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The LBX Collective aims to inform and educate, create opportunities to connect with industry peers, and to spur collaboration, discourse, and cross-pollination of ideas in the location-based entertainment and experience industry.
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LBX Collective
The LBX Show #29 - GeoWalls, CEC Media, Trending Openings, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
Broadcasting from a hotel room overlooking Istanbul, this episode kicks off with a taste of Turkish hospitality as Brandon shares his experience visiting DOF Robotics HQ and sampling the Mediterranean's turbot fish. Then we'll continue exploring innovations in attraction technology and cashless systems that are revolutionizing the guest experience and driving significant revenue growth.
• Extreme Legacy's new GeoWall Arcade for adventure parks combines climbing walls with interactive LED sensors and real-time scoring
• Chuck E. Cheese launches CEC Media Network with 3,000 digital screens across 500+ venues, reaching 400 million guests annuall
• Drew Brees continues expansion of massive Surge Entertainment locations featuring multiple attraction types
• All the latest openings & closings and their trends with Kevin Williams
• Cashless payment systems typically increase venue revenue by 30-60% while reducing operational costs
• The complete guest journey mapping from pre-visit online engagement through point-of-sale to redemption creates multiple upselling opportunities
Stay tuned for next Tuesday's Sound Off with Kevin Williams, coming out on May 20th!
All right well, welcome everybody to the LBX show for May 18th 2025. It is great to be here. I'm your host, brandon Wiley, and I'm remote. As you can tell, there's a hotel. I'm in a hotel room here with some great paintings behind me and some beautiful views that you can't see, but it is the views of Istanbul behind me and some beautiful views that you can't see, but it is the views of Istanbul. And I am here recording this show after visiting some of my good friends over at Dock Robotics. I had a great time at their HQ yesterday recording for a future reveal podcast, so I'm excited about that, as well as also preparing for some other pretty cool, exciting news that I will be announcing in the next few months.
Speaker 2:But I had a great time last night as well at an excellent, excellent Greek restaurant. It's not a Michelin star restaurant, but it is in the Michelin Guide. We had an interesting conversation about that last night, but it's a great Greek restaurant and I got to hang out with my friend Bakit. He's the CEO of Doff Robotics. There's us hanging out. That glass of wine looks way bigger than it actually was. It's just like a standard glass or pour of wine. It's just like a really big glass, but anyway. So we had a great time hanging out as well as with a few of these guys in the sales team. So we really enjoyed our time last night and had this amazing platter of fish as well as just some incredible Turkish appetizers and then some really interesting Turkish desserts. But this fish platter was just absolutely incredible. They threw in a couple of those I'm pretty sure they're just basically trout or some trout-like fish on there for me some grilled ones, because I just absolutely love that type of fish. But then I got a chance to try like most of what that the rest of that platter is is actually this fish. It's called a turbo fish or a turbot. This is that ugly bastard. It's a massive fish. I mean like literally, like probably as big as my whole torso, and it's a flat fish, so relatively flat, but it was absolutely delicious. Like. The fish is pretty incredible and apparently it's a really popular fish in the Mediterranean. It lives in the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic, so basically kind of just in that area. So you're not going to be able to find that in the United States or anywhere in South America, latin America, other parts of, unless it's being flown in somewhere. So that is the turbot, the turbo fish. All those little specks on it I thought were like little zits. They're apparently like little spikes. They're like hard little nugget things on the skin anyway, but it was a phenomenal fish, great experience, and so thank you so much to the team over at Doc Robotics for welcoming me at the headquarters and just making my stay here so far Absolutely incredible, and I'm excited to go hang out with a few of the other sales guys later today.
Speaker 2:We're going to go check out some of the historical sites around Istanbul, and that is that, so all right. Well, we have a great show lined up for you today, and we are going to kick things off first with some news you should know, as usual, and then we're going to roll right into it, open and shut, with Kevin Williams, and we're going to dig into some other key trends around the latest openings and closings, and then we're going to finish off with a really robust game on with Justin Michaels, where we're going to map out the consumer journey through the venue and the game floor experience. So, without further ado, let's jump into some news you should know, all right. So we're going to do this in a different order than apparently what I had written down because of just the slides that I have up here. So we have a little thing.
Speaker 2:So Extreme Legacy these guys were formerly Extreme Engineering. They just recently went through an acquisition and they announced that acquisition actually at IAAPA Expo this last year in 2024. And they have recently announced the release of their new GeoWall Arcade for adventure and trampoline parks. So let's pull up a picture of that here. This is their GeoWall Arcade and it is basically digital sensors that provide a way for climbers to scale a wall and they get to tap the sensors and you know, like, basically as they're climbing throughout the wall, they say it's perfect for STEM education. And you know players can interact with the LED sensors, that they're basically programmed around different video game modes, so you can also do custom programming available.
Speaker 2:But you can see, here the guest basically comes in, there's a little kiosk stand in front of the wall and they get to pick their different games and different game modes and then when it starts, they basically can go and play and the average game apparently lasts about a minute. So it allows for really good throughput and really good opportunity and a really good opportunity and so there's the score there. You can see the score when you come back. So you basically go through the whole thing and where to go there it is. You know, I'm going to make this a little bit bigger here for everybody who's watching because I think that this is pretty cool. So, like, up above you have the scoreboard as you're going through. So like, not only are you obviously tracking, but people can be watching you seeing how you're doing in your score as you're moving throughout the course.
