COPleagues
uses DUPR

DUPR is the company that Central Ohio Pickleball Leagues has built a relationship with in order to get league members an established, accurate, and maintained rating.

What is the DUPR skill rating system?

Excerpts from Mary Barsaleau Special to The Desert Sun Sept 2021 Full article here

DUPR, which rhymes with “super,” stands for Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating and was developed in 2021 by Steve Kuhn, founder of Major League Pickleball (MLP). DUPR aims to be the most accurate, global rating system in pickleball.

"Right now, the world of pickleball ratings is a bit like the Wild West. Not only are many players self-rating for tournaments well below their actual skill level, but also, some are being forced to stay in a lower level bracket, despite having drastically improved their skills after qualifying..."

Commonly pickleball events at tournaments, for example, are run within a 0.5 differential (3.0, 3.5, 4.0, etc).. This differential is way too high and creates completely unbalanced, non-level-based matches. After analyzing thousands of results, the DUPR team found that, on average, a medalist can be as high as 1 full point above their registered bracket (i.e. a 4.0 player winning a 3.0 bracket). Also, only 20% of matches actually go to three games. If the current rating systems worked, this number would be much higher because players would be similarly skilled. DUPR knows that the most competitive play occurs when each team’s rating is within a 0.250 differential. That’s called “DUPR neutral.

DUPR can help players get ratings based on the same scale

All players, regardless of their age, gender, location or skill are rated on the same scale between 2.000-8.000 based on their match results.

Those accustomed to the typical bracketing system — with ratings ranging from 3.0 to about 5 — will find their DUPR rating fits within that scale, while at the top end, the professional ratings are expanded above 5.000 up to 8.000.

For example, Ben Johns, top pro-pickleball athlete, was rated 6.668 in 2021 while a typical instructor might be rated 4.467.

Any player can get a rating

One match result is all it takes to acquire a DUPR rating although many current matches is what a player needs to get a "high confidence" rating.

Even if four players who are all unrated play and post a score, if just one of those four players subsequently plays any rated player, all four players will become retroactively rated. This is what DUPR developers call “connectivity.”

DUPR employs an algorithm that uses a player’s last 30 singles or 60 doubles eligible matches. The algorithm considers three factors:

Points Won: How many points did you win?
Victory: Did you win or lose?
Type of Result: Was this a self-posted rec play score, a league match, an unsanctioned tournament or a sanctioned tournament result?

Even if a player is down 10-2 in a match, he or she will still have the incentive to fight for every ball and every point. That’s a game-changer.

Here’s how it works: In each matchup, the algorithm assigns an “expected value” (EV) of points your team should win against your opponent. Suppose your opponents are rated higher than your team, your EV is 7 and you lose 8-11. Congratulations! You outperformed your EV and your rating will still go up.

DUPR is the only global rating system in pickleball that encompasses all of a player’s results and rates all players on the same universal scale from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. The DUPR system is designed to be gender blind and analyze only a player’s performance, not their age or their wingspan.

All results, regardless of event type, location or software provider, factor into your DUPR, including recreational games. Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Australia all now have clubs adopting DUPR as their official rating.

You may already have a DUPR rating

If you’ve ever played in a pickleball tournament, you most likely already have a DUPR rating and can claim your account at mydupr.com or by downloading the iOS or Android app.