The Professional Billiards Association (PBA) has become the first sports entity to win the Korea Brand Awards.
The PBA said Thursday it received the grand prize in the sports category at the 2026 Korea Brand Awards ceremony held at Olympic Parktel in Songpa-gu, Seoul on Wednesday.
Organized by the Korea Brand Association, the awards honor brands most loved by consumers over the past year.
Launched in 2019 and set to open its eighth season next month, the PBA was recognized for transforming traditional billiards into high-quality competitive content and creating a new profession of professional billiards player. The association was also credited with significantly contributing to the growth of Korea's domestic billiards industry by adopting Korean-made billiard balls and tables as official equipment.
"The belief and conviction that billiards could be a sport with Korea at its center has been the driving force behind what the PBA is today," PBA Vice Chairman Jang Sang-jin said at the ceremony.
