Dubai website aims to profit from Saudi Arabian self-improvement

Duplays, a Dubai-based website which organises sporting leagues and events in the Emirates, is expanding into Saudi Arabia.

Duplays, a Dubai-based website that organises sporting leagues and events in the UAE, is expanding into Saudi Arabia as it seeks to capitalise on a growing appetite for healthy living in the kingdom.

The company, which has more than 40,000 members, expects to formally launch its service in Riyadh and Jeddah in a few weeks.

"Sport is the most popular thing among the male population [and] so much work is being funded by the government," said Derv Rao, the company's co-founder and director of operations.

In addition, the Saudi population is young and understands the internet, he added, making it a potentially profitable combination for a Web-based company such as Duplays, which helps to match people looking to play sports.

Duplays launched in Gurgaon, a city near Delhi, about four months ago and it has since amassed about 1,000 members in India.

"We are learning a lot about the model there and how it is very different. You have two different models. One is where you have the participants pay to use a service. In India you are not counting as much on participatory, but more on bigger events."

Duplays, which was founded in 2007, added about 15,000 members in the Emirates last year and has just completed a second round of funding totalling US$800,000 (Dh2.9 million), principally to further develop its Web platform.

The latest investment was led by Beco Capital and Wamda Capital and has helped the company to develop its Web capabilities to enable sport, fitness and adventure companies to use the platform to manage their activities.

The programme, Community Sport Provider, provides companies and organisations with a Web presence on Duplays.

The concept is "I am a facility and I have excess capacity. I don't have a way to handle bookings. I have this old, archaic Excel sheet. Let me use Duplays as a platform to be able to post my activities, handle payments and handle scheduling and on top of that gain access to 40,000 members who are interested in sport", said Mr Rao.

Duplays initially received seed funding from Mena Venture Investments, founded by Fadi Ghandour, who also set up Aramex and acts as the logistics company's vice chairman, as well as Arif Naqvi, the founder and chief executive of the Abraaj Group.

Mr Ghandour said the achievements of Duplays to date demonstrated the need for a community-focused sports service.

"The development of these new services and the ability for third parties to integrate and benefit from the use of technology can only mean further improvements to the health and well-being of the population."