Nine-ball is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with pockets at each of the four corners and in the middle of each long side. Using a cue stick, players must strike the white cue ball to pocket nine colored billiard balls, hitting them in ascending numerical order. An individual game is won by the player pocketing the 9 ball. Matches are usually played as a race to a set number of racks, with the player who reaches the set number winning the match.
The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is the governing body for cue sports in the United States and Canada, and the regional member organization of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). It was established under this name in 1948 as a non-profit trade organization in order to promote the sport and organize its players via tournaments at various levels. The BCA is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. The voting members of the organization are mostly equipment manufacturers.
A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that is covered with cloth, and surrounded by vulcanized rubber cushions, with the whole thing elevated above the floor. More specific terms are used for specific sports, such as snooker table and pool table, and different-sized billiard balls are used on these table types. An obsolete term is billiard board, used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Pool is the name given to a series of cue sports played on a billiard table. The table has six pockets along the rails, into which balls are shot. Of the many different pool games, the most popular include: eight-ball, blackball, nine-ball, ten-ball, seven-ball, straight pool, one-pocket, and bank pool. Eight-ball is the most frequently played discipline of pool, and it is often thought of as synonymous with "pool".
The International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) is an organisation that governs non-professional snooker and English billiards around the world. As of January 2020, the organisation is headquartered in Doha, Qatar.
Artistic billiards is a cue sport played on a billiard table. A discipline of carom billiards, players aim to recreate a portion of 76 pre-set shots of varying difficulty against an opponent. Each of the 76 shots has a maximum point value assigned for perfect execution, ranging from a four-point maximum for lowest level difficulty shots, and climbing to an eleven-point maximum. There are a total of 500 points available to a player, representing the combined value of a perfect score on all 76 shots, although not all games are played with the full shot catalogue. The governing body of the sport is the Confédération International de Billard Artistique.
The English-originating version of eight-ball pool, also known as English pool, English eight-ball, blackball, or simply reds and yellows, is a pool game played with sixteen balls on a small pool table with six pockets. It originated in the United Kingdom and is played in the Commonwealth countries such as Australia and South Africa. In the UK and Ireland it is usually called simply "pool".
The World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS) is the international umbrella organization encompassing the major cue sports, including carom billiards, pool games of several varieties, and snooker.
The World Union of Billards is the world governing body for carom (carambole) billiard games.
The Bowling, Billiard and Boules Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (BBBFIR) is the governing body in Iran of ten-pin bowling and most cue sports, up to the international level, and has some involvement in the organisation of competition in boules and related games. Founded in 2000, BBBFIR was originally known as the Iran Bowling and Billiards Federation (IBBF), later also as Iran Bowling and Cue Sports Federation (IranBCS), and Bowling, Billiard and Boules Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (BBFIR). BBBFIR is headquartered in Tehran.
Darren Appleton is an English professional pool player, best known for playing Eight-ball, Nine-ball and Ten-ball pool.
André Gagnaux, who was a Swiss, was the first President of the World Confederation of Billiard Sports (WCBS) and the former President of the Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB).
The European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) is the European governing body for pocket billiards. EPBF is the European regional affiliate member of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA).
There are 29 sports federations in Northern Cyprus and 13,838 people registered in them as of 2008. Taekwondo-karate-aikido-kurash is the most popular sport with 6054 athletes. It is followed by association football, shooting and hunting.
The Confédération Européene de Billard (CEB) is the European governing body of carom billiards and is affiliated to the world federation UMB.
Asian Pocket Billiard Federation (APBU) is the management of the Asian pocket billiards. Asian Pocket Billiard Union is headquartered in Taipei City, Taiwan.
Chezka Centeno is a Filipina professional pool player from Zamboanga City. In 2023, Centeno claimed her biggest career win after she defeated multiple WPA World Nine-ball Champion Han Yu of China, 9–5, to win the Predator WPA women's World Ten-ball Championship.
Han Yu is a Chinese professional pool player. She is a three time WPA World Nine-ball Championship women's champion, winning the event in 2013, 2016 and 2018. Han is also a semi-finalist in three further world championships, in 2017 in the nine-ball event, and 2011 and 2014 in ten-ball.
The 2020 Treviso Open was a professional nine-ball pool event, the only Euro Tour tournament held in 2020. The event was played from 20 to 22 February 2020 at the BHR Treviso Hotel in Treviso, Italy. The event had a total prize pool of €38,000, with the winner of each event receiving €4,500.
