4 ms·

Ask HN: Idea Feedback - Mobile Sportsbar/Pub Trivia

Given ideas are a dime a dozen, here's one I had the other day. At Buffalo Wild Wings and some other venues I've seen BuzzTime Trivia, it's a location based trivia game that people can play at the venue using controllers on the table while monitoring results on TVs around the restaurant. BuzzTime seems married to their hardware business, and from the little pricing information I've found, it's pretty expensive for an owner/proprietor to get it installed (@ $10-15K setup + monthly subscription fees for content packages at over $300/mo.). I would venture this price point is too expensive for many venues who are interested but scared to commit to the initial investment to see if it helps business. Given the mass proliferation of smart phones with network connections, what about a more affordable version that uses phone instead of the table top terminals? The idea would be: - Players check into the venue (something similar to 4square to reasonably ensure the player is at the actual location) to play. Ideally you do the entire game in the browser without requiring a native app to start. - Compete for prizes, prestige at the venue by playing against others. Start with just once devoted niche like Monday Night Football fans to start before branching out. Perhaps the trivia is curtailed to the venue's location and oppposing teams: e.g. Green Bay, WI trivia along with Packers and Broncos questions. - Provide a dashboard app for owners to hook up and show game activity in the venue. Make it skinnable and allow them to integrate their current promotions, specials, etc. - Integrate with the usual social media channels to increase visibility for the venue through players that participate - Price it as an affordable SaaS type offering with just a monthly service fee that can be cancelled at any time. I'm thinking of contacting some restaurant managers but before doing so, I thought I'd post it out to HN to see if others have some feedback. Any feedback is welcome. Perhaps there are ways to make it more fun, etc. Perhaps it won’t be any fun at all! This definitely feels like a vitamin and not a pain killler, as they say, but Buzztime shows there is a market at least. I’m not trying to build the next Google, only instead find a profitable niche for a small company that allows me to work independently. I have no idea how feasible it is from a technology perspective yet, but I'm hoping a real time, multi-user trivia app on current mobile browsers is possible. Thanks!

waterside81 15y ago
It's not a crazy idea. The technology component probably isn't your biggest obstacle - selling is. You'll most likely have to spend a lot of time (& money?) hitting the pavement, talking to bar owners / managers etc. Getting big chains to sign up en masse would help of course.
rgarcia 15y ago
It looks like buzztime has an iphone app? http://www.buzztime.com/iphone-playmaker http://www.buzztime.com/iphone-playmaker
- throwaway_90210 15y ago
  They do have an iPhone app, but it only works at a venue that has already purchased the system. I can't see them doing something like this since it would cannibalize their hardware business and anger customers who shelled out for the full system.
JulianMiller520 15y ago
currently working on something in this space ;-)
dbcfd 15y ago
As both a developer and a bar owner, yes. I had stayed away from buzztime due to the hardware requirements, however, the iphone app intrigues me. Not enough to put up the cash for buzztime, but intriguing nonetheless. Trivia is a great way to bring patrons to a venue, but works best when prizes and some sort of mc are involved. The quiz alone is fun for patrons that are there, but doesn't necessarily draw significantly more patrons. The app would need two modes, a constant running game for leaderboard, and an event mode, which could allow managers to set start/stop times with prizes, localized to the venue. It'd be great if it could integrate with an mc, who can tailor questions based on venue crowd. It's very feasible from a technology perspective. I've been working on another web based geo location app using Scala/Lift, and this isn't much of a stretch. If you decide to go down this road, shoot me a message. Be more than glad to help from either a developer or restaurant owner perspective.
bmelton 15y ago
I like the idea, and have considered doing something with it if only because I'm friends with a few bar owners who have complained about how painful trivia night is. In fact, the best trivia nights are not the BuzzTime ones, but the smaller ones that don't have hardware at all. All you really need is a database of trivia questions that the hosts can retrieve from, and a way to mark which questions that host has used before. Ideally, you could let the host tailor the questions to his crowd so that, at a sports bar, you weren't asking a ton of questions about Justin Bieber, and that sort of thing.
- throwaway_90210 15y ago
  It sounds like the MC angle could be an interesting one here as you and dbcfd have mentioned. Based on your experiences and from knowing some other bar owners, is the MC on trivia night usually someone who works for the venue or a 3rd party? Trying to see what the best customer segment might be. Thanks to everyone for great feedback so far!
  - bmelton 15y ago
    They're independent contractors. The pay is something to the effect of $15 an hour + drinks on the bar while they're there. I don't personally know of any MCs who do that as their day job, and they're generally recruited (in my experience) through craigslist ads and/or "want to make some extra money" type ads on the side of the road.
    - throwaway_90210 15y ago
      Okay. So it sounds like you could market this to the venue as a buzztime type service as well as a tool for any MCs they employ for live events. Thanks again. This is useful information in helping shape the idea further!
      - bmelton 15y ago
        Yeah, my idea was to just give the MCs a tool for which they could get their own questions from. They're making $15 an hour while the service charges between $150 and $200 to the bar. The bar is generally happy to pay it as a good trivia night will fill the place up on a Tuesday which is generally dead. Even if they're not going to town getting drunk, it's pretty much guaranteed to be more active, and as well looks active so that they can draw in more people by looking lively. If you could BE the question vendor, you could do so fairly straightforwardly, charge a minimal amount, and then market to the MCs. The MCs then become their own marketers to bars. Now they can charge $50 an hour, still undercut the services, and everybody wins. If you charge something like $10-40 a month for the questions, you're in the green too.

