MATCH POINT
Find a player, not just a place to play
Sashank Mullapudi & Sanjana Venkat
THE IDEA
Social apps make you friends.
Rating systems make you a number.
Match Point does both!
You cannot build a fair game out of friendship alone, and you cannot build a community out of a leaderboard. Put the two together and the rating stops being a vanity metric. It becomes the thing that decides who you meet.
Networking
Skill
Meetup
Playo
DUPR
UTR
Match
Point
01
THE PROBLEM
Everything is ready
except the opponent
THE PROBLEM - PART 1
Coordination & Schedules
Free
Free
Busy
Busy
4
in the chat
Your regular group. Two are busy, so there is no game.
✓
A court
Bookable in seconds. Not scarce.
✓
The time
It is already in your calendar.
✓
The will
You want to play tonight.
?
An opponent at your level
Nothing tells you who is free, nearby, and worth playing.
THE PROBLEM - PART 2
Skill Mismatch
74
Loses every week
118
124
162
Never stretched
the two who are close
An 88 point spread, and no way to change who is in it.
The stronger player plateaus
Winning 9 to 2 teaches nobody anything. There is no pressure, so there is no improvement, and the game stops being interesting long before they admit it.
The weaker player is intimidated
Losing every week does not read as practice, it reads as proof. They start finding reasons to sit out, and the group loses a fourth.
A mismatched game is not a healthy game, at either end.
THE PROBLEM - PART 3
Breaking into a new place
12
regulars, same court
You, three weeks in town
NO WAY IN
Not unfriendly. Just already complete, and invisible from outside.
1
Finding anyone at all
No group chat, no regular court, no roster. The people are there and none of them are visible.
2
Finding anyone at your level
The first person who says yes is usually far above or far below you, which is part two all over again.
3
Making it actually happen
Their court, their night, their format. One of the three rarely survives contact with a stranger's calendar.
Three barriers, and a newcomer has to clear all three unaided.
Most people clear one, maybe two, and then stop playing entirely.
WHY NOW
The players arrived. The matching layer did not.
24.3M
Americans played pickleball in 2025
SFIA
+171.8%
growth in players since 2022
SFIA
1M+
players already carry a DUPR rating
DUPR
$5.3B
global sports app market in 2025
PRECEDENCE
!
Ratings scaled. Matchmaking did not.
A million people already have a verified skill number, and not one product uses it to find them a game. The rating industry and the social industry grew up beside each other and never met.
SFIA 2026 single sport report · DUPR · Precedence Research, sports app market 2025
RESEARCH
What we know, and what we went and found out
WHAT THE PUBLIC DATA PROVES
The players exist and are growing fast, and a million of them already accept a verified skill rating.
24.3M players · +171.8% in three years · 1M+ rated
WHAT IT CANNOT ANSWER
National surveys break non participation into health, time and interest. Not one public dataset isolates the case we care about: you have the time, the court is free, and there is still nobody to play.
That gap is why we ran our own study.
OUR PRIMARY RESEARCH
Survey of recreational players across six sports, run through local clubs and community boards.
Finding 1
78% find it difficult to break into a group
Finding 2
92% would prefer upskilling alongside fun
Finding 3
66% skilled players feel under-stretched
Finding 4
75% like the idea of a common sports calendar
SFIA 2026 · DUPR · NPR and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
02
THE MARKET
Everyone solves
one half of it.
THE GAP
Every product solves one half of the problem
Finds you a person →
Knows how good you are →
Playo
GoodRec
Pickleheads
Meetup
Court booking
DUPR
UTR
Club ladders
Match Point
Nobody is here
Two industries,
neither talking
Apps that find you a game do not know how good anyone is. Systems that know how good you are will not find you a game.
Match Point is the only product that earns the rating from verified results and then uses it to make the match.
THE COMPETITION
What each of them is missing
WHAT IT DOES WELL
WHAT IT LACKS
THE GAP IT LEAVES
Playo
5M+ players, 50+ sports
Skill is self declared
A claim, not a record
GoodRec
Pickup games in 50+ cities
No rating at all
Good for turning up, not a rivalry
Pickleheads
Organises games and round robins
Self added rating
A coordination tool, not matchmaking
DUPR and UTR
Verified, results based rating
No social layer
Gives you a number, then leaves
Court booking
Reserves the court
Neither
Solves the venue, not the game
Match Point
Finds the person
Earned from verified results
Both halves, in one product
03
THE PRODUCT
One rating. One map.
