The Snookball Rules: How to Play Snookball

What Is Snookball?

Snookball is exactly what the name suggests, snooker plus football. Picture a giant outdoor pool table, roughly 8 meters by 4 meters, with soccer balls instead of billiard balls and players who kick instead of using cues. It was invented in France in 2012 by a company called Snookball Games, and over the last decade it's spread to sports bars, team-building event spaces, and outdoor recreation venues across Europe, North America, and Asia.

The first time I played was at a buddy's bachelor party in 2019 at an entertainment complex outside of Tel Aviv. We had eight guys, two teams of four, and it turned into the most competitive, profanity-filled two hours of the weekend. Unlike regular pool, where aiming and stroke are everything, snookball rewards completely different skills, you need accuracy in kicking, reading angles at a scale your body is actually part of, and the ability to coordinate as a team when you can have multiple players kick per turn.

I'm including snookball here because it shares its rules structure with 8-ball pool, and people often search for the rules without knowing where to start. If you've ever played pool and can kick a soccer ball with some accuracy, you already know 80% of what you need.

The Table and Equipment

A regulation snookball table is about 8 meters long and 4 meters wide, with inflatable or rigid walls about a meter high. Six 'pockets' sit in the four corners and two center positions, each one sized to accept a soccer ball but not much larger. The playing surface is usually artificial turf, though some indoor versions use a hard smooth surface.

You use 15 object balls, typically numbered like pool balls, with solids and stripes patterns painted on standard size 5 soccer balls, plus a cue ball, which is a white soccer ball distinguished by a marking. The balls behave like oversized pool balls on the turf, though the friction is much higher than on a felt table, so balls don't travel as far per unit of kick power as they would per unit of cue power.

The rack is a triangle made of plastic or metal, large enough to hold the 15 soccer balls in triangle formation. Setup is identical to 8-ball pool: triangle rack, 8-ball in the center, two back corners are one solid and one stripe, and the apex ball sits on the foot spot of the table.

Object of the Game

Two teams play against each other. The first team to legally pocket all seven of their assigned balls (solids or stripes) AND then legally pocket the 8-ball wins. Sound familiar? It's the same object as 8-ball pool, just scaled up and kicked instead of stroked.

A match is typically played as best-of-six or best-of-seven games. The team that reaches the target number of game wins first takes the match. In tournament play, organizers sometimes use a straight 'first to six goals' (meaning six pocketed balls on top of any clearances) format for shorter brackets, but the 8-ball-style format is more common in casual play.

How to Break

The breaking team places the cue ball anywhere behind the head string (marked on the turf) and kicks it into the rack. For the break to be legal, the cue ball must contact the rack and at least four object balls must either be pocketed or touch a wall of the table. If not, the opposing team can either accept the table as-is or force a re-break.

The team that breaks can choose any player on their team to take the break kick. A common strategy is to let your most accurate long-ball kicker take the break and aim for the back corners of the rack to scatter balls outward. Power breaks look impressive but rarely pocket balls effectively on turf, the friction eats kinetic energy fast.

If a team pockets any ball on the break, they're assigned that group (solids or stripes) and continue their turn. If no balls are pocketed but the break is legal, the other team takes over. The 8-ball on the break does NOT end the game, it's re-spotted on the foot spot and play continues.

Legal Shots

On any shot after the break, the kicking player must strike the cue ball and drive it to contact one of their team's assigned balls first. After the contact, either a ball must be pocketed OR the cue ball or any object ball must touch a wall. These are the same conditions as 8-ball pool.

Only one player from the team kicks per shot, and only one kick per shot. You can't use feet to stop balls, move them manually, or hand-place them except when cue-ball-in-hand is awarded. Balls in play must be played as they lie.

A shot must be fully committed, no stopping mid-swing. If the kicking player swings and misses the cue ball entirely, it's treated as a foul and the opposing team gets cue-ball-in-hand.

Fouls and Penalties

The penalty for any foul is cue-ball-in-hand for the opposing team anywhere on the table. Common fouls include: kicking the cue ball off the table, kicking the cue ball into a pocket (scratching), contacting an opponent's ball first, failing to drive a ball to a wall after contact when no ball is pocketed, a player other than the designated kicker contacting a ball during play, and missing the cue ball entirely on the swing.

A specific snookball-only foul: if a player, while positioning for a kick, touches any ball with their hands or body, it's a foul. You can walk on the turf, but you cannot contact any ball except with a kick from the intended kicker.

Pocketing the 8-ball before clearing your team's assigned group is immediate loss of game, same as 8-ball pool. Pocketing the 8-ball in the wrong pocket when you've called a specific pocket is also loss of game in most house rules, though this varies.

Winning and the 8-Ball

Once your team has pocketed all seven of your assigned balls, you move on to the 8-ball. The kicking team member designates a pocket for the 8-ball (usually called verbally to the referee or opposing team), and must legally pocket the 8-ball into that specific pocket. Kicking the 8-ball into any other pocket is loss of game. Failing to contact the 8-ball first, or scratching on the 8-ball kick, is loss of game.

Because of the size and physics of the table, legal 8-ball kicks in snookball are noticeably harder than in pool. The 8-ball travels slowly on turf, banks unpredictably, and the pockets don't 'accept' balls as forgivingly as pool pockets do. A ball that would rattle and drop on a pool table will sometimes bounce out of a snookball pocket. Plan accordingly, err on the side of dead-center pocket approaches rather than corner-of-pocket shots.

Where to Find a Snookball Table

Snookball tables aren't in most cities yet, but they're spreading fast. Your best bets are: dedicated entertainment complexes (the kind that also have mini-golf, go-karts, and trampoline parks), outdoor sports bars in tourist areas, corporate team-building venues, and increasingly, university recreation programs. In Europe, especially France, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, standalone snookball venues now exist.

If you want to rent a table for an event, rental kits (the inflatable table plus balls) are available from specialty rental companies. Expect to pay $300-600 for a weekend rental depending on your location. The inflatable tables can be set up in about 30 minutes on a flat surface and broken down for storage in about the same time.

Buying your own full setup is a several-thousand-dollar commitment, so most casual players rent for parties or book time at venues. Look up 'snookball near me' to find your local options.