BowlRadar

For developers

What's new

What changed on BowlRadar, day by day, newest first: what's new for families, organizers and staff, what was fixed, and the tours added. Dates are US Eastern.

New

  • Developers have a What's new page, linked from the footer's Developers column and For developers: this changelog, day by day.
  • Families can now plan a trip of two to four events in a row, day by day: flights in and home from their airport, stays near each center, the drive between events with time-zone changes and a leave time, nearby events to add, a calendar file, and Plan this trip on My events.
  • Families can add any event to a trip: the list can be searched and widened (to 500 miles or anywhere, a week either side), shows up to 12 with Show all past that, and every event page offers Add to your trip while a trip is open on the device.
  • Getting there links to a Google Flights search into each airport, round trip around the event, from the major airport nearest the family's home (worked out in the browser; Google gets only airport codes and dates).
  • Event pages and the weekend compare show the distance by air next to the drive estimate, and list rows now say their miles are by air.

Changed

  • Trip stays list only the family's hotel brands (out to 20 miles when none are within 10), with the others folded away; families without brands see the nearest hotels and a sign-in prompt.
  • Hotel lookups give up on a server after 30 seconds.

Fixed

  • Emails about changes to the events families are going to now go out every day, and more centers get their nearby hotels each day.
  • The site icon and Apple touch icons are served at the addresses browsers and iPhones ask for.
  • The sitemap no longer lists /plan, which redirects to /weekend, and the Privacy and Terms pages name their canonical address.

New

  • Co-hosted events: one listing for two tours run together shows on each tour's page ("With NJYBT"), in each tour's filter, counts, alerts and Follow, and names every host on its page and to search engines; staff can merge a pair as co-hosted from Possibly listed twice or set co-hosts on the event's edit page.
  • Getting there, below an event's comments, lists the nearest airports with airline service (and the nearest major one) and hotels near the center, nearest first, with their company and miles.
  • Families can choose hotel brands at sign-up or on My account; they then see only their brands' hotels, with the others in a closed fold, and an offer to look within 20 miles when none are within 10.

Changed

  • The BowlRadar logo opens the search in one click; the landing page stays for the first visit.
  • Map and data credits move to the About page, linked as Credits in every page's footer, instead of under each event's hotels; the map's credit shrinks to an (i) after five seconds or the first touch.
  • An event on its second day leads today's list instead of disappearing from the search.
  • Airports come from the FAA's list of commercial service airports (516), with "major" meaning an FAA large or medium hub.
  • The hotel brands choice sits in a fold that names the companies chosen.

Fixed

  • Past calendar days meet AA color contrast.

New

  • A landing page at bowlradar.com: the radar, the name, one line and a Find events button, standing alone with no header or footer; the search lives at / with any parameter, and signing out lands on the landing page.
  • Feature events: staff pick a few high-profile events a year per tour (editorial, never paid), shown with a solid blue "Feature event" pill wherever events appear, a "Feature events only" filter and an API option.
  • BowlRadar can be installed on a phone's home screen, opening on the search.
  • Families going to an event are emailed when it changes: new dates, a center announced or moved, a start time, canceled or sold out (under the same setting as the daily reminders).
  • Signed-in families can follow a tour in one tap from its page, which sets up a weekly alert for its events with no confirmation step.
  • A tour's own scholarship program, with a note and policy link, shows on its page and every event's page (for the PJBT, whose scholarships go into its own MAPS accounts rather than USBC SMART).

Fixed

  • The Happening now pill's text and the calendar's today marker are easier to read.
  • The PBA Jr. qualifier rule is the same for the badge, search and editor, and weekend comparison badges show correctly.
  • Find events appears on the 404 and alert pages; a merged event stays merged on save; a correction names only an event the visitor can see; SYC's scores link no longer shows twice.
  • Links carrying fbclid or utm_* tags open the landing page.

Tours and data

  • Added the PJBT's Season 28 schedule: every event from Sept 20 to the June 11-13 Championship Weekend, with start times and 9 new centers; a Mar 28 "World Championship" not on the flier is taken off the site.
  • Updated the Tough Shots Tour from its 2026-27 rules: every stop a Junior Gold qualifier, check-in and start times, entry deadline, format, scholarships, divisions and fees.