Speaker 2:Interestingly, in this installation that they have, you can see a little rugged interactive system going on over here on the right as well. So you just pair it up really well, like, obviously not meant to replace those types of things, but help to be basically an augment uh, augment any other attractions you might have in your adventure park or trampoline park. I imagine you could probably drop this into a standard fec as well, but you know you've got to put in a foam pit and you know, put up this kind of like it's. It's got to fit with your attraction mix, which tends to be more like the active play environments. But this, but this is the Geowall Arcade by Extreme Legacy just announced this week. So pretty cool. I have not had a chance to see it in action yet and would love to go and find an active park that actually has this installed. All right.
Speaker 2:So coming up next, we've got a pretty cool new concept. This is actually announced. This isn't totally brand new. This was announced in May 1st and this is the CEC Media Network. So this is a new thing coming out by Chuck E Cheese. If you're familiar with CEC, that's what Chuck E Cheese goes by corporately. So CEC Media Network. That's what Chuck E Cheese goes by corporately. So CEC Media Network. And they're calling themselves now the largest family-friendly digital out-of-home network in the United States. So it's in partnership with multiple leaders We'll talk about some of those here in a minute In the media technology industry for out-of-home entertainment, and they're basically trying to take advantage of the crazy scale that they have.
Speaker 2:So they have 3,000 digital screens across 500 plus venues. Now, keep in mind, this is just the United States. Obviously, they have more venues if you consider all their international venues, but in the United States they have 500 plus venues and reaches families in all 210. I mean, this is crazy All 210 Nielsen rated DMAs. Dma is a designated market area. That's what DMA stands for and so all 210 of the Nielsen DMAs they have actually venues that can reach those families. So that's kind of nuts and basically they're able to reach 400 million guests annually and each of these guests are spending between one and a half to two hours per visit in what they call a captive environment. So obviously the guests are there, the TVs are there, it's relatively captive and it gives over 2 billion impressions in 2024. So clearly for advertisers this is why they're touting these numbers A consumer doesn't give a shit, but advertisers clearly do, because they want to be able to reach that type of visitor and the screens obviously are strategically located in high traffic areas.
Speaker 2:So some of the key features of this new media network are family-friendly content featuring the Chuck E Cheese characters. So obviously it's not just Chuck E Cheese anymore, he has a whole subset of characters. As you can see, this is where some of the screens are actually located throughout the venues and it's curated entertainment. It creates engagement with the kids and the adults. So you know, here's kids dancing with actually a Chuck E Cheese mascot that comes out with clearly like a big screen along the back wall too, with a big EC Media Network logo on it and you know full site and sound experience, obviously, like you're seeing here, the large format video walls and then dynamic ad inventory. This is again their big play, optimized for national, regional, hyperlocal campaigns via their Panasonic ClearConnect content management system. So that's one of the partners that they're working with is Panasonic and their ClearConnect, and then this is then will they're actually also have programmatic advertising through other partners, and then this is actually the strategic move that they've done as well is to partner with a group called Future Today and they are a.
Speaker 2:You know, according to them, they're a pioneer in delivering cutting edge CTV. It's connected TV CTV. So basically, if you're at home, you're connected to the Internet. On your TV You've got Netflix, hulu, et cetera. That's a CTV. So most of us in the US at this point have some form of CTV in their home and it is your ad solutions. And they're actually launching a branded streaming network with on demand apps and fast channels aimed at kids three to eight. They're co-viewing parents placing Chuck E Cheese content alongside kids' channels like Cocoa, melon, blippi and Ryan and Friends on platforms such as Happy Kids you can see here. So there's basically a kids' streaming channel called Happy Kids and it has these types of Cocoa Melon shows, and so Chuck E Cheese has been developing their own content with their own characters and it's going to be streaming now on Happy Kids. So now, not only do they have in-home connected TV content with you know, you can have advertising streamed automatically there you now have their content also being placed on their CC media network in all of their locations, with your advertisement there. So, pretty incredible and a great way to take advantage of their media network and a great way to take advantage of their media network and this is something, frankly, that can be done with your own venues and your own TVs, depending on the size and scale in which you have. There are different solutions out there that you can actually take advantage of the screen time and the captive audience that you actually have there by making partnerships like this. Now, obviously, you don't have the same scale as Chuck E Cheese, but you can certainly do this at your scale and there are great partners out there that you can work with to deliver this type of curated content and advertisements to your customer base, that's there, to your consumer base, your guests. So, all right, that is Chuck E Cheese and their new CEC Media Network.
Speaker 2:And the last thing I wanted to talk about is Drew Brees man. He's still continuing to go. We talked about the Surge Entertainment locations before on the show and he's just continuing to crush it. And so well, that is the LBX Galaxy. It has not anything to do with Drew Brees, because I was going to actually show the website instead of show slides, so let's do that instead. So while I'm talking here, I'm going to go ahead and pull up their website, and this is Drew Brees. This is their latest location. That just was opened yesterday, actually May 17th, at Metairie, louisiana. So he's been opening a lot of locations in Louisiana. He's spreading throughout and these things are just absolutely massive. So they have tons and tons of attractions. You can see like a little video streaming behind me right now. I don't know if this is the best way to view this, but anyway, maybe let me try to do this here instead, see if this will get us a little bit better viewing ratio there. Yeah, okay, that's a little better, all right.
Speaker 2:So on their website, basically, they have tons of activities. So they have an arcade, they have what they call extreme activities, which we'll take a look at in a second. They have karting, mini golf, an XD dark ride, bowling, inflatable obstacle courses, laser tag and sports simulators. So obviously the sports simulators for a little bit older crowd. They have stuff for the younger crowd, really trying to be this big place for families to come. I mean, these things are absolutely fucking massive and they actually look really well done.
