A Seamless Player Pathway Designed to Enhance Engagement and Drive Revenue

March 20, 2025 – New York City, New York – PodPlay, a leader in sports venue technology and innovation, is transforming pickleball by making DUPR Coach and Coach-Assigned DUPR Ratings available to guide pickleball players on the path of continuous improvement. By integrating Coach-Assigned DUPR Ratings with PodPlay’s innovative features—including integrated digital scoreboards, video replays, and DUPR Challenge Matches—clubs now have a powerful framework to enhance player participation, optimize programming, and drive sustained revenue growth.

Through a strategic collaboration with DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating) and My Journey Pickleball—the creators of DUPR Coach and DUPR Coach-Assigned Ratings—PodPlay is delivering a cutting-edge, technology-driven solution that empowers clubs to guide players from their first introduction to pickleball to long-term competitive engagement. By integrating these ratings into its cutting-edge platform, PodPlay empowers DUPR Coaches to play a central role in guiding player progress while helping clubs unlock new revenue streams. This groundbreaking approach creates a seamless pathway for skill development, club growth, and long-term engagement in the sport 

A Seamless Pathway for Every Pickleball Player

For the first time, players can move seamlessly through the pickleball journey—from non-rated participants to highly engaged, DUPR-rated players—within one connected system. The pathway includes:

• Coach-Assigned DUPR Ratings: Players start their pickleball journey with a DUPR-certified coach, receiving an initial skill assessment and rating to establish their baseline.
• Player Development with DUPR Coaches: As players improve, their DUPR Coach provides targeted coaching, tracking progress over time and guiding them toward higher-level play. With ongoing support, players stay motivated and committed to their development.
• PodPlay’s Innovation – DUPR Challenge Matches: Players automatically log matches to DUPR, eliminating all friction to submit results, analyze performance, and challenge others, creating an interactive and data-driven playing experience.
• Verified Open Play and Beyond: As players progress, they transition into DUPR-verified open plays, leagues, and tournaments, reinforcing long-term engagement and competition.

What Pickleball Clubs Gain: More Players, More Revenue, More Engagement

This innovation goes beyond player development—it’s a transformative opportunity for clubs and coaches to expand their reach, increase revenue, and strengthen community engagement:

• Tapping into the Non-Rated Player Market: With DUPR Coaches, clubs can introduce non-rated players to the DUPR system through DUPR Rating Sessions—an easy, match-free entry point. These sessions lay the groundwork for long-term player engagement while unlocking a valuable new revenue stream for clubs.
• Data-Driven Player Profiles: Players can seamlessly link their DUPR rating—including Coach-Assigned DUPRs—to their PodPlay profile, making their skill level easily accessible for programming and matchmaking.
• Smarter, More Precise Programming: Clubs can design programs tailored to specific DUPR rating ranges, ensuring balanced competition and an elevated playing experience for all participants.
• Enhanced Matchmaking for Competitive Play: Players can find and coordinate games with opponents of similar skill levels, leading to more meaningful, competitive, and engaging matches.
• Stronger Club Community: When all players within a club share a common rating system and skill-based reference point, it fosters a more inclusive and active playing environment—driving participation, increasing court utilization, and deepening member retention.

An Industry-Shaping Innovation

“The integration of DUPR Coach and PodPlay has revolutionized the player experience—eliminating frustration, enhancing competitive balance across formats, and breaking down barriers to participation,” said Jon Laaser, COO of Performance Pickleball. “As we continue to integrate Coach-Assigned ratings, the quality and impact of our offerings grow exponentially.”

"By integrating Coach-Assigned DUPR Ratings with PodPlay’s powerful technology, we’ve created a clear, engaging, and scalable pathway from getting a DUPR rating to playing DUPR Challenge Matches," said Ben Borton, Co-Founder at PodPlay. "This system benefits not only players but also clubs and coaches by fostering retention, engagement, and long-term revenue growth." 

Katie Nimitz, President of MyJourney Pickleball, said, "Creating a seamless pathway for players to enter the DUPR system is crucial for the growth of pickleball. PodPlay and DUPR Coaches make this possible by offering a simple, efficient way for non-rated players to be introduced to the rating system and receive their Coach-Assigned DUPR Ratings, setting them up for success and long-term engagement."

For clubs looking to provide a best-in-class pickleball experience, the message is clear: integrating PodPlay with DUPR Coach-Assigned Ratings is the future of player development and club success.

About PodPlay

PodPlay Technologies is the technology platform for modern recreational venues. We built the tech that powers PingPod, and, in 2023, formed PodPlay to offer the full tech stack as a white label SaaS solution to like-minded racquet sports venues. The PodPlay solution integrates reservations, event management, coach connect, analytics, and payments software with hardware-enabled features like scoreboards, customer initiated replays, door access, and 24/7 remote monitoring.

About DUPR Coach-Assigned Ratings

A DUPR Coach-Assigned Rating is provided by credentialed DUPR Coaches who assess players across key gameplay areas, delivering immediate, personalized ratings for players at any stage—whether they are new to the sport or haven’t competed in official DUPR events.

As a DUPR Coach, you’ll have the ability to generate these ratings, empowering you to guide players towards their next milestone while creating a more inclusive, skill-based pickleball community. Powered by MyJourney Pickleball, DUPR Coach offers coaches valuable insights into players’ skill levels and helps advance the sport through more competitive and enjoyable play. Coaches interested in offering DUPR Coach-Assigned Ratings and enhancing their coaching expertise can sign up at duprcoach.com/coach-cert to get started.

About DUPR

DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating) is the premier global pickleball rating system and technology platform, trusted by the world’s leading clubs, tournaments, leagues, and players. 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.

DUPR is the official pickleball rating of leagues, tournaments and clubs around the world, including United Pickleball Association (UPA), Professional Pickleball Association (PPA), Major League Pickleball (MLP), Pickleball.com, Life Time, The Picklr, National Team Pickleball League, National Pickleball League. It also owns and operates Minor League Pickleball and Collegiate Pickleball, two of the biggest amateur leagues in the sport. Players and operators can visit www.dupr.com to sign up and learn more.