The online rating is a statistical estimation of each player's current skill level. The calculation of online ratings is adapted from the Elo rating system, which is commonly used to rate the chess players.

All players get initially online rating of 1000 points. The ratings are updated after each competition according to the players' placing in the competition. Each player gains rating points from those players who had worse placing in the competition and lose rating points to those players who had better placing in the competition. If a player left the competition after the competition had begun but before it was finished, he or she will lose rating points to all other players who were still competing.

The amount of rating points gained or lost depends on the original difference in the players' ratings. If a player with much higher rating wins another player with a lower rating, only a small amount of rating points will be shifted from the losing player to the winning player. Instead, if a player with the much lower rating wins, he or she will get much more rating points from the player with the higher rating.

The following formula is used to calculate the change of rating (R) for each pair of ski jumpers after the competition is finished:

In addition to the current online ratings also the peak online ratings are tracked. The peak online rating tells how high the player's online rating has been at its highest level since 2007-01-26.

If you are interested about the fundamentals of this rating system please check the Wikipedia article about The Elo rating system.