Speaker 2:I've actually I haven't yet to go into a Surge Entertainment. So the next time I'm in Louisiana when it's not snowing and snowing us in definitely want to get out to a Surge Entertainment because I want to check one of these guys out because they're pretty insane. So not only do they have like karting and mini golf and laser tag and bowling, which are all really big square foot attractions, they also have soft play for the little guys. They have a strike arena, they have freestyle run, which is like a ninja course as well, and just a ton of stuff for the active play. But again, like they just have tons of things here the sports simulators for the older, you know the older kids and even you know the adults. So you can book one of the sports simulator, you can book for golfing, you can book for soccer, et cetera. Right, just kind of your standard sports, simulator situations and so, anyway, it's just a pretty insane.
Speaker 2:These locations are incredible. It's the sixth one now and so definitely I feel like there are two pathways you can go. You can go and either go big like one of these guys, you can go to a competitive socializing environment and try to go very niched with just a couple of attractions. But he's really gone and developed something pretty significant for the Louisiana market and I do believe they have other locations outside Louisiana. Yes, they have one location in Alabama as well for the full-on entertainment center. They have some that are just adventure parks as well throughout the southeast, but for the most part they are focused on the latest things have been really focused on the search entertainment side. So anyway, that is the latest opening from and I just wanted to call this out separately from the openings and shuts just because you know, because of the scale of what they're doing here. So anyway, that is latest news you should know. Coming up next we have the open and shut with Kevin Williams.
Speaker 4:Thank you, hey, a big hello to everyone and welcome to use the pause button, uh. So the first one is an interesting one for me, uh, as it's one of the first of the uh augmented reality uh experiences. Rather than being a new facility, this is an additional attraction to a cinetainment environment. So literally we're seeing in the foyer of this particular cinema chain, um in california, uh versus uh immersive ar attraction is being uh added, or has been added and is operational 8,000 square space, a retail unit size package, and you know it is the augmented reality walk-around adventure style event, pokemon Go without the phone, as it were. Sorry, just kidding, but an example of what we're going to be seeing a lot of regarding the entertainment kind of approach. An example of what we're going to be seeing a lot of regarding the entertainment kind of approach. If you can't build a dedicated entertainment zone attached to your cinema operation, then you will start to parachute in occasional entertainment.
Speaker 2:I do ask, I do want to know what you think here about the addition of verse immersive to a entertainment facilityainment facility only, because, well, actually it's probably just a movie theater I don't know if they have full cinetainment or not, they don't have a full cinetainment, it's just a mini-series for it into that.
Speaker 4:A two in the water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, only because Versa Immersive is a longer format. They're about 40 minutes at a minimum and about an hour at the maximum. So I just feel like this is maybe too long for something to be added to a movie theater. So you've already gone to a two-hour, three-hour movie and then spent another hour here. I wonder if this is maybe not quite the right place for Verse Immersive. It's an interesting I mean it's an enjoyable attraction. It's just I'm curious your thoughts on the length of time for the attraction versus the length of time for the main attraction.
Speaker 4:I feel that you can't parachute in a product that works in a visitor attraction into a cinema component. I'll give you the three reasons. Number one, as you've touched upon, it is too long. As you've touched upon, it is too long. And number two, the important one, is the audience doesn't know what they're getting, because you can't impart correctly what it is without them really using it, unless you're going to do demos, and then that's adding to the time. And number three, the most important one of all, is how does the audience know, if this isn't a entertainment venue, that there is entertainment available? They're going to stumble upon it when they're going to see their film and you're going to have to hope that they have enough time after they've seen their film, because they're not going to have enough time before they've seen their film or word of mouth. So there's a lot of things that this first toe in the water, shall we say, is an interesting experiment. In the water, shall we say, is an interesting experiment. If they see an uptake, then they know that they have got something that could work in this environment and they will have to cut their cloth accordingly to suit it. There are many changes that you would need to make to a Versys system that goes on a standalone environment into a retail unit, one that goes into a mall or one that goes into, in this case, a cinema, and the company will well, it's only content. So it isn't the end of the world, but they will have to, as I keep on saying, cut their cloth but adjust their product and their marketing and their promotion accordingly.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'd like to thank our friends at Surf Social in New Zealand for hunting me down and demanding representation. They were very nice about it. They wanted to point out that the social entertainment scene is strong down under, as it were, and we know our friends at Fun Labs, obviously, as well as some of the other new competitive, socialising venues that are opening up in Australia and New Zealand, and we have a new one in New Zealand. So, 75 Square, a mix of everything, but not too much of a mix of everything. They have escape rooms, they have shuffleboard and ping pong and they have outside cornhole, but, you know, within the environment it is food, fun, competitive, socializing, social entertainment environment. We know that this is the beginning of their planned rollout of a number of locations. We'd like to wish them well with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, glad to see that. You know sort of what we've talked about beginning to show its face, you know, to New Zealand it's not here in the US, but at least it is beginning to happen, where you have a mix of competitive, socializing components and not just a single one. So this looks like a very interesting facility and very well done as far as the aesthetics of the space.
Speaker 4:They've done their research, they've picked the products. They've done the evaluation of the aesthetics of the space. They've done their research, they've picked the products. They've done the evaluation of the guest experience. I would argue that they've been watching and listening to their sound offs and reading their stingers and I thank them for keeping up with that. But I think that they're their own men and that they've come up with a concept that they're willing to stand by and by the promotion and their social media feed, it looks like it's being well received. So, onwards and upwards.
