How a Spieler rating moves.

The short version

• Results matter. Wins raise ratings; losses lower them.
• The opposition matters. Beating a higher-rated team can move your rating more than beating a lower-rated team.
• More games give the number more history. New ratings can move quickly. Ratings with a longer record move less from the same result.

The final score is saved in your history, but the margin does not affect your rating. Spieler uses who won, who played, their ratings, and their positions. It does not grade individual shots.

Ratings update when a game is entered. Opponent confirmation is a separate check, not a second rating update. How confirmation works.

Doubles has its own rating.

This page explains your standard rating. For doubles, both partners count equally. Their team strength is the average of their two doubles ratings, and both receive the same change for a result. Doubles games never change your standard rating.

The doubles method is provisional and has not yet been calibrated against doubles results. Only two players against two players are supported. More about doubles.

Every new rating starts at 1,200.

A curler with no rated games begins at 1,200 and with high uncertainty. That number is a common starting point, not an assessment of the curler’s ability. The starting value is provisional and has not been calibrated against real curling results.

Starting rating

1,200

Result model

Win or loss

Score margin

Not used

The lineup is calculated for that game.

A Spieler rating belongs to an individual, not permanent teams. For each game, the players’ ratings are combined into one lineup strength. Each position carries a different weight, so entering the positions accurately is important.

The position weights were fitted from actual games. They make lineup order count.

With three players, the skip keeps the Skip weight. Each other player uses the average of the Third, Second, and Lead weights. In a 3 v 4 game, both teams gain or lose the same total points, shared among the players who played. The three-player rule is an approved pilot rule, not a finding from the four-player data.

Unexpected results move the rating more.

Spieler calculates an expected result (win or loss) based on the relative strength of each team. If Spieler thinks there is an upset, the ratings will move more.

Newer ratings move more.

Spieler’s goal is to help you understand your Spieler rating as quickly as possible. That means newer curler ratings move faster than established curler ratings.

• New: Your first rated games. The number can still move a long way.
• Provisional: More of your play is represented, but the number is still finding its level.
• Established: A longer rated-game record. One result moves it less than a newer rating.

These labels describe game history, not how experienced you are or whether you have claimed your profile. Opponent verification is shown separately.

The winning team gains the same total rating points the losing team gives up before display rounding. This is what zero-sum means. Players share their team’s change according to their rating uncertainty, so teammates do not necessarily move by the same amount.

What protects the game record?

Only a signed-in curler with a connected profile can submit a game they played in. Each player can appear only once in its lineups. Retrying a submission or entering the same detected game does not award a second rating update.

A claimed player on the opposing team can verify the result. The submitter cannot verify their own entry. Unverified games remain labeled, and the verification indicator shows how much of a curler’s rated record has been checked.

A participant can flag a result as disputed. Anyone can request a correction review. These actions preserve the original record for review; they do not automatically erase its rating changes.