The LBX Show #71 - Victorian Social Entertainment, PopStroke issues & more!

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by Alan-1!

On this week's show we break down what’s working right now in location-based entertainment, from a coin-op barcade model that avoids the free-play trap to new venue concepts that actually stand out. Then we zoom out with openings, closures, and a practical way to measure marketing performance that goes beyond clicks and even beyond revenue.

• coin-op barcade economics that drive repeat play without token friction 
• why unlimited free-play arcade bar models keep failing 
• quick hits on award-winning FEC and arcade concepts with strong food and beverage 
• a Victorian-themed competitive socializing venue built around analog games and booth play 
• major openings across markets including active entertainment, VR, and darts concepts 
• notable closures and what they reveal about sustainability and positioning 
• market capture as the core metric, using drive-time mapping, competitor audits, and zip-code analysis 
• using Google reviews, on-site visits, and ad libraries to infer competitor demand

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Transcript

Welcome And Show Roadmap

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Tuning you in now to the LBX Show. With your host, Brandon Wyatt. What do you buy the LBX collective? Your community to connect, engage, and inspire.

A Coin-Op Barcade Done Right

Two Award-Winning Venue Spotlights

Victorian Pub Games Meet Modern Play

SPEAKER_02 0:22

All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show for April 5th, 2026. I'm your host, Brandon Wiley, and we have a good show lined up for you today. We are going to first dive into some news you should know, and then we'll roll right into an open and shut with Kevin Williams to review all of the openings and closing trends from this last week. And then finally, Chuck DeMonty is back, and he's back here with Promo Pro Tips. And we're uh discussing this week how entertainment brands can understand whether or not they are winning by reviewing the right metrics. So, with that, without further ado, let's dive into some news you should know. All right. Well, I had an opportunity over this last weekend to go to San Diego and race at the San Diego Crew Classic, and that was a lot of fun, had some good races, had some good results, uh, but then went through to Mechula, California on the way back to do some wine tasting, etc. And I was pleasantly surprised. First of all, the town was super quaint and amazing. And this is not my first time there, it was the second time back to visit. But this time I did come across this coin op arcade bar. Um, and it was uh, you know, it was closed during the day, but it was open up a little bit later in the day. So uh we went back to go check this thing out and uh you know got there. It was probably like eight, nine o'clock at night, and uh there was a good energy, good vibe going on. They had a great full bar, like really phenomenal full cocktail bar, good cocktail list, wine, beer on tap as well, uh, some a few small plates. You could even, I think, get a burger. I don't know, but you know, we had already had dinner. So anyway, uh got a chance to uh you know have a couple of drinks and then just go around and check things out. I mean, it's a really simple arcade bar, but I thought it was like done really well. So they had lots of good branding, lots of good like little tchotkies here and there. They had a good mix of like some retro arcade games, but also uh some some cranes. Um, you know, but then you also had like your standard uh like ski ball and some basketball hoops, some pinball, but they also had some newer games, also. So, you know, they had the Mario uh DX, and so had a lot of fun driving that and racing, and I lost, but that's okay. Um, and uh, you know, I think a couple of things that I thought were really good about this. And so uh you can see here uh you've got the skee ball, you've got the hoops, and you've got down the clown. And you know, I think what was really interesting is that first of all, this was an arcade bar, I think, done right. We talk about a lot of times on this show, uh especially with open and shut with Kevin Williams, that uh arcade bars, we see so many of them close when they have the type of model where it's a pay one fee and it's unlimited play, but everything is on free play. That was not this case. They had uh everything was cash, so you had to, if you didn't have cash, you had to like go go and use, you know, go and use an ATM or get cash from somebody at the bar, or they would swap out cash or whatever, and then you'd go and you'd get changed. Everything was literally coin op. It was all coins and it was all quarters too. So it wasn't tokens, which again was really good because if you leave and you didn't spend all your tokens for whatever, you just have money. You have quarters, you don't have to like re-exchange them back or anything. You don't feel like you lost out, and so you're willing to like drop more cash and turn it into quarters because you feel like you can still leave with that money. And so, and everything was also priced very reasonably. I think the skee ball was 50 cents, the Mario DX was just a dollar. Like the things I think the most expensive thing was a dollar. Um, and so that you just saw people playing and plunking coins in, plunking coins in, and having a good repeat play in this particular case. There was no redemption, so it was all either merchandisers, again, just a few cranes. They had a duck crane as well. Um, or they just had, you know, again, the games that some of the games you've seen, or the pinball. Uh, even the pinball was 50 cents for some of the pinball machines, but they also had surprisingly, for this little arcade bar in the in Temecula, California, they had the new Pokemon that literally was just released at Amusement Expo just a couple of weeks ago. They had the new Pokemon sitting there right in the center. If you can't see it, I'll try to make this a little bigger. Um, you know, they've got it right there, and that was a dollar per play. Um, but it was a great gameplay. I didn't get a chance to play it at Amusement Expo, although I did see it. And so I really enjoyed that uh that machine. And um, you know, you could just see some of the little designs and things that they have up and around everywhere. Uh again, just very, very well done uh arcade bar. And you know, I think what what I liked was there was a good energy, there was good music, the lighting was kind of dim, but it wasn't like any cheesy lighting or cheesy feel. There were lots of tables, there were people eating food, people having drinks, people just sitting at the bar and hanging out. So I think it's one of the things, too, is it was just a good bar. They had really good drinks, they had good quality alcohol, uh, they had good quality cocktails alongside like a fun mix. And so that was frankly, you know, we had a great time, you know, tasting wine and everything else. But that was frankly one of the most enjoyable things of that whole day was popping into this random coin op bar. So I guess uh my point is things can be done really well and very simply at some level, too, but with the right attention to detail and the right model. Bar first with a little bit of arcade. Uh well, actually, I shouldn't say it. It was bar, it was bar and arcade, really, truly. It was a barcade, but though they focused heavily on the quality of the bar alongside the arcade, and it was pure coin up, and it wasn't um, you know, anything that it was a business model that's just not going to be sustainable. That free play model we've just seen fail over and over and over, time and time again. And so, would this operate or survive in a larger city? I don't know, but because it was Temecula, smaller town, tourism coming through, etc., something fun to do in the evenings after the wine wineries are closed. Maybe that's why this thing survives and does well. It could be location, it could be opportunity, but I do think it was also well run and well laid out. So that was the Coin Op arcade bar in Temecula. And uh, if you ever get a chance to go