In 1884, the company merged with the other competitor, New York-based Phelan & Collender, to form the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company. In 1873 Brunswick merged with one of his competitors, Julius Balke's Cincinnati-based Great Western Billiard Manufactory, to form J.M. billiards market was dominated by Brunswick's firm and two others. The popularity of billiards grew quickly, and by the late 1860s, the U.S. John Brunswick built his first billiards table in 1845 at his woodworking shop in Cincinnati, Ohio, for a successful Chicago meatpacker.

Consumer billiards equipment is predominantly sold in the United States and distributed primarily through dealers. Brunswick Billiards designs and/or markets billiards tables, table tennis tables, air powered table hockey games, and other gaming tables, as well as billiard balls, cues, game room furniture, and related accessories, under the Brunswick and Contender brands. The billiards division was established in 1845 and was Brunswick Corporation's heritage business. In May 2019, Brunswick announced its intention to sell Life Fitness Holdings, including its Brunswick Billiards division, to KPS Capital Partners. In 2018, the company announced it would be separating the Fitness business as Life Fitness Holdings in 2019. BlueArc continues to manufacture bowling balls bearing the Brunswick and DV8 brand names, and in November 2019, the company announced it had purchased Ebonite International and all of its bowling product brands. BlueArc completed the acquisition with investments from Gladstone Investment Corporation, a publicly traded business development company in McLean, Virginia, and Capitala Finance Corp., a business development company in Charlotte, North Carolina. Use of the Brunswick brand was phased out by 2020, mostly replaced by the Bowlero name.īrunswick completed its exit from the bowling business in May 2015 with the sale of the bowling equipment and products division to BlueArc Capital Management, a private investment firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. The sale of the bowling center division to Bowlmor AMF was completed in September 2014. The company said it was making these changes to focus on its “core” Marine and Fitness businesses, which provided 92% of company net revenues in 2013. It also disclosed that it had retained Lazard to find a buyer for its bowling equipment and products business. As part of the announcement, the company disclosed that it had agreed to sell the bowling center business, which brought in $187 million in revenue in the prior year, to its much larger competitor Bowlmor AMF (now known as Bowlero Corporation) for $270 million. Bowling equipment and products (currently owned by BlueArc Capital Management)īrunswick announced in July 2014 its intention to leave the bowling business by the end of 2014, retaining its heritage billiards business and reporting billiards financial results as part of the Fitness segment.Bowling centers (currently owned by Bowlero Corporation, formerly known as Bowlmor AMF).Billiards (currently owned by KPS Capital Partners).

Brunswick Bowling & Billiards was the business segment of Brunswick Corporation that historically encompassed the following three divisions:

Billiards and bowling