Gulf News business featured DUPLAYS co-founders Derv Rao and Ravi Bhusari talking about the company’s growth and potentital. Read the Gulf News full article here: “Thriving on sport’s social side” (27-Jan-2011). Excerpts below:

A quick visit to the 14th floor offices of Duplays in JLT reveals a business environment as fresh and as active as the company’s central nervous system, a website chocked full of sports league games scheduled across the UAE in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.

Soccer balls, basketballs, Frisbees and giant Duplays banners punctuate the office where Canadian founders Ravi Bhusari and Davinder “Derv” Rao work daily to build up the company.

…

Duplays is doubling in growth every year from 5,000 members in 2008, to 10,000 members in 2009, and to its current roster of 20,000.

“We arrived at 20,000 members as of December 31, 2010 and our goal for 2011 is to double that to 40,000,” Rao said.

Rao said the hard work to start a company from scratch is paying off judging by the numbers.

…

Hillary Lawson, 29, is a Duplays client who says mixing her love for sport and socialising has found a home in the sports company.

When Lawson moved to Dubai two years ago, the financial analyst was like many expats and eager to meet others shortly after arriving.

“When I moved here, I didn’t know anyone,” she said.

Lawson discovered the Duplays website after a Google search and joined amateur volleyball and ultimate Frisbee leagues offered in Dubai.

“I love sports to meet new people. It’s the best way to meet likeminded people. There are new faces every year,” said Lawson.

Duplays is helping expats to bridge barriers by using sports as a touchstone for people from different cultures to meet and interact, she said.

“Duplays is doing a very good job of organising sports. They’re appealing to the many nationalities here,” she said. “People are always looking for something new to do.”

Roxanne Brouille, 33, a real estate consultant, has been a member of Duplays since the early days of the company and values her weekly volleyball and Frisbee games.

“There are all age groups, professions and nationalities,” said Brouille. “The one thing we have in common is sports. Duplays has helped me feel a bit more well rounded because I have friends from many nationalities.”

Brouille looks forward to regular amateur games not only as a way to keep a body healthy, but to also stay in touch with new friends in a city that can be a very transient place.

“I look forward to my weekly appointments with my friends,” Brouille said. “I’ve made some really good friends, I’d say 20 or 30, from playing sports.”

The Municipality of Abu Dhabi City (ADM) has partnered up with DUPLAYS to introduce community sports services along the Corniche. [from Abu Dhabi Week]

Officially opened this month, the Abu Dhabi Beaches Sport Park (ADBSP) forms part of a broader strategy to help improve the health of the capital.

The beach in front of Gate 4 (Al Sahil) of the Corniche has been transformed into courts and pitches where, under DUPLAYS management, residents can participate in a variety of sporting activities, including volleyball, football, dodgeball, netball, and beach cricket, as well as yoga and Pilates.

“At DUPLAYS we’re really excited to be powering the Abu Dhabi Beaches Sport Park which brings more opportunities for residents to get fit, healthy and engaged in their community,” said Derv Rao, co-founder and Director of Operations at DUPLAYS.

“The Abu Dhabi Beaches Sport Park has professional sports lighting so night-time play can continue year-round, even as day time temperatures heat up. We’ll continue as many activities as possible through the summer months, but why wait until then. Now is the perfect time to come down and play!”

For more information, visit http://abudhabi.duplays.com. From there you can sign up for your preferred sport and skill level and DUPLAYS will do the rest.

Are all of the services free at the park? Where do charges apply?

DUPLAYS sports leagues currently run from Sunday to Wednesday at the park with Monday dedicated as a ladies only night. Our sporting activities include more traditional sports like netball and volleyball as well as more unconventional games like Ultimate Frisbee. We also run individual sports like yoga and aerobics. Our sports leagues run for 6-12 weeks and cost between AED 300 to 500 per person for the season. That equates to an average of AED 35-50 for each game. So basically visitors to the park can enjoy improved fitness and health and grow their social networks for the cost of a movie and popcorn.

The standard beach park fee of AED 10 per person per visit is required to access the Abu Dhabi Beaches Sport Park.

The courts are all sand-based and are also available for private use at a charge of AED 100 per hour.

Does DUPLAYS have any other projects planned in Abu Dhabi?

DUPLAYS is actively pursuing community partnerships at every level to support our mission to build a healthier tomorrow. Increasing physical activity is a societal issue, not just an individual problem. It demands a population-based, multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary, and culturally relevant approach. We are in discussions with education groups to improve physical activity levels among UAE youth. We are also initiating an inter-university sports league between and within Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.

Who is your target audience – young, very young, old, local, expat?

