Bocce, with standings
Bocce league app for your crew
To run a bocce league with friends, you need teams of 2, a flat stretch of lawn, one night a week, games to 12 and a schedule that gets every team its games on the court you have, plus one place where everyone can see the scores and standings. A bocce league app keeps that place, so nobody runs the season from a group chat.
Rival Nights is that app, made for your own crew rather than a club or a park league. You set up the season in a few minutes, everyone plays from their phone's browser, the other team confirms every result, and rained-out games get new nights on their own.
Your first league is free.
Not a club league
Made for your lawn.
Most bocce league software is built for clubs, parks departments and bars with courts: an administrator, a sign-up sheet, nights at the venue. A league with your friends is different.
- No administrator. One of you is the commissioner, and the app does the admin: the schedule, the reminders and the make-ups.
- Your lawn, your balls. Play in a backyard, a park or on a real court, on the night that works for you. No venue to book.
- Everyone on their phones. Players open the invite from their email and sign in with a 6-digit code. Nothing to download, no password.
- Your house rules. Every league starts with bocce's starter house rules, and the commissioner edits them to fit.
- Your night, your season. A spring league, a winter one, or a one-day tournament: you pick when your crew plays.
Bocce scoring
Frames to 12. Closest scores.
A frame ends when all 8 balls are thrown. Only the team closest to the pallino scores: a point for each of its balls closer than the other team's best, so 1 to 4 points a frame. First to 12 wins, with a 30-minute time cap: still tied at the cap? Play one more frame.
How to play bocce
Roll balls as close as you can to a little one. Knocking theirs away is encouraged.
What you need
- 8 bocce balls, 4 per team in two colors
- 1 pallino, the small target ball
- A tape measure for close calls
Any flat stretch of lawn works. Mark a throwing line at each end; a full court is about 90 by 13 feet, but a backyard is fine.
How to play
- 1
Throw the pallino
Flip a coin. The winner throws the pallino from behind the line, past the middle of the court, then throws the first bocce ball.
- 2
Farther team throws
The other team throws until one of their balls is closest or they run out. Whichever team is farther from the pallino always throws next.
- 3
Knock things around
Hitting the pallino or other balls is fair. Every ball counts from wherever it stops.
- 4
Score the frame
Once all 8 balls are thrown, only the closest team scores: a point for each of its balls closer than the other team's best.
- 5
Go again
Whoever scored throws the pallino next, from the other end.
Scoring
Only one team scores each frame, a point for every ball closer than the other team's best. Too close to measure? Nobody scores. First to 12 points wins.
Be nice to the lawn.
Starter house rules
- Flip a coin. The winner throws the small ball (the pallino), then the first bocce ball.
- The team that's farther from the pallino throws next, until they're closer or out of balls.
- When every ball's thrown, the closest team scores a point for each ball closer than the other team's best.
- Whoever scored throws the pallino next.
- Too close to call? Measure. Still can't tell? Nobody scores that frame.
- Bring a chair and something to drink. Be nice to the lawn.
Every new bocce league starts with these. The commissioner can rewrite them, and they sit next to the schedule in the league's Rules tab, with the court diagram.
Live scoring
Score it frame by frame.
Keep score on the lawn with any phone. After each frame, tap the team that scored and how many points, or Nobody scored when it's too close to call. The rest of the league can follow the score from the league's home screen.
- Tapped the wrong team? Undo the last frame, or any line in the log.
- Time's up? End it at the time cap, and whoever's ahead wins.
- Save it and the final score becomes the result. The other team taps Looks right, or That's wrong.
A season, start to finish
Week 1 to finals day.
- Set it up. Pick bocce, your night, how many weeks and how many courts. Rival Nights suggests schedule formats that fit. One lawn and not everyone free every week? Try Triangle nights: three teams come, and each plays the other two.
- Invite the crew. Teams of 2 to start, up to 6 players. No email for someone? Add them by first name.
- Play the night. Everyone gets a reminder 3 days out and on the day. Can't make it? The game gets a make-up night proposed for both teams.
- Confirm the score. Either team enters the result, and the other confirms it, or it counts on its own after 24 hours.
- Watch the standings. Ranked by win %, then head-to-head, then point differential, with who's clinched and who's out.
- Crown somebody. The top teams play a finals day bracket, seeded from the standings.
See every screen of our demo league, a cornhole one, in the product tour, or read the FAQ. Your crew plays on boards instead? Here's the cornhole league version, how a game night league works for any game, and our guide on how to start a league with your friends.
Pallino's out. Start the season.
Set it up tonight, send the invites, and your first league night is on everyone's calendar before anyone finds the tape measure.
Your first league is free. Then $3 a player per season, never more than $60, and on a season of up to 20 players your crew can split it.