Forget pickleball: Tech CEO launches national pingpong league in Naples

Pickleball has been netting scores of headlines of late, with millions of dollars of investment and courts and clubs popping up from Tampa through Naples. The list of new entities includes a Naples-based national pickleball league for players ages 50 and up, co-founded by the onetime president of NBC News’ Strategic Initiatives Group.

Now a new national league centered on a sport with a net and paddle — pingpong or, more officially, table tennis — has joined the scene. Also based in Naples, this organization is called Major League Table Tennis. The league will feature eight teams in cities nationwide competing in a team-based format, according to a statement. The player draft is expected in summer 2023 and league play will begin later this year, the release adds. 

The CEO of the league is Flint Lane, who founded and ran a New Jersey-based software-as-a-service billing management firm, Billtrust, that was acquired by a Swedish private equity firm last year in a $1.7 billion deal. Lane, according to his LinkedIn profile, founded Billtrust in 2001, after stints with other tech companies and consulting firm Accenture. Flint and his wife, Kathy, according to the statement, also own two table tennis clubs, Princeton Pong and Naples Pong. The latter currently operates in temporary space out of the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County. Flint also previously served on the USA Table Tennis Clubs Committee.