Whether you’re looking to meet new friends or you and your mates want to try a new team sport, the recreational activity organisation Duplays Abu Dhabi provides everything you need.
With branches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Gurgaon in north India and Amman in Jordan, 50,000 members have already taken part in Duplay’s athletic activities. But the group continues to expand, adding members and activities by the day.
Duplays was founded in 2007 by a group of expatriates in Dubai, who started a 20-person ultimate frisbee group. Seven years later, the group has grown to accommodate thousands of members across five cities and hosts more than 20 different sports including football, basketball, volleyball, rugby and badminton.
Duplays in Dubai has experienced tremendous growth since its inception, and so has Duplays Abu Dhabi, which has been offering sports in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain since 2009 and is continuing to gain momentum among athletes in the capital.
Co-founder Ravi Bhusari says, ‘Duplays has a renewed focus on making Abu Dhabi a great place to play community sports with fellow residents. We are focusing our efforts in Abu Dhabi by growing our public leagues as well as developing employee engagement programmes to get Abu Dhabi employees active through their companies.’
There are several unique aspects of the Duplays’ programme. First, it provides everything that a team of athletes could want. They organise the venue – be it a field, pitch or indoor court – as well as referees, score-keepers and instructors if necessary. They also provide trophies and medals to winning teams for competitive leagues.
Duplays pay-by-play sports allow individuals to join in too, so even if you’re not part of a team you can try activities such as volleyball and badminton and then pay only when you can make it to a session. This arrangement allows players with busy work or personal schedules to join a sport without having to make money or time commitments.
The leagues, on the other hand, require a commitment and payment for the duration of the session, which is usually six to eight weeks and costs between Dhs350 and Dhs450 per person. In the leagues, players can sign up individually or as a team. Individual players, or ‘free agents’ as they are referred to, are then placed onto teams with other free agents or added to teams that sign up.
Duplays operates leagues and pay-by-play activities throughout the year as well as organising sports leagues, days and programmes for corporate clients and companies whose employees seek to form corporate sports groups. Its most popular leagues are basketball, football and volleyball and new sessions typically start every six to eight weeks.
This month, Duplays has several leagues starting in Abu Dhabi including a seven-a-side football league in Abu Dhabi on March 16. The league will last for eight weeks and the top two teams will have the opportunity to compete in a special ‘champion’s weekend’ in Dubai, one of which will be crowned the ‘ultimate champion.’ In total, the league and the championships will be giving away Dhs50,000 worth of prizes including jerseys, shorts, caps and bags.
The football league costs Dhs450 for eight weeks. But other leagues are starting soon as well. A men’s basketball league begins on March 18, which costs Dhs360. There are also two mixed gender volleyball leagues beginning on March 16 and March 19 that each last six weeks and cost Dhs400 and Dhs350, respectively.
While most of the activities in Abu Dhabi are currently for men or mixed genders, the organisation is in tune with the demands of athletes around the city and creates new leagues based on player feedback and suggestions. When the beach volleyball pay-by-play team of women formed from a group of individuals who had never played before, for example, they ended up forming such a close group that they signed up together to form an indoor volleyball league.
Email new suggestions to abudhabi@duplays.com. Sign up for leagues and pay-by-play activities at www.duplaysabudhabi.playpass.com
