Frequently Asked Questions

The rating is an average – total points earned divided by number of matches played – and this rating is used to determine the ranking. The ranking is the position in which your rating puts you (1^st,  2^nd, 3^rd etc.). The higher your points average, the higher your rating and the higher your rating the higher your ranking.

To qualify for a rating, you must be a Full Member of World Netball and you must have played at least one international match (with umpires appointed by World Netball) over the rating period.

To qualify for a world ranking a team must be a Member of World Netball and must have played the required minimum number of matches, and at least 2 of those matches must be against other ranked teams.

A rating period is 3 to 4 years. Each year the oldest year of results are dropped during our annual update. The matches played in the first two years of the new rating period are only weighted at 50%, and the matches played more recently are weighted at 100%. As soon as a team has played the minimum number of international test matches required over the rating period, with at least 2 of these against other ranked teams, they will then earn an official world ranking. 

To view the history of annual updates from 2008-2024, click here. 

These teams will still get a rating, but they will not appear on the ranking until they have reached the minimum number of games. Therefore, they will be unranked in a list below the World Rankings until they are eligible to be ranked.  

Netball operates on a four-year cycle and all test matches, including those from the World Cup and Commonwealth Games, count when teams are being ranked. However, the weighting of these matches depends on the time it was played.

For matches played a long time ago, less importance should be place upon those results and we do this in two ways.

1. Each year the oldest year of results are dropped during our annual update.
2. The matches played in the first two years of the new rating period are only weighted at 50%, and the matches played more recently are weighted at 100%

After every match the two teams are awarded a certain number of points, these points are not to be confused with the score of the match itself. Only two factors determine how many points a team receives:

1. The result (win, loss, draw)
2. The rating of the opponents

It is vital for a rating of an opponent to be reflected otherwise it would penalise teams for having fixtures against strong countries and reward those who only play weak sides.

The rating formula automatically adjusts for how easy or difficult a team’s fixture list is, so no-one can claim that their ranking has been unduly influenced by their opponents’ strength.

Winning a match will always improve your rating and losing a match will always decrease your rating. 

If you win a match, you always earn 50 points more than your opponent’s rating, but if you lose a match, you earn 50 points less than your opponent’s rating.

Please follow the below example:

• TEAM A has 960 points from 8 matches, remembering that points divided by matches played equals the rating of a team, TEAM A’s rating is 120 (960/8=120)
• TEAM B has 1000 points from 10 matches, remembering that points divided by matches played equals the rating of a team, TEAM B’s rating is 100 (1000/10=100)

We now know that TEAM A’s rating is 120 and Team B’s rating is 100.

• From this data we know TEAM A should win as they have a higher rating
• If Team A do win as predicted then, remembering that they get 50 points more than their opponents rating, they would get 150 more points (100+50=150).
• This would make TEAM A’s new points score 1110 because their original was 960 and you add the 150which gives you 1110 (960+150=1110). However, they have now played 9 matches because they have played TEAM B, so their new rating would be 1110 divided by 9 which is 123 (1110/9=123)
• TEAM B, as the losing team, would get 50 points less than their opponents rating, meaning they would get 70 points (120-50 = 70). You would then add this new 70 points to the original 1000 to give TEAM B 1070 (1000+70= 1070). However, TEAM B have now played 11 matches because they have played TEAM A, so their new rating would be 1070 divided by 11 which is 97 (1070/11=97).

TEAM A BEFORE THE GAME: 120 RATING

TEAM A AFTER WINNING THE GAME AGAINST A LOWER RANKED TEAM: 123 RATING

Please note that TEAM A were rewarded for the victory despite it being against a team lower ranked than them. If TEAM A beat a team higher ranked than themselves, they just would have been rewarded more.

TEAM B BEFORE THE GAME: 100 RATING

TEAM B AFTER LOSING THE GAME TO A HIGHER RANKED TEAM: 97 RATING

Please note that TEAM B still lost points after losing to a higher ranked team, but if they had lost a game against a team lower ranked than them, they would’ve lost more points than they did.

A slightly different rule is applied if teams are more than 40 rating points apart. For the purposes of determining the points earned, if an opponent’s rating is more than 40 points away from your own rating, assume that the opponent is exactly 40 points away.

For example, Team A (rating 150) plays Team B (rating 90)

The points awarded to Team A are as if they were playing a team with a rating of 110 (40 less than theirs, rather than 60)

The points awarded to Team B are as if they were playing a team with a rating of 130 (40 more than theirs, rather than 60)

So if Team A wins (as expected), Team A gets 160 points (110+50) and Team B 80 points (130-50)

If Team B wins (big surprise),Team A gets 60 points (110-50) and Team B 180 points (130+50)

So, beating a stronger team leads to a large reward, but losing to a stronger team leads to only a small rating penalty.

If you don’t play your rating will stay the same until the next annual update when your oldest results are dropped. However, even though your rating stays the same your ranking may change as teams below might start winning and overtaking you and teams above might lose and drop below you.

If you don’t play for longer enough, you will eventually fall below the minimum number of matches required and lose your ranking altogether.

This is dependent on the rules of the competition that is being played in and the reason why the country didn’t fulfil the fixture. All information regarding this can be found in the World Netball General Regulations in Section 6.