Our sports leagues are accessible, affordable and available to men and women of all nationalities and levels of fitness. Sports leagues are restricted to those 18 years and older, but the Abu Dhabi Beaches Sport Park is open to all ages for private use. As part of our partnership with the Municipality of Abu Dhabi we want the park to be a platform where community spirit and civic engagement can thrive. It is important that we encourage families with children to use the park and enjoy the facilities too.

For ‘sports’ novices will there be hands-on training events?

You don’t have to be an athlete to participate in DUPLAYS sports leagues. We don’t run any specific training events for our members, but we do make sure our leagues cater to all skill levels. We offer recreational and social leagues as well as competitive leagues and play an active role in helping our members join the right league for their level of sporting ability. We also take into consideration cultural sensitivities and potential barriers to participation. One of our main aims is to make our sports leagues easy to discover and join.

Will each group be allotted set times to use the facilities and where can they find this information? Can people hire courts, pitches for private games?

The Abu Dhabi Beaches Sport Park is one of the venues we use in Abu Dhabi to run our DUPLAYS sports leagues throughout the week. The park is also available to individuals, teams or companies who wish to book a court for private use. Court reservations are definitely encouraged to ensure court availability. A court reservation booking form and further information about the facilities can be found on our website, www.duplays.com. The website is not only a great resource for interested users, it also has a strong social networking focus. Members can continue their connections with each other away from the courts and pitches through various social media channels. This is a great way for our members to swap sports stories, share photos from the games and make or strengthen friendships.

What kind of facilities will be available during the summer months, or will the park be closed at this time?

The Abu Dhabi Beaches Sport Park has professional sports lighting so night-time play can continue year-round, even as day time temperatures heat up. We’ll continue as many activities as possible through the summer months, but why wait until then. Now is the perfect time to come down and play!

http://abudhabi.duplays.com

Additional media coverage

• The National: “Beach sport park in league of its own” 2-Jan-2011
• AMEinfo.com: “Abu Dhabi Beaches Sport Park opens at the Corniche“
• The Gulf Today newspaper: “ADM introduces new sports services with community health at heart“
• Abu Dhabi Week: “DUPLAYS on the beach” (reprinted above)
• Akhbar Al Arab newspaper Arabic article (image above)
• Al Ittihad newspaper: Arabic article
• UAE Connectors: Arabic article
• Eye of Dubai: Arabic article
• Yahoo Maktoob: Arabic article
• Al Wahda newspaper: Arabic article

DubaiOne TV show recently interviewed DUPLAYS co-founders Derv Rao and Ravi Bhusari at Ski Dubai.

The full episode from Dubai One is available here: Episode 18 – Winter Wonderland

Play sport. Be social. DUPLAYS.com

Recently DubaiOne TV aired this video about DUPLAYS social sport leagues in the UAE: Punam and Layne from “Out & About This Week” discover DUPLAYS — the UAE’s “Sport & Social Club”.

The full video from DubaiOne TV is here: http://bit.ly/dxb1DUPLAYS

Joining a sport league is easy! Visit DUPLAYS.com homepage for Dubai or for Abu Dhabi.  Then you just need to 1) register on the site, 2) sign up for your sport, and 3) we take care of the rest — you’re ready to play!

Play sport. Be social. DUPLAYS.com

“Play sports!” Abu Dhabi Week (6-Dec-2009)

If you’re new to Abu Dhabi or are just looking for opportunities to get involved in sport then Duplays could be for you. It organises mixed- and single-gender sports leagues in and around the UAE. Many of the leagues are recreational rather than competitive, which means that it’s more about sport, fun, and exercise and less about skill, technique, and competition.

The good news is that Duplays is now signing up for new leagues starting in the middle of January. Among some of the leagues starting in January are men’s and women’s basketball leagues and a mixed touch rugby league at Yasmina School in Khalifa City. There is also an eight-a-side cricket league and men’s and women’s five-a-side football leagues taking place at the Dome at Rawdhat, in the Grand Mosque area, and a new mixed volleyball league is being formed at the Sheraton Hotel on the Corniche.

“A summer fling: Time Out sweats it out in one of DUPLAYS [ultimate frisbee] ‘sauna’ leagues” Time Out Dubai (18-Jun-2009)

Developed in the heady days of ’60s America, Ultimate Frisbee has garnered something of a cult following in Dubai. ‘I got to get in some ‘ultimate’ before heading home,’ says one expat to us before high-fiving a subbed teammate and sprinting on to the pitch. The sport manages to draw a consistently strong crowd of equally easy-going sorts to a floodlit softball field off Sheikh Zayed Road, even at the height of summer.

