• Night Sessions: From 4pm AEST (Watch live via Fox Sports, Kayo Sports, Sky Sport NZ and delayed on YouTube for international viewers)
Event Format & Rules
Each of the 12 BPL teams will play each other twice over 22 rounds during the competition. At the end of the qualifying rounds, the top five teams will play off in Friday night’s finals series.
The top five teams are decided by points. If teams are equal on points they will be split on net total shots (shots for minus shots against).
Each match consists of two five-end sets, with a one-end tie-break played if required. The game format is pairs, with three bowls for each player per end. BPL matches take just over one hour from start to finish and deciding the winner is simple. The team that wins both sets or one set and then the tie-break is the winner.
Instead of spending time rolling the jack, as per normal competitions, BPL players place the mat and advise the marker the length of the jack they would like to play to.
To keep games progressing, players will have 30 seconds to deliver their bowl from the time the jack is placed at the start of an end, or once their opposition bowl has come to a rest, ensuring the next suspenseful result is only moments away.
BPL teams will also be able to nominate one Power Play end per set, enabling teams to earn double the shots scored in that end.
Some days players just aren’t on top of their game, maybe its only for a few ends, maybe its for a whole match, in order to get the best players the sport has to offer out on the green, a team coach can replace a player with a substitute during the game, but only immediately preceding the delivery of a bowl by their team player.
If a tie-break is required to decide the winner, all players on both teams will take to the green, with the format changing to two-bowl-triples for that end.