New

  • Events happening right now show a red live dot and a "Happening now" badge on results, event pages, map popups, the weekend comparison, My account, directors' lists, the embed and the API, judged by today's date where the event is.
  • Each tour is labeled local, regional or national based on how far apart its centers are. Every event of the tour carries a quiet pill, and the search and the API gain a Scope filter. Staff can set the scope by hand when a tour's centers would mislead.
  • Events can link to their scores and standings, on the event page, the director forms and the API.
  • A division's note shows in its tag on the event page, such as a posted cut line ("U15 Boys · 47 entered · Cut to top 23 for Sunday").
  • Inside Facebook's or Instagram's browser, a slim banner suggests opening the site in the phone's own browser. Closing it is remembered on the device.

Changed

  • Events look the same everywhere: one set of badges and one short-list row on results, map, calendar, state and tour pages, event pages, My account, director views, the embed and the API. Directors can mark Entries.
  • The start time follows the squad or block times instead of showing a blank. Dates sit on one row, and "Squad or block times" is labeled the same on the director and submit forms.
  • Medals are now an award of their own.
  • A contact's phone link dials just the number, while the number shows as written ("206.332.9688 (Option 1)").
  • The footer has four columns under headings: Browse, Organizers, Developers and Legal. Phones show two columns side by side.

Fixed

  • Events save with squad or block times up to 200 characters and awards notes up to 500 on every form. Before, every SYC event failed to save. A failed save now names the field.
  • Every event's offer data names its currency (USD) for search engines, even when no fee is published.

Removed

  • The Awards filter is gone from search, its chip, the API and alerts. Almost every youth event awards scholarships, so the filter narrowed nothing. Old links that include it still work.

Tours and data

  • SYC: medals as listed in its guide, scores and standings links (live scores for Coastal Classic), and Coastal Classic's posted cut line.

New

  • Families can see each event's start time in lists, which now sort by it across time zones. Arizona and Hawaii show MST and HST. The API returns it.
  • Families can change their email address through a link sent to the new address. The old address gets an undo link that lasts 7 days.
  • Developers get an API introduction in the footer, OpenAPI documentation at /openapi.json and an API reference at /api-docs. They can request API keys on My account, staff approve them, and each key's calls are counted per day. A new For organizers page covers calendar feeds, the embed tool and director accounts.
  • Events can show "Waitlist full".

Changed

  • The site is redesigned. Find events has a list grouped by day, compact rows, an Ongoing section, filter chips, month chips, a remembered location, Load more, and List, Map and Calendar views. The map clusters its pins, shows the whole search circle and says how many events it can't show and why. The calendar has a Weekends view, with past days muted.
  • Phone-first rework: every page was redone and checked at phone width. On a phone, Find events has one search box with an Edit search sheet.
  • Event pages show How to enter, a deadline line, rows for fee, format and organizer, Interested and Going buttons, awards and squad times for each day. Shared links show the event's dates and place. My account is split into Activity and Settings, with a reminder switch and a confirmation before deleting an account.
  • The email alerts form is reworked: near a ZIP code or a whole state, several tours and event types, a daily or weekly digest, and a live preview. Signed-in families can edit and delete their alerts.
  • Compare a weekend and the date planner are now one page. It opens on this weekend near the visitor's ZIP code and hides rows nobody fills in.
  • Event titles no longer repeat their center ("Fall Classic", not "Fall Classic — Bowlero Kyrene"). Event addresses stay the same. Google, calendar feeds, reminders and alert emails use the title the page shows.
  • Search engines get fuller event data: image, end date, offers valid from the listing date to the entry deadline, and the organizer's link. The home page's search and share description reads "Looking for a youth bowling tournament?".
  • The Tours page is sorted A to Z, can be searched and grouped by state, and lists quiet tours last.

Fixed

  • Reminder emails can't go out twice when two runs overlap.
  • Lists sorted by prize fund or by distance now stay in that order.
  • The weekend comparison and similar-event alerts use the visitor's ZIP code, prizes are no longer shown as fees, Ongoing shows only events that have started, region placeholder centers read "Center TBD", and Arizona times are labeled as Arizona time.
  • www.bowlradar.com's home page redirects correctly to bowlradar.com, and the live site's map shows CARTO's map tiles.

Tours and data

  • PBA Jr. regionals are listed as tournaments and tagged as PBA Jr. qualifiers everywhere.
  • Updated SYC awards and notes, NCAUSBCA details, and Summit County USBC Youth Tournament's squad window and repeat entries. Titles, descriptions and long dashes cleaned up across tours.
  • Pepsi State Finals is listed on April 24-25, as corrected. Sam's Town and South Point are listed under the correct center, and older centers' streets are converted to the post office's short form.

