiled
What's the Score?
Major League Pickleball Australia (MLPA) has released the official details and timeline for its 2025 mid-season Shuffle Draft. This strategic mechanism allows teams to potentially change their roster by dropping one player from their current lineup and selecting a replacement from a pool of available players, including new applicants and existing alternates. The process aims to create fresh team dynamics and maintain competitive balance for the latter half of the season.
Hit it deeper!
The MLPA 2025 mid-season Shuffle Draft is designed to inject new energy and strategy into the league as teams approach the second half of the season. In line with the founding principles of MLPlay and the Dual Snake Draft – which emphasise creating new and exciting matchups and ensuring balanced teams – the Shuffle Draft provides a mechanism for teams to remix their lineups. The core function allows Team Captains the option to drop either zero or one player from their current roster. If a captain chooses to drop a player, they then gain the opportunity to select an available player from the Shuffle Draft Pool. This pool consists of new players who have applied for the draft and existing alternate athletes who have declared their interest. This mechanism introduces the potential for bringing in "fresh new talent or high-performing alternates" that could strategically impact upcoming events.
The timeline for this process has been clearly outlined. Applications for new players interested in being considered for the 2025 shuffle draft opened on May 8, 2025. The deadline for both new applicants and existing alternate players to formally declare their interest in being included in the Shuffle Draft pool is June 12, 2025. Following this, MLPA will provide Team Captains with an initial list of available players on June 13, 2025. Team Captains then have until June 14, 2025, to email the Commissioner, Sange Carter, to inform the league if they wish to place a player from their current team back into the player pool. MLPA has stated it will not publicly comment on or disclose any players placed back into the pool until after this deadline, communicating all changes simultaneously to all teams and players from the Commissioner's Office.
By June 15, 2025, MLPA will communicate the final available draft pool to all Team Captains. This final pool will include all eligible new players, alternate players, and any players placed back into the pool by teams. On the same day, MLPA will also formally communicate the picking order for the Shuffle Draft, which will be determined by a lottery process.
The Shuffle Draft itself is scheduled to be held on June 17, 2025. Only teams that opted to drop a player will be entered into the lottery to determine the picking order for selecting from the available player pool. The lottery system for the Premier Shuffle Draft is designed with specific rules to introduce strategy, excitement, and variance. Teams that dropped a player will be allocated "balls" in the lottery based on two criteria: their Placement as of June 9th (the conclusion of Event 3 - Gold Coast Slam), where a lower standing earns more balls (12th place gets 12 balls, 1st gets 1 ball), aiming to give lower-placed teams a better chance at a high pick; and the Draft Pick Rank of the player they dropped, calculated as 36 minus the original draft pick number (e.g., dropping the #11 pick gives 36-11=25 balls), intended to reward teams for placing highly drafted players back into the pool with a higher chance of a better supplemental draft pick. Balls will be randomly selected to determine the picking order. Each team that dropped a player will then select from the available pool until all 12 Premier teams once again have four players each.
Following the Premier Shuffle Draft, a Challenger Shuffle draft will take place four hours later.
The World Pickleball Verdict
The MLPA mid-season Shuffle Draft is a fascinating strategic element designed to keep the league dynamic and competitive. By giving teams the option to modify their rosters, it creates opportunities for underperforming teams to seek improvement or for captains to make calculated risks to find better player chemistry. The lottery system, incorporating both current standings and the value of the dropped player, adds a layer of chance and rewards specific strategic decisions. This mechanism not only provides exciting new matchups for the second half of the season but also ensures that strong alternate players or new talent have a defined pathway into the league. It's a bold approach that reflects MLPA's commitment to maintaining balance and unpredictability, which ultimately benefits the league's competitiveness and fan engagement.