through, I highly recommend recommend popping in there. All right. So we're gonna talk about two award-winning locations today. We're not gonna go too deep into them, but uh Starlanes Polaris was recently named FEC of the Year by AAMA at the Amusement Expo. We didn't really talk about that during our guest gab because we're really focused more on what we saw at the uh you know at the expo. Um, but they are the uh Family Entertainment Center location of the year. Um, and so this is uh they have about 35,000 square feet FEC. They're based in Columbus, Ohio. And they uh they won this on March 18th at Amusement Expo. They were opened in 2013 by two brothers. Their anchor attraction is bowling, and so you can see you know an example of their lanes here, very you know, nicely done lanes, and you know, their focus is on serving families, adults, corporate users. And so, yeah, that's a that's a little bit about Star Lanes. And then the other one is arcade time. They were named the best new arcade by oh, where is it? There we go. The best new arcade, and uh they're you know, they have uh Cubica AMF's uh flying ducks, duck pin bowling in there. And this was uh they won the best arcade at the 41st annual bowling center architecture and design award. So uh while they are uh calling themselves an arcade, they do have the duck pin bowling available as well. And they also have crazy darts, and then their arcade is really a mix of like current modern arcade games as well as retro arcade games, and then they have a full restaurant and bar. It's a massive location. This particular location that won is the one based in Orlando, Florida, but they have five locations across Florida and they have new venues. If you go to their website, arcade, uh I believe it's arcade time.com. They have new locations opening in Nevada, Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, and Tennessee. So they're on like heavy duty expansion mode. I definitely will pop in and take a look at this location when I'm in Orlando the next time. But uh yeah, it is definitely there, are they growing and they've clearly found a model that works well for them. All right. This last one that we're gonna talk about is really interesting. And actually, next week we're gonna talk maybe a little bit more about it on Kevin's uh Kevin Williams Open and Shut, but I wanted to get ahead of it because I really, really like fell in love with this. Like I have a love affair with this particular uh concept, and I cannot wait to go and check it out. This is uh a new competitive socializing environment uh or concept is opening in London on April 20th, so in just about a week and a half uh or two weeks or away from now, and it's called Mr. Fogg's Games Parlor, and it will take place on the lower ground of Mr. Fogg's Tavern. So you have the tavern up above, you go you go down into the basement, and you have Mr. Fogg's Games Parlor, and it's about 5,000 square feet down below. And there is uh you know really cool thing. So they have a bunch of different booths, and they can accommodate up to eight players in each of these booths, and each of these booths actually have six different games during an 80-minute experience. So you pay for 80 minutes, you're playing these six different games, but the games have all been Victorianized. Uh, that includes darts, mini golf, beer pong, shufflepuck, baccatel, and parlor uh quits, quotes, quits, I'm not quite sure what that is. Um, but uh, you know, I should have maybe looked that up. Uh, but there'll also be a full bar serving beers, cocktails, and bar snacks. But um, you know, one of the the groups uh said for like hundreds of years, people have been playing games in public houses across the UK. So he said so it only this is by in his quote, so it only feels fitting that we found a way to revive traditional Victorian parlor games and combine them with more modern favorites in order to create a fitting selection of 21st century pub games. And he goes and he continues and he says, uh, we've uh seen the rise in popularity of competitive socializing concepts over recent years and knew that if we entered the space, we would want to create something distinctly different. Uh absolutely the key. Uh I will just go on a side tangent real quick. What we've been seeing are copycats, copycats, copy, copycats. Uh say that five times fast. Uh, what you really need to do is find something that is unique, find something that is going to be a concept that is innovative and different, and it's going to stand out from all of the other competitive socializing things going on right now. And they've done that. So I'll come back to his quote. We've spent nearly 24 months testing our unique gaming concept, and we're incredibly excited to be finally revealing it to our customers. This is true to the Victorian backstory. The experience is deliberately analog rather than digital. There's something wonderfully simplistic about marking your own score on a chalkboard. So I think there's a big opportunity. So anyway, I like that is uh it is analog. And so again, you know, I'll expand here. You can see these things. So what I thought was really cool is I thought, okay, so is are the guests moving from one experience to the next, like a mini golf course or whatever? No, they're not actually. The everything is in a particular booth. So you really have your space. And so it is a lot like the competitive socializing movement where you know you're all hanging around around a single space, but it's not just darts and it's not just shuffleboard, and it's not just uh you know a putt-putt uh game like a you know 501 or a social rivals um uh game. All of them are in your booth and you're all taking turns and playing each of these different games and you're rotating through and you're each getting a chance to try something new and different. And one of you might be good at something, uh a different one, then one of you might be good at another. And it allows for that accessibility of competitive socializing that we talk about, that social entertainment. It's accessible because everybody can potentially suck at something or be really good at something, and you each have a chance to uh try it out and and you know have fun. And then anyway, the the space looks amazing, it looks incredibly Victorian, which I absolutely love that aesthetic. And they've just done a really fun phenomenal job. And if you go to their website, they've done a great job too with videos of people like in Victorian style dress, having fun and playing around. And obviously, you don't have to wear a Victorian style dress to go down there, but it is just a really cool feel and look and feel. And you know, I think one of the things I like about this is I'm a big fan of Victorian era, not that I want to go back and live in that period of time, but I just there's there's something about that that's you know, kind of the the uh that that that period of time. Um, this is like the Charles Dickens era, right? The Oliver Twist era. So uh when you know Charles Dickens was really popular, so like, you know, obviously the um the Christmas story. And speaking of the Christmas story, one of my favorite things to do is the Dickens fair at the Cow Palace in south of San Francisco. So there's me and a good friend of mine, um, and there's a bartender behind the, you know, behind the bar at an absinthe bar that we were at, and we were tasting absinthe and having some Sazeracs and everything else. And, you know, it's just a lot of fun, and everything is like very themed out. So even like the bookstores and everything else, themed as this like Victorian era, very Christmassy. This is something I do every Christmas, go out there, visit my friend who's in the Bay Area, and then go and walk around and spend some time in here. So this is just saying that I think there is an opportunity to explore some of these eras uh of our past and see if there's ways that these things, these themes can be delivered and deployed in a modern location-based entertainment venue. So, that being said, that is some news you should know. Coming up after the break, we'll dive right into open and shut with Kevin Williams. 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SPEAKER_03 14:17

