Steve and Dave Jolliffe, the creators of Topgolf and Puttshack, have persuaded investors to hand them $55 million to do for pool what they once did for golf, and their London flagship is the proving ground.

The growth equity round in Poolhouse, announced on Friday, was led by Bluestone Equity Partners, the private equity firm focused on sports, media and entertainment. It marks the tenth investment from Bluestone’s inaugural $350 million fund.

The prize, as Poolhouse sees it, is one of the world’s oldest social games. Cue sports claim more than 200 million weekly players globally and an industry-estimated total addressable market of roughly $35 billion, yet the category has barely been touched by technology.

At the heart of the business is BillyQ, a gameplay system developed over six years with the team behind Hawk-Eye, the computer vision technology familiar from line calls at Wimbledon and goal-line decisions in football. BillyQ overlays a responsive digital layer onto the pool table, enabling interactive games, automated scoring and real-time player analytics.

There is a canny piece of game design in there too. A dynamic handicapping model adjusts to player ability, letting mixed-skill groups compete on level terms, which matters when your customer base is a work night out rather than a league team.

For UK hospitality operators, this is a story worth watching closely. Poolhouse’s flagship venue at Liverpool Street in London has opened to strong customer and critical reception, and the company reports strong landlord interest in the US, including New York City and Nashville, alongside a franchise agreement with Signature Hospitality Group, a leading Australian operator.

The venues, though, are the shop window. The capital will primarily fund the rollout of BillyQ beyond Poolhouse’s own sites into hotels, traditional pool halls, casinos and bars, and eventually into homes, building a recurring revenue platform on top of tens of millions of installed tables. For the thousands of British pubs, clubs and halls with a table gathering dust, the technology may eventually arrive as a licensing proposition rather than a competitor.

“We set out to build Poolhouse because we saw the same opportunity in pool that we once saw in golf: a beloved, mass-participation game that could be transformed through technology, design, and a better player experience,” said Steve Jolliffe, co-founder of Poolhouse.

Bobby Sharma, founder and managing partner of Bluestone, said the category “has never had a scaled technology and data layer”, calling the deal “a compelling opportunity to back exceptional operators in one of the largest global participatory sports categories”.

Andrew O’Brien, Poolhouse’s chief executive, said the company is “well-positioned to accelerate our global expansion and establish BillyQ as the underlying infrastructure for cue sports worldwide”.

The deal also says something about where leisure money is flowing. Experience-led venues have boomed as employers swap the traditional pub social for activity-based nights out, and investor appetite for the sector has recovered, from Justin King’s £50 million hospitality fund to a broader revival in UK private equity dealmaking.

Poolhouse’s backers already include DMG Ventures, Bolt Ventures, Active Partners, an early investor in Soho House, Sharp Alpha and Emerging Fund. Its leadership bench features Ross Butler, former chief executive of Gaucho, Steve Lane, who helped scale Toptracer globally at Topgolf, and Hawk-Eye founder Paul Hawkins.

For SME founders, the lesson is a familiar Jolliffe one: take a game everyone already knows, remove the intimidation, add a layer of technology, and the capital tends to follow.

Jamie Young

Jamie Young is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, covering SME finance, employment law and Westminster policy since 2016. He has reported on every Budget and Autumn Statement since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid era’ and the bounce-back loan scheme from launch through the fraud investigations, and broke the magazine’s coverage of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Business Matters straight from completing his BA in Administration from Exeter University and is NCTJ-qualified. Reach him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk

Kaylee Hottle, the young actress best known for playing Jia in the “Godzilla vs. Kong” films, died early Tuesday following a car accident in Maryland. Here are 10 things to know about her life, her career and the trailblazing role she played in bringing authentic deaf representation to a major Hollywood franchise.

1. She was born into a multi-generational deaf family

Hottle was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 1, 2007, into an all-deaf family with four generations of deaf relatives on her father’s side, according to Variety. She was fluent in American Sign Language from an early age, a skill that would later become central to her acting career.

