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The Stinger Report #1241 - Shaping the New Audience – Part 1
Leading investors should note a dynamic shift in the amusement and bowling sectors as 2024 concludes, highlighted by a surge in innovation, venue openings, and evolving revenue models. The International Bowl Expo 2025 showcased a pivot toward boutique, social, and experiential entertainment, with amusement manufacturers emphasizing tech-driven attractions like smart redemption games, innovative crane machines, and trade-up prize concepts. The bowling industry is witnessing a strategic clash between traditional sports lanes and emerging boutique, immersive, and competitive social venues, with significant investments in projection systems, immersive lane tech, and streamlined operations. Notably, the closure of BANDAI NAMCO’s ‘Wincha’ online crane service signals challenges in remote play monetization despite rapid growth in Asia. Meanwhile, the rise of “Competitive Socializing” venues—mini-golf, axe-throwing, and gamified experiences—are disrupting conventional models, driven by gamification and automation. International venue rollouts, including resort collaborations, underscore a global appetite for innovative entertainment formats, signaling substantial growth opportunities amidst sector consolidation and technological advancements.
This is the Stinger Report, issue number 1241, shaping the New Audience, part 1, by Kevin Williams. The momentum as we turn the corner of the year was evident in a flurry of amusement and attraction trade events, events that proved very telling on the state of the trade and the new hurdles and issues that will shape what have proven a year of new venue opening and investment covered in this two-part report. Bowling's Schizophrenia Dilemma. Taking place at the end of June, international Bowl Expo 2025, ibe 2025, was held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington DC, the capital of the country. Taking place just before the 4th of July celebrations for the USA. The event schedule comprised conference discussions and then moving to the expo floor at the resort to then end with final debate.
Speaker 1:This year's show, along with a unique location, was also facing major restructuring across the bowling sector. Amusement had one of the largest representations in recent years at IBE. Amusement had one of the largest representations in recent years at IBE. The impact in the evolution of the Bowling Entertainment Centre BEC business towards the boutique and social entertainment venue, with bowling driving a new investment in amusement, though it must be the right kind of amusement as the more traditional approach is cast aside for new thinking. Amusement leads the charge. Many of the amusement trade deciding on presenting new amusement at the show, with new redemption pieces revealed during the event, including smart industries, knock'em blocks and jet games showing unlock mania, to mention just two. From the rest of the resort show floor, the usual appearance from Betson Enterprises, with a crowded selection of previously reported new releases from our friends at Raw Thrills, such as Top Gun, maverick Arcade, along with the latest software updates for the VR and Minecraft properties. A division of Kaizen Entertainment coming to the bowling extravaganza with the latest of their amusement wares. The company also showed Hi-5, their brand new and innovative crane machine with a unique design comprising five claws controlled by a single joystick Innovation in crane and claw machines.
Speaker 1:As Sega Japan marks the 40th anniversary of their own groundbreaking UFO catcher platform, Many manufacturers did not make the trip to DC but favored supporting their partner distributors. Avs companies represented third parties such as Allen One showing the final production version of Soda Slam, as well as other products. Though not exhibiting Bandai Namco amusement. Though not exhibiting Bandai Namco amusement, america was also represented on the AVS booth. Bnaa had at the show their updated Pac-Man Pixel Bash Cocktail, the updated retro throwback game machines laden with 32 classic video game titles from Namco's history. The system aimed at the Pac-Man caves consumer scene as well as a social entertainment deployment. No other big showing for BNA at the bowling show Off the show floor and reported on.
