1. How did you get into Pickleball??
My wife works for a sports company and I got into Pickleball through her around May/June last year (2025) and…I got addicted. The first 2-3 months I played socially, getting to know the game. Then I got introduced to Reclub and that’s where the addiction went into overdrive.
I would play multiple times in a day, 2 to 4 hours each time (helps that I’m self-employed). I’m naturally a very competitive person. I used to bowl, rock climb and play badminton in my school days. So I went from social play to DUPR games very quickly. I found out people took DUPR games very seriously and it was a great opportunity to test myself. From there, I joined my first competitions and of coz, got thrashed badly.
2. What inspired you to organize your own Pickleball competition?
My first 2 competitions were PickleSprout and PickleBean. I found the entry fees for both to be quite high. As an entrepreneur, I got curious and felt I could do something that gives back to the players and community by having a competition with lower fees. Since I have the Honolulu distributorship, I figured I can also promote it through my competitions coz it’d be marketing at zero cost.
1. How did you get into Pickleball??
My wife works for a sports company and I got into Pickleball through her around May/June last year (2025) and…I got addicted. The first 2-3 months I played socially, getting to know the game. Then I got introduced to Reclub and that’s where the addiction went into overdrive.
I would play multiple times in a day, 2 to 4 hours each time (helps that I’m self-employed). I’m naturally a very competitive person. I used to bowl, rock climb and play badminton in my school days. So I went from social play to DUPR games very quickly. I found out people took DUPR games very seriously and it was a great opportunity to test myself. From there, I joined my first competitions and of coz, got thrashed badly.
2. What inspired you to organize your own Pickleball competition?
My first 2 competitions were PickleSprout and PickleBean. I found the entry fees for both to be quite high. As an entrepreneur, I got curious and felt I could do something that gives back to the players and community by having a competition with lower fees. Since I have the Honolulu distributorship, I figured I can also promote it through my competitions coz it’d be marketing at zero cost.
3. How did you work out your entry fees VS what the participants are getting i.e. goodie bag, player welfare, prizes etc?
I hosted my first competition earlier this year (TDA: New Year Resolution Challenge) at Kings Arena. We did Mixed Doubles and Men’s Doubles. Entry fees were $108 per team and we sold out within 24 hours. The first prize was two Honolulu paddles worth $500 (5 times the entry fees). We also had some door gifts for all participants and overall, we broke even which was good. I’m planning to have 4 competitions in total this year, 1 per quarter.
My next competition is TDA – Showdown coming soon (April) and it’s more ambitious. We will have 80 teams i.e. 160 players!
4. What challenges have you faced in organizing this event?
I’m still joining competitions and learning how to make my competitions better – learning curve. It helps when organising competitions. Like we did Kings Arena for our first competition and are doing Pickle Padel Movement at PUB for the upcoming one. All courts will be in play with the semis and finals on the show court.
We care for player welfare and will take a break midday to escape the heat. We are giving a competition tee for each entry, so if you are entered for Mixed Doubles and Men’s Doubles, you get 2 tees unlike PickleGo who only gives you 1 tee regardless of entries. We are also giving luggage tags to all participants.
We wish we could do more in terms of sponsorship but many clients need a longer runway to consider and approve. It’s not all about the money. We are happy with merch as well. It’s all about adding value to the participants coz the players want to have a positive experience and word-of-mouth is the best advertising.
I’m cool with people giving feedback coz It means they care enough to comment and help make things better.
5. What would Success look like to you?
People know me as a host of Reclub games, DUPR games and I guess I’ve given them a good experience. They know I’m very pro-participants so there is some personal branding. I hope that grows and more and more people are inclined to join my competitions going forward.
6. Do you see such localised competitions as a long-term, sustainable Biz idea?
To be honest, there isn’t a lot of money in competitions. Whatever excess is whether you put it in your pocket or give back more to the participants. I prefer the money goes into making the competition better. If you want to make money, over time people can tell, Like how some people charge $25 for Reclub games when everyone knows how much the courts cost. Eventually people will stop playing with you.
In any case, I make money from selling paddles so competitions are like a side hustle for me.
7. A seasoned player told us that he doesn't take part in competitions in SG coz it's just playing people on Reclub with added hassle. What would you say to that?
I can see the point but some people are very motivated and want to test themselves. I mean many Singaporeans even go overseas to play in competitions. Like I love playing in Malaysia, the standard is quite high. So what I’d say to those who are not fully convinced is…if you are good and confident of your skills, you’d get more games playing in a competition and may even win a prize at the end of it!
Show Less ↑