Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards or simply carambole (and sometimes used as another word for a game called "straight rail") are a family of billiards games played on cloth-covered tables. In these games, the players strike heavy balls with sticks called cues. Carom billiards tables have no pockets or opening where balls are sunk, that snooker and pool tables do have. In its simplest form, the object of carom billiards games is to score points or "counts" by bouncing one's own ball, called a cue ball, off of the other two balls on the table. The date the first carom game was invented is not exactly known. Also, how exactly the games developed and which game was first is not clear. However, carom billiards games are believed to have started sometime in the 18th-century (the 1700s) in France in Europe.
There are many different games, each with distinct rules, strategies and objects of play, that are all part of carom billiards. Some of the most well known games are straight rail, cushion caroms, balkline, three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards. There are many other carom billiards games that combine aspects of these games, but that are not as well known. For example, the champion's game was a short-lived game that developed during a transitional period between the invention of straight rail and the invention of balkline. Other games are combinations of these games and other games played on tables with pockets (pool or snooker games), such as English billiards played on a snooker table and its related games, American four-ball billiards, and cowboy pool, played on a pool table.