New

  • Every tour has a public page with its eligibility, format, fees, contacts, and upcoming and past events, and a new Tours index lists them A to Z. Each state has a page of upcoming events and the tours that bowl there, listed under /youth-bowling.
  • Families can compare a weekend's events side by side, nearest first. A date planner shows every event within reach of any weekend.
  • Events can list their awards: scholarships, cash, trophies, Junior Gold spots and stated prize funds. Event cards tag them, the event page has an Awards row.
  • Families can filter events by age division (U10 to U23). A division search says how many events don't list divisions.
  • Families can subscribe to a private calendar of the events they marked Interested or Going.
  • Families get reminder emails the week before an event and as its entry deadline nears, and events can show an entry deadline. Directors get a monthly report on visits to their entry links.
  • Families can like comments and add emoji from a picker. Directors get an email when someone comments on their events.
  • Shared event links show a picture with the event's name, dates, center and tour.
  • Tours can show their schedule on their own website with one line of code, and clicks on it are counted in the reach report. Tour pages link to results and standings, and finished events link to their results.
  • Pages reached from a list have a Back button that returns to the list as it was. Breadcrumb links look like links.
  • The submit form warns when another event within 100 miles is on the same or a nearby date.
  • A director can run more than one tour.

Changed

  • The theme follows the device's light or dark setting unless the visitor picks one.
  • A distance search counts only events within the radius plus virtual events. Events with no center yet are listed separately.
  • Find events' search and results sit in one card. The main search field is 14px on phones.
  • Entry links opened from calendar apps are counted in directors' reach.
  • Records are deleted once they pass the periods stated in the Privacy policy.

Fixed

  • Searches and tour names longer than 48 characters no longer fail.
  • Events on the last day of a date range no longer drop out of searches. This affected 137 older events.
  • Staff and directors can save any event, with summaries capped at 1,000 characters everywhere.

Tours and data

  • Ghostly Mail-O-Graphic is listed as a virtual event. Southeast Iowa Traveling Tournament gets its name and its 2026-27 schedule.
  • Virginia Beach Youth Bowling gets its flyer details. Beast of the East and NJYBT get their divisions, and NJYBT its awards.
  • NCAUSBCA's October 18 date is two events, each with its fees, and the Invitational's format is corrected. Results links for 23 tours. Street addresses for 12 centers. Starlight Bowling is pinned at the Santa Ana Star casino, and Stardust Lanes is merged into Stardust Bowl in Addison.

New

  • Tournament directors can now have accounts: a family ticks "I run tournaments" at sign-up or asks from My account, and staff approve the request and tie it to a tour, events or both; directors' comments are tagged Director on their events.
  • Directors can manage their tournaments: change dates, times, fees, entry links and contacts, cancel an event or take it off the site, and edit their tour's details; each change is live at once, logged and emailed to staff, who can confirm or undo it; a canceled event keeps its page, marked canceled.
  • Reviewing a submission flags possible duplicates, matching titles only where they could be the same event.
  • The About page has a section for tournament directors on checking the calendar before picking a date, then submitting their event.
  • The site has robots.txt, a sitemap, canonical URLs and event structured data, and www.bowlradar.com redirects to bowlradar.com.
  • The terms add a copyright notice and an Ownership section.

Changed

  • Event times stay as written on the flier and are labeled with the center's time zone when the text doesn't say ("9 am CT"); imports that give a UTC time are turned into the center's local date and time, and calendar files and the events API carry the zone; account timestamps show in the viewer's own time zone.
  • Search filters fold away behind a button on every screen.
  • The site meets WCAG 2.1 AA (Section 508), including text contrast on badges and faint text.
  • Curated events can carry their own registration link and entry fee.
  • Long event names keep their date in the page address, and events already published under a cut-off address are renamed in place.

Fixed

  • Email alert sign-up no longer fails when a filter field is left empty, such as a ZIP-only or state-only alert.
  • Alert digests no longer miss new events dated after the first 100 matches.
  • Event comments are paged 50 at a time, opening on the newest page, and busy events' pages no longer fail past 100 commenters.
  • Event pages no longer hang when a prefetch is abandoned mid-request.