Ultimate frisbee was the league that DUPLAYS launched with last year, and it has since established a number of other very relaxed, popular leagues in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

“Pitching into a league of good sports” The National (4-May-2009)

What started as a loose grouping of about 30 friends has now developed into a sports portal with more than 6,000 registered members across the UAE.

“Friends brought friends, who brought colleagues, who brought their wives, who joined the leagues.”

Personal interaction between players, and between Emiratis and expatriates, is just as important as the sports themselves.

In any one season, DUPLAYS organises sports leagues for more than 1,500 active members, with others using the portal to connect with each other for everything from squash to scuba diving. DUPLAYS.com offers an eclectic list of games, from cricket to ultimate frisbee and dodgeball. The website lists leagues that players can join – for example, in Abu Dhabi the ultimate frisbee group called “Disco-no-ball”, for mixed teams, meets on Tuesdays at Zayed Sports City from 8pm onwards.

“DO PLAY” LiveWorkExplore (Apr-May-2009)

Dubai and Abu Dhabi-based sportsmen can now get back into fitness or try their hand (or feet) at a new hobby. DUPLAYS organizes leagues [and connects sport lovers] in a huge range of activities from archery to ultimate frisbee plus all the usual five-aside football and racquet sports you would expect. With leagues starting throughout the year you just need to gather your teammates together, pay the fee (it works out to around Dhs.30 per person per game for a team of 11 taking part in an eight week league) then play your socks off for glory.

“Women’s Sport in Dubai” TimeOut Dubai (9-Mar-2009)

Basketball: ‘I come all the way from Ajman to play,’ says Kirsty. ‘I was so surprised when I first turned up. Other women have been forced to play mixed games or haven’t been able to play at all before now.’

Netball: You can enter as a team, if you’re lucky enough to have one all ready to go, or as an individual. If you come along by yourself you’ll be placed in a team of like-minded ladies. ‘Our aim,’ says organiser Emma Moffat, ‘is to enjoy the game in a fun and social setting.’

Indoor Volleyball by DUPLAYS in Dubai, UAE. Video segment aired on “Sport on 7″ on City 7 TV in July, 2009. Host Graham Clews gets on the court to interview some players and co-founder Derv Rao.

Play Sport. Be Social. DUPLAYS.com

Women’s Basketball by DUPLAYS in Dubai, UAE. Video segment aired on “Sport on 7″ on City 7 TV in July, 2009. Host Graham Clews interviews some female players court side and gets some great action footage from the games.

Play women’s basketball in Dubai or in Abu Dhabi — sign up here!

Play Sport. Be Social.  DUPLAYS.com

American Flag Football and Ultimate Frisbee by DUPLAYS @ the Metropolitan Hotel in Dubai, UAE. Video segment aired on “Sport on 7″ on City 7 TV in December, 2008. Host Graham Clews gets on the field and interviews some players of both sports.

DUPLAYS means Do U PLAY Sports? Join a league today. Visit DUPLAYS.com/leagues to sign up today!

Interviews with players, Ravi & Derv at Barasti Bar. Do you play sports?
DUPLAYS means Do U PLAY Sports? Join a league today. Visit DUPLAYS.com/leagues to play!

City 7 TV – Duplays Beach Volleyball from DUPLAYS.

Beach Volleyball by DUPLAYS @ Barasti Bar in Dubai, UAE. Video segment from “Sport on 7″ show on City 7 TV. Interview with Duplays co-founders Ravi Bhusari and Derv Rao. Derv & Ravi talk about the Duplays’ social sport concept, how DUPLAYS started in 2007 and the ease of using DUPLAYS.com to join a league, play on a team and meet new people in the UAE.

“Soccer passion runs high” Gulf News (18-Nov-2008)

Are you one of those people who dreamed of having a career in football, but missed the cut on your local football team? Well, your days of hopelessness over time lost are about to end.

“That’s the way DUPLAYS!” City Times (13-Oct-2008)

As one networking portal aims to increase public health and shatter segregation through sport, its founders talk about why Dubai residents need to look beyond shopping to unwind…

“Explorer TOP 10″ 7 Days (21-Sep-2008)

One of the simplest sports to play – all you need are a few people, a bit of space, and, of course, a Frisbee – the game of Ultimate is a hybrid of team sports such as football and netball, using a disc instead of a ball. Teams are usually mixed, and the sport is relaxed and sociable…

“DUPLAYS game plan” Gulf News (16-Apr-2008)

The idea was formed around the company’s website which acts as a platform connecting UAE residents through sport, and those who register can also post their events.

Derv Rao: “All we wanted to do was play and be able to unite people of different backgrounds. In September 2007, we found a field, got some people together and that’s really when it hit us and DUPLAYS.com took off from there,”