Our Story

Originally published in Pickleball Magazine, April 2024

In 2016, Reine Steel realized she had a pickleball problem. Yes, she was hopelessly addicted, but that wasn't the problem that needed solving – it was finding games that fit her schedule. "Email chains with dozens of players were cumbersome and ineffective. Then there's the dreaded group texts that always seem to unleash a flurry of '"dings' at the worst possible time," Reine said. "As a Web developer, I knew I could come up with a better way." She sketched out some ideas and within a few weeks, her team at STLi Web Solutions had a working prototype they called PlayTime Scheduler for Pickleball.

Reine shared the tool with her local pickleball community in Sacramento, and players there enthusiastically jumped online to schedule play dates. As word spread, other pickleball communities began requesting their own Schedulers, leading to the site expanding globally in 2019. Today, PlayTime Scheduler is used by over 373,000 pickleballers in 57 countries. Nearly 40,000 play sessions are posted each month. Over 1.5 million play sessions have been created to date.

"Adding PlayTime Scheduler has been a huge boost for our pickleball community, and our players and team leaders love it," said Chuck Black, a local site administrator in Crossville, Tennessee. "It is so easy to use and eliminates those annoying strings of group texts and multiple emails trying to set up a game."

The software groups players by region so they can access a database of over 13,117 local venues, and receive notifications when new games are posted nearby. Play sessions can be filtered by tags such as skill rating, gender, format, and number of players. Most sessions are public, but an invite-only feature allows groups to arrange private play dates. Clubs and coaches post special events like clinics, round robins, and drill sessions. Many users admit to logging on multiple times a day to browse the calendar, sign up to play, and exchange messages.

The fact that the service is free, with a simple, user-friendly interface, has led to rapid organic growth – around 10,000 new users join the site every month. Each region is moderated by one or more volunteer local admins, who post community notes and encourage new players to connect with others via the site. For thousands of players, PlayTime Scheduler has become a central hub for tracking all local pickleball happenings, as well as a resource to turn to when traveling.

"It works so well for us because we're also a tourist destination, so we have lots of people looking to play when they visit," said Andy Hiller, local admin for Chincoteague Island, Virginia. "PlayTime Scheduler makes it easy for them to find us and join our play sessions."

"It's the last thing I check at night and first thing in the morning to determine where, when, and with whom I'll be playing," said Bill Consiglio in California.

Long time user Diana Beals agreed. "I love it. Whenever I want a game, I just go on PlayTime Scheduler. It makes my life easy and fun."