Speaker 4:Moving to the next one and Dubai, a slap on the wrist for me. The last comment I made, I think in a sound off about no, it was in an opening shot talking about the bounce facility, and there was one other name, oh yeah, hush. I was one of the few competitive socializing out there. Well, I had my card marked and I was given a long list of competitive socialising venues that are in Dubai alone, let alone the region, and I was also informed of a new one, capitole, that has just opened. This one kind of reminds me, even though Albatross hasn't opened yet.
Speaker 1:I'm getting Albatross vibes from the rendering.
Speaker 4:Anyway, these aren't renderings, these are actual pictures from the facility. A bit of bowling, a bit of darts, a bit of axe throwing. They have F1 simulators and even mini golf. So a bit of everything and live performance, and we're going to touch upon the issues of live performance. Live performance and we're going to touch upon the issues of live performance in these venues in our sound off. That will be part of this slosh of weekly coverage. Moving on to the next one and round one, well, round one.
Speaker 4:Japan has been promoting some very interesting figures, seeing a store-on-store uptake of about 11%, if my memory serves me right. So they're very buoyant regarding their Japanese operation and they're continuing an active rollout in the States. So we're up to about 50 facilities in the States now, and the latest one in Texas, again the 23,000 square, is falling into the same standard package. This isn't anything out of the ordinary. There will be the ping pong, there is the amusement machines, with a smattering of music machines imported from Japan. They do have some level of F&B but you know, minimal themality and heavy on the bowling kind of approach, the standard model if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So moving on and Velocity.
Speaker 4:Now we have to be careful here. This is Velocity Sim Racing Lounge. You'll understand in a minute why I have to be careful about this. This is a new operation. This is a Sim Center or a Sim Lounge. So, rather than the golf simulator, you've got the driving simulator, literally. You've got the driving simulator, literally, a little bit of everything. I don't know how inspired these guys have been by F1 Arcade. I'm not seeing it in the themality or the walkthrough that I watched. They had a racing theme to it and they're using top-spec racing units. They have about 16 of these simulators compared to what you'd find in an F1 arcade facility. Sorry to use F1 as the bar that we measure all of the sim racing by, sort of like, only using five irons to measure all of the golf simulators. They are their own, men. We wish them a lot of luck in Texas again. Men, we wish them a lot of luck in Texas again. Texas is just going to be wall-to-wall competitive socializing venues if it carries on like this All experiences in entertainment in general.
Speaker 2:You've got all sorts of stuff going on here.
Speaker 4:A couple of years ago, I had Texas pushed across my table regarding the opening of a new theme park and I said well, there wasn't a lot of theme park entertainment out there, so why not do a regional entertainment? Well, I have to change that opinion over the last couple of years. Thank you for grabbing the vid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it is showing the simulators a lot more, but it definitely has a feeling of like a full on sports bar. So you do even say they say the sim racing lounge and then in the Google Maps it says sports bar. So they're definitely going for, I mean, with only 16 sims. That, you know, with the size of the bar and the size of the restaurant that they actually have here here that they're showing is, it tells me that this is definitely much more about just hanging out and watching sports and then also, you know, maybe playing some sims here and there I agree it has that vibe 16 sims kind of tells us that it's light on the uh gamification and heavy on the watch party and the general ambience.
Speaker 4:It will be interesting to see how this mix fares because you know you have to pick a lane pardon the pun and stay in it, and they've kind of picked the middle ground and they're going to have to be fish or fowl to survive in this market. But they also have the eSports component to fall back on. So you know, I think they've done their homework. The Oklahoma this is an addition. We talked about the golf sims. We talked about the race sims. Well, let's talk about the baseball sims.
Speaker 4:Our friends at Home Run Dugout have done a deal with Oka Resorts. I think it would be pronounced O-K-A-N, o-k-a-n-a, probably, yeah, o-k-a-n-a. Yeah, I forget which Indian, sorry Native American phrase the name Oklahoma comes from. But anyway, history for another lesson. But they have decided to add to their indoor water park and resort a home run dugout simulator setup. I'm not exactly sure how many sims they put in there. I think they've only put two in there. The picture I'm showing is actually from their flagship facility, but it is the latest example of how home run dugout is pitching their ball at the moment. They're on a roll. Here we go. I pushed that far enough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've got a lot of the puns going, but yeah, these guys have really done a great job licensing their product. At first, I thought that they were only going to be doing their own venues, and then we saw them at IAAPA Expo having a booth and clearly to license their concept, and from the very beginning, when I saw their first location, I thought this is how you can bring baseball into a competitive utilizing environment that's much more accessible than your stand batting cage, and so they've done a great job originally. And then now to see them expanding so quickly, especially into what are typically family-based resorts. When you have a resort and indoor water park, these are family resorts, so to add a home run dugout here, they're definitely targeting that family atmosphere.
Speaker 4:And for all of those companies out there that mug me and say, but we do pitching digital screen games as well. No, you don't. The most important thing about our friends at Home Run is their soft pitch soft ball system, and if you haven't learned the lesson of why that is more applicable than just having a batting ball launching cage system with a screen at the bottom, then you're not doing your research. Moving on, and yeah, the Michigan mall that Gummy or Gumoo is being located or is located in it has already appeared in open and shut because they have a amusement VR experience in there, and it is courtesy of the guys there that we knew that this particular attraction is opening up. Why it stands out from the rest is that it is the first of a mixture where we have a soft play area that has a combined claw machine, or clawcade as they like to call it, claw machine component.
