CENTRE WELLINGTON -- A tossing game that started as a family tradition is becoming a new business venture for a group of friends from Centre Wellington.

“Waddies is what we believe is the ultimate tossing game,” said Andy Speers, Waddies creator. “It is a 15 inch by 15-inch board with a backboard on it and hole in the middle. The goal is to put our Waddies, our rubber pucks, right into the middle of that hole.”

Speers and a close group of friends from high school have played the game for decades.

He says Waddies has a long-standing history within his family.

“This game was developed a long time ago in the local legions and my grandfather, who is a legion member, actually passed it onto me back when I was in grade nine,” he said. “I’m now in my forties so we have been playing for a long time.”

It was during the challenges of the pandemic that the idea of marketing and producing the game came to mind.

”Covid started and we looked at it as a way to stay connected as friends,” said Speers.

While Speers says sales are mostly local, they’re also shipping to a few buyers outside of Canada.

“To date, we have sold 350 sets and we just started in June,” he said.

Toben Racicot, a University of Waterloo Ph.D. candidate, says the game market remains challenging to stand out in.

“‘It will be less common nowadays than the staples like Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly and Scrabble, these kind of tried and true games, it will probably be a lot more difficult to stand out like they do,” Racicot said.

Racicot, who studies games and entertainment, says that’s because of the changing industry.

“It’s more difficult to stand out because there are so many more creators and more opportunities to show new games,” he said.

But Speers says no one in his group of friends got into the business to make a lot of money.

“It was more to stay connected and do something fun as a group,” said Speers.