Nine-pin bowling lanes are mostly found in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Estonia, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, North Macedonia, Hungary, France, Brazil and Liechtenstein.

In English-speaking countries, where ten-pin bowling (which originated in the United States) is dominant, facilities for nine-pin bowling are uncommon, though it remains popular in areas such as the Barossa Valley in South Australia where many German people settled in the 19th century.

The ball is 16 cm (6.3 in) in diameter and weighs approximately 2.85 kg (6.3 lb).

(For younger or novice players, the ball is 14 cm (5.5 in) and weighs 1.9 kg (4.2 lb).)

[3] Standardized rules and organization of nine-pins were developed by the American Bowling Congress in 1895.

Nine-pins was the most popular form of bowling in much of the United States from colonial times until the 1830s, when several cities in the United States banned nine-pin bowling out of moral panic over the supposed destruction of the work ethic, gambling, and organized crime.

By World War I most Texas bowling establishments, both private and commercial, had changed to ten-pin.

However, nine-pin remained popular in predominantly German communities like Fredericksburg, New Braunfels and Bulverde, until the introduction of fully automated pin-setting machinery in the 1950s caused most of them to make the change as well.

The difference is the lack of automatic pinsetter and electronic scoring system.

The lane is usually under a dry lane condition (without oil), or rarely oiled in typical house shot, allowing players to release a hook ball in a similar fashion as ten-pin bowling.

When a bowler takes a turn and knocks down the remaining pins, that bowler receives nine points for that shot, regardless of the number of pins knocked down to receive these nine points.