Tours and data

  • Added tours and series: Sports Bowl Youth Bowling Tournament Series, southeast Iowa Youth Bowling Tournament series, Secret Bowling Society youth tournament, Blue Ridge Travel Tour, Maryland State USBC youth scratch regionals and finals, 2027 Virginia Youth Scratch Championships, Greater Baltimore USBC Youth/Adult Tournament, Greater Richmond USBC Youth/Adult Doubles, 2026-27 PA Youth Scratch Championships, PA State USBC Youth Open, Kansas City Open, Missouri Youth Scratch Championships, JBC Shrewsbury Youth Gateway, Michelle Turner-Billings Youth & Pee Wee Classic, Arkansas Blue Jr Gold Series, Great Lakes Jr Gold Tour, Michigan Junior Masters Association, Zeilinger Memorial Youth Tournament, Rocky Mountain Junior Bowlers Tour, Oahu Junior Bowlers Tour, the South Dakota, Hawaii, Alaska and Vermont Youth Scratch Championships, The Next Little Thing, Jacksonville Jr. Bowling Tour, Bob Bucci Memorial Singles Championship, Capital District Youth Scholarship Tour, DJBT, GOAL — Girls Only All Lanes, Region 3 Adult/Youth Doubles Scholarship Tournament, 222 Dutch Lanes Youth Junior Gold Qualifiers, Steel City Junior Bowlers, TBRS Rainbow Warriors Youth Singles, Youth Bowlers Tour, IRON-YOUTH Scholarship Tournament, Kegel Youth Point Series, North Florida Sport Shot Series, Pin Action Promos Youth Bowling Tour, Race For Gold Series, Tallahassee Youth Tournament, Victory Lanes Youth Scholarship Tournament, Virginia Beach Youth Bowling Inc., Ella O'Quinn Scholarship Tournament, Scholarship Sweeper Series, STPS Youth Tournament Series, Badgerland Youth Bowlers Tour, BE-ST Youth Scholarship Series, FFYT, Illinois State Scholarship Tour, QC High School Scholarship Bowling Tour, Southern Illinois Youth Scholarship Tour, Team Challenge — Junior Style, Wisconsin Youth Bowlers Tour, Domino's Scholarship Tournament, Heart of America Jr Classic, Jr Top Dog Challenge, New Hope Lanes Youth Open, Holiday Youth 9-Pin, Valley City Youth Tournament, 702 Youth Bowling, Alaska Youth Scholarship Tournament, Idaho Junior Bowlers Tour, Junior Battle at Bigfork, Kingman & Havasu Youth Handicap Singles, Treasure Valley Monthly Tournament, Maple Family Centers, New York State BPA Youth Tournament Scholarship, Junior Amateur Tour, Southwest Gold Tour, and Nebraska Youth Bowling (NEYBP) as a trusted daily import.
  • Added USBC associations' youth events: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Delaware (with its Junior Gold series), Louisiana, West Virginia, Arkansas, Michigan, Connecticut, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington state associations, plus Adirondack, Greater Buffalo, Greater Central Connecticut, Hudson Valley, Long Island, Massachusetts Tri-County, Monmouth County, Morris County NJ, New Haven County, Ocean County, Southern Maine, Southern Tier, Staten Island, Suburban South Jersey, Westchester County, Emerald Coast, First Coast, Grand Strand, Greater Charleston, Midlands SC, Central Texas, Denton County, El Paso, Greater Enid, Greater Oklahoma City Area, Smoky Mountain, Central Ohio, Cleveland Ohio, Greater Dayton, Greater Hamilton, Lake-Geauga, Metro Detroit, Miami Valley, Milwaukee Area, North Central Ohio, Sandusky, Springfield/Clark County, Suburban Windy City, Summit County, Greater Des Moines, NEMO, Wy-Jon County, Greater Los Angeles County, Greater Sacramento Area, Mesa Metropolitan, Metro Phoenix, Orange County, San Diego, Santa Clara County, South Sound and Tucson Metro, plus the Bowling Centers Association of Wisconsin and the Sheboygan Area Bowling Association.
  • Data corrections: the Mary Goodwin Memorial is listed as adult/youth doubles, Gulf Coast Stop 3 is limited to 72 bowlers, JuniorBowling.com's Feb 14 event is named the Classic Series, GOAL's Junior Gold qualifiers show the $100 singles entry, the southeast Iowa series links to its USBC registration page, and the NJYBT October Sweeper details are merged into its listing.
  • Centers once placed only by city or ZIP now have exact pins, and eight centers got their street addresses from USBC's directory.