One calendar.
THE PRODUCT
One rating, one map, one calendar
Find
Players near you, clustered and rated
Agree
Three times, answered inside the chat
Play
One calendar across every sport
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Five surfaces, one active sport
M
Map
DISCOVER
Clustered players
Rating, gender, distance
Facilities and courts
M
Matches
COMMIT
One weekly calendar
All sports, one grid
Past results and history
H
Home
RESPOND
Only what needs you
Verifications first
Then requests, then games
C
Chats
CONNECT
Conversations
Requests inbox
Challenges live here
P
Profile
PROVE
The MP Rating
Match history
Sports you play
The rule that shapes all five
One sport is active at a time. Chats, matches, the map and the feed all filter to it, so nothing needs a badge to say which sport it belongs to.
FEATURE, THE RATING
A number you earn, not one you type in
Everyone starts at 80
How the number moves
The same family of maths chess.com uses: the size of every change depends on the gap between the two players, so one result never swings a level.
Beat an even opponent
+1 to +2
Beat someone stronger
+3
A significant upset
+4 to +5
Losses move the same way, in reverse
-1 to -5
✓
Verified, or it does not count
An uploaded score does nothing until the opponent confirms it. That is the difference between a rating and a claim.
chess.com runs Glicko, an Elo family system where rating change scales with the gap between players
FEATURE, FAIRNESS BY DESIGN
The rating is opt in, and opting out costs you nothing
★
Rated players
Every verified result moves the number. Matched against a narrow band.
96
107
118
129
140
○
Unrated players
Play, log scores, keep a history, with no number and no ladder.
-
-
-
-
-
=
They can still play
A rated player gains nothing from beating an unrated one, and an unrated player risks nothing. So the game happens.
Newcomers and older players are never outranked into silence
Most competitive apps make the ladder compulsory. Making it optional is what keeps the casual half of a club on the platform.
FEATURE, THE SHARED CALENDAR
Your whole sporting week on one grid
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
3 PM
4 PM
5 PM
6 PM
7 PM
8 PM
9 PM
10 PM
Most people play
more than one thing
And nobody has a single view of all of it. Six group chats, three apps, one spreadsheet.
Active sport
Full colour, tappable
Other sports
Faded, so you see the time is taken
Proposed
Striped until they pick one
FEATURE, THE MAP
It shows people, not venues
4
3
5
2
134
108
121
Already connected people are indicated on the map
Rating band
Only players inside a level you would enjoy
Gender
Matters to a lot of players, and most apps ignore it
Proximity
A game happens or does not on twenty minutes of driving
Markers merge by distance on screen, so two players never overlap at any zoom. Tap a number to open the group.
FEATURE, CONNECTIONS
One button, and no phone number changes hands
1
See
A player on the map, with a rating and a distance
2
Connect
One button. It opens a conversation, nothing else
3
Reply
They have to answer before a challenge is possible
4
Play
Challenges live in the thread, not a separate inbox
Nothing personal is exchanged
No phone numbers, no group chat invite, no home address. A player is a handle, a rating and a distance until they choose otherwise. It makes it comfortable for women, juniors and newcomers to use at all.
All the sport talk in one place
Fixtures stop living in six group chats, a text thread and a spreadsheet. A dedicated app means the game chat does not drown in everything else.
FEATURE, THE SUPPLY SIDE
Fair draws, not just fair matches
F
Facility owners
List courts and open sessions
Fill the quiet hours
Reach players by sport and level
MORE FOOTFALL
T
Tournament organisers
Publish a draw to the right players
Seed by verified rating
Outreach beyond the usual list
BETTER OUTREACH
L
League and club admins
Run ladders with real numbers
Keep squads on one calendar
See who is actually active
LESS ADMIN
Why a rating changes a tournament
Organisers currently seed by reputation and guesswork, and the first round is full of lopsided blowouts that make half the field never come back.
SEEDED BY GUESSWORK
SEEDED BY RATING
Lopsided draws
Competitive draws
WHO IT IS FOR
Three players, three reasons to open the app
The Rated Competitor
Plays 3x a week, carries a DUPR rating
Will travel for a good match and will not spend an evening on a mismatch.
PAIN
Wants a verified opponent inside a narrow band
IN THE APP
Rating filtered map, verified scores, a real ladder
The Returner
Plays once or twice a week, back after a decade
Confident in the sport, no idea where he now sits, no local network left.