Speaker 1:At the time of its launch by the stinger Bandai Namco Amusement Europe, the titular head operation of the BNE amusement Japanese interests in the West had been running their own arcade online portal. In the West had been running their own arcade online portal Accessible via an app, players able to play actual skill-based amusement pieces via a live play feature, as has been seen operated by other online portals. The Stinger Report was one of the first to report on the 2019 explosion in live play apps based mainly around crane machines seen across Asia, players using special apps to connect with physical machines to play remotely. The BNAE experiment into this scene was branded Wincher and saw several units operated from the BNAE UK warehouse running the live play developed in collaboration with WePlay Creative. Though we were one of the first to report on this back in March, the experiment had been running for the last two years with hopes to make it a profitable permanent business. But during May, the Wincher social media page announced that the skill-based online crane game service would be closing its doors at the beginning of July. This development came as a surprise, only seeing the service up and running for under 24 months, while the social media statement claimed valuable lessons had been taught to BNAE from the release. This is a premature closing of the service and the smartphone and online app going dark. Many remote play crane game app operators in the western market run successful live play systems. App operators in the Western market run successful live play systems such as Toreba, chloe and GetLive, and even including Bandai Namco Japan with their own app, namco Online Crane. That an amusement operator found this difficult may point to a new focus for the UK satellite of the Japanese Entertainment Corporation Returning to IBE 2025 convention floor and other amusement-centric exhibitors included Adrenaline Amusement, touch Magics and Bay Tech Entertainment.
Speaker 1:Lai Games, who had their own booth, underlined the importance of IBE by bringing the game that missed AEI 25, their redemption piece, nascar Pit Stop, marking its world debut. Along with presenting their MR shooter, cyberpunk 2077 Turf Wars, the company also had their environmental cabinet shooter, kaiju Rampage. The LAI booth also represented new crane tech from Seasons Games with their Wonder Claw minis. This reflected the explosion in claw and crane machines across the industries and reflected at IBE25, with presentations from exhibitors such as Upside Games. Unis Technology promoted on their crowded booth their Emoji Redemption and Prize platforms, along with their own new tech crane machine offering. They also showed the video racers Monster Kart and Bigfoot Smash, alongside Vedemption Carnival Shot.
Speaker 1:Eunice was in the news regarding their investment into the new crane revolution, launching a location-based store concept. Alongside their Emoji Arcade concept, the company revealed their Trade Up Crane Store brand. Many of the latest crane machines shown on their booth have been configured to work with this store concept, which the company plans to roll out as a plug-and-play solution that can be customized. The concept employs the trade-up elements of allowing customers to accumulate smaller prizes to trade in for a larger one. Eunice sees this as a concept that can compete at a low cost to the score of new clawcades opening across the country. Andamiro USA on their booth included the showing of the Chinese import Marksman, a video shooting gallery game previously seen at IARPA Europe 2024, thanks to our friends at Arcade Heroes for their diligence on reporting the new appearances. While distributors such as newly acquired Player One Amusement Group P1AG did not show any outward change following the binding agreement to become part of gender. They were representing many new third-party releases, as well as promoting a revenue-sharing model for venues wanting to add amusement to their mix.
Speaker 1:The IBE is primarily a bowling industry gathering, ranging from the traditional sports bowling community and all their services and support in attendance as normal, though this year in smaller numbers, but also reflects the evolving bowling landscape regarding the less traditional application, charting deployment of bowling into new style BEC and competitive socialising venues, along with the whole boutique bowling landscape, including the rise of the string bowling sector. Leading exhibitors included Brunswick Bowling Products, showing their duckpin social and their immersive lane projection system, spark, developed in partnership with Touch Magics, while Cubica AMF Worldwide also had a prominent appearance at IBE 2025, promoting their Edge String technology and Flying Duck duckpin bowling, as well as their projection Hyper Bowling system. Bowling changes lanes. The battle between the sports bowling and BEC business was evident, as well as the battle between string and gravity bowling platforms. As well as the battle between string and gravity bowling platforms, other prominent exhibitors included US Bowling, along with Funk Bowling, who promoted their new Nexus Funk platform using a projection-mapped lane system, which also boasts AI-enabled cloud technology in the visuals represented and the streamlining of kiosk operation. Immersive bowling lane design was seen from DFX, who launched at IBE25 their InScoreFX, offering immersive display and integrated scoring and touchscreen support. New generation bowling venues embracing large screens and intense media.
Speaker 1:The bowling industry has been under the microscope. Questions raised regarding revenue models after the public delisting and then Chapter 11 protection filing of pinstripes, once a prominent member of the explosion in e-tertainment business. The corporation had raised $70 million and had merged with the special-purpose acquisition company Banyan Acquisition Corp last year but, entering 2025, delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and reported losses of $3.2 million in the third quarter, with same-store sales down by 7.7%. All this culminated in June with reported plans to file for bankruptcy protection, with the executive board attempting to keep their 18 facilities open during the proceedings. The Pinstripes operation had modelled itself on a bistro bowling and bocce approach to social entertainment, but had clearly been in trouble for some time. More on these developments covered by our sister publication Entertainment Social Arena.
