 | |
| Founded | 1 Sep 1985 as AMF Bowling Centres |
|---|---|
| Parent | The Entertainment and Education Group (TEEG) |
| Website | zonebowling |
Zone Bowling is a group of bowling centers in Australia and New Zealand currently owned and operated by The Entertainment and Education Group (TEEG). Zone Bowling has 35 locations across Australia, and five locations across New Zealand.
Originally known as AMF Bowling Australia, originating as the Australian part of the bowling division of American Machine and Foundry (AMF). AMF began a joint venture to manufacture pinspotters in Australia in 1959 in view of the growing popularity of ten-pin bowling in the country at the time. By 1964 1,600 bowling lanes existed in Australia, but the popularity of the sport had begun to decline.
In 1985 a group of private investors in Richmond, Virginia, United States purchased the bowling division of American Machine and Foundry to form AMF Bowling Companies, Inc. (later known as AMF Bowling Worldwide). [1] The company then bought two major Australian bowling chains to revive interest in bowling. AMF Australia expanded from 16 bowling centres to 30 by 1987, and to over 40 by 2004.
AMF Bowling Worldwide sold its Australian division of to Macquarie Leisure Trust (later known as Ardent Leisure) in February 2005 as part of AMF's strategy at the time to re-focus on its U.S. bowling business. [2]
In December 2017, The Entertainment and Education Group (TEEG) announced that they had purchased Ardent Leisure's bowling and entertainment division for $160 million in order to merge it with its Timezone entertainment business, forming a combined entertainment group encompassing Timezone, AMF, Kingpin and Playtime. [3] All AMF bowling centres in Australia were rebranded as Zone Bowling. [4]
In February 2019, TEEG opened its first of many dual branded venues of Zone Bowling and Timezone locations in Westfield Garden City. [5] TEEG now has 15 dual venue locations which offer both Zone Bowling and Timezone.
Brunswick Corporation, formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is an American corporation that has been developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845. Brunswick has more than 13,000 employees operating in 24 countries. Brunswick owns major boating brands, including Sea Ray, Boston Whaler, Bayliner, Mercury Marine, Attwood, Lund, Crestliner, Mastervolt, MotorGuide, Harris Pontoons, Freedom Boat Club, Princecraft, Heyday, Lowe, Uttern, Quicksilver and CZone, among many others. In 2021, Brunswick reported sales of US$5.8 billion. Brunswick's global headquarters is in the northern Chicago suburb of Mettawa, Illinois.
AMF Bowling is a major operator of bowling centers and major manufacturer of bowling equipment.
American Machine and Foundry was one of the United States' largest recreational equipment companies, with diversified products as disparate as garden equipment, atomic reactors, and yachts.
Westfield Kotara is a large shopping centre in the suburb of Kotara in Newcastle, Australia.
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The QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup, previously known as the International Masters and AMF Bowling World Cup, is an annual Ten-pin bowling championship sponsored by QubicaAMF Worldwide, and the largest in bowling in terms of number of participating nations. Each nation chooses one male and/or one female bowler to represent them in the tournament, and in the majority of cases, this is done by running a qualifying tournament, the winners of which are chosen.
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Bowlmor Lanes is the upscale brand of ten-pin bowling and entertainment centers operated by Bowlero Corporation. There are currently 18 Bowlmor Lanes centers, nine of which are former AMF 300 centers and three are former AMF Bowling Centers.
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Main Event Entertainment is an American chain of family entertainment centers. The company was formerly headquartered in Coppell, Texas, before being sold to their former competitor Dave & Buster’s in 2022. Main Event currently operates 58 locations in 20 states, predominantly in Texas and the Southern United States, and features attractions and features such as bowling alleys, arcades, laser tag, virtual reality games, gravity rope courses, miniature golf, billiards, escape rooms, karaoke and a restaurant under the name of Family Kitchen at all of their locations.
Lucky Strike Entertainment Corporation is an American bowling center operator. It is the largest ten-pin bowling center operator in the world with over 325 centers, almost all of which are located in the United States. The centers have an average of 40 lanes compared to the U.S. bowling center average of 21 lanes.
QubicaAMF Worldwide or QubicaAMF is a bowling equipment provider. The company has U.S. headquarters in Richmond, Virginia and European headquarters in Bologna, Italy.
Timezone is an international chain of family entertainment centres and amusement arcade centres based in Australia. It is owned and operated by The Entertainment and Education Group (TEEG). Outside of Australia, Timezone is currently operating in India, New Zealand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
The Hollywood Bowl Group is a company that runs the Hollywood Bowl branded multi lane ten-pin bowling and Puttstars brand minigolf centres in the UK and Splitsville bowling in Canada. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Goodlife Health Clubs is a chain of health clubs, with more than 80 locations in Australia.
LAI Games is an arcade game and consumer video game developer owned and operated by Helix Leisure Pte Ltd. LAI Games is recognised as an early pioneer of the family entertainment centre (FEC) concept for its founding of one of the first FECs, Timezone, in 1978.
Media related to Zone Bowling at Wikimedia Commons