Guide

How Devlab Pickleball works

A full run through one session, from creating it to closing it — written for the person holding the tablet. Your players never need to read any of this.

Find your next step

Run a sessionEvery step from creating the session to closing it.Fix a mistakeUndo a rally, correct a finished game, park a court.What players seeThe QR code, the live view and the TV display.Run a tournamentFormats, locking the draw, withdrawals and corrections.

Before you start

You need a venue with its courts added, and a scoring ruleset. Both are set up once and reused by every session afterwards.

Step 1

Create a session

Pick the venue, name the session, choose a scoring ruleset and set the scheduled times. Every court at that venue is added to the session automatically and starts out available.

  • A new session in Draft
  • One row per venue court
  • A Queued count and a Courts count

Step 2

Open it for check-in

Press "Open check-in" under Session actions to move the session out of Draft. Nothing can be assigned to a court until you press "Start session" later — assignment needs a live session.

  • An "Open check-in" button under Session actions
  • Status shown as Check-in open
  • The check-in page becomes useful

Step 3

Check players in

Check players in one at a time or in bulk as they arrive. Someone who registered but has not arrived is never picked for a court. A late arrival is checked in exactly the same way.

  • A running checked-in count
  • Each player’s availability
  • Anyone who has left marked as such

Step 4

The queue fills

Checking a player in does not queue them. Press "Join queue" for one player, or "Join all to queue" to add everyone checked in and available at once. Once queued, players wait fewest games played first, then longest wait. Going temporarily unavailable does not remove them from the queue; it only skips them for the next court assignment — come back available and they keep the exact spot they already had.

  • A "Join queue" action per player, and "Join all to queue" for everyone at once
  • The queue in order
  • How long each player has waited
  • How many games each has played

Step 5

Assign a court

Press "Start session" to go live, then Assign a free court. The app ranks the queue by fewest games played, then longest wait — and once at least five players are eligible it can swap one of a pair who just played together for another player on the same number of games. Assigning seats the group, splits it into two sides and marks the court ASSIGNED.

  • A "Recommended next players" list on the first free court
  • The top fairness reason beside each name
  • An "Assign" button — it picks and pairs the actual match from that group

Step 6

Start the game

Assigning a court does not start play. Open Games, pick the court under "Ready to start", then choose the serving team and each side's starting server. "Start game" stays disabled until both starting servers are picked.

  • A "Ready to start" list of courts assigned with no game started
  • A "Serving team" choice, plus a starting server for each side
  • A "Start game" button that only enables once both are chosen

Step 7

Score the game

There are two buttons: which side won the rally. The app works out whether that was a point, a change of server, or a side out, and calls the score. Undo reverses the last rally whenever you need it.

  • Both team scores side by side
  • Which team is serving — and, in doubles, which server
  • The official score call

Step 8

Finish the game

Finish once the score is a valid final under your ruleset. The court is released, the players return to the queue, and the standings update. Got it wrong? Reopen the game, correct it, and finish again — the statistics are recomputed from scratch.

  • The final score locked in
  • Standings update, though a player only ranks once they hit the session’s eligible-games threshold — tick "Show provisional players" to see everyone sooner
  • The court free again

Step 9

Complete the session

When play is over, complete the session. It is a one-way transition — a completed session can never go back to live, and no further court can be assigned from then on.

  • Final standings
  • Status shown as Completed, with no further status actions offered

Running a fixed-pairs session

Choose "Fixed Pairs" instead of "Open Play" when you create the session, and a few things change. It needs a doubles scoring ruleset — there is no such thing as a fixed pair in singles.

  • On the check-in page, select two checked-in players and confirm to form a pair. The pair stays together for the rest of the session.
  • The queue moves whole pairs, not individual players — a pair joins, waits and is assigned as one entrant.
  • Both partners have to be available for the pair to be offered a court. If one goes temporarily unavailable, the pair gives up its place in the queue; once both are available again, join the queue for the pair again.
  • You can't swap one player out of a pair that's already on a court, and you can't dissolve that pair either — both are refused while it holds a court. Release the court first, then dissolve the pair and form a new one.

Running a tournament

A tournament is a fixed-pairs session with a format attached, so everything above about forming pairs still applies. Pick a format when you create the session; you can't change it afterwards.

  • Round robin — every pair plays every other pair once. No knockouts; the table decides it.
  • Single elimination — one loss and you're out. The draw is padded to the next power of two and the byes go to the top seeds.
  • Pool play into a bracket — round-robin pools first, then the top two from each pool go through to a knockout bracket. Needs at least four pairs.
  • Double elimination — a first loss drops a pair into the losers bracket instead of knocking them out. Needs at least three pairs.

How a tournament runs

  • Form your pairs, then enter each one. When everyone is in, lock the draw — that freezes the entrants, sets the seeds from all-time ratings, and generates every match at once.
  • After locking, you can't add or re-enter a pair, and the draw can't be regenerated. Lock when the field is final.
  • Assign a court as usual and the app proposes the next match itself, working through the rounds in order. Tournament pairs are seated from the draw, not from the ordinary waiting queue.
  • Later rounds show as "TBD" until the matches feeding them are played. That's expected — the whole draw exists from the moment you lock it.
  • Tournament results don't feed player ratings. The session leaderboard still shows wins and losses; the rating stays put.

When a pair can't continue

  • Withdraw the entrant. Their remaining matches are awarded to their opponents as walkovers — a win with no points — and the draw carries on.
  • A withdrawn pair keeps the results it already earned, so the pairs that beat it still add up.
  • You can't withdraw a pair that's sitting on a court. Finish or abandon that game first.
  • Withdrawing also releases the pair, so you can dissolve it afterwards if a player is leaving.

Fixing a result

  • Reopen the game, correct it and finish it again. The winner is taken back out of the next round and the corrected winner put in.
  • If the next match has already been played, reopening is refused and tells you which match is in the way. Sort that one out first.
  • In double elimination the grand final is a single match — winning it from the losers bracket takes the title outright, with no decider.

When something goes wrong

You tapped the wrong side

Undo the last rally. It is always beside the two rally buttons, and it reverses exactly one action.

You noticed a mistake much later

Reopen the finished game, correct the score, serving side and server number together, then finish it again.

A court becomes unusable

A court can only be taken out of service once it is free — no pending assignment and no game in progress. Release the pending assignment, or finish the game once it reaches a valid final score, then disable the court.

What your players see

Scan a QR code

Share one code for the session. No sign-in, no install.

Follow it live

Courts and scores update as you record them.

Watch on the TV

A full-screen display for a screen in the hall.

Who can do what

  • Admin — everything, plus operators, rulesets and the audit log.
  • Facilitator — runs sessions: check-in, queue, courts, scoring, corrections.
  • Scorekeeper — scores games within a session they've been granted access to.
Operator sign inHow OPI works