How to set up your first Pickleheads event (step-by-step)

You’ve got a small but growing pickleball business. You’re coaching, teaching lessons, maybe running clinics—and your player list is starting to build.

But keeping players engaged (and coming back) takes more than just great instruction.

That’s where Pickleheads comes in. With our free event tools, you can turn your roster into recurring sessions that are structured, fun, and way easier to manage than juggling group texts or spreadsheets.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through exactly how to set up your first event on Pickleheads, step by step. It’s the fastest way to create a great experience for your players—whether you're on desktop or the app.

To access our event tools, you’ll need a Pickleheads account. It’s quick, free, and only takes a few seconds to set up.

Just head to pickleheads.com, then tap the orange “Join for free” button. All you need is an email address, or you can link a Google or Facebook account you already have.

Now’s also a good time to download the Pickleheads mobile app, available on both iPhone and Android. You’ll need it to actually run your event.

Before you can invite players to your event, you’ll want to get them into a list. Lists make it easy to organize your players and send out invites in just a few taps—even if they’ve never used Pickleheads before.

There are two ways to get there:

On desktop: Click the down arrow next to your name and photo in the top right, then select “My lists.”

On mobile: Tap “Groups” in the bottom nav, then tap “My lists” at the top.

From here, tap Create List, and give it a short, simple name—something like “Monday Group” or “Beginners.”

You’ll add your players for the round robin in the next step, but this sets the foundation for inviting them later.

Now it’s time to load your player list.

If you’ve already got a list of phone numbers or emails—maybe from your coaching roster or signup sheet—you can simply copy and paste them into Pickleheads by selecting “By email or phone.”

If you’d rather select from your phone contacts, you can do that through the mobile app by tapping “Search Pickleheads” and then giving permission to access your contacts.

📌 Don’t worry: Adding a phone number or email to a list does not send a message or alert. It simply saves the player for future invites.

You can add anyone—whether they’ve joined Pickleheads or not. When you send your event invite later, they’ll get a simple message to join if needed.

Before you build your event, you’ll want to lock in your court space—just like you normally would.

Pickleheads doesn’t reserve courts for you, so use whatever system you're already using (a city site, private club, or park scheduler). We recommend scheduling no more than a week ahead of time, so players are more likely to join quickly.

Reserve at least 2 courts for 2 hours. This is the sweet spot for a first Gauntlet round robin. It gives you enough time and space for 8–12 players to get competitive, fast-paced games without downtime.

Once your courts are confirmed, you're ready to create your event.

Now that your courts are reserved, it’s time to build your event on Pickleheads.

On desktop:

On mobile: Just tap the “New game” button at the bottom of the screen, then select “Round robin.” It’s even faster than desktop.

For your first event, choose the Gauntlet format.

We strongly recommend starting with Gauntlet. It’s our proprietary round robin format, and it’s consistently the most loved by players. Players are dynamically matched each round based on seed and past results.

Gauntlet can handle varying skill levels and works seamlessly with any number of players, courts and rounds. We offer 10 round robin formats though and you can learn all about them here.

The app will now prompt you to enter all the details - time, date, location and ideal number of players. Don’t worry - you can always adjust that later.

When setting up your session, be sure to choose a skill level range that fits the players you added to your list. This ensures balanced, enjoyable games.

📌 Example: If you’re working with mostly 3.0–3.5 players, select that range when prompted.

Once you’ve finished creating your session and tapped “Create session,” you’ll be prompted to invite players.

You’ll see the option to “Invite lists”—just select the list you created earlier. With one click, the invitation goes out to everyone on that list.

📌 This is when they’ll receive a message inviting them to join your event. They won't need an account to join. But the experience is better if they do: it’s fast and free.

We highly recommend also using the “Share an invite link” feature. This generates a simple link you can:

It’s the fastest way to get more players in the door.

When it’s time to play, just open the Pickleheads app and tap your event.

From there, tap “Set Up” in the green round robin field, and you’re off!

Pickleheads will automatically seed players based on skill level (or in the order they joined). You can drag players around if you want to adjust matchups, or just let the tool handle it.

Managing your players is easy:

Click “Start round” to get the ball rolling, and Pickleheads will generate the first set of matchups automatically. Each round will assign players to courts and partners based on their previous results—so every game stays fun and competitive.

After each round, just enter the scores into the app:

You can do this yourself, or let players submit scores from their phones. Either way, the tool will instantly update standings and set up the next round.

Keep playing as long as you like.

There’s no fixed limit to the number of rounds. You can run as many as your court time allows. Most coaches aim for 6–8 rounds in a two-hour block.

📌 Once you’re ready to stop, just end the session—and optionally crown a winner based on final standings.

That’s it—you’ve officially got everything you need to run your first Pickleheads event.

From setting up your list to running rounds and tracking scores, the Round Robin tool does the heavy lifting so you can focus on creating a great experience for your players.

Whether you’re coaching beginners, running a skills clinic, or just organizing a weekly game, this is the easiest way to structure play, keep people engaged, and grow your pickleball business.

Have questions or want help setting up your first session? We’re happy to walk through it with you.