Best Independent Snooker Cue Makers in Thailand
Ask snooker players outside the UK where the best value in hand-made cues is right now, and Thailand comes up more often than almost anywhere else. It's not a coincidence. The country has built a genuine cue-making industry over the past two decades, one that ranges from individual professionals hand-finishing cues under their own name to operations large enough to sponsor a world championship. We've now profiled three of the country's most established names in detail. Here's how they compare, and where to start if you're considering a snooker cue maker maker in Thailand read on! .
Sunny Akani Cues — the player-turned-maker
Bangkok. Akani Songsermsawad is a working professional on the tour who makes and modifies cues himself, selling through a network of authorised dealers rather than direct in most markets. His range runs in clear, named tiers — Begin, Origin, Elite, Low Deflection, Low Deflection Limited and Professional — with the top tier capped at just 50 cues a year. His own site credits a connection to Ronnie O'Sullivan, with photos showing the two together and his cue in O'Sullivan's hands.
What sets Akani apart from the other two makers here is scale and story: this is one person's name on the cue, not a company's, and the credibility comes from his own record as a player as much as from who else uses his work.
Maximus Cues — the championship sponsor
Thailand. Maximus doesn't present itself through a founder's story the way Akani does — its reputation is built on who stocks it and who plays with it. World Women's Snooker named Maximus an official sponsor of its World Championship in both 2019 and 2022, calling it "one of the world's most renowned cuemakers," and UK retailer Green Baize reports that at least 8 of the world's top 40 players use Maximus cues. The range runs in four clear tiers by splice count and material grade, from the plain-ebony Immortal through to the eight-splice Precious, with full one-piece and jointed options.
This is the maker to look at if you want hard evidence of professional-level trust in a brand, rather than a single named craftsman's story.
Niche Cues — the multi-factory operation
Chanthaburi, with sites across Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Belgium. Niche Cues is the largest and most industrial of the three by a clear margin: a main factory in Chanthaburi, further factories in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, a shop and factory in Rayong, an attached snooker academy, and international shops as far as Belgium. Its catalogue runs to well over a dozen named lines, from a 2,300-baht Beginner cue up to a 35,000-baht 12-splice Ultimate build, built primarily for Thailand's domestic market rather than international export in the way Akani's site is.
This is the one to look at if you want to understand how large and genuinely industrial Thailand's cue-making scene has become, rather than assuming every Thai maker is a small workshop.
How the snooker cue makers in Thailand compare
Sunny Akani Cues | Maximus Cues | Niche Cues | |
Based | Bangkok | Thailand | Chanthaburi + multi-site |
Shape of business | One professional player, hand-finishing | Mid-sized specialist maker | Multi-factory operation |
Known for | Direct player credibility, O'Sullivan connection | World championship sponsorship, pro usage | Scale, range, domestic market depth |
Entry price point | Begin tier (contact for pricing) | From £286 (Immortal) | From ~£50-55 (Beginner, 2,300 baht) |
How to buy | Authorised dealers worldwide (UK: Green Baize) | Authorised dealers (UK: Green Baize) | Own site (Thai), satellite shops in Malaysia, Myanmar, Belgium |
Why Thailand, and why now
None of this happened by accident. Thailand has a large and active domestic snooker scene, English-language access to the sport through decades of televised coverage, and a tradition of woodworking craft that's found a natural outlet in cue-making. What's changed more recently is visibility: makers like Akani, Maximus and Niche Cues are increasingly stocked by UK and European retailers, sponsored at the professional level, and connected to players whose equipment choices get noticed. A Thai-made cue is no longer a curiosity, it's a mainstream option worth comparing against the UK names most players default to.
See the full picture, including UK and North American makers, in our independent snooker cue makers directory.
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