PEORIA, Ill (WMBD) — A Peoria arcade bar hosts a national tournament in Orlando tonight, its second annual event after a 25-year hiatus.
Pop-A-Shot is known for its miniature arcade-style basketball games. However, around nine years ago, the franchise was sold off and bought by Tony Stucker.
Stucker, originally from California, was an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. Upon searching for businesses to develop, he came across the familiar arcade brand and decided it would be a fun business opportunity.
“I knew the name. I knew it meant basketball game; I thought it was a generic term. But I learned there really was a Pop-A-Shot and it was the first electronic basketball game had been founded in 1981 by Ken Cochrane,” he said. “Cochrane was a small college basketball coach in Kansas, and he had been looking to sell for a while. So, I got in touch with them and thought, Yeah, this is really something that’ll be fun to do. And we really could do something with it.”
The company was originally headquartered in Kansas. For around four years after purchasing the company, Tony traveled between California and Kansas looking for a more permanent headquarters.
Tony’s wife, Kelly Stucker, is from Peoria. And so, in January 2020, the company relocated to Peoria’s Warehouse District.
Four years later, in 2024, Tony decided it would be a great opportunity to resurrect the annual Pop-a-Shot National Tournament that had been on hiatus for 25 years.
At 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 1, Pop-A-Shot will host its second annual tournament since the hiatus. The championship will be broadcast live on ESPN from its Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Florida. Eight people will be competing, including Josh Caputo from Montgomery, Illinois
Tony took inspiration from other niche sports and leagues such as darts, bowling and others as the reason for wanting to reintroduce the Pop-A-Shot championship tournament.
“We’re just people, it’s mostly a social activity, people getting together, you know, one night a week to play on teams and things like that. So, we really think there’s a market there, an opportunity there for Pop-a-shot,” he said.
While Pop-A-Shot is known for its basketball arcade games, Tony said that a new product will be launching soon.
“We’re actually in a month or so coming out with our first kind of non-basketball game, a football throwing game, a tailgate game called the Pop-A-Pass will be out in early September,” he said.
Pop-A-Shot will have leagues in Peoria starting up next month. If you are interested to learn how you can compete, click here.
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