Our History
Duplays was founded on a simple observation. People move to a new city and find it difficult to connect with others to play the sports they left behind but still love to play. We wanted to change that, so we started Duplays (yes a play on words for “Dubai plays”), as an online platform that would connect sports enthusiasts with sport leagues that we’d organize across the Emirate. We found the venues, hired the referees, and created teams and schedules. We did this at scale, across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, each night, every night to become the UAE’s largest provider of adult, participatory sport.
Our mission today is no different. We want to be the sport venues of choice for people to play sports. Today, we embark on not just organizing high-quality sport experiences but building best-in-class sport facilities at scale across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, starting with our two facilities in Riyadh and Dammam, launching in 2021.
“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand.”
Nelson Mandela
Company Achievements
First night of Duplays sport – pick up Ultimate Frisbee at old Met hotel fields off Sheikh Zayed Road.
Registered as a Dubai company! Grew from one sport to 6 sports! (Ultimate Frisbee, football, beach volleyball, basketball, netball, and touch rugby). Crossed 1,000 registered member mark!
Gulf Business Top 10 Start Ups to watch.
Hired by Flash Entertainment to organize 3v3 streetball tournament as part of NBA JamFest on Yas Island. Responsibilities included recruitment of teams, referees, schedules, online registration/payment and kit distribution.
Organized the Guinness World Record for longest football match (42h07m) for our client Snickers at Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar.
Awarded contract from SEHA (Abu Dhabi Health Authority) to manage corporate wellness program for their 1,000+ employees across UAE.
Featured on the BBC News website.
Spun off software side of business, re-branded Playpass.
Select as a Dubai100 SME
Crossed 100,000 registered member mark, having organized hundreds of social sports leagues across the UAE for thousands of adult participants.
Signed JVCO with Al Hokair Group in Saudi Arabia
Launched nook, the region’s first and only licensed coworking space focused on supporting the sports, health, fitness and wellness industries.
Established Yeadon Middle East in partnership with Yeadon USA, to bring air-supported dome technology to the Mid East market.
Pressed pause on organised sport and focused our energies on our longer term strategic sport development projects
Launched Duplays ‘social infrastructure’ developments in UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Meet the team
Derv Rao
Co-founder
derv@duplays.com
Junaidh Muhammad
Finance & Accounting
jun@nookwork.ae
Noma Maphosa
Customer Service
noma@nookwork.ae
Mariel Bien
Customer Service
marielle@nookwork.ae
Michael Sartin
Facility Coordinator
michael@nookwork.ae
Mohammed Ali
Finance & Accounting
mohd@duplays.com
Moustafa Salem
Operations
moustafa@nookwork.ae
Natalie Howard
People & Culture
natalie@duplays.com
Ravi Bhusari
Co-founder
ravi@duplays.com
Ray Gibson
General Manager
ray@nookwork.ae
Joel Fobang
Customer Service
joel@nookwork.ae