New

  • Families can create an account (email, first and last name, home ZIP) and sign in with a one-time emailed link instead of a password, with spam protection on the form.
  • Families can mark events Interested, Going or Not going, see how many families are going (names only to signed-in families, and anyone can hide theirs), pick which divisions they are entering, and comment on events, with rate limits and reports that hide a comment until staff review it.
  • Event pages show field size ("18 of 40 spots filled") for the event or each division, reported by organizers or staff, with a link to the organizer's own entry list; rosters are never copied.
  • Event pages have a "How far from home?" card with an estimated drive time and mileage from a home address, ZIP, the browser's location or the family's profile ZIP, plus a link to the route in Google Maps.
  • Organizers and families can email flyers, PDFs and schedules to events@bowlradar.com; each event found is read automatically for review, including flyers pasted into the message or linked as images, and open events youth can enter come with an eligibility line.
  • Entry links now count the visitors BowlRadar sends to each event, and every organizer gets a free private reach report showing how many people came and how far they traveled, without storing anything that identifies a person.
  • The site has Terms of Use and a Privacy policy, linked from every page; accounts are for adults 18 and over, and the Terms explain USBC sanctioning and the Consent Form for adult/youth events, which those event pages also show.
  • Visitors can choose 25, 50 or 100 results per page, the calendar gains a day view, and the map now shows every result of a search rather than only the current page.
  • A branded 404 page lists upcoming events instead of dead-ending, and the site has its own icon.

Changed

  • The site opens in the light theme unless dark is chosen with the toggle.
  • On phones, Entry and Going sit right under the event title, the header fits the screen, date fields stay inside their cards and form fields no longer zoom the page; site text is smaller everywhere (12px body, 11px small text).
  • State pickers spell out state names, organizer and state filters list alphabetically, and Junior Gold is one choice in the type filter instead of a separate checkbox (old links and saved alerts still work).
  • Deadlines and paperwork (such as NCAUSBCA's league certifications and financial reports) are no longer listed as events, and the "Hide deadlines & paperwork" filter is gone; virtual events read "Virtual" instead of Center TBD, in admin too.
  • The About page opens with why BowlRadar exists, describes in plain language how events are gathered and checked, and no longer lists every checked website; the Add an event page explains emailing flyers and updates.

Fixed

  • Date searches on the live site matched nothing because of how dates were stored; every date filter works again.
  • Most imported events were missing from the map and distance searches because their centers were never geocoded; imports and approvals now place new centers right away.
  • Several schedule readers missed venues, cities and spring dates (Tough Shots, Junior Bowlers Tour, SATX, Elite Youth Tour), and a later import now replaces an event's placeholder once its center is found.
  • "July 2027" is no longer read as July 20, and "Oct 3rd & 4th" dates parse correctly.
  • Local Junior Gold events are tagged as Junior Gold qualifiers.
  • Forms keep the values just saved, and pages left open across a deploy reload instead of failing to save.
  • Text from all-caps sources ("BOWLERO GREENVILLE") shows in normal capitalization, keeping acronyms intact.

Tours and data

  • Added tours: Elite Youth Tour, Tough Shots Tour, Beast of the East, Wyoming Junior Bowlers Tour, Youth Scratch Master's Tour, Junior Bowlers Tour, SATX, YATS, Georgia Youth Bowlers Tour, NJYBT, All Star Events, Las Vegas Youth Bowlers Tour, Minnesota Junior Bowlers Tour, Tennessee Road to the Gold, YBSF Junior Gold Tournament Series, Gulf Coast Road 2 Junior Gold, One Pin Better Golden Opportunity Series, RISING Youth Bowlers Tour, Florida Junior Gold Series and Junior Tournament Bowlers Association.
  • Added more: Parker Bohn III Scholarship Tournament, Junior Bowlers Scholarship Tour, Connecticut River Travel Tournaments, Barnes Thanksgiving Classic, Pennsylvania Junior Bowler's Tournament, Bowlindy Youth Series (with live field size) and JuniorBowling.com.
  • Centers for the new tours got street addresses or building pins so they place exactly, duplicate centers were merged, events take their tour's published divisions (added for over twenty tours from their own flyers and rules), and All Star Events are described as rostered-only Baker team events.

New

  • BowlRadar launches as a searchable directory of youth bowling events, filterable by date and distance from a ZIP code, with list, calendar, map and split views and event detail pages.
  • Families can save searches as email alerts, subscribe to calendar feeds, and use a read-only JSON API.
  • Anyone can submit an event for moderation.

Tours and data

  • Added the NCAUSBCA 2026-27 schedule, imports from Storm Youth Championships and TournamentBowl.com, and PBA Jr. regional tournaments with host centers and street addresses.