Buying bocce balls or a set of petanque boules online is easy to get wrong: sizes, weights and materials matter more than the photo in the listing. A 107mm resin ball behaves nothing like a 114mm one, and a cheap sand filled leisure boule will never point the way a competition boule does. This list is for backyard players who want a set that survives ten summers, for club members replacing a cracked ball, and for anyone hunting a gift that stays in use for years.
Selection looked at what is actually on the shelves: which sizes and brands a store keeps in stock (EPCO, Perfetta, Obut and the French competition names), whether petanque sits next to bocce or is treated as an afterthought, prices and free shipping thresholds, single replacement balls, engraving and custom work, court gear such as measuring devices, scoreboards and drag brushes, and how patiently the staff explain weight and hardness to a beginner. Shops with no delivery route into the United States were left out.
The order is not editorial. Places among these online stores for bocce and petanque gear move with community votes, so a shop that packs parcels properly and answers its email climbs on its own. Read each card for pros and cons, then the reviews under it: delivery times and the way a store handles a chipped ball say more than any catalogue page.
Petanque America is a shop in Hickory, North Carolina that has sold petanque gear since 1991 and moved boules online back in 1998. It carries Obut and La Franc competition boules, leisure sets, jacks, measuring tools, carry cases and clothing, so a first timer can buy a full starter kit in one order. It ships across the United States and calls itself the only American store built around petanque.
It suits players in the Americas who would rather not import boules from Europe and wait on slow overseas shipping. Beginners get plain leisure sets, while club players can order FIPJP approved boules matched to weight and size. It is a reseller, not a maker, so the range depends on what the brands supply, and prices on competition boules track the French factory rather than undercutting it.
40 30th Street NW, Hickory, North Carolina 28601, USA
BuyBocceBalls is a US online retailer built around one game rather than a manufacturer. The shop carries the active EPCO tournament line of resin bocce balls in 107 and 110 mm, four and eight ball bundles, 73 mm steel petanque sets in several color finishes, pallino packs, measuring devices, ball polish and a chicken foot ball picker. An in house engraving service personalizes sets, roughly eighty dollars for eight balls and forty four for four, on top of a tournament set near two hundred and seventy five. Orders over a hundred dollars ship free from a US warehouse.
Aimed at clubs, league players and gift buyers who want regulation resin balls that big box stores do not stock, plus the rules guides and court map the site publishes. Anyone after a cheap plastic set for one afternoon will find the pricing steep, and engraved orders need ordering well ahead.
Running since 1996 out of a warehouse near downtown Seattle, Playaboule sells bocce and nothing else. It is the long standing US distributor for Perfetta, the Italian maker whose laser engraved 107mm sets are common on club courts, and it designs its own lighted sets with LEDs inside the balls for games after sunset. Single replacement balls and spare pallinos are kept in stock, which matters when one ball of eight goes missing. Orders go through the site only, hours are Monday to Friday, Pacific time, and there are no walk in customers.
Good fit for a household with a court that wants Italian balls at a direct price, or for evening games on a lawn. Not the place for petanque: steel boules are essentially absent. Support is mostly by email, and busy summer and holiday weeks can stretch the reply.
A small operation grown out of more than thirty years of building bocce courts, now run from a woodshop in Pennsylvania. Alongside EPCO tournament balls in 107mm, 110mm and 114mm, it sells the things court owners actually wear out: drag brushes, brooming tools and court accessories, plus handcrafted scoreboards and signs personalized with a family or club name. St. Pierre horseshoes sit in the same catalogue. The blog explains court construction and why brooming matters, which is rare on a shop site.
Aimed at people with a court in the yard or a club looking after one, rather than at someone buying a first travel set. Custom woodwork is made to order, so lead times are real. Petanque gear is minimal, the catalogue overall is compact, and email replies are promised within 48 hours rather than immediately.
PetanqueShop is a French online store focused only on petanque, selling boules by brand alongside jacks, bags and accessories. The catalogue splits competition boules by hardness, tender, half tender and hard, and lists FIPJP approved models from makers like Obut, MS and Boulenciel. Leisure sets of six or eight boules sit next to the pricier competition triplets, so casual players and licensed ones can shop in the same place.
