Venues with Multiple Social Gaming Experiences
Vs Venues with Just One
In the past, developing a business with just one major attraction worked well for Bowling, Movie Theatres, and even Roller Skating. These one dimensional businesses worked really well and for a very long time, until they didn’t…
When laser tag first appeared, the majority were just laser tag centers with no other attractions or amenities. This obviously didn’t work long-term, because today there are very few freestanding laser tag centers.
One of the biggest reasons almost all of the freestanding laser tags closed down was because family entertainment centers, bowling centers, trampoline centers, and now action parks started adding laser tag to their attraction mix.
It’s important to note that most of the freestanding laser tag centers that still exist today almost always have at least a snack bar, an area with seating and tables for parties and groups, as well as an arcade, which is really their second attraction.
It’s interesting that several of the new NEW Social Gaming concepts only have one Social Gaming experience. Those that are doing well have a high quality food and beverage experience. In fact, bar revenue is a very large percentage of their F&B sales.
Some examples of these concepts are: high-tech Darts, electronic Shuffleboard, high-tech indoor Mini-Golf, Table Tennis, Duckpin Bowling, and of course the hundreds and hundreds of Axe Throwing venues that are open and operating all over the country. It’s interesting to note that most Axe Throwing venues have very minimal food and beverage offerings.
Axe Throwing is by far one of the fastest growing out-of-home Social Gaming experiences in the United States. I can’t think of another new attraction that comes anywhere near to the rapid growth of Axe Throwing in the last 20 years – except maybe escape rooms.
What’s so special about Social Gaming?
The best Social Gaming experiences are ones where guests are able to play with their friends and family within their own reserved space where they can socialize, eat and drink, and be seen as well as see the other people who make up their communities.
For example, Bowling, Axe Throwing, High-Tech Darts, Duckpin, Shuffleboard, Table Tennis, and Billiards are these types of Social Gaming experiences.
Escape Rooms, VR, Simulators, and other similar attractions, based on their inherent design, tend to isolate guests from each other. They are not optimal for creating the best Social Environment for out-of-home entertainment venues.
The primary goal of a Social Gaming venue is to provide its guests with the best and most fun Social Gaming experiences, while avoiding experiences that restrict our guests’ ability to connect with their friends, family, coworkers, and other members of their community.
As an example, Axe Throwing may not be the easiest Social Gaming experience to operate, but it’s truly one of the best new Social Gaming experiences we have seen in a very long time. That’s why we are doubling down on Axe Throwing and investing additional resources into dramatically upgrading it.
At Bowl Expo, we will be introducing our beta version of Krazy Axes, which will be our boutique style VIP Axe Throwing experience with a better social gathering space that enables better seating designs. This new version will also feature significant software and hardware upgrades, which enable a wider variety of gaming options: including improved graphics, animations, sound effects, and play by play announcements. Players will also be able to adjust the skill level and game variables to suit their preferences.
Many vs. One
All things being equal, it’s crazy to think that an entertainment venue with just one Social Gaming experience is going to be able to compete with a venue that has multiple Social Gaming experiences.
If we look back over the past 20 years, the track record of operating just one attraction in an entertainment venue is not very good. While there are a few exceptions, there really aren’t that many with just one type of attraction.
Even if you look at Dave and Busters, do they really only have one attraction (i.e. the arcade) or do they have many different types of games and mini-attractions, which make up their arcade?
While an arcade is far from being as social as Bowling, Axe Throwing, Shuffleboard, Duckpin, or High-Tech Darts, it continues to successfully draw lots of people out of the home. In addition, it’s almost always a key profit center for most types of entertainment venues.
Challenges of Having Only One Social Gaming Experience
The following are a few of the most obvious reasons why having one Social Gaming experience is a more difficult if not impossible path to success.
Attracting Groups and Parties
Here’s the biggest challenge: If a corporate group, party planner, group of friends, or family has the choice of booking an outing at a Social Gaming venue that has just one popular Social Gaming experience or another venue that has three, four, or even five popular Social Gaming experiences, which venue is going to get picked most often by the vast majority of these groups?
We all know how this story is going to end. The best operators, with the best variety of Social Gaming experiences, along with quality food and beverage service will be the ones who succeed and thrive in the short, medium, and long-term!!!
Our guests want to have the ability to choose from a variety of options and when they are given only one, the likelihood of getting picked is far lower than a venue with three or more Social Gaming options.
Not everyone in a group, especially a larger group, is going to like the same Social Gaming experience. Having three or more popular Social Gaming experiences expands an entertainment venue’s ability to satisfy a small and especially a larger group’s needs.
Having three or more options also increases our ability to upsell our guests on trying at least two of our Social Gaming experiences. If they really enjoy participating in two of our experiences, it increases our revenue per guest for that visit and possibly future visits as well.
In addition, participating in two experiences increases our guests’ length of stay, which is likely to increase our Food and Beverage revenue.
