What it is
FargoRate produces Fargo Ratings, which put amateur and professional pool players worldwide on one shared scale. It was created by Mike Page and Steve Ernst, and CueSports International holds an exclusive contract with it.
How ratings are calculated
- Ratings come from game wins and losses against other rated players and are recalculated daily.
- Only eight-ball, nine-ball and ten-ball games on 7-foot and 9-foot tables count.
- Results are submitted by leagues, tours and tournament organizers, not by players, and they must include final game scores.
- The number of games behind a rating is its "robustness." A rating becomes established at 200 games. Before that, a preliminary rating blends your results with an optional starter rating whose influence fades as games accumulate.
What a rating gap means
The scale is logarithmic. A 100-point gap means the stronger player is expected to win about two games for every one the weaker player wins; a 200-point gap, about four to one. The per-game win chance follows 1 / (1 + 2−difference/100), so a 400 playing a 500 wins about 33 percent of games.
What the numbers look like at the table
| Rating | Roughly |
|---|---|
| 100 to 200 | Beginner. FargoRate says a 200 has probably never run out an eight-ball rack. |
| About 300 | Common for casual, non-competitive league players. |
| About 500 | A good local league player, near the middle of the system. |
| About 600 | Often runs three balls in a row, sometimes four. |
| About 700 | A top regional US player or professional; world-class for women. |
| About 800 | Top world-class professional. Fewer than 20 players worldwide are above 800. |
How leagues and tournaments use it
- Handicapping. CSI's BCA Pool League and USA Pool League compute handicaps from players' Fargo Ratings, and the FargoRate app includes charts that suggest handicapped races between two ratings.
- Team divisions. CSI's championship divisions are set by the team's combined ratings.
- Caps. Some open amateur events keep top players out with a rating cap instead of handicapping each match.