PICKLEBALL
DEN GLOBAL
RATINGS

How does pickleball Den Global Rating (DGR) work?

We base DGR on the ELO Rating System, a standard for sports ratings and used by other pickleball ratings. We of course have our own ‘tweaks’ to the rating system to accommodate pickleball!

Generally speaking, all players in DGR start off with about a 3.0 rating and work their way up or down from there. We utilize a point system and players earn or lose points based on their game play. Based on player’s total points compared to other players in the system, the system will rate you using the U.S. Pickleball scale (2.0-5.0). We may expand on this later as needed, but for now we are using this scale.

DGR awards points based on each match, and the points earned (or lost) are based on the skills of the players involved. A team that has a higher skill level risks losing more points to a team that has lower total skill level. For example, a team that has two 5.0 players playing against two 4.0 players will risk losing more points to the 4.0 team than they can earn.

Further, even within the team, there most likely is a diversified skill rating. For example, a men’s doubles team may include a 4.5 and 4.0 player. In this case, the 4.0 player risks losing more points than the 4.5 player. Conversely the 4.0 player will gain more points for a match win compared to the 4.5 player. This is based on the assumption that the weaker player will have more balls hit to them.

Where does the player match data come from?

Data to calculate ratings is derived from competitive club and tournament play. We feel if the player is playing competitively, then the player should receive credit for that game play. This includes tournaments, leagues, team leagues, and competitive club play including shootout ladder league, ABCD, and By the Ratings play. Pickleball Den currently has over 6,000 players in the rating system and this is based on a large sum of game data at club events.

How do rating systems work?

Rating systems need a large amount of data. For example, say a player in a 3.0 bracket wins most of their games, what rating is this player? If this is all the data that is available, there is no way a rating can be accurately calculated, at best, you can take a guess. You might guess the player who won most of their matches is a 4.0, but what if the player is the top rated pro in Pickleball? Your guess of 4.0 would be wrong. Or what if the other players in the 3.0 bracket were actually 2.5 players and the 3.0 player is a 3.0 player? So the way rating systems work is to constantly refine a player’s rating. More game data with more players provides the most accurate rating for players. This is why Den feels more data is better, even if the competitive event is run at a local club.

Can my rating change if I didn’t play recently?

Yes, as more players come into the DGR system, player ratings will refine and so your rating may go up or down even though you did not play. As an example, a player rated 4.8 with 1,700 points may get pushed down to a 4.7 as other active players come into the system and earn points greater than 1,700. Think of it as a line of people that is constantly adjusting their order based on the # of points that each person has earned. The further in front of the line, the higher the rating. This is the beauty of the system as it continuously refines based on new players and new matches being played.

Open System

Den provides an option to use other rating systems as well, such as the USA Pickleball UTPR rating for tournaments. When a tournament director hosts a tournament, they may decide to have a USAP sanctioned tournament, which utilizes UTPR to seed the tournament, or the tournament director may decide to use DGR. In other words, Den offers options! The other major rating system is DUPR. As of yet, DUPR does not provide a way to extract a player’s DUPR rating, nor a reliable way to update DUPR with game data (like UTPR does). We hope this will change in the future.

The Advantage of a Rating System

As with any sport, players want competition within their skill level. Ratings help determine the skill level of players. At a local club, for example, it can become a difficult topic. Some players in a club feel that “it should be fun” and not competitive. While other players, who don’t mind playing socially sometimes, do want competition. Clubs must deal with deciding how best to accommodate both sets of thoughts. Pickleball Den offers a solution to this potential problem by offering different play types: some that are social, and some that are competitive. These choices help to keep the club cohesive.

Another benefit to a rating system is it helps to reduce the potential for sand bagging in tournaments (i.e. players playing down in skill level just to win a medal or prize money).

Localized Club Rating

Some clubs hire a person to rate their players and the club manager enters this rating in the Den Club account for the player. Then the local club rating can be used to offer competitive play. This works, but it is labor intensive, especially with larger clubs. Another option is to use DGR as a guide, so if, for example, a player has a 3.9 DGR, the club may decide to set the player’s club rating to 4.0. This keeps the player’s rating under the control of the club and allows the club to avoid the expense and time to hire a rating service.