Speaker 4:So go in for the soft play, come out with the merch, as it were. Uh, the interesting aspect about this is that you are really building. You know you have a, a captive audience that wants one or the other. You go for a very strong themality. I'm looking forward to seeing how this does 8000 square. So it's no slouch, as it were, and you know it is an interactive, or I would say gamified playground enclosure, but it is the marriage of the soft play, as it were, with the crane machine facility that could, could spark a new genre of entertainment application, and that means I'm going to have to go away and come up with a new trendy attainment phrase to define this by yeah, because it's definitely not clockade.
Speaker 2:As I say here, right Game is clockade. It's like, you know, maybe just claws, that's fine, you can call them a clockade, but as soon as you add interactive playgrounds or gamified you know soft play then you're no longer a clockade. So definitely something different. But I think it's a great mix combining these two. It makes a lot of sense. You've got the young kids coming in for the soft play. They're going to want the plush, they're going to want to play the cranes, so it's a great addition to their original clockade installation.
Speaker 4:And it's very important that the distributors out there get off their high horse and stop shouting at me saying that they have claw machines and they have crane machines that are comparable to these. These are the new wave machines and these are much more eye-catching and much more attractive to the target audience that's going into these claw-cades. No, it doesn't work.
Speaker 2:Claw zones- Claw zones yeah, but you've got the play zone too, so we're going to have to figure something out, yeah.
Speaker 4:Otherverse, this is zone too, so we're gonna have to figure something out. Yeah, um other verse uh, this is unusual. Uh, we've talked about them before. Uh, back in november they ran a test, uh at this particular orlando facility of one of their pieces of content that they were rolling out. They're doing another soft test of, uh, another piece of vr content. This one one is a little bit more experiential and it uses a kind of game show Squid Game-esque kind of approach. Once they've collected enough data from this short rollout only a couple of months then they'll be able to roll this game out to the VR arcade sector. And the nice thing is, if you're in the locality in Orlando where this is, it's free play. So they are literally in the what I would call a lock test, location testing phase and they wanted to get the word out. So we've done that for them and we look forward to seeing the results.
Speaker 4:Jumping back to Dubai and I haven't really talked about the eSports sector there has been a plethora of new eSports lounge openings and you know, just picking at random, our friends at True Gamers not so random they've just received a massive infusion of five million uh to try and dominate in their particular territory, the esports market, and so you know, a war of uh m&a has started up merger and acquisition. They're trying to define themselves. They already have 130 facilities dotted around the region and other countries, but they really want to establish their formula. One of the unique components about the true gamer experience is, while you're stuck at your terminal in your Call of Duty deathmatch, when you make an order for food or your Cheetos delivery, it's delivered by robots. So we're really beginning to see robotic service getting a hold in the market. This particular one's using a dog robot to make your delivery. I don't know how much of a gimmick or if it is a useful component, but they do it and they're one of the first that I've heard about doing that.
Speaker 4:And it gives you a kind of idea. When we're talking about the difference between a center and a lounge, we're talking about an esports lounge, and that is 29 stations, so it kind of puts into perspective those 16 race sims that we were talking about previously.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this, this, you know they've got the console gaming as well. We talked about on the sound off, the last sound off and I I think the repeat visit it depends if they're we've got the member model, the repeat visitation is really going to be just those who are their seer is gamers, esports teams, that kind of thing, I just don't know. Esportssports teams that kind of thing, I just don't know. E-sports, e-sports teams specifically, because most people who play e-sports, they're going to have a rig at home that's going to be comparable, if not better, potentially, than what this is, because they're going to continually upgrade it and so they really would have to come in here and be playing team play in order to really utilize this space.
Speaker 4:It's heavy social, heavy play and heavy demographic. You've also got to remember that the UAE, as well as Saudi, has put a vast amount of investment into esports as a future sports in that territory. They have major esports teams. A young man in my generation would have aspired to be an astronaut, aspires now to either be an influencer or an esports athlete. So even if they have the most powerful rig at home, which I am sure that they have, they're still going to want to compete in these facilities. And these facilities also lead on to the big competitions During season in.
Speaker 4:Let's see, when I was out in Riyadh, I presented at the Esports Foundation Gamer 8 event and that was big money. And you know money. And, uh, you know, part of the growth of esports in china and part of the growth of esports in the middle east and north african market is due to the support that it gets internationally. And then, uh, rounding it off, we have a interesting development. Our friends at Lane 7 have about 20 of their boutique bowling facilities out there. A bit of bowling, a bit of competitive socialising, a bit of amusement, and they have now been creating unique brands or chains based around their core concept. So we have the original Lane 7 style of facility but we also now have other kinds of derivations that run on the theme. I go into much more detail in SoundOff about this but we have the latest opening of their ML7 brand.
Speaker 4:Now the distinction between what an ML7 is compared to a Lane 7, compared to a Gutterball facility, I'll try and go into more detail when we're doing the sound off but just for you watching this now, the key component size 28,000 square, so it's a little bit larger than your average lane seven facility and it is much heavier on the amusement component, on the competitive social element. It has a much stronger and varied food and beverage component and it is duck pin bowling rather than gravity bowling that you'll find at some of the running facilities. Horses for courses. Again, it's important that they make the distinction so someone knows when they're going into an ML7 compared to a gutter ball or going into a lane 7, and these are the issues that are going to define how they move forward. The lane seven has raised some capital and they are looking at world domination. They opened their first German facility recently and be prepared to be hearing about a few more new openings in the coming weeks and months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know that we'll talk about this more on sound off, but just going to throw this up here real quick, only because it is still sitting on their Lane 7 website. They don't have a separate website for the ML7. It's considered in a separate location, but the one distinction here is you'll notice Newcastle Arcade Bar, so they are calling it an arcade bar versus a typical Lane 7. And clearly the arcades are branded with the M logo that is part of the ML7. So definitely, and then when you come here real quick to the venues, you come to the venues and you know it is the arcade that's showcased on the ML7 versus more bowling or the rest of the venues and some of the other locations.
