Paul Sparks

What is a rating?

A rating is one number that shows how strong a player is — worked out from who they've beaten, not just how many frames they've won. Everyone starts on 1000. A strong regular might be on 1200 or more; a newcomer who's lost a few will sit below 1000.

How does it move?

Every frame is a small contest for points. The winner takes some points off the loser, and how many depends on how surprising the result was:

• Two players on the same rating: the winner gains about 12 points and the loser loses 12.
• You beat someone rated 100 higher than you: a big win — you gain about 15.
• You beat someone rated 100 lower: you were expected to win, so you only gain about 9.
• Lose to someone much lower and you drop by a lot more than if you lose to someone much higher.

So the number can't be pumped up by beating weak opposition — it rewards beating good players.

What does the gap mean?

A 100-point gap means the higher-rated player would be expected to win about 64% of frames; 200 points is about 76%; 300 about 85%. That's how the “rating preview” on a match page works out each team's chance.

Newcomers, doubles and rank

• New players move faster for their first 20 frames (about twice as much per frame), so a few results settle them near their real level. After that it moves more gently.
• Singles and doubles are rated separately, because some people are better at one than the other.
• In doubles, a pair is treated as the average of its two players. If the pair wins, both players gain; if it loses, both lose.
• Peak is the highest a player's singles rating has ever reached.
• Rank is the position among current players who have played at least 10 singles frames — so someone who has played only three frames can't jump to the top on a lucky run.

The method is called Elo, after Arpad Elo, the chess master who invented it. It's used to rank chess players, and in many other sports and games. Here it's worked out from every league frame since 2023. It's just for interest and match previews — it doesn't decide anything in the league.