Three circular goals are placed on either side of the pitch. The goals are often circular tubes on top of PVC pipes. All players are required to carry a broom between their legs at all times, on pain of a foul. Volleyballs are used as the quaffle, and dodgeballs serve as the bludgers. The snitch is simply a tennis ball contained in a sock tucked in the waistband of the snitch runner. Affiliated with neither team and considered a referee and ball in play, the snitch runner is dressed in gold or yellow.

The match begins with the quaffle and bludgers placed in the centre of the field and all players in line with their respective goalposts. , the rules of snitching worldwide have changed slightly.   off-pitch seeking where now the snitch is restricted to only the playing field being released only after several minutes of play time have elapsed.  as the match began, players would line up near their hoops with their eyes closed until the release of the snitch who then had the complete liberty to run about a predetermined play area.  The seekers search for the runner around the play area; if they fail to catch them, they return to the field after a preset amount of time. A match commences under both iterations when the head referee calls out 'brooms up!',  all players and substitutes wait with their eyes firmly closed. The match ends with a complete catch by one of the team's seekers of the snitch ball thus awarding that team 30 points (each goal is ten points), and the team with the highest amount of points wins.