2. Her career began in commercials advocating for the deaf community

Hottle got her start in commercials promoting support for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. At age 9, she appeared in a widely viewed public service announcement for Glide, a live video messaging app commonly used within the deaf community. In 2017, she appeared in an advertisement for Convo, a video relay and ASL translation service, an appearance that would later prove pivotal to her acting career.

3. A casting director discovered her through that Convo ad

According to Wikipedia, casting director Sarah Halley Finn was searching for a deaf actress to portray the deaf character Jia in “Godzilla vs. Kong” and was connected to Hottle through an assistant director from the earlier film “Kong: Skull Island,” who had seen her in the Convo commercial and believed she matched the character’s description.

4. “Godzilla vs. Kong” marked her feature film debut

Hottle made her feature film debut in 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” playing Jia, a deaf orphan native to Skull Island who forms a close bond with Kong and is taken in by Dr. Ilene Andrews, played by Rebecca Hall. Early in the film, Jia presents a handmade doll to Kong, marking the beginning of a relationship that becomes central to the story.

5. Her co-stars learned sign language to work with her

Starring actors Rebecca Hall and Alexander Skarsgård both learned American Sign Language specifically so they could communicate with Hottle on set outside of scenes being filmed, according to Wikipedia. Skarsgård later praised Hottle’s remarkable talent and professionalism in the role, according to Forbes.

6. She reprised the role in the franchise’s 2024 sequel

Hottle returned as Jia in the 2024 sequel, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” once again portraying the character’s evolving bond with Kong. For that performance, she received a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.

7. She spoke openly about the importance of deaf representation

Ahead of the 2024 sequel’s release, Hottle spoke with Digital Spy about what it meant to bring a deaf character to a major franchise. “Jia being a Deaf person in this world, it’s so amazing to see her on the big screen,” Hottle said. “In general, I hope that Deaf people see her and they think the same thing, that she is as amazing as I think she is.”

Hottle also reflected on Jia’s emotional connection to Kong, describing it as central to the character’s journey. “I think Jia grew up not having anybody and now she’s able to connect with King Kong, they have such a caring relationship for each other,” she said. “Both of them are able to find their own paths and where they’re from and where their home is, but that also brings them together. They are able to get to that place they want to call home.”

8. She also appeared in the “Magnum P.I.” reboot

Beyond the Godzilla franchise, Hottle appeared in the “Magnum P.I.” reboot series, playing a character named Joon in a Season 4 episode, adding television credits to her growing filmography alongside her feature film work.

9. She was a senior at the Texas School for the Deaf

At the time of her death, Hottle was a senior at the Texas School for the Deaf, according to Forbes. The school confirmed her death in a public statement, writing: “It is with profound sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that one of our TSD seniors, Kaylee Hottle, tragically passed away yesterday in a car accident in Frederick, Maryland. Our hearts are with Kaylee’s family, friends, classmates, and everyone who knew and loved her during this incredibly difficult time.” The school also asked the public to respect the family’s privacy and refrain from speculating about the circumstances surrounding the accident.

10. Her father announced her death through a livestream in ASL

Hottle’s father, Joshua Hottle, who is also deaf, shared news of his daughter’s death through a nearly 23-minute Facebook livestream delivered in American Sign Language. He explained that he was flying from Texas to Maryland to claim her body, describing the shock of learning that his daughter had been involved in a severe crash. According to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded around 2:52 a.m. Tuesday to a single-vehicle collision on Windsor Road in Ijamsville, Maryland. A preliminary investigation found that a 1995 Honda Accord left the roadway and struck a culvert, with authorities saying excessive speed is believed to have contributed to the crash. The driver, a 19-year-old Frederick man, was hospitalized with injuries not considered life-threatening, while another passenger declined treatment at the scene. The crash remains under investigation.

A legacy of representation

Hottle’s death has prompted an outpouring of grief across the entertainment industry and the deaf community alike, with tributes highlighting both her groundbreaking on-screen representation and the promise of a career and education that ended far too soon.

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