speedpool Competitors

The American Poolplayers Association (APA) was founded by professional poolplayers Terry Bell and Larry Hubbart in 1979 as the National Pool League, which became the American Poolplayers Association in 1981. The two realized the popularity of the sport, but knew that, different from other sports, there was no existing recreational league system. Today, the APA, also known as the Canadian Poolplayers Association in Canada and the Japanese Poolplayers Association in Japan, has grown to more than 275,000 members and boasts more members than all other "national" leagues combined. The League is administered locally by a network of Franchise Operators. League play is conducted weekly with both 8-Ball and 9-Ball team formats offered. The APA hosts an 8-Ball and 9-Ball League system and each year teams have the opportunity to advance to the APA National Team Championships. At the national level, the APA guarantees more than $1 million in national tournament prize money. The APA also conducts the U.S. Amateur Championship, the pool world's most prestigious amateur tournament, which is the only competition open to APA members and nonmembers alike. From 1999 to the present, Entrepreneur Magazine rated the APA No. 1 in the category of Sports-Event Planning. Entrepreneur Magazine also honored the APA in its franchise 500 rankings. One of the keys to the success of the American Poolplayers Association is The Equalizer®, the unique handicapping and scoring system that makes it possible for players of different playing abilities -- especially novices and beginners -- to compete on an equal basis, much like they do in golf and bowling. The Equalizer® uses a formula that measures a player's ability. The result is a handicap of how many games a player must win to capture a match in 8-Ball or the number of points a player must earn to win a match in the 9-Ball format.

Brunswick blends superior craftsmanship with advanced technology to deliver tables of enduring beauty and unsurpassed playabilty.

We’re Viking Cue, a manufacturer of handcrafted pool cues. From the basement of a poolroom in Stoughton, Wisconsin to our long time home in Madison, we recently moved a few miles west and into our new state of the art manufacturing facility in Middleton, Wisconsin. But while much has changed over 50 years, much has stayed the same. We still make 100% of our flagship Viking brand right here in our Wisconsin home. We smell the sawdust every day. And we’re still dedicated to the idea that the finest cues in the world come from Viking’s unrelenting commitment to the craftsmanship you can see and feel in our custom cues. What has changed is Viking’s vision of the future – using technology to create unsurpassed performance. Today our player-tested and critically acclaimed shafts combine the legendary craftsmanship with innovative thinking. The result is breakthrough performance that continues to keep Viking ahead of the game. 100% Made in the USA, every Viking Cue is meticulously handcrafted from the finest materials and subject to the strictest quality control standards in the industry. All Viking Cues have a LIFETIME WARRANTY against manufacturing defects and WARPAGE. When performance matters, Viking’s world-class billiards shafts, featuring the revolutionary eXactShot® Pure Performance Shaft, the player-tested ViKORE® American Performance Shaft, and the solid VPRO® conventional shaft have fused precision craftsmanship with advanced design and are making pool players better every day. With the new 50th Anniversary Line, Viking Cue has released the most new designs and more custom cue options than ever in the company’s history. At Viking Cue, the only thing that isn’t custom is their lifetime warranty, It’s the same with every cue.