Here’s a rare one: a membership that pays you back before you’ve even played a point. That’s essentially what DUPR and JOOLA are offering with their latest announcement.
DUPR (Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating), the world’s leading pickleball ratings platform, has named JOOLA as its new title sponsor, according to a press release from JOOLA. The deal introduces what the two are calling a new era of “DUPR powered by JOOLA.”
A Sweetener Worth More Than the Price of Admission
The headline perk is hard to ignore. DUPR+ members in eligible countries will now receive a $30 JOOLA gift card, redeemable toward any JOOLA product. An annual DUPR+ membership, for its part, costs $19.99.
Do the math, and the gift card more than covers the cost of membership. As DUPR CEO Tito Machado put it, that is “exactly the kind of value we want to deliver to players at every level.”
Not bad for a ratings subscription, to say the least.
Building on an Existing Partnership
Of course, this isn’t JOOLA’s first rodeo with DUPR. The brand is already the title sponsor of the DUPR College Pickleball Tour, and earlier this year, its JOOLA HC-40 was named the Official Ball of DUPR. That covers DUPR-operated and sanctioned competition, including Minor League Pickleball and College Pickleball.
The title sponsorship is therefore less a new romance than a deepening of a relationship that was already going steady.
Where the Ratings Meet the Gear
For JOOLA, the move puts its name right next to the tool players use to measure their game. JOOLA President and CEO Richard Lee framed the logic neatly: DUPR shows players where they stand, and JOOLA supplies the equipment to take it further.
It’s a fair pitch, and an easy one to understand. Players check their ratings, see where they want to be, and then, quite naturally, start thinking about their next paddle.
For players in Asia, where pickleball continues to grow by leaps and bounds and ratings are increasingly part of the competitive conversation, the real question is whether their countries make the “eligible” list. The announcement doesn’t say which ones do.
Those who want to find out can head to dupr.com/duprplus to learn more about the partnership and DUPR+ membership benefits.
