Inside Events: International Flipper Pinball Association

All photos courtesy of the international Flipper Pinball Association

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If all you know about pinball comes from a great song by The Who (or Elton John), the mind-blowing rock opera, “Tommy” or a forgettable movie with Brooke Shields, consider your paradigm shifted. The International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) has the objective of serving as the governing body for competitive pinball, and of sanctioning and organizing events at the local, state, national and international levels.

The IFPA also has created the World Pinball Player Rankings (WPPR) to establish the first official rankings system of pinball players throughout the world. Through these endorsed tournaments and leagues, the IFPA crowns the World’s Greatest Pinball Player at the end of each calendar year and organizes championships at State, National and International levels. IFPA endorsed tournaments will give players a chance to increase their WPPR rankings.

According to IFPA, there exists a dedicated base of players and event organizers. The IFPA works closely with location owners, operators, distributors and the coin machine industry as a whole to maximize the exposure and accessibility of competitive pinball.

SDM caught up with Josh Sharpe, IFPA President, to find out more.

Sports Destination Management: It’s likely many sports destinations were not aware of the extensive number of competitive events out there for pinball enthusiasts. How many events does IFPA generally sanction?

Josh Sharpe: We sanctioned over 8,000 events last year all around the world.

SDM: What a great number. Is there a competition season?

Sharpe: Typically, all the state and national championships are held in the first quarter of the year and are based on the qualifying standings from the previous season.

SDM: What was your most recent event like?

Sharpe: We just had our State Championship Series on January 21st across the country. This will feed the National Championship which will be held in March in Wisconsin. That will feed the World Championship which will be held in June in Germany.

SDM: How do you go about choosing host sites?

Sharpe: The biggest thing for us is having a quality collection of games available to play on. We're fortunate to have a wide range of collectors across the globe who are willing to volunteer their locations to host us.

SDM: Is there a process for people to nominate themselves as hosts?

Sharpe: We have a hosting application that we send out that includes a breakdown of the kind of information we need in making these hosting decisions.

Editor’s Note: Participation is strong across the board, according to figures provided by IFPA, with 2022 blowing previous years' totals out of the water:

SDM: What are the demographics of your player base?

Sharpe: Our player age breakdown is as follows: 3.69% are under age 18; 8.27% are ages 18 to 29; 26.03% are ages 30 to 39; 31.7% are ages 40 to 49; and 30.31% are ages 50 and up. Roughly 14% of our registered profiles are female.

Information about IFPA’s upcoming events can be found on its calendar.