Ahead of IAAPA last November, Jenni Shuttleworth talked to Skee-Ball Amusement Games about the company's key role within the US amusement sector

Once you discover that Skee Ball the game was founded as long ago as 100 years, it may come as no surprise to hear that Skee-Ball the company has a corporate mission stating that it will continuously supply the amusement industry with games that withstand the test of time.

"Skee Ball is a game that my father and grandfather spent hours playing with me as a child. Now I play it with my own children and grandchildren, it’s obvious that Skee Ball maintains its popularity from one generation to the next," said Skee-Ball’s CEO Joseph Sladek.

Skee-Ball was formed in 1977 after the Philadelphia Toboggan Company acquired the copyright, patents and all rights for the exclusive manufacturing of Skee Ball alleys from Wurlitzer in 1945.

It then formed Skee-Ball Amusement Games three years later, which went on to manufactur four different models of the game with various options, from the no-frills alley to the top of the line digital, solid state machine.

With a vast expansion of product lines in the 1990s, Skee-Ball went through a mass growth and these days, the company boasts a catalogue of varying redemption and amusement games, ranging from Strike It Rich to Spin-N-Win and Short Range Basketball to Tower of Power.

Skee-Ball has been shipping to international customers for decades and has a vast distributor network both domestically and internationally. Its domestic distributors include Alpha Omega, American Vending, Betson, Brady, C.A. Robinson, East Coast Amusements, Lieberman, Moss, Mountain Coin and Schaeffer.

Internationally, Skee-Ball’s distributors include Harry Levy in the UK, Faro Games in Italy and Amusement Services in the Middle East. At present, its strongest international markets are Italy, the Middle East and Australia/Indoneisa.

"Every country views gaming differently," said Skee-Ball’s international sales manager Brian Smith. "It is putting a lot of pressure on the coin-op industry to prove that redemption is not gambling." The company plans to continue forging new relationships as the world’s markets change, adding to its already extensive list of distributors.

First published November 2009