WBrunswick 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. Today, 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 2019, Brunswick reported sales of US$4.1 billion. Brunswick's global headquarters is in the northern Chicago suburb of Mettawa, Illinois.
WGarlando is a company based in Italy that produces pocket billiards (pool), table football (foosball) and ping pong tables.
WKamui Tips is a Japanese manufacturer of cue tips for billiards and pool. According to the company, the tips are produced by founder Masato Hiraoka in his workshop in Hiroshima. The company and its products are named after the mythological Kamuy.
WMoori Kobo is a Japanese manufacturer of billiards and pool cue tips. Originally fabricated by hand by founder Hideo Moori in his home outside Tokyo, they are now produced in a factory. The tips are exclusively made from vegetable-tanned pig skin, and consist of several thin layers bonded with an adhesive.
WParris Cues are a snooker cue maker headquartered in London. Founded in 1984, the company was started by John Parris as an evolution of a keen interest in Snooker, and the need for maintenance and repair of his own cue.
WMichael Phelan was an Irish-born American billiards player, manufacturer and owner of billiard parlors. He was the first billiards star in the US. In 1850, he published Billiards Without A Master, the first book published in the US on the science, etiquette, and game rules of billiards.
WJohn Roberts Jr. was a dominant English professional player of English billiards. He was also a notable manufacturer of billiards cues and tables, and promoter of the sport.
WValley-Dynamo, Inc. is a gaming and sporting goods manufacturing company. It has been the dominant manufacturer of coin-operated pool tables in North America for over 6 decades, and produces the US-ubiquitous Valley brand and decreasingly common Dynamo brand. The company also manufactures other market-leader brand names, including Tornado brand table football (foosball), Dynamo air hockey, and Champion indoor shuffleboard tables, as well as Sun Glo shuffleboard equipment, for both the home and coin-op markets.
WWilliam Alexander Spinks Jr. (1865–1933) was an American professional player of carom billiards in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was often referred to as W. A. Spinks, and occasionally Billy Spinks. In addition to being amateur Pacific Coast Billiards Champion several times, a world-champion contender in more than one cue sports discipline, and an exhibition player in Europe, he became the co-inventor of modern billiard cue chalk in 1897.