Speaker 4:So definitely it seems like We'll go into more detail about. There's quite a glaring error in their branding that you're going to come across there. But we wish them luck. They do their research. You know, lane 7 was one of the early companies that defined the boutique bowling environment. That has led to the explosion in competitive socializing. So if anyone understands the mix, they should.
Speaker 4:Anyway, moving to the shots, and you can see why I was so careful about Velocity SimSport against Velocity Esports. We've lost Well, no, let's not say lost. We have a chain of esports, entertainment and FEC under the Velocity Esports. This group of three facilities actually comprises a number of ex-GameWorks staff and executives and actually parachuted at least two of their three facilities into previous GameWork locations. And if you're not familiar about GameWorks, go over to the virtual arena, and I think I have an article there that goes into the depths of GameWorks their rise and their fall.
Speaker 4:Well, our friends at Velocity Esports has announced that they've taken on Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. They've already lost one of their facilities. The one in Chicago has permanently closed and the other two are still operational. But now the owners of the operation are looking at either acquisition or refinancing. We're not sure. Information is sparse at the moment. But it is kind of the swings and arrows of misfortune that we're going to be experiencing in the next couple of months as companies come to their period where they have got to the end of their investment capital and, rather than being the only kid in the block, they now have to face the competition. So it's either ship up or shape out Wrong way around.
Speaker 4:The issue here is that I get the feeling that this is a going concern. It just needs the right TLC. But again, we will wait and see who is the lucky company to grab that one. And moving to the layoffs and, sadly, the inevitable, we touched upon it in a recent sound off and in an open and shut when we reported the closing of one or the plans to close one of their Six Flags water parks. Well, now the CEO has confirmed that he doesn't expect to close any more of their resorts firm that he doesn't expect to close any more of their resorts they have about 42 in their list but he does expect to see layoffs across the board from the corporation. As we would expect merging with Cedar Fair. It is just inevitable that there will be duplication. And also they have a target to hit 16 million in savings by 2026 and that inevitably will mean some restructuring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened sooner, given the merger happened about two years ago roughly Is that about right? Roughly 18 months ago, maybe, yeah, so I'm just kind of surprised that this hasn't happened sooner. But you know, it's not ever great when you're in that cut. But it definitely makes sense for their viability going forward.
Speaker 4:Yeah, survivability, and they hope that things will be stronger once they have peered down their operation. We will have to wait and see. That's it from me.
Speaker 2:All right, awesome. Well, another great opening shot. We'll see you on the next one. See you on the next one.
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Speaker 2:All right. Well, that was a great opening shot with Kevin Williams. Thank you so much, Kevin. And coming up next, we have Game On with Justin Michaels, so let's get into it.
Speaker 3:Hey Brandon, how are you today? Hey yeah, good to be with you, Justin. Yeah, thanks for having me again. Yeah, good to be with you, Justin. Yeah, thanks for having me again. We've talked about a lot of fun things like redemption and cranes, and today we're going to jump into the very sexy topic of cashless technology.
Speaker 2:All right, all right. Well, let's do it. I mean, I know we were talking a little bit beforehand that there's a reason why we're going to talk about this like a good revenue generating reason.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. I just want to talk a little bit today about the customer journey and really utilizing your system to drive revenue, not only inside of your business, but outside as well. And you know, for those that are still running tickets, tokens quarters, for those that are still running tickets, tokens quarters even I threw this testimonial up there and full transparency, this is probably on the very high side of things. This customer saw as much as an 80% increase in sales and then sustained like 60% over the course of a year their first year, like 60% over the course of a year, their first year. And that is on the high side. But we consistently hear 30 to 50% regularly and you're not dealing with the cost of tokens and tickets and then you have ticket jams and token jams.
Speaker 2:All the little ticket dust. In general that just gets in everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, and more you know. More importantly the system is if you use it properly, it's always selling for you. You know it's driving efficiencies in your business, and so those are some of the things I just want to hit on today.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. Well, let's, yeah, we'll dive in, okay.
Speaker 3:So you know, Selling cashless technology for Intercard, it's very excited to want to just jump into feature benefit when you're talking to a new customer, and the way that I always approach it is more of like a consultative type approach. I like to get into the site and I want to talk to the operator about how they want to utilize the technology, kind of more importantly, how they want their guest to utilize it. So you know it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. It can be completely customizable, but your guest is most likely pre-visit, they're going to visit your social and in the website. I don't know about you, but I like to research businesses online before I ever visit them. And so with software like e-commerce and you know it's 2025, you should have some type of online sales capability right 24-7, 365,. You have software technology that's selling for you while we sleep. So if you're not utilizing something like that, you're missing out on a lot of revenue for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, one of the interesting things I've always wondered about, you know, and obviously before I started well, I guess it was while I started LBS Collective obviously before before I started well, I guess it was while I started LBS collective Um, I was also running Hound. We were promotions platform for uh for this industry and you know we have pop-ups on the website that would like sell buy nows and coupons and other things like that. So, like you know, people could pre-buy. You know, and I always wondered, like you could buy a gift card, like why didn't we like pre-sell or like almost sell a game card as like a form of gift card? Like you know what I mean. Like you can buy a gift card for dave and busters, but but why not like a game card for dave and busters?
