Social Gaming Update

The out-of-home entertainment industry is by far one of the most complicated businesses to manage and operate and it’s getting more complicated every day.

Every type of out-of-home entertainment business is morphing into an even more complicated iteration. Many traditional Bowling Centers have transformed into Bowling Entertainment Centers. Movie Theaters are adding all forms of entertainment, including full bars, arcades, bowling, and new versions of Social Gaming.

There are even new categories like the giant multi-level, indoor go-kart track venues which have multiple forms of entertainment. Trampoline Parks are converting into Adventure Parks and adding many other forms of entertainment such as arcades, bowling, full bars, full kitchens, and more adult offerings.

The newest trend is the development of entertainment venues that focus on providing their guests with several different types of Social Gaming experiences with full bars and high quality food service.

Important note: For these new Social Gaming venues, we believe the inclusion of 35 to 50 of the best arcade games is going to be an important key to maximizing their profitability.

Social Gaming venues don’t have to be big to generate significant revenues. We believe most Social Gaming venues will be in the 12,000 to 18,000 square foot range – the smaller size is also the reason why they are going to become one of the fastest growing entertainment venues.

With a smaller footprint, it’s much easier to find a premium space within a higher income demographic. It also opens up the possibility of embedding two or three venues within the best areas of a city instead of building one giant center that tries to serve everyone. Just like the most successful fitness centers, the shorter the drive time the more likely their members will keep paying their monthly dues.

Social Gaming venues need to locate in the heart of the best communities, which is much easier to do if you are only looking for 12,000 to 15,000 square feet.

Truly Fun to Play

For the Social Gaming experiences we have created and for the ones we are developing, our most important question is the following:

“How do we make sure our Social Gaming experiences are truly fun to play for “Casual Players” and their friends and family?”

If we can’t accomplish this goal, our Social Gaming experiences are not going to succeed long-term.

Axe Throwing was the very first “turn-taking” Social Gaming experience we developed. We installed 8 lanes in both of our venues in Buffalo and Rochester, New York. It was also our first adult attraction (18 and older). Axe Throwing is by far one of the most difficult attractions to operate at a high level, which is why we don’t recommend it to most operators. If you are going to operate Axe Throwing, you have to hire the “right person” to manage and operate it.

Krazy Darts was our second “turn-taking” Social Gaming experience – the focus here was on creating an experience that was truly fun and easy to play. Plus, it had to be much easier to operate.

What Do I Mean by, “Turn-Taking?”

Turn-taking is when each participant takes their turn to play the game while everyone else is cheering them on, socializing, and eating and drinking.

Krazy Darts was literally designed from the ground up to eliminate all the things that made Axe Throwing difficult to operate. We also designed it to have a very low skill level variance.

What is skill level variance? A good example of skill level variance is the skill required to play checkers compared to chess. Both use the same board to play a game, but chess is infinitely more complex because the chess pieces have specific ways they can move, which ultimately makes chess one of the most complicated games ever invented.

If our goal is to develop a successful out-of-home entertainment venue, we have to provide our guests with a variety of Social Gaming experiences that are super easy and fun to play for “Casual Players” who just want to have fun with their friends and family.

One BIG Challenge

Our Krazy Darts Social Gaming experience has one big challenge, which is that people have never seen anything like it before. The good news is that everyone who plays Krazy Darts has a LOT of fun playing it and that’s because it’s pretty easy to play!

Below is a table showing our December 2025 revenue for our 4 best Social Gaming experiences in our Rochester, New York venue. About 5 years ago, we added Axe Throwing, then, about 28 months ago, we added Krazy Darts along with Billiards, Table Tennis, and Foosball. Plus, we recently added Krazy Arrowz, our newest Social Gaming experience.

It took Krazy Darts some time to catch up to Axe Throwing. In fact, Krazy Darts is starting to beat Axe Throwing in our Buffalo venue as well. With all the new software updates and more on the way, we expect Krazy Darts to generate even better revenues going forward.

New Social Gaming Concepts Take Time to Grow

During the same 4 weeks in December two years ago (2024), Axe Throwing beat Krazy Darts by a good amount. In fact, two years ago in week 4, Axe Throwing earned $7,118 compared to only $3,511 for Krazy Darts. The main reason Krazy Darts has improved so much in one year is that many more people have played it and they are coming back to play it again, because it’s a lot of fun to play!

