A rating with receipts
Understand your number.
Rax turns confirmed results into a useful view of your progress, while keeping match history and uncertainty in context.
What is Rax?
Rax is Rackd's recreational pool rating. Players begin at 1000, and confirmed match results move the rating according to opponent strength, racks or points, game type, race length, match count, and rating deviation.
Rax was developed with one core principle: every player should have access to meaningful skill tracking, regardless of their location, league participation, or tournament access. This philosophy drives every aspect of the system's design and implementation.
How Rax Works
The current calculation uses the following recorded inputs:
Match Outcomes
Wins and losses form the foundation, but not the entirety, of your rating. The algorithm considers the context of each result.
Opponent Strength
Defeating stronger opponents provides more rating increase, while losses to weaker players result in larger decreases. The system rewards challenging yourself.
Performance Consistency
Match count changes the update rate, while rating deviation supplies context about how established a player's history is.
Game Type Specialization
8-ball, 9-ball, and 10-ball use modestly different game multipliers, while one overall Rax rating is maintained.
Inactivity and Uncertainty
Long periods without a confirmed match can increase rating deviation. Older match results are not silently discarded or reweighted.
Match Context
The calculation recognizes recorded format and race length. It does not currently infer venue conditions, pressure, or tournament importance.
Understanding Rating Ranges
Tier names are display labels for navigating the Rackd leaderboard, not certified descriptions of run-out ability or league skill:
Rax and Other Rating Systems
Rax is independent and intended for matches recorded in Rackd. Other systems may use larger datasets, sanctioned events, or different methods and should not be treated as numerically interchangeable.
Algorithmic Advantages
Multi-Factor Analysis
Rax: Uses confirmed score, opponent rating, game type, race length, match count, and deviation.
Other systems: Use their own published or proprietary inputs and event requirements.
Defined Formula
Rax: Uses a versioned formula with bounded updates; it does not currently train a machine-learning model.
Other systems: May use static, periodically calibrated, or data-driven methods.
Game-Specific Optimization
Rax: Tailored specifically for pool games with sport-specific factors and considerations.
Other systems: Often have their own pool-specific rules and calibration.
Transparency and Education
Rax: Provides clear explanations of rating factors and changes, helping players understand their development.
Traditional systems: Often operate as "black boxes" with little insight into calculation methods.
Accessibility Advantages
The most significant advantage of Rax is its accessibility. While systems like Fargo rating provide valuable insights for competitive players, they have inherent limitations:
Geographic Availability
Available worldwide to any player with the Rackd app. No geographic restrictions or local infrastructure requirements.
Often limited to specific regions, sanctioned events, or established league systems. Rural and international players may have limited access.
Event Requirements
Supports confirmed head-to-head 8-ball, 9-ball, and 10-ball matches recorded in Rackd. Both players must approve a result before ratings change.
Typically require participation in sanctioned events or specific tournament formats. Casual play doesn't contribute to rating.
Cost Barriers
Free to use with your Rackd account. No entry fees, membership requirements, or additional costs.
Often require tournament entry fees, league memberships, or sanctioning body fees to participate in rated events.
Player Pool Requirements
Can track a local group from its first confirmed matches. Ratings become more useful as players record more results against a wider range of opponents.
Require large, established player pools for accuracy. May be less reliable in smaller communities or emerging markets.
How the Current Rating Works
Rax is a transparent performance rating derived from confirmed Rackd match results. It is not an official APA, BCA, FargoRate, or tournament rating.
Expected Result
Before each update, Rax estimates each player's expected share of the result from the difference between their current ratings.
Match Result and Length
The update uses racks or points, depending on the match format, and accounts for race length and game type. A single update is capped to reduce extreme swings.
Rating Deviation
Rax stores a deviation value as a practical uncertainty indicator. It generally falls as matches are recorded and can increase after long periods without play. It is not presented as a formal statistical confidence interval.
Result Integrity
Rack or ball evidence is saved with the score, duplicate submissions are ignored, and the opponent must confirm the result before either rating changes.
Reading Your Rating
Match count and rating deviation provide context for the displayed number:
New Rating (1-10 matches)
Early ratings can move quickly because only a small amount of confirmed match data is available.
Developing Rating (11-50 matches)
More opponents and formats provide better context, while individual match updates usually become less pronounced.
Established History (51+ matches)
The rating has a longer record behind it, but it remains an estimate based only on confirmed matches recorded in Rackd.
Using Your Rax Rating
Your Rax rating is more than just a number - it's a tool for improvement and competition:
For Personal Development
- Track long-term progress over months and years
- Identify peak performance periods and analyze what contributed
- Set realistic goals based on your current rating and trajectory
- Use match count and rating deviation as context for reliability
For Competition
- Find opponents of similar skill level for competitive matches
- Challenge yourself against higher-rated players for accelerated improvement
- Use ratings for fair handicapping in friendly competitions
- Track performance in different competitive environments
For League and Tournament Play
- Supplement official ratings with comprehensive match history
- Monitor form and confidence leading into important events
- Compare performance across different venues and formats
- Validate official ratings with independent assessment