Wow! What a week!
Week 1 of Chicago Bocce League was a great success for players, fans, the new Chicago Bocce Club, and BocceBroadcastNetwork livestream, and the BocceLabs technology!
This is all possible thanks to our dedicated stat keepers, programmers, and production crew.
We’ve built upon the system we unveiled for Ohio Bocce League in September 2025 and we’re here to communicate how the stats are collected.
BocceLabs Stats System
BocceLabs Stats User Interface
BocceLabs has partnered with Bocce Broadcast Network (BBN) to deliver stats record keeping data services.
The system ain’t perfect (just like that horse shit ball you threw last week). Nevertheless, we’re starting here with room to grow and we sincerely hope you’ll stay for the ride.
Let’s take a peek into the bocce ball grading rubric that we’ve adopted under the guidance of league commissioner Michael Scialdone Sharkey.
We collect the following 6 data points per throw:
Good Point
Bad Point
Hit
Miss
Foot Foul
Shot Clock Violation
These datapoints inform stats and leaderboards.
The simplicity of the above 6 these allow us to determine attempts, percentages, and streaks as well as participation-based metrics:
Total Point Attempts = Good Points + Bad Points
Pointing Percentage = Good Points / (Good Points + Bad Points)
Pointing Streak = sequential Good Points (within and across multiple games)
Total Shot Attempts = Hits + Misses
Shooting Percentage = Hits / (Hits + Misses)
Shooting Streak = sequential Hits (within and across multiple games)
Plus/Minus = while you were on the court, what was your impact to the team score (cumulative positive points and negative points)
Chicago Bocce League - Leaderboard (Week 1)
The above 6 datapoints are subjectively objective (how’s that for a contradiction?). So without further ado, let’s explain the top non-foul datapoints.
Pointing (aka rolling):
The first bocce ball rolled has no traffic on the court and is scrutinized differently than subsequent balls.
“Good Point” if it is within 18 inches towards mid-court line and as the pallino target is further back in the court, more leeway is given (up to 30inches)
Preference given if the ball is “in front” or “to the side” as opposed to “behind” the pallino
Subsequent balls rolled:
“Good Point”
If the ball beats the point and is within the 18in-30in range (depending on how deep the pallino is in the court)
Intentional bump shot that results in being in
“Bad Point”
If the ball does not beat the point
If the ball beats the point but is not within 18in-30in depending on how deep it is in the court (depending on how deep the pallino is in the court)
Bump shot where the ball was actually travelling too fast, but you got lucky
Hits back wall without touching another ball on the court
Special cases:
“Good Point” if other team is out of balls and you only need to beat their closest ball (ex: if you simply need to be 8ft away to beat it)
Defensive balls are tough to judge and often result in stat entry disagreements, so read carefully
“Good Point” if the ball is rolled significantly past the pallino to mitigate the other team shooting the pallino down the court (i.e. it was thrown intentionally deep), it is considered “good”
“Good Point” if the ball is intentionally defensive in front of the opponent’s “Good Point” even though the ball rolled isn’t “in”
“Good Point” if in doubt
NOTE: This is not intended to solve for every possible scenario. Stat keepers understand the flow of the game and make decisions based upon their observations in that moment.
Raffa or Volo (aka shooting):
“Hit”
If you hit your intended target (regardless of result)
The target might be a specific ball
The target might be the pallino
The target might be a “double target”
“Miss”
If you miss your intended target (regardless of result)
NOTE: Stat keepers use their knowledge of the game as well as your team’s communication and hand signals to deduce what the “intended target” is.
Fouls:
“Foot Foul” is called if your foot is on or over the line before you release the ball (pointing or shooting). We recognize that many leagues allow pointers to have their foot on the line. That is not the case for CBL/OBL.
“Shot Clock Violation” is called if both the team is out of timeouts and if the player doesn’t release the ball before the 25 second shot clock. If the team does have timeouts in the bank (each team starts with 3 timeouts at the beginning of the game), a timeout is automatically burned and a shot clock violation is not called.
NOTE: We have one ref as the line judge for foot fouls. We have one ref keeping the shot clock and timeout clock (via a belt clip buzzer timer).
Bocce Stats Next Steps
Remember, all the data provided is brought to you by selfless volunteers that are dedicated to helping the league and sport grow.
We have a system where one stat keeper is entering data and the other stat keeper is helping/auditing. This is our form of “checks and balances”.
To our league players:
Please don’t attempt to influence the stat keeper while court side. They are trained in the above parameters and formula, so don’t fuck with them (at least in real time)!
If you want to dispute a stat call, please send the game time, frame number, and YouTube timestamp. We have limited time, but we’ll take your concern into account if you provide enough information.
We welcome suggestions. We built the backend database with flexibility and growth in mind. We’ve had a number of lessons learned and ideas for expansion on the stats and are listening to ideas from players and fans. While we won’t change “the system” during the season, we may adapt it in future seasons.
Like any new thing, it comes with growing pains. Just rest assured that as we continue to grow, it will become clearer and data entry mistakes will be minimal.
We’re always open to inquiries and suggestions.
Thanks for reading,
The BocceLabs.com Team