Co-founders Dan Brooks and Steve Sebestyen launched the DiNKR pickleball app in January to help pickleball partners find matches and new partners, and recently added an “open to dating” badge for singles to find romantic partnerships on the court, too. 

Brooks shared that the idea of a pickleball matchmaking app actually came from a pickleball comedy movie script he was developing with the working title of “In a Pickle” where two of the characters met on a pickleball dating app. 

“As we were working on the script, I ran into a friend who did app development. Steve and I were already playing a lot of pickleball and we had this dating app idea from the script. The first iteration of the app was conceived as a way to simplify all the communication mess that people have when trying to organize a game, but the idea of it having a dating app feature was always ingrained in its DNA,” said Brooks. “Once we got the core functionality figured out, we added the dating part into it because we know that it’s such a dynamic sport. There was always a sort of natural progression and insinuation of extending beyond just platonic matchmaking into a more romantic element.”

Sebestyen also pointed out that DiNKR is a bit of a wordplay on Tinder. 

As avid pickleball players themselves, Sebestyen and Brooks immediately saw pickleball as the perfect sport to build and form social connections and bonds. 

“Pickleball is one of those rare sports where fundamentally the game is all about social exploration. Like a pick-up basketball game, you can just walk up to the court with a paddle and people welcome you in and you make friends with people 20 years your senior and junior,” said Sebestyen. “And specifically, in regards to dating, pickleball takes away a lot of stress of what a traditional first date looks like.” 

So why is pickleball the ideal place for finding romantic connections?

“There’s a beauty and a brevity of the game that means there’s plenty of opportunities to socialize between games. In pickleball, every 10 minutes you have an opportunity to engage with someone,” noted Brooks. “You’re meeting this vast array of people who want to play, and you have the ability to engage with them in a safe, comfortable environment.”

More and more people are deleting traditional dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge, and looking into more specific apps geared specifically for people with similar interests. For example, a dating app for runners, or in this case, a pickleball app. 

Brooks believes more people are looking for love on lifestyle-based apps such as DiNKR.

“People want real connections, and when you go online and find someone you’re interested in, people want to get offline and meet out in the real world. On the pickleball court, you see them in their element, you get to see their character and their personality in a way that you don’t get to through a simple dating platform. Additionally, more people are getting catfished and people aren’t being their true selves. They can present how they want to be in a digital environment,” he said. “Dating is algorithmic, and you’re more likely to get a good sense of who a person is on the pickleball court compared to a dinner date.”

This idea is something I’ve witnessed first-hand. 

“Additionally, with traditional dating apps, you have things like catfishing and sending unwanted DMs, so we’ve deliberately made the dating function discreet and you can hide invites and DMs if you have unwanted attention,” added Sebestyen

And with the continually growing number of rec pickleball players, the demand for this continues to increase, as well as the potential dating pool. 

“We’ve hosted a couple singles events and there’s certainly a hunger and an appetite to combine the dating element with pickleball that initially centered around platonic relationships and the romantic side grows. It happens organically,” explained Sebestyen. “No one feels like they’re forced into a speed dating round.”

Sebestyen even shared a recent story where he observed.

“We had an event a few weeks back and there were two individuals who played a game together. You could instantly tell there was chemistry there. And then a few games later, they organically gravitated towards one another and played another match. It was very evident, lots of smiles back and forth and laughter. But it was so nice to see how these people, in a relaxed setting, are able to develop relationships or friendships that naturally expand into a romantic space,” said Sebestyen. “This app, whether it’s looking for love or just looking for new people in your neighborhood to play with, it’s really about building that community and sharing this passion and joy of the sport.”

So if you’re ready to ditch traditional dating apps, give DiNKR a try. At the very least, you’ll walk away with new pickleball partnerships, and at best, you could find a doubles partner for life. 

To keep up to date on all things pickleball, follow us on Instagram or X (formerly Twitter).