Speaker 2:But, like, I was always wondering about that. Like, I feel like there's a, there's an opportunity there for venues to sell their game cards as uh, almost like as a gift card, or it's like an ad, like in instead of gift, and that's you wouldn't sell gift cards also to like use f and b and and for the actual attractions. But I just feel like game card is like a direct uh, like a direct reason to come in and use it because, like I don't know anyway, no doubt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean shameless inner card plug. I mean e-commerce is designed to do that, so it's a link. You can embed it into your website. But essentially, any package you're selling through the teller, whether it be multi-attraction or game card alone, you can go online, purchase that and then a QR can be sent wherever you want it to go. So if grandma's in California and grandson lives in Texas, she can purchase really any package and then, through a QR code, it's emailed directly or texted to whoever she wants to receive it In this case the grandson and then he can go into the facility and redeem it at the teller with the QR code or through any point of sale. So sale, so it's really a no-brainer. Um, why not have have that capability to to sell? And you know you, you can purchase a gift card for somebody and and send it directly to them.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, totally well, in pre-buying in general, like when I can, you know I'll pre-buy a ticket every single time before I come in, like I'll reserve, like I don't want to wait at the front counter, I don't know what kind of line there's going to be. You know, for the most part, most of these, most venues, have kiosks that like aren't super backed up, right, so you could, you could pretty much go and get a card pretty easily. But, um, whenever I can, I'll buy ahead of time, especially there's discounts involved absolutely, and that that's always into online party booking as well and event sales.
Speaker 3:Shindigger is our solution. There's other solutions out there, but if you're not selling these things online, you're really missing out. I mean, allow the guests to go online and purchase what they want, pre-purchase and visit your center and spend money. Memberships and promotions help drive sales as well. So I call them MVP guests, but your very best guests. You know who they are through reporting. You can push special promotions to those guests that others don't receive as being MVP guests, and then discounted promotions and pricing for non-peak times, slow Tuesday night. You can push out half price video, any type of promotion you want to run. But again, just low hanging fruit, just easy way to drive business and traffic and create revenue, no brainer.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's awesome. Mobile wallet I mean, I use mine frequently. You can buy game card and reload it directly from your phone. That's become very popular more recently. And then the waiver solution as well. I mean, the last thing you want is a bus like three busloads of kids showing up to your trampoline park and you don't have waivers already taken care of. So all of that should be done online. Pre-visit. It's just a no brainer in terms of driving efficiency and getting guests in and out quickly. So all things to think about pre-visit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally, totally agreed.
Speaker 3:And then mapping the journey once the guest is inside your building. Buying game cards you know we suggest branded game cards and wearable RFID media. The game card is going to be saved. You're charging for it at the teller, so that's going to cover the cost of the card. But, more importantly, the guest is keeping that in a wallet or a purse. They're saving tickets and they're always they have your brand top of mind. That's a great way to keep your brand in front of them.
Speaker 3:And then teller sales self-serve. You know I like to check out self-checkout lines. I don't. I like self-service. I think everyone does. You can register your guests there. When they register the card, you're capturing email addresses and birthdays, which can lead to those future promotions that we were just talking about. And it's really, it's your best employee, right.
Speaker 3:The teller is not going to have a bad attitude. It's not going to be playing on its phone, it's not going to call in sick. It truly is. And in terms of labor, which everyone is concerned about we talked about that last time you can avoid a lot of labor costs by having your teller do most of the work and it's always upselling right. That's what we're talking about is just ways to drive revenue through dynamic pricing. You buy a 50 card, you get this much extra bonus. You can bundle in your packages, whether it's bowling or laser tag or really any attraction. You know three attraction bundles. It's completely customizable, which is great. So just always upselling um. And then functionality at the teller is very important Making sure that you have the software necessary to create those bundles and packages. Let that teller do the work for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, for sure. Bundling is 100% a great way to go. I mean, if you're not bundling a game card in with your other attraction packages, then you're missing out on massive opportunities, especially if, like, your bundled game card is like a slightly lower amount than what you know they're typically going to spend in your arcade. Because it gets them rolling. Yeah, anything is like really good, you know good to get them rolling. A lot of times, like, even if you throw in like a free five dollar game card with a certain package, again, what is that free five dollars going do? It's going to get a game card in their hand. It's going to get them playing, they're going to whet their appetite and they're going to want to load some more money onto that card for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're going to recharge it. Right, you get them going and they're going to recharge it for sure. And then guests are going to visit guest services or main point of sale. A lot of our customers will use us as a turnkey for everything but a lot don't. In the bowling space you have Brunswick Sink and Cubica Conqueror and there's Roller. I mean we have integrations with, I think, close to 100 different companies in different capacities. But anything you can do to make that experience when they're out of that self-serve environment and they're dealing with your employees, to make it more seamless for your staff and for the guest, just makes a ton of sense. So integrations are really important. And then event check-in and bookings. You know with the software that you need to book a party or event, are you able to find them easily and get them going with the party. All of those things are very important. And then upselling training your staff on how to upsell through the point of sale packages, game cards, all of those things. And then leading to the games readers, that's how you're going to activate the game. You can theme out the reader with your logos, pushing out some of that dynamic pricing and half price, promotional type things that we talked about to the reader Very important Credit card readers.
