How It Works & Rules

✓General Rules

Side action is extra games you can play on top of your regular bowling, for a chance to win cash.

How to play

1. Sign up and pay at the desk before bowling starts. Only paid entries are added.
2. Bowl your normal games. Your scores count for every side game you entered.
3. Follow along live on this site: pick your tournament, then find your name under My Results.
4. Collect your winnings at the desk the same night.

Rules

• No cancellations or refunds once the game starts. Once bowling begins, all entries are final. The only refunds are entries the app itself can't place: an odd Mystery Doubles entry drawn out at the draw, or a bracket entry that doesn't fit into a bracket.
• Entries close when the draw is made or bowling starts. No entries are added or removed after that.
• Scores are final as recorded by the center. Check your scores on this site and tell the desk right away if something's wrong.
• Draws are random and are made by the app, not by hand.
• Prize money comes from the entry fees, minus the house's share. Each game's prizes are shown on its page before you bowl.
• The center's decision is final on any dispute.

Handicap vs. Scratch

• Scratch: your actual pin count.
• Handicap: your score plus handicap pins, so bowlers of every level have a fair shot. Handicap is based on your average: (base − your average) × %, and it's never below 0. Each tournament shows its base and % at the top of its page (for example, 90% of 220).

⇶Brackets

Head-to-head, one game at a time. Win your match and move on.

How it works

1. Each bracket has 8 bowlers. Buy as many entries as you like; each entry puts you in a different bracket.
2. After sign-ups close, brackets are drawn at random. You're never in the same bracket twice.
3. Game 1: you're matched against one bowler. Higher score moves on.
4. Game 2: the 4 winners face off. Game 3: the last 2 bowl for the bracket.
5. The winner takes 1st; the runner-up in the final takes 2nd.

Bracket types

• Handicap and Scratch brackets, as above.
• Reverse brackets play the games backwards: Game 3 first, then Game 2, then Game 1.

Byes

If there aren't enough entries to fill the last bracket, it may be filled with a few byes. A bowler who draws a bye moves on automatically. Brackets with byes pay a little less, since fewer entries went in.

Ties

If both bowlers in a match tie, the winner is decided by a roll-off, as run by the desk.

✂Eliminator

Everyone starts together. After each game, the bottom of the field is cut.

How it works

1. Pay one entry to join. Everyone in the Eliminator bowls Game 1.
2. After each game, only the top part of the field moves on (usually the top half). The rest are cut.
3. Ties at the cut line all move on, so nobody is cut by a tie.
4. The last game decides the winners. The best score takes 1st.

Payouts

Depending on the tournament, the Eliminator pays the winner only, 1st and 2nd, or the top 3. If bowlers tie for a paid place, they split that money.

?Mystery Doubles

You bowl first. Your partner is a mystery until after the game.

How it works

1. Buy one or more entries before bowling.
2. Bowl your game. Nobody knows their partner yet.
3. After the game is scored, entries are paired at random into 2-person teams. If you bought 2 entries, you get 2 different partners, never yourself.
4. Team score = both partners' scores (plus handicap in a handicap game).
5. The highest team scores win. Partners split their team's winnings 50/50.

Mystery Doubles for every game

Some tournaments run one Mystery Doubles that covers every game: you pay one entry (for example $20 for 3 games), get a new random partner after each game, and each game pays its own winners. The prize money is split evenly between the games.

Odd number of entries

If there's an odd number of entries, one entry is drawn out at random and refunded, so everyone else has a partner. In an every-game Mystery Doubles, a different entry sits out each game and gets that game's share back.

Ties

Teams tied for a paid place split that money.