👋 Howdy folks!
We've heard a few rumors and misconceptions about BocceLabs, so I figured it was time set things straight.
Dave here, founder of BocceLabs.
BocceLabs has morphed over the past 6 years. It's still morphing. The point of this article is to explain where we've been and where we're headed.
TL;DR:
- BocceLabs started as a dream to modernize bocce with automated measurement and scoring technology.
- It became a blog for sharing ideas for our sport with influence from other sports.
- It is the data and technology partner supporting the BBN, OBL, and CBL.
- Along the way, BocceLabs became a web app—and eventually a company.
📖 2020–2021: The Dream
BocceLabs started during COVID in my living room.
I had just discovered competitive bocce in Chicago. My neighbors Kyle and Katie Welter introduced me to Cleos and Bridge410, now home of Chicago Bocce Club at 410 N Paulina St. I met people like Alex Gara, Matt David, Alicia Harvey, and others who were building the Chicago bocce scene via American Bocce Co.
Having been in the computer vision industry (Image Quality Labs, PyImageSearch, Luxonis, AccuTennis, Heliponix), I started wondering:
Could cameras and software assist with automating bocce measurements, scoring, and statistics?
That was the original BocceLabs dream.
✍️ 2021–2023: The Blog
I started using my knowledge of cameras, OpenCV, Python, and machine vision software and applying it to bocce.
The technology wasn't affordable enough for what I wanted to build. I didn't have the funding or manpower.
Around the same time, I worked with Alex Gara, Matt David, Milan Tomic, and others streaming curling, wiffle ball, and bocce events. This turned into OddballSports.tv and eventually Oddball Events.
We quickly realized: bocce was the sport we really cared about (not curling, not wiffleball).
And I realized that bocce x technology was what I was interested in.
The BocceLabs blog was born.
🎥 2023–2024: The Bocce Broadcast Network
The blog and instagram eventually connected me with Michael Scialdone Sharkey (aka Mikey).
We started exchanging ideas about the Bocce Broadcast Network and eventually streamed countless hours of bocce together at events around the country.
ABC Open. Vegas. World Series of Bocce. Aldo. Waterside. USBF Nationals. Midwest tournaments. And plenty more.
Behind the scenes, I kept tinkering with automated measurement, scoring, streaming, and statistics.
Then life happened.
Oddball disbanded, I stepped away from bocce for a while, and the BBN continued growing with an increasingly passionate community.
🤝 2025–Present: BocceLabs Becomes a Platform
In mid-2025, I was experimenting with GitHub Copilot. I recognized that it helped to iterate software extremely quickly. So I started building a bocce database driven webapp.
Naturally, I posted my progress on the dormant BocceLabs Instagram account.
Mikey saw it and reached out.
He and Danny Catullo were preparing to launch the Ohio Bocce League, a weekly streamed league with live statistics available for the broadcast.
That gave BocceLabs its next purpose.
I rapidly built a web application for collecting, analyzing, and displaying live bocce statistics during the Fall 2025 OBL season.
Milan Tomic and Tony Donofrio joined me in building the platform while Diane, Renee, and Linda helped make it possible by collecting stats every week.
There were technical hiccups and plenty of late nights, but we built something that hadn't existed before.
Then came the Chicago Bocce League in Spring 2026.
We took everything we learned from OBL and improved the platform. Community members volunteered to collect stats, players embraced the system, and BocceLabs continued growing.
Jared Knizacky also joined the team to help with accounting, tax, and forecasting.
Along the way, what started as a hobby became a company.
In January 2026, Milan, Tony, Jared, and I formed BocceLabs LLC. Read about our team here.
🌞 Now
Today, we're working with the Ohio Bocce League, Chicago Bocce League, and Bocce Broadcast Network while continuing to explore how technology can make bocce better for players and fans.
📈 What's next?
The original dream hasn't changed much.
We want a bocce world where scores, records, statistics, and history aren't lost in Google Sheets, Excel files, or paper brackets.
We want better tools for leagues.
Better broadcasts for fans.
Better data for players.
And ultimately, a bigger and better bocce scene. National Bocce League? Bocce in the Olympics?
As long as there's an appetite for it, we'll keep building.
📱 Try BocceLabs
Head over to BocceLabs.com, create an account, and give it a try.
You can:
- Record a scrimmage.
- Go live from your phone and invite friends or family to watch.
- Send and receive BocceBux.
- Refer friends and climb the referral leaderboard.
- Join the conversation around OBL and CBL.
- Explore BocceMap and submit your favorite places to play.
Most importantly:
Play bocce. Talk bocce. Help grow bocce.
Thanks for following along and supporting what we're building.
— Digital Dave