waterside81 15y ago

It's not a crazy idea. The technology component probably isn't your biggest obstacle - selling is. You'll most likely have to spend a lot of time (& money?) hitting the pavement, talking to bar owners / managers etc. Getting big chains to sign up en masse would help of course.

rgarcia 15y ago

It looks like buzztime has an iphone app? http://www.buzztime.com/iphone-playmaker http://www.buzztime.com/iphone-playmaker

throwaway_90210 15y ago
They do have an iPhone app, but it only works at a venue that has already purchased the system. I can't see them doing something like this since it would cannibalize their hardware business and anger customers who shelled out for the full system.

JulianMiller520 15y ago

currently working on something in this space ;-)

dbcfd 15y ago

As both a developer and a bar owner, yes. I had stayed away from buzztime due to the hardware requirements, however, the iphone app intrigues me. Not enough to put up the cash for buzztime, but intriguing nonetheless. Trivia is a great way to bring patrons to a venue, but works best when prizes and some sort of mc are involved. The quiz alone is fun for patrons that are there, but doesn't necessarily draw significantly more patrons. The app would need two modes, a constant running game for leaderboard, and an event mode, which could allow managers to set start/stop times with prizes, localized to the venue. It'd be great if it could integrate with an mc, who can tailor questions based on venue crowd. It's very feasible from a technology perspective. I've been working on another web based geo location app using Scala/Lift, and this isn't much of a stretch. If you decide to go down this road, shoot me a message. Be more than glad to help from either a developer or restaurant owner perspective.

bmelton 15y ago

I like the idea, and have considered doing something with it if only because I'm friends with a few bar owners who have complained about how painful trivia night is. In fact, the best trivia nights are not the BuzzTime ones, but the smaller ones that don't have hardware at all. All you really need is a database of trivia questions that the hosts can retrieve from, and a way to mark which questions that host has used before. Ideally, you could let the host tailor the questions to his crowd so that, at a sports bar, you weren't asking a ton of questions about Justin Bieber, and that sort of thing.

throwaway_90210 15y ago
It sounds like the MC angle could be an interesting one here as you and dbcfd have mentioned. Based on your experiences and from knowing some other bar owners, is the MC on trivia night usually someone who works for the venue or a 3rd party? Trying to see what the best customer segment might be. Thanks to everyone for great feedback so far!
- bmelton 15y ago
  They're independent contractors. The pay is something to the effect of $15 an hour + drinks on the bar while they're there. I don't personally know of any MCs who do that as their day job, and they're generally recruited (in my experience) through craigslist ads and/or "want to make some extra money" type ads on the side of the road.
  - throwaway_90210 15y ago
    Okay. So it sounds like you could market this to the venue as a buzztime type service as well as a tool for any MCs they employ for live events. Thanks again. This is useful information in helping shape the idea further!
    - bmelton 15y ago
      Yeah, my idea was to just give the MCs a tool for which they could get their own questions from. They're making $15 an hour while the service charges between $150 and $200 to the bar. The bar is generally happy to pay it as a good trivia night will fill the place up on a Tuesday which is generally dead. Even if they're not going to town getting drunk, it's pretty much guaranteed to be more active, and as well looks active so that they can draw in more people by looking lively. If you could BE the question vendor, you could do so fairly straightforwardly, charge a minimal amount, and then market to the MCs. The MCs then become their own marketers to bars. Now they can charge $50 an hour, still undercut the services, and everybody wins. If you charge something like $10-40 a month for the questions, you're in the green too.