It works well for buyers in France and nearby countries who want a wide brand choice and filters by weight, size and hardness. The site is mostly in French, which can slow down shoppers who do not read the language. As a reseller it holds no boules of its own, and stock on specific weights can run out during the busy season.
A small American shop built around one game. The catalog keeps to bocce: tournament and starter ball sets in several weights and colors, redwood scoreboards with laser-cut numbers on a stainless cable, carry bags, measuring tools, boundary tape, court markers and surface rakes. The scoreboards are made in house, which is why they also turn up on the shop's Etsy page, where buyers single out the build quality and the careful packing.
Suits a homeowner finishing a backyard court who wants the sundries and the scoreboard from one supplier, and club players after a decent resin set. Less suited to anyone who compares specifications line by line: product pages are thin, the site copy carries typos, and support runs through a form and a Gmail address rather than a phone desk. Orders go out across the United States, and the shop states it sends abroad too.
BocceMart covers the indoor side of the game that most shops ignore. It is the exclusive outlet for Bubba Bocce soft balls, built to United States Bocce Federation size and weight, approved for Special Olympics play and kind to gym floors. Beside them sit hard 107 mm, 920 g outdoor resin sets, spare pallinos from about 13 dollars, a two-sided bocce and cornhole scoreboard near 90 dollars, PVC court connector kits and a portable inflatable 60 by 12 foot court around 1,079 dollars.
The setup favors programs over households: purchase orders from schools, Special Olympics teams and clubs are accepted, and staff help with funding paperwork. Recreational buyers get less: no steel petanque boules, few premium Italian lines, and a storefront on old software where browsing drags. For a school gym or a parks department, the mix of soft balls, portable courts and scoreboards is hard to match.
The shop grew out of a book. "The Joy of Bocce" by Mario Pagnoni went through three editions and gathered a following, and the site attached to it sells the gear the book argues for: Epco balls made in the United States, Perfetta sets from Italy whose cores change the weight while the diameter stays fixed, precision measuring devices, drag brushes, ball polish, shirts, caps and mugs. Glow in the dark sets are handed over to Playaboule at about 100 dollars.
A sensible stop for a player who wants the book, one honest set of balls and a proper measure, not a warehouse. Lessons and clinics for New England players have long been part of the offer, and the phone reaches a person. Expect a modest catalog, a plain storefront and rare updates: the author died in 2018 and the site keeps his structure. Buyers needing court tools in quantity or petanque boules will need a second supplier.
BocceCourtPro is the bocce arm of Earth Stone Rock, a California materials yard trading since the mid 2000s, and it sells what a court is made of: oyster shell blends, decomposed granite playing surfaces, base rock and fabric, with delivery arranged from the nearest supply yard. The play side of the catalog is short but real: composite ball sets with a wooden carry case and a 60 mm jack, plus jerseys, polos, hoodies and caps.
The right address for anyone building or resurfacing a court, and for contractors and resorts who need tonnage instead of a boxed set. Commercial accounts can be granted Net 15 or Net 30 terms, while transport is paid before delivery. The wrong address for a player who only wants boules and a measure: bulk items are quoted rather than priced on the page, freight on heavy material adds up quickly, and petanque gear is absent.
A French specialist that keeps an English storefront. The shelves hold Obut leisure and competition boules, MS Petanque leisure sets, junior models, PVC balls for indoor play, and the small hardware that settles arguments: telescopic stainless measures, folding throwing circles, magnetic ball retrievers, jacks and bags. Prices are in euros, and the shop has been publishing its own notes on picking size, weight and striations for years.
Reasonable for a player who wants French brands at French prices and can wait a little. Reviews gathered in France point to dispatch within two or three days, and questions do get answered, though contact runs through a web form only. Buyers outside the European Union should check delivery cost, duties and whether the chosen model ships to their country before paying. Bocce players will find nothing here, the catalog is petanque and boules lyonnaises.