Speaker 1:The timing of the International Bowl Expo was very relevant to the incredible number of rollouts of new bowling entertainment venues internationally. Incredible number of rollouts of new bowling entertainment venues internationally, ranging from Maximum Copenhagen in Denmark, fun Centre Wormavere in the Netherlands, the Scorpion Club in Dubai, festival Plaza, the new Super Bowl UK opening in Wolverhampton and in Basingstoke, with Time Zone and Zone Bowling in Victoria, australia. Strike 78 Bowling Bar in Monte Carmelo, brazil. Pins in Monte Carmelo, brazil. Mechanical Coen Agers in Dayton, ohio. King Pins in Glasgow and the latest Lane 7 in Newcastle, uk. This just a snapshot of the new bowling venues that opened just in June, as reported in our Open and Shut podcast at LBX. This represents an incredible investment in both gravity bowling and duckpin bowling platforms as the entertainment attraction of boutique and social venues.
Speaker 1:One of the new bowling facility concepts that was revealed around the same time as IBE25 was Mystery Fun House Arcade Experience, developed at Westgate Resorts in Kissimmee, florida, in collaboration with Chuck E Cheese. The 21,000-square-foot facility comprises a dedicated bowling area alongside amusement attractions and food halls Megabytes Much of the space, hoping to capture the nostalgia of the resort's previous Fun House. This is part of a larger multi-faceted technology and cross-brand marketing agreement between Westgate Resorts and Chuck E Cheese that will see their collaboration on entertainment spaces across property. This is one of many resort and hotel entertainment facility deployments we have been reporting on recently. Chuck E Cheese owner, cec Entertainment, also announced the rollout of 10 new facilities under the Chuck's Arcade brand, offering a less kid-centric entertainment space and hoping to embrace a more retro arcade-playing space vibe. The venues comprise exclusive merch and prizes as well as presentations based on the classic Chuck E Cheese brand.
Speaker 1:The social revolution major developments in the bowling sector with the growth in boutique and social bowling against the more traditional sports bowling approach. Many of the latest competitive socialising venues, including a duck pin or boutique bowling presence. Competitive socialising embracing the bowling scene has placed pressure on existing venues to stay relevant in the face of growing upscale competition. Traditional bowling replaced for simpler applications without the need for shoes, socks, hiring, smaller, more convenient bowling balls and similar operation-slash-servicing, as well as the embracing of gamification to increase dwell time and add new secondary entertainment spend alongside the bowling. Ibe 25 reflected these changes with exhibitors such as Greenspan Projects. The leading mini-golf developer brought an example of their Putify platform, the company defining as mini-golf reinvented through smart tech incorporating scoring and touchscreen support. Gamification of darts, axe throwing and beyond was represented on the Lasertron's booth with the latest software update for their popular Crazy Darts system.
Speaker 1:Creative Works took a booth at IBE 2025, promoting their innovative work in the bowling center business and new developments, including the launch of their new boutique golf. Though not at the show, the company revealed the development of this non-technology-based mini-golf platform for entertainment venues wanting a simple application. This complements their tech-infused Lucky Putt gamified alternative. The booth also partnered with their collaboration party partner, valomotion. Both operations celebrating the latest successful installations of the Valo Arena at the Malibu Jacks in North Richland Hills, texas, as well as reaching an important milestone with the installation of their 100th Valo Arena at the Andretti Indoor Karting and Games at Katy, texas.
Speaker 1:Social media devouring player content on the Valo Arena, the company reporting 100-plus million views on TikTok and over 28 million views across Reddit and Instagram. Represented on the Bowlmark Robotic Booth, the developer Shuffley showed their modular shuffleboard system with the latest incarnation with the new Shuffle Showdown platform. Also on the booth was one of the few robotic appearances. The bowling sector has been one of the first service industries to embrace autonomous serving along with lane cleaning systems. Bowlmark Robotic represented hardware designed by Pudu with the Bellabot Autonomous Serving Robot range, supported by the SwiftBot bussing and serving robot, also showing the Double C1 Autonomous Cleaning Unit.
