How it works
How to run pickleball open play
A session has two sides: the person running it and everyone waiting to play. Here is what each of them actually does.
If you are running the session
Four things, then you get to play too
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Create the event
Name it, set how many courts you have, and pick singles or doubles. Choose open play or one of the tournament formats.
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Choose the rotation rule
Longest waiting first is the fair default. Avoid repeat pairings mixes the room. Winner-stays keeps a winning pair on court up to the streak cap you set.
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Show the QR code
On your phone, on the display board, or printed and taped to the net post. Players scan it and add themselves. You can also add people by hand.
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Tap the winner
That is the whole running of it. The app clears the court, applies your rule, and calls the next players up on every phone at once.
If you came to play
Scan, type your name, watch the list
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Scan the code
Your phone camera opens the event. No app store, no download, no sign-up — a browser is enough.
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Type your name
That is the only thing you are asked for. You are in the queue from that moment.
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Watch your position
Your place in the queue, the court you are called to, and who you are playing with, all updating on their own.
Installing the app is optional for players — it just means you do not have to scan again next week, and you can see your own record across the session.
Rotation rules
Which rule should you use?
Five ways to decide who plays next. You pick one when you create the event and can change it mid-session.
Winners' Court
Two queues instead of one. Winners return to a winners' pool and challengers to a challengers' pool, so games stay close without anyone being ranked or seeded. Partners rotate every game, so you never play with the same person twice in a row. It is the closest thing to self-organising a mixed-ability room, and it is the rule most sessions end up keeping.
Longest waiting first
The plain fair queue. Whoever has been sitting longest goes on next. Use it when the room is mixed in ability and everybody just wants court time. This is the default, and for most club nights it is also the right answer.
Avoid repeat pairings
Same queue, but the app steers away from putting the same people together again. Use it for social nights and new-member sessions, where the point is meeting the room rather than finding your level.
Winner-stays, with a streak cap
Winners hold the court and the next pair challenges them. Fast, competitive, and the format most halls already play by shouting. The cap is what makes it survivable: after the number of consecutive wins you set, the holders go back into the queue whether they lost or not, so one strong pair cannot own a court for two hours.
Manual order
Drag the queue into the order you want. For when a coach is running drills, someone has to leave early, or a court is being held for a booking.
Formats
When you are running a tournament instead
Round robin
Everyone plays everyone. The fairest way to find a real winner and the easiest to explain, but it grows fast — the schedule is generated for you, along with live standings and head-to-head tiebreaks.
Single elimination
Lose once and you are out. Quick, and the right choice when the hall booking ends at nine. Byes are placed automatically.
Double elimination
Everyone gets a second life through the losers' bracket. Twice the games, far fewer complaints. Walkovers and forfeits cascade through both brackets on their own.
Pool play into a knockout
Small groups first, then the top two from each pool go through to a bracket. The format most club championships actually want: everyone gets guaranteed games, and the finals still mean something.
Rotating partners
A social format where you change partner every round and play with as many different people as possible, with everyone getting the same number of games. The scheduling is the hard part and the app does it for any number of entrants.
Squad Battle
Club against club. An entrant is a squad, and one meeting is six matches — men's doubles, women's doubles, two mixed doubles, men's singles and women's singles. First to four wins; 3–3 goes to a Final Battle. Players join a squad by its own QR code. Needs Pickleholic or above — the only format that does.