FargoRate

Pool Player Ratings For The World!

Finally, the world has a pool player rating system that is simple, accurate, fair, and unified! The days of inconsistent regional rating systems, biased subjective judgement, rating committees, and difficult score keeping are over.

FargoRate uses a simple mathematical approach to accurately measure a pool player’s ability relative to everyone else in the world. Whether you are an elite professional or a beginner in a local league, you can
be accurately and fairly rated based on your performance rather than the old outdated methods.

Please read below to learn more about FargoRate and how it can benefit individuals, league operators, tournament directors, and the entire industry. Also, visit www.fargorate.com for more information such as informational videos and frequently asked questions.

Individual Benefits

Lookup Your Rating

Each day, new data enters the system and a global optimization is performed. Although ratings are adjusted each day based on new data, you may lookup your rating at any time 24/7.

Lookup Your Opponent’s Rating

Whether you are playing in a handicapped league, tournament, or you just want to know the strength of your opponent, you can always lookup your opponent’s rating.

Lookup a Fair Match

Lookup the range of races that are considered to be fair matches between any two players. A fair match is one in which the odds of each player winning are close to equal.

Lookup Odds For A Match

At any time, you can lookup the statistical probability that each player will win a given match.

See USA & World Top 10

With a single click, see the top 10 rated male and female pool players in the USA and the entire world.

Create a Favorites List

Add players that you know to your Favorites List and find their current rating at anytime with a single click.

DOWNLOAD THE FARGO RATE APP

League Operator &
Tournament Director Benefits

Grow Your Leagues

When the same highly-skilled players win in your league every time, it will cause others to lose interest. However, when players are rated accurately and the handicaps make the league more competitive, people have fun and your league grows.

Grow Your Tournaments

Tournaments often lack participation because the stronger players normally prevail. Current handicapping methods usually only give the illusion of leveling the field. With Fargo Ratings, everyone is rated accurately and truly competitive matches can be generated.

Save Time and Money

By using Fargo Ratings, you no longer have to spend hours reviewing player statistics and subjectively rating players. Rating committees consisting of numerous unpaid volunteers that meet periodically to “debate” the ratings of certain players is no longer needed.

Who is FargoRate?

Michael Page

After finishing a post-doctoral research fellowship with the US National Research Council, Michael spent eight years as scientist in the Laboratory for Computational Physics at the US Naval Research Laboratory. He followed this by eighteen years as Associate Professor of Chemistry at North Dakota State University, where he taught graduate and undergraduate courses in physical chemistry and ran an active research program that produced several PhD scientists. He is the author of over 40 published articles and book chapters in the areas of quantum chemistry and computational molecular physics. He quit his academic career in 2008 to become the proprietor of Fargo Billiards & Gastropub in Fargo, ND.

History of FargoRate

Steve Ernst

Steve is a former senior software developer for Microsoft Corporation with background in electrical engineering and computer science. There were two implementations of ELO-type schemes in the 1990s. One was by Ron Shepard, a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory outside of Chicago, who implemented the scheme for 8-ball players in the Argonne Pool League. The other was by Bob Jewett, who used an ELO-type scheme as the basis of the NPL (National Pool League) rankings for 9-ball players largely in the San Francisco area. More recently the idea of an Ab Initio Global Optimization of ELO-type ratings was described by Michael Page in a 2002 Billiards Digest article, Sizing up with the Pros. Fargo Ratings were later implemented without the global optimization at Fargo Billiards in Fargo ND.