From a profitability standpoint, Krazy Darts is now more profitable than Axe Throwing. Krazy Darts doesn’t require an Axe-pert or ongoing supervision plus the costs to maintain Krazy Darts is low and much lower than Axe Throwing.

One key improvement we recently made is adding the option to play all of the Krazy Darts games using soft Juggling Balls for smaller kids. These smaller kids really enjoy hurling the soft Juggling Balls at the targets. The Juggling Balls have significantly expanded the target market to enable kids as young as 3 years old to play along with their older siblings and parents.

The number of updates we have made over the last seven months to Krazy Darts, Krazy Arrowz, and Krazy Axes has been significant. All of these updates are being utilized in our Buffalo and Rochester, New York venues as well as an increasing number of our clients’ venues.

All these improvements are just the beginning!

New Krazy Darts XL

Krazy Darts XL was created to maximize all the best parts of Krazy Darts Standard as well as developing some key updates that will take it to the next level. It’s important to note that all the features listed below are also being incorporated into our new Krazy Arrowz Social Gaming experience and almost all of them are being added to our Krazy Axes experience.

Most of these new features are software updates, which means almost all of these updates can be added to our Krazy Darts Standard version.

NEW Auto-Scoring Recognizes Soft Juggling Balls
- This enables players as young as 3 years old to play in the same game as their older siblings and parents who are using steel-tipped darts to play.

NEW Attract Mode
- Our new attract mode shows an array of games being played along with all the animations when targets are hit including the scoreboard updating.

NEW Editable Messaging Displays
- This enables Operators to add messaging to both the large target area as well as the touch screen display to provide potential players with the information needed to play Krazy Darts (i.e. pricing, number of players per session, session length, where to get the darts, what to do to get help, etc.)

NEW Krazy Darts XL target area is 2x BIGGER than the Krazy Darts Standard Target Area (50x BIGGER than a standard dartboard)

- The easier our Social Gaming experiences are to play, the more our Casual Players want to play them again and again. Casual Players are the biggest target market for out-of-home entertainment.

NEW Card Swipe Game Activation
- This enables players to start playing immediately by using the soft Juggling Balls located on the stainless steel trays.
- Players can extend game play by swiping their game card at any time.

NEW Game Pause when Session Ends

- This enables players to pay for additional time so they can finish playing their game. Once players finish their game, they can start playing another game. If they run out of time again, they can extend it again.

NEW Digital Pager Integration (Now available with all new orders and existing Krazy Darts’ Operators can be upgraded)

- During gameplay a “Request Help” button is located on the touch screen display. This feature enables guests to page a staff member for help. Once the “Request Help” button is pressed, a menu of options are shown to the guest. The request help options can be set by the operator to say, for example:
  - 1. Need Darts
  - 2. Food and Beverage
  - 3. Game Assistance
  - 4. Other
- Once the desired request button is selected, a digital page goes out to the staff member wearing the pager. The digital display shows the request that was made so that the staff member knows what the guest needs, for example, if they need the steel-tipped darts or want to order food, the Staff Member will know what is needed.
- Pagers can also be used to notify a Staff Member when a Social Gaming experience has been activated by a card swipe. This lets the Staff Member know which lane has been activated so they can go see if the guests need any assistance.
- If a group of players is checking out Krazy Darts and they want to play, there is a “Click Here to Request Help” button on the Home Screen of the touch display. Once this is pressed, the Staff Member who is responsible for the Social Gaming area will receive a page that shows the name of the Social Gaming experience as well as the lane number.
- Pagers can also notify Staff Members when a group’s session time is about to expire – this enables a Staff Member to ask if the group would like to extend their playtime. If not, the Staff Member can secure the darts by locking them in the cabinet.
- All pager notifications are tracked to see how long it takes for a Staff Member to get to the Social Gaming experience to provide assistance. Each Staff Member can have their own 4-digit number so the operator can track how well their staff members are performing.

NEW Lower Height Option for Krazy Darts XL

- Krazy Darts XL can now be 96 inches tall (8 feet) by removing the scoreboard at the top. The scoreboard information will then be relocated to additional displays that are visible to the player currently taking their turn as well as the other participants in the seating and dining areas.

NEW Floor-Mounted Laser Projector
- There is no need for the operator to install a unistrut support system to hang the projectors.

NEW Longer Lasting Dartboard Panels
- The lifespan of our newest dartboard panel is significantly better, which reduces the long-term costs of maintaining the attraction, which is already very low.

All of the above software improvements are being integrated into our Krazy Arrowz and Krazy Axes Social Gaming experiences.

