Duplays: Connecting people

Dubai:  They ask a simple question: Do you play sports? If you do and meeting new people is your kind of thing, then you will find www.duplays.com to be more helpful than Facebook or twitter. .

It's taken a mere two and a half years for this website to rise from humble beginnings to become the biggest recreational sports portal in the UAE today with 15,500 members on board which includes over 70 nationalities.

And it doesn't matter what sport you adore depending which part of the world you come from. You name it, they have it.

"When I moved here about four years ago, I realised in the first few days there was a lack of an organised sports and social scene," said Ravi Bhusari, who founded the company along with his Canadian compatriot Davinder ‘Derv' Rao. "We said let's organise a game of ultimate frisbee among our friends as a first night just to test it. Everyone had fun. From that we started the website. When we hit a 1,000 [members], we were like ‘OK we are on to something'. Now we are close to 16,000."

According to Bhusari and Mohammad Nauman, the company's Dubai operations manager, the formula has worked wonders largely due to its simplicity. "One ,of the keys of the website is you can sign up for a team sport as an individual and then we'll place you. The beauty of the internet is it's very accessible. People see the sports we have on offer and sign up," said Bhusari.

Smart marketing

Nauman added: "So many people get in touch with us even before they come into the country, which is why the model of the business is IT-based. You can be in a different country, register yourself, sign up for a league, pay online, see your schedule, see the location map, communicate with the team members before anything starts. We have certain activities actually marketed towards people who are new to town."

Whether you just want to keep fit or win at all costs, Duplays organise recreational as well as competitive leagues in Dubai and Abu Dhabi across four seasons in a year. But with several enthusiasts currently travelling from Sharjah, Nauman said the company is eager to make venues easily accessible to all. "The idea is for the company to go from a more informal organisation to a more formal professional organisation without taking any of the fun part out," he said. "Just making sure people get more value from the league and love the environment. We also want to offer more sector specific leagues for corporate companies. The vast majority of players with us are executives in companies. These people are affluent and very active in the social scene. So they like to take advantage of what we have."

Not that members aren't satisfied as it is. "When I first moved here there was nothing for basketball," said Armenian born George Mikaelian. "When they came about it was an answer to a lot of prayers."

Sian Rowlands not only rediscovered her skills at netball after returning from studying in the UK but made several new friends in the process. "I hadn't played for 12 years and then I found out about it through friends," she said. "None of the girls on the team knew each other initially, but we've pretty much got the same team from the time we started out."