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Bowling Handicap Calculator

Apply your league's handicap rule to an average, then see what it does to a head-to-head series.

The league rule

Score the league handicaps to, usually 200 or 210
Share of the gap, commonly 80 to 90 percent
League night is usually 3 games

The bowlers

Pins per game, 0 to 300
Optional, for a head-to-head match
Optional, pins for the whole series
Optional, pins for the whole series

If your league uses a different rule …

A handicap levels a league by giving pins to the lower average. The usual rule is (base − average) × percentage ÷ 100, rounded to the nearest whole pin with halves rounded up and never below zero. A league picks its own base (often 200, 210 or 220) and percentage (often 80, 85 or 90), and the handicap is added to every game, so a 3-game series carries three times the per-game figure. Averages with a decimal are used exactly before the rounds. Negative (plus) handicaps for averages above the base, league maximums, average updates and tournament allowances are not modelled: check your league sheet for those, and everything is worked out in your browser with nothing stored or sent anywhere.