Important Question: Why are 4 or More Lanes or Units of a Social Gaming Experience Better than 2?

If an operator of an entertainment center wanted to see if bowling would work, would it be a good test to start with just two bowling lanes?

At a cost of $70,000 to $90,000 for a single bowling lane including the seating, every bowling manufacturer and operator will tell you that adding just two lanes of bowling is never going to produce the same revenue per lane as compared to installing 8 or more bowling lanes.

Important note: (2) Krazy Darts lanes cost $70,000 including the seating – two lanes of Krazy Darts take up less than 60% of the space of just one bowling lane. Two bowling lanes would cost between $140,000 to $180,000 including the seating.

What's the Point?

Over 50% of the revenue for a good Social Gaming experience will come from group and party sales – plus you can add another 50% to over 100% in food and beverage sales. Unfortunately, those additional revenues will NOT be achieved if you only have two lanes or units of a Social Gaming experience. In fact, the overall revenue per lane or per unit will typically be higher if you have 4 or more. That’s because 2 lanes will only capture a tiny portion of the group and party revenue.

One of our clients, Neil Hupfauer, put in (4) Krazy Darts lanes in his Corky’s Axe Throwing center and in the first year Krazy Darts earned $153,000 dollars on walk-ins and group revenue. That number doesn’t even include food and beverage sales.

From a size standpoint, you can fit (3.5) lanes of Krazy Darts including the seating in the same space as a single lane of bowling including the seating. For Neil’s venue, Krazy Darts earned $38,250 per lane. If you take the per lane revenue and multiply it by 3.5, that would equal $133,875 in revenue from the same space occupied by one bowling lane. And again, that doesn’t include ANY food and beverage sales.

Krazy Darts Food and Beverage Revenue Potential

For Krazy Darts, we suggest up to 8 participants per lane. That’s because the turn taking time of Krazy Darts is much quicker than Bowling. In addition, players get many more chances to score points with up to 7 darts or 7 soft juggling balls to throw per turn. The turns are slower for bowling because players have to wait for the ball to return.

For bowling, the suggested number of bowlers per lane is 6. This means the eating and drinking capacity for Krazy Darts compared to one lane of bowling is 3.5 times greater (i.e. 8 people x 3.5 Krazy Darts per bowling lane = 28 people eating and drinking compared to only 6 people for one bowling lane). This means Krazy Darts has the potential to generate up to 4.66 times more in food and beverage revenue in the same amount of space as one lane of bowling (i.e. 28 people for Krazy Darts divided by 6 people for bowling = 4.66 times more eaters and drinkers).

It’s also important to point out that our Krazy Darts, Krazy Arrowz, and Krazy Axes VIP all have seating configurations designed to maximize socializing with friends, family, and coworkers.

It’s important to point out that Krazy Darts is super easy to play. In fact, with the addition of the soft Juggling Balls, players as young as 3 years old can play in the same game with their older siblings and parents who can play using the steel-tipped darts. Krazy Darts is truly one of the best new Social Gaming experiences available today plus the cost to maintain it is very low.

The one key advantage that bowling has over Krazy Darts, and it’s a BIG one, is that everyone already knows what bowling is.

Krazy Darts is new, but every day it’s proving its ability to grow its revenue via word of mouth. Plus, with all the new updates, Krazy Darts is now going to be able to promote itself much more effectively.

Important note: Bowling is one of the best Social Gaming experiences available today. It’s been around for a long time and will continue to be around for a long time. However, to maximize the long-term success of bowling, it needs to be integrated with the best new Social Gaming experiences. As mentioned previously, the most successful out-of-home Social Gaming venues will be the ones that operate a variety of the best Social Gaming experiences.

Coming Soon!

There are many additional software updates in process. These new updates will become available over the next 3 to 6 months. The goal of each one of these updates is to further maximize the revenue potential of each of the Social Gaming experiences we manufacture and operate.

These additional improvements are going to enable Krazy Darts, Krazy Arrowz, and Krazy Axes to promote themselves autonomously to the participants who play them. This will be accomplished by giving players the option to receive their scorecards at the end of the session by providing their email or mobile number during the sign-in process. Once the system has a player’s email or mobile number, it will have the ability to automatically update them on the release of new games, promotional offers, awards, or upcoming events.

The rise of Social Gaming is the most important thing that has happened in our industry in a very long time – it’s time to ride the wave!

Thanks for reading,

Jim Kessler