Badminton scoring on your watch

Badminton is a race to 21 with a ceiling, and the ceiling is the part that catches scorekeepers out. Courtovo counts it properly, including at 29-29.

How badminton is scored

A game goes to 21 points and must be won by two — but 30 wins outright. At 29-29 the next point takes the game, with no two-point margin required. A match is the best of three games.

Whoever wins the rally serves next. There is no separate serving rotation to keep track of: the serve follows the point, which is why the server can be worked out from the log alone.

What Courtovo counts

Best of three to 21, with the two-point margin and the cap at 30 — both, because a scorekeeper that knows the margin but not the cap gives the wrong answer exactly once per match, at the moment it matters most.

The server is derived from the rally log, so an undo takes the serve back with the point.

The score reads 21-19, not 40-30, and the statistics show what a rally sport actually has rather than the break-point figures that belong to tennis.

It tells you when to change ends: after the first game, after the second if there is a third, and when a side first reaches 11 in the third. Two buzzes and the ⇄ mark.

On the wrist

Rallies are fast and the shuttle does not wait. One click of the bezel is one point; a swipe up takes it back. See the score screen.

Other sports Courtovo counts: Tennis · Padel · Squash · Table tennis · Pickleball · Volleyball · Basketball · Football · Handball