Sports Tournament Management System "P4match" Aims to Create a World Where Anyone Can Enjoy Sports Anywhere, Together with People Across Japan.

This press release is a dream shared by businesses participating in the April Dream project, aiming to make April 1st a day full of dreams, which they hope to realize.

P4MATCH Inc. (Location: Nakano-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Kiyofumi Tsukahara) is pleased to announce its participation in April Dreams, a project dedicated to making April 1st a day for sharing dreams. This press release represents the dream of "P4match."

With approximately 30,000 registered users and over 3,000 tournaments held annually, P4match is used by even more people than anticipated for 2025. We are grateful to have celebrated our 10th anniversary since the service's release last year.

This press release expresses the dream that "P4match" wishes to achieve together with all the athletes who enjoy sports, the over 400 organizations currently hosting tournaments, and all those who will host tournaments in the future.

(P4match Service Site: https://p4match.com/index.php)

The number of registered members with the Japan Table Tennis Association decreases by about half from junior high to high school.

While students strive for improvement, those who are not fortunate with their environment have fewer opportunities to experience the joy of winning, even if they have chances to participate in matches.

Furthermore, some regions are facing difficulties in tournament operations due to an aging population.

Individuals who did not find their time with competitive sports enjoyable during their student years tend to quit the sport altogether, or if they continue or restart, they find it difficult to maintain the motivation to enjoy it.

We want to provide such individuals with ways to enjoy sports that suit their lives and motivations.

We want them to be able to participate in tournaments without feeling any hurdles, even after moving away from their hometowns for further education or employment, and to enrich their lives in a space separate from their studies and work.

P4match was developed 10 years ago to realize these "dreams.".

P4match provides a tournament management system that allows all necessary procedures for tournaments to be handled with a single smartphone.

Anyone with a smartphone can search for and apply for matches, and even host tournaments.

The pairings are automatically generated based on a rating system, ensuring matches between players of similar skill levels, thus providing participants with highly satisfying matches where the competition is close.

Therefore, people of all ages and genders can compete against others of similar skill levels, and beginners or those who started sports later in life can experience the "joy and pleasure of winning a match."

Participant and fee management are also completed online, and as each player enters scores via their smartphone, the tournament progresses, significantly reducing the burden on organizers.

The above describes what the current system can do. Towards realizing our dream, we are implementing features that allow each league and association to hold tournaments, providing a system that is easy for organizations rooted in their local communities to adopt.

In fact, we received many inquiries last year, and only 6 prefectures remain where tournaments have not yet been held. Furthermore, the system was utilized in an initiative between the T.League and AEON RETAIL CO., LTD., allowing table tennis enthusiasts across Japan to enjoy matches at AEON malls nationwide.

Even enthusiasts who don't often participate in matches can now find it easier to join events held at local table tennis clubs or in shopping districts.

The oldest participant on this day was an impressive 96 years old!

Even with last-minute participants, optimal pairings can be created on the spot for everyone to enjoy.

For high school tournaments, we've received feedback from players who struggled to win in regular tournaments, such as:

"It was fun to win and lose against players of similar levels."

"I had enough matches, and P4match had more enjoyable matches."

People across the country are beginning to experience the fun of ratings, a key feature of P4match.

The P4match system can be used free of charge for events that do not collect venue or participation fees, such as internal club matches and practice sessions. It allows for participant management, pairing creation, and match progression all via smartphone, dramatically reducing the burden of tournament operation.

Organizers have commented, "Entrusting the management to P4match allowed for more matches, and I believe it led to higher player satisfaction in terms of time management and pairings."

We believe that by continuing to utilize the system in various settings, not only for exchange matches like those mentioned above, but also for internal club competitions and university alumni matches, it will become a tool that makes it easier to continue sports even after finishing "club activities" and entering society, by allowing users to search for and apply for tournaments with just a smartphone.

Initially, the service only supported table tennis. However, in response to inquiries from sports enthusiasts, we have been continuously developing and adapting the system for other sports such as large ball table tennis, badminton, soft tennis, and karate (according to All Japan Karate-do Federation rules).

Following inquiries received during last year's April Dream event, "Shogi" (Japanese chess) has also been added as a new category.

※We also have Pickleball available, though it is not yet publicly released.

The P4match system is available not only for large sports organizations like federations and associations but also for anyone who wishes to host a tournament.

Ultimately, we aim to become a social infrastructure that widely collaborates with municipalities across Japan, effectively utilizing vacant sports facility time to create profits for the municipalities and opportunities for resident interaction, while providing diverse opportunities to enjoy various sports.

The "P4" in P4MATCH stands for "Pure Play Pleasure Place."

Our philosophy is to provide a "Place where people can enjoy sports from the bottom of their hearts," from beginners to advanced players.

"April Dream" is a project by PR TIMES where companies share their dreams for the future on April 1st. We are serious about making this dream a reality.

↓For more information about P4match, please see the articles in Table Tennis Kingdom:

(Application Edition) https://world-tt.com/blog/news/archives/231162

(Tournament Edition) https://world-tt.com/blog/news/archives/232013
(Organizer Edition) https://world-tt.com/blog/news/archives/275755

(Table Tennis Venue Edition) https://world-tt.com/blog/news/archives/252284