Pop-A-Shot Is Back!
The Original Arcade Basketball Brand Returns to Coin-Op with the Elite
The company that originated coin-op basketball shooters in the 1980s – Pop-A-Shot – will debut its first arcade and route model in 25 years at this month’s Amusement Expo. Called the Elite, it’s not your grandfather’s (or father’s) Pop-A-Shot. It’s that classic game reimagined!
The Elite sports a 49” LCD display behind the backstop, which the operator can remotely program via the internet and the Pop-A-Shot Network to show location specials, advertising and custom messages along with custom backgrounds. Also with that internet connectivity, operators can remotely set play pricing, free play hours, tournaments and other play, have access to real-time performance analytics, track revenue, perform diagnostics and get software updates.
A QR code reader and app have been built into the Elite to increase player engagement, competition and fun. After scanning the code on their mobile device, registered players get welcomed to the game, can track and display their personal achievements and milestones, and can compete not only against other players in that venue but across connected games throughout the Pop-A-Shot Network globally. Online leaderboards show them just where they rank. This new level of connectivity will also power their tournament program with qualifiers leading up to an annual national championship.
From a construction standpoint, the game has been engineered into a smaller footprint (about a third less smaller than comparable competitors’ products) that the company says lets it fit into more locations and cost less. (It measures 96” tall x 96” deep x 30” wide.) It’s also built route- and arcade-tough, featuring heavy-duty steel frame and components, industrial-grade sensors for accurate scoring and professional-grade basketballs.
The company is quite proud of their new coin-op game, boasting it to be “the only commercial arcade basketball game worthy of the Pop-A-Shot name.”
Tony and Kelly Stucker
Pop-A-Shot 2.0
The Peoria, Illinois, company itself has also been reimagined. It’s now under the leadership of the husband-and-wife team of Tony and Kelly Stucker, who bought Pop-A-Shot in 2016 from founder and game inventor Ken Cochran (at left).
To briefly walk through company history, Cochran started Pop-A-Shot in 1981. A longtime basketball coach, he was recovering from heart surgery and was looking for something new and different to do. He built a basketball game, originally conceived as a three-hoop game called Triple Shot, and took it to one of his sports camps. Its popularity encouraged him to tweak the concept and led him to introduce the single-basket, coin-op version that he took to an AMOA Expo.
The industry took notice and with the buzz surrounding the game, subsequent trade shows saw other game makers produce their own coin-op basketball shooters. Over time, competition diluted Pop-A-Shot sales and eventually, the company exited coin-op to focus on the other part of their business: building models for homes and commercial markets like sports camps and rec centers.
Fast-forward to nine years ago, and the Pop-A-Shot story takes a turn when a former magazine publisher and online advertising specialist for Silicon Valley companies, was looking for a new challenge.
“I just wasn’t enjoying what I was doing,” said Tony Stucker. “The industry was changing and I realized it was time to do something different. I started looking online for businesses to buy, but what I found was mostly local grocery or convenience stores and restaurants. One day, I looked at ‘relocatable businesses’ and up came Pop-A-Shot.
“I’ll say this,” he continued. “I didn’t know where this journey would take me, but I knew that this was ‘it.’ I recognized it as just the kind of opportunity I was looking for. I was very familiar with the game – I’d grown up playing it – but didn’t know the company. I got to know Coach Cochran and we hit it off.
“One of the first things I did when I was in the process of buying the company was to go onto Amazon.com and type in ‘Pop-A-Shot,’” Stucker said. “Up popped a bunch of basketball games, but non from the originators: Pop-A-Shot. Anyone can build a basketball game but there’s only one Pop-A-Shot!”
“I knew we could make a home game as good or better than any that were being sold and that’s what we did first,” he continued. “By the 2016 holiday shopping season, we sold our first game, which sold out and was proof of concept for us.”
The team modified it for the next year’s shopping season and took off from there. Today, home and commercial models include two-hoop versions (Home Dual Shot, Dual Shot Sport, Indoor & Outdoor Dual Shot and the commercial grade Pro Dual Shot); single-hoop models (Home Single Shot, the portable Pop-Up Game and commercial grade Pro Single Shot); and small-hoop games (Super Slam and, for the kiddos, Lil’ Pop); along with licensed and custom games. And, of course, there’s the new-to-market Elite coin-op version.
“One of the most exciting things about Pop-A-Shot is the competition – anyone can play from young to old, women, men, large, small…whatever,” Stucker said, noting how coin-op locations, in particular, are great venues for competition. “The QR code readers on every Elite game offers a way to track players, see their scores and have them qualify for events. It makes it easy to then take all the top scores from a certain state or area and invite those players to events. We think there is a big opportunity there.”
Taking it on the Road
The company is hard at work creating player awareness. Last month, they set up games at the NBA All-Star Game and NBA Crossover, the related fanfest held over All-Star weekend (see photo below). Pop-A-Shot also has plans to hold qualifiers during events like the Final Four weekend in April and, potentially, the WNBA All-Star game in July. In August, they will do ESPN’s The Ocho again.
They also intend to make a big splash at Amusement Expo where they’ll introduce the newest member of the team, Ryan Cravens, the 30-year industry sales, marketing and business development veteran. He’s joined as VP of arcade products, leading their go-to-market strategy and setting up distributor relationships.
Interestingly, while Cravens just came aboard in January, Stucker met him at the BCA Expo shortly after buying Pop-A-Shot nine years ago. “At the time, I didn’t know anything or anyone,” remembered Stucker. “I met Ryan somehow and we kept in touch over the years. He’s been phenomenal, suggesting we talk to this person or that, getting feedback from operators and sharing other ideas. We realized the arcade world is different enough from what we were doing that we needed someone with his type of specialized expertise. At some point, it was obvious to ask, ‘Instead of us just trying to pick your brain, would you consider coming here?’”
Said Cravens, “Pop-A-Shot is not just synonymous with arcade basketball, it created the category in 1981. The opportunity to help bring the brand back to the arcade industry is incredible, and I look forward to working with the talented team to create the next generation of engaging arcade experiences.”
The company sums up the Elite as “the perfect fusion of classic arcade basketball and modern technology, providing an unmatched engaging experience for players and a powerful business tool for operators.”
See it and meet the team at Amusement Expo booth #2149. You can also visit PopAShot.net/arcade.