Another important benefit of participating in two experiences is that it increases the likelihood that our guests will have an even better time at our venue and have an even stronger reason to come back for another visit.
Repeat Visits
The number of visits annually is literally the most important factor in the success of any out-of-home entertainment venue. If a venue only provides its guests with a single Social Gaming experience, it’s going to be much harder to get a higher number of repeat visits than a Social Gaming venue that has a variety of Social Gaming experiences.
The reality is that venues that provide 3 or more unique and highly fun Social Gaming experiences are providing their guests with more reasons to come back – especially if they didn’t get the opportunity to play all of the venue’s Social Gaming experiences on their most recent visit.
As always, Food and Beverage will be very important to a Social Gaming venue’s success. A really good F&B experience will also help to significantly increase the frequency of guest visits.
Social Gaming Capacity Matters
We can’t just have a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Each Social Gaming experience has to be able to handle the most common sizes of group outings.
For example, if one of our Social Gaming experiences is going to be Axe Throwing, it needs to be able to handle the most common group sizes. The vast majority of group sizes range from 8 to 40 guests. Yes there are group sizes that go well over 40 participants, but that’s usually far less than 20% of total group revenue.
For example, the minimum and most optimal number for Axe Throwing is 6 lanes. With up to 8 guests per lane, Axe Throwing can handle a group of up to 48 people. In addition, if you operate with 90-minute sessions, as we do at both of our venues, then you only need one Axe-pert for all 6 lanes. This is possible when you stagger the start times for each pair of lanes by 30-minutes.
In addition, if we have 3 or more Social Gaming experiences that can handle 32 to 48 guests at a time and since our goal is to sell each group on experiencing at least two Social Gaming experiences, we will be able to rotate much larger groups between our different Social Gaming experiences.
Based on the above, having a variety of fun Social Gaming experiences that can handle a wide range of group sizes enables our venues to attract many more group outings than a venue that has just one Social Gaming experience.
Sizes of New Social Gaming Venues (10,000 to 15,000 square feet)
Social Gaming venues don’t have to be large to operate 4 to 5 different types of Social Gaming experiences. If each experience has a capacity of 32 to 48 guests, the venues can easily cater to very large groups.
It’s likely that these new out-of-home Social Gaming venues will be built in the 10,000 to 15,000 square foot range. This size range will achieve profitability with a much lower volume of guest visits.
It will also be much easier for smaller venues to embed themselves into the best communities, which will make it far easier for their guests to visit more often.
It’s important to note that a shorter drive time is another key to increasing the frequency of repeat visits. Since these new Social Gaming venues are much smaller than a big box entertainment center, a larger number of them can be opened within a populated area. More venues spread out within a city or town will make it much more convenient for guests to visit them. No need to drive 15 or 20 minutes when a Social Gaming venue is located just 5 minutes away.
Proprietary and Premium Social Gaming Experiences
It’s critical to have truly unique and proprietary entertainment experiences and, most importantly, they have to be premium or 10x Social Gaming experiences. If they are not, there is no real value in the proprietary part and they aren’t likely to distinguish our venues from the competition.
LASERTRON is the only company that is offering the opportunity to be the Exclusive Operator of our branded Krazy Darts and Krazy Axes Social Gaming experiences for the communities you serve.
Experience and Operational Know-How Matters
The best way to get the experience we all need is by operating the best Social Gaming experiences.
Social Gaming isn’t a new thing – it’s been around for a very long time. However, the importance of Social Gaming is HUGELY important to our ongoing success – especially when it comes to successfully competing with in-home and mobile entertainment.
In addition, there has been a significant surge in the development of new out-of-home concepts that are utilizing new or dramatically upgraded Social Gaming experiences. We can’t just sit back and wait to see what is going to work, we have to get into the game so we more fully understand how and why these new types of Social Gaming are transforming our industry.
In summary, to stay competitive, we have to keep moving forward by providing our guests with the best Social Gaming experiences – ones that successfully draw more guests out of their homes and into our entertainment venues.
If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Thanks for reading!
Jim Kessler
For those who may not know, LASERTRON and our dedicated Team Members, also operate two company-owned entertainment venues. One in Buffalo, NY which has a giant multi-level LASERTRON Laser Tag Arena, (8) Axe Throwing Lanes, (5) Krazy Darts, (3) Billiard Tables, 27 hole outdoor Mini-Golf, Arcade, Snack Bar, Outdoor Patio, and a Full Bar. Our other location in Rochester, NY also has a giant multi-level LASERTRON Laser Tag Arena, (8) Axe Throwing Lanes, (7) Krazy Darts, (5) Billiard Tables, Table Tennis & Foosball, Arcade, and a Full Bar with a Fast Casual Cafe.
(Fun fact: LASERTRON in Buffalo is the longest, continuously running laser tag venue in the United States – operating and continually evolving since December of 1988!)