PodPlay is excited to announce the launch of DUPR Challenge Matches for clubs with PodPlay Pro Monitors. Just choose “Submit Results” at the beginning of a match and results are automatically reported to DUPR at the end of the match. 

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Players no longer need to login to DUPR, find the other players, enter scores, and wait for confirmations. All those steps are condensed into a single press of a button at the beginning of the match. For clubs that choose to default to Submit Results for a court or event, the single button press is eliminated, and what is left is totally frictionless reporting to DUPR. 

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Why it Matters

DUPR stands for Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating. Putting Universal in the name turned out to be prescient, as DUPR has become the universal standard for pickleball ratings. 

• >1 million players
• >5 million matches records
• >5,000 pickleball clubs and facilities
• 158 countries represented

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DUPR is a rating system designed to provide accurate and dynamic player ratings. Unlike traditional static rating systems, DUPR's algorithm continuously adjusts ratings based on match results, ensuring that ratings reflect current skill levels. DUPR's dynamic rating system unifies pickleball across age, gender, and location by analyzing match results to accurately evaluate all players across a 2.000 - 8.000 scale.

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DUPR promotes fair and balanced gameplay by accurately assessing player skill levels. Accurate and accessible ratings help drive:

• Skill Development. Players can track their progress and identify areas for improvement through their DUPR ratings.
• Precise Programming. DUPR allows clubs to create programming for specific skill levels and require a DUPR rating to participate, eliminating the issue of matching players with very different skill levels. 
• Community Engagement. DUPR fosters a vibrant pickleball community by providing a platform for players to connect, compete, and grow together.

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DUPR has achieved broad adoption across the pickleball community. The biggest barrier to greater adoption and more games being reported is the friction currently involved in submitting scores. PodPlay’s DUPR Challenge Match feature eliminates all of that friction.

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Eliminating Friction is a Core PodPlay Design Principle

In Your App is Your Front Door, we wrote about PodPlay’s obsession with creating the kind of customer experience for end users that is so good they want to tell others about it. An insanely great technology experience is one that allows customers to get what they want with as little work as possible. When it comes to the user experience, less is often more. Some of the areas where PodPlay has made dramatic improvements over legacy systems are:

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• Onboarding. Customers are able to browse court availability, programming, and more before creating a customer account. We don’t make customers fill out a long form and give you their payment info before they know what you offer. Create too much friction at onboarding and customers may give up before they even get started.
• Quick Replays. Customers love capturing magic moments and sharing them with their network. They DO NOT love doing any work to get those replays. Make them set up a camera, scan a QR Code, or create a login on a separate system to get their highlights and usage plummets. PodPlay’s game-changing replay functionality is designed to allow players to capture great moments without taking them out of the flow of their game. 
• Coach Connect. Using PodPlay’s Coach Connect feature, customers are able to discover, coordinate and pay coaches with a couple of clicks. No e-mails, no texts, no need for Venmo after the lesson. By eliminating friction, the feature drives large increases in coaching activity. 

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With DUPR Challenge Matches, we can add reporting scores to DUPR to the list of functions where PodPlay has collapsed a multi-step process into a single step. 

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The Pickleball Tournament of the Future

PodPlay does not yet offer tournament and league management, but these are areas we plan to tackle in 2025. By combining tournament and league management with PodPlay Scoreboards and the DUPR Challenge Match feature, it is not hard to imagine a massive reduction in the need for tournament and league staffing. Stay tuned for future developments!

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The PodPlay Advantage

PodPlay gives venue operators all the tools they need to digitally manage a physical space - integrating video replays, automated scoreboards, and autonomous functionality with a reservation engine, event management, coach connect, membership module, and payments. 

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Originally built to power PingPod, the network of futuristic autonomous ping pong clubs, PodPlay is now being used to manage venues across pickleball, padel, ping pong, golf simulators, racing simulators, soccer and pool, with more experience verticals to come in the future.

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If you’re interested in learning more, request a demo.

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