Speaker 3:You see a lot of those now. Ours is the impulse. You may have someone that wanders into the arcade and they think you know what, I'm not going to play games. And then they see the photo booth and they're like, oh well, let's do the photo booth. Well, they don't have to buy the game card, but you're still capturing that revenue with the credit card. Those impulse readers or credit card readers are great for photo booths. Like I said, the boxing machines, maybe a big one crane just capturing that revenue when someone doesn't necessarily want to buy a game card.
Speaker 3:Qr technology you see it everywhere with menus and it's become very popular. The good thing about a QR system is especially in unattended spaces where you're not in there every day. Card dispenser is going to hold roughly 250 cards. The roll of paper in the IQ system or teller is going to hold close to 1,400 codes. So in terms of having to refill the card dispenser, you don't have to worry about that sort of thing. The reader can read either paper or wristband, or it can read mobile device as well, which is nice. Things like that are great for unattended, smaller spaces, really just anywhere. It's moving more towards the phone, avoiding the cost of the cards and card dispenser failure jams, that sort of thing. So utilizing reader technology is a great way to generate revenue. Great way to generate revenue.
Speaker 3:And then usually the last thing folks do is redeem their points in redemption. It's usually the last step in the journey and they've been in your facility, they've done the attractions, they've probably been there a while, they're ready to get out. So making that a seamless, quick, efficient process is really ideal. It's point of sale to redeem prizes, customer facing redemption software. So guests get excited. You can broadcast from the point of sale up to multiple players. It'll show points. They get excited about it. They can see their name up there, their card, how many points they have. It's just a nice little added feature in redemption. I highly recommend that.
Speaker 3:And then inventory management is a huge thing. Especially when I was on the redemption side of things. I would always ask operators like what are your biggest struggles? Attrition, turnover with employees was usually always number one, but inventory with redemption was tough. I think a lot of folks do really well with food and beverage, but not so much on the redemption side of that side of things. So that can be training, but it can also be not having the right tools. But it can also be not having the right tools. So, utilizing your point of sale, doing regular physical inventories. All the vendors provide a digital packing list or electronic packing list. So essentially, if you bought 100 items from a redemption vendor without that file it's just a digital packing list you would have had to have keyed in manual entry all of that information and now it's just a digital file. You upload it. It brings in all the information from the order and packing list and then making sure you scan things out properly.
Speaker 3:Mobile point of sale is too for overflow and for quicker throughput.
Speaker 3:Austin's Park and Pizza is a huge family entertainment center with indoor and outdoor attractions.
Speaker 3:It's in Austin, obviously, but they've started utilizing mobile point of sale in a couple different places. In the operation At the bowling counter, if they get a log jam, they'll have an employee with a mobile point of sale. It takes credit card, you can ring folks up and then in redemption they do the same thing. So they do a lot of volume. If their store gets backed up, they'll have a couple employees grab the mobile point of sale and they work through the room, ringing up guests and just helping people to get through there quicker. That makes for a happier guest, but it also just allows you to do more business because you're flowing people in and out quicker. On a busy Saturday. That's a great tip, and then ultimately, it comes down to generating repeat business, right? So the ability to save points under your account whether that's a card or RFID bracelet or whatever it is it's all tracking back to you and if you're saving your points and redeeming them, you're going to want to come back and encourage friends and family to come back with you.
Speaker 2:It's really the name of the game.
Speaker 2:You know and I think I was thinking about the ability to save points and having it actually tied to a QR code is probably, in some ways, even better, right? So like you were talking about the QR code, like it's on your phone and it's in an email and so like, if your game card is effectively a QR code versus a physical card, your chance of losing that especially if it was like delivered via an email is a lot lower than, or at least searchable. Right, you can search for the game card. Like I cannot tell you how many times my kids would, would have some points left on their card because they didn't want to use them all, or they didn't, they weren't able. They could make a decision we had to go card because they didn't want to use them all, or they didn't, they weren't able, they could make a decision, we had to go. And so they've got, like you know, 50 points or you know 50 credits, or even, in some cases, like 500 credits on a card, and then they lose them and they're like, fuck, well, that's gone. So, like there goes all that you know opportunity for redemption because it was on a card.
Speaker 2:Uh, that was like physical and so like, if you want a qr code, be totally different and and like the generating the repeat visits would be. I mean, there's some interesting things you could even do with, like an email If you know that they have a points left on their their account, but their account is a is a QR code. You could do email automation and other things to to those people to get them to come back in and remind them that they have those extra points sitting there on their card. So, yeah, definitely think that that's a huge opportunity for for more repeat visits and and you know, vinny should definitely be doing that.
Speaker 3:That's the other thing, too, that I really didn't touch on but talking to you now, I'm thinking of is shrinkage or breakage, the float. So you know, with the card system or cashless system, there's a lot of times you're going to get to keep that. You know, guest leaves a balance on the card, they lose the card and they never think about it again. So there's there's there's that component as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely Awesome.
Speaker 3:But yeah, that's kind of really all I had. It's really about utilizing the system. I'd say most of our customers maybe only use 10 to 15% of the capability of the system. So we offer training. A lot of great companies offer training. Get in there, learn your system and learn how to make it work for you and your guests and you won't be disappointed. I guarantee you'll make more money, Guaranteed.
Speaker 2:So Right on, all right, justin. Well, it was good hanging out with you on another game on and looking forward to the next one.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir. Take care, all right. Well, that was awesome. Thanks so much, justin, for a great game on, and you know what? That is basically a wrap, so stay tuned this Tuesday for SoundOff number 74 with Kevin Williams. It should be coming out on Tuesday, may 20th, and next week. I'm excited to be back. I'll be back in the saddle at my Phoenix studio, so again, stay tuned. This is Brandon Wiley. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.
