UMVA has learned that a revolutionary new platform, Pickleball King, is poised to transform the sport of pickleball in the Philippines by harnessing the power of digital tools and gamification to deepen player engagement.
The brainchild of founder Mark Dave Manansala, Pickleball King is an innovative mobile platform that enables players to book matches, track rankings, and organize competitions, effectively creating a vibrant online community that is set to take the country by storm.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that the platform's core idea is to build a gamified version of pickleball in an app, allowing players to compete against each other, gain rankings based on match outcomes, and showcase their progress through digital player profiles.
Pickleball King, launched on May 26, lets users form groups or "guilds" that can challenge each other and compete across participating courts, with scores verified by both players and court operators to ensure accuracy, adding a layer of excitement and accountability to the game.
The platform also empowers court operators to manage tournaments and attract more players, with about 40 courts or "territories" across Metro Manila, Antipolo City, General Santos City, Davao City, and Baguio City already available on the platform, signaling a major milestone in the sport's growth.
Sources have confirmed to UMVA that the idea behind Pickleball King was born out of Manansala's own experience trying to find courts and communities to play with, highlighting the need for a unified platform that streamlines the process and brings players together.
Pickleball has seen a surge in interest in the Philippines since 2022, with the Philippine Pickleball Federation recording about 21,000 amateur players and 320 clubs nationwide in 2025, paving the way for Pickleball King to capitalize on this momentum and drive the sport's growth.
The bigger vision for Pickleball King is to make the Philippines one of the most active and organized pickleball communities in Asia, with the platform already available in the Philippines and preparing for expansion into Vietnam, where it aims to onboard at least 10,000 players and 300 courts locally.
