ABOUT US

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

2007

First night of Duplays sport – pick up Ultimate Frisbee at old Met hotel fields off Sheikh Zayed Road.

2007

2008

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!

2008

2009

Gulf Business Top 10 Start Ups to watch.

2009

2010

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.

2010

2011

Organized the Guinness World Record for longest football match (42h07m) for our client Snickers at Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar.

2011

2012

Awarded contract from SEHA (Abu Dhabi Health Authority) to manage corporate wellness program for their 1,000+ employees across UAE.

2012

2013

Featured on the BBC News website.

2013

2014

Spun off software side of business, re-branded Playpass.

2014

2015

Select as a Dubai100 SME

2015

2016

Crossed 100,000 registered member mark, having organized hundreds of social sports leagues across the UAE for thousands of adult participants.

2016

2017

Signed JVCO with Al Hokair Group in Saudi Arabia

2017

2018

Launched nook, the region’s first and only licensed coworking space focused on supporting the sports, health, fitness and wellness industries.

2018

2019

Established Yeadon Middle East in partnership with Yeadon USA, to bring air-supported dome technology to the Mid East market.

2019

2020/21

Pressed pause on organised sport and focused our energies on our longer term strategic sport development projects

2020/21

2022

Launched Duplays ‘social infrastructure’ developments in UAE and Saudi Arabia.

2022

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