PAIN
Afraid of being outclassed in public
IN THE APP
A provisional 80, unrated play, a low stakes first game
The Squad Organiser
Captains a cricket XI, 15 on the roster
His problem is not finding opponents. It is getting eleven people to agree on a Saturday.
PAIN
Chases availability across three group chats
IN THE APP
One shared fixture calendar, no ladder required
WHAT ALREADY EXISTS
Not an idea, a product that behaves
✓
Working prototype
Two complete builds, a browser prototype and a React app, of the same product
✓
Every rule enforced
Four automated suites, around 90 behavioural checks, run against both builds
✓
Design system
Six sport identities from one stylesheet, 34 icons, 50 procedural avatars
✓
Accessibility audited
Contrast measured across the palette, with the failures named not hidden
✓
Native port underway
The SwiftUI model and state layer is written and the view layer is next
✓
Research and IA
Market study, competitive map, personas and information architecture complete
The prototype can be handed to a player in a league tonight and it works.
04
GO TO MARKET
Start where we
already know everyone.
WHY DALLAS FORT WORTH
We start where we already know everyone
5-6 active leagues in DFW
20 to 30 teams per league
15 in each team
Captains and Organizers of teams
1
Several of these cricketers play 1-2 other sports - mostly between pickleball, badminton, and ping-pong.
8.1M
people in the metroplex, the largest numerical growth of any US metro
#1
US metro for Asian population growth, and the largest subgroup is Indian
~150
pickleball courts built in DFW in one year by a single contractor
A cricket league is the cheapest possible door into a multi sport network, because the captain has to invite his eleven for the fixture to be any use to him.
AFTER DALLAS
Seven cities where a door is already open
In each of these we have a workplace, a recreational facility or a university, and someone there who would take it forward.
★
Dallas
Home. Cricket leagues, pickleball and badminton facilities.
Austin
Workplace network and a dense young recreational scene.
College Park
University community and campus recreation.
San Francisco
Workplace network across the Bay Area.
Pittsburgh
University community and campus recreation.
Salt Lake City
University community and a strong outdoor sport culture.
Seattle
Workplace network and year round indoor facilities.
Why this matters
A matchmaking product is worthless at low density. Seven warm starts beat fifty cold ones.
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
The rating is the asset
PARTNERS
Court and club operators
Leagues and ladders
Rating bodies
Universities
ACTIVITIES
Matchmaking and rating
Scheduling and verification
RESOURCES
Verified match history
The rating model
VALUE PROPOSITIONS
An opponent at your level
One rating across sports
One calendar for the week
A conversation before a challenge
RELATIONSHIPS
Self serve onboarding
Reputation from scores
CHANNELS
Leagues and clubs
Facilities and campus rec
SEGMENTS
Competitive amateurs
Returners and newcomers
Squads and captains
Venues and organisers
COST STRUCTURE
Engineering and design
Infrastructure
Trust and safety
Community and partnerships
REVENUE STREAMS
Facility and league listings
Tournament tooling
Premium ladders and analytics
Ratings only mean something at density, which is exactly why the launch is one metro and not fifty.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
One metro, proven properly, before anything else
NOW
Working prototype
Two builds, tested
Every rule enforced
Design system done
Q1
One league, one sport
A single cricket league
Fixtures and calendar only
Learn the squad workflow
Q2
Add the racquet sports
Pickleball and badminton
Ratings switched on
First facility listings
Q3
The metro
Multiple leagues
Tournament seeding
Venue partnerships
Q4
The next city
One warm start from the seven
Template for the rest
Cohort onboarding
THE DISCIPLINE
A matchmaking product is worthless at low density and defensible at high density. Everything above is designed to reach density in one metro rather than presence in ten.
05
THE TEAM
Why us,
and why now.
THE TEAM
Why us
Sashank Mullapudi
Co-founder, product and operations
A Senior Product Designer with a sports background and connections in the DFW sports circles. Worked on a badminton socializing app, receiving 96% positive response from the target audience at The University of Maryland.
Sanjana Venkat
Co-founder, product and development
A Senior Product Designer with a deep understanding of user-centric applications owing to an AI-native environment at JPMC. Local to DFW since 12 years, and led several UX club sessions at UT Dallas with a dense network of designers.
What we bring that a stranger to this market cannot
Direct relationships with Dallas Fort Worth cricket leagues and their captains · access to pickleball and badminton facilities across the metroplex · people who would take this forward in Austin, College Park, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and Seattle
Thank You!
For queries: contact@matchpoint-us.com