Okay, a big hello to the latest open and shut. How are you, Brandon?

SPEAKER_02 14:23

I'm doing great. Doing actually uh yeah, pretty well. So, and yourself?

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Oh, I'm fine, thank you. Uh enjoying the uh beginning of spring here in the UK.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Sure. All right, well, let's uh let's dive into latest openings.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Yeah, we've got uh quite a lot uh going on. Uh the usual thing, pause as we zoom through these because we've got some to go through. So, jumping straight in, and why not look at Poland? Uh and while we're talking about spring and all of that, why not have a facility called Arcade B? I quite like the logo, the website's quite nice, and it is the definition of what we've been seeing a lot of the inclusion of a heavy level of competitive socializing with uh amusement uh and rolling out now as a dedicated chain for the hospitality sector. So this is its sixth venue.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah, yeah, I do actually done uh great job. And there's a lot more going on here. I think the arcade B is probably underselling what's available here. Um they've got everything from laser tag to table soccer, table football, uh karaoke rooms, puzzle rooms as well. So, you know, some of the adventure mission rooms, uh shuffleboard, racing sims, um, and then something interesting too, they have a slot machine tournament. So I'd be curious to know what's going on there. But then, you know, great FB component too. So anyway, this is uh this is yeah, great. I like their site, I like their overall feel. Um, I'm kind of digging, I'm kind of digging on these guys right now. I hope they expand, I hope they continue to expand.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

We're hoping uh they're on the watch list, put it that way.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:05

Moving on, another one on our watch list, the hub. This is quite a large, 60,000 square. Um and you know, for Oklahoma, not the most crowded market for uh location-based entertainment facilities of this kind of nature, but it is definitely you know drawing a line in the sand. Uh, and this is the second facility in the chain. So we're now seeing the momentum building up, uh, and especially in the current marketplace, having your own dedicated brand of location-based uh entertainment at this level, you know, you you're not just the bowl-in, you've also got the cinema component, the cinema element, then uh you do hope to stand out from the rest.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Yeah, um, you know, this they look like they've done, they've built a great facility. It is a standalone building they built from the ground up. Um, but this is uh in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which is a town of 40,000 to 50,000 people. So, you know, this is not a significant, and yeah, and there's and there's not enough, there's not a lot around. You know, the Oklahoma State University is there, so I think if anything, there's probably some college town-esque stuff happening here, and so that's probably what they're expecting is to get a lot of uh you know, parties and college events and things happening here.

SPEAKER_03 17:27

I think the first facility they opened was also uh associated with a university in their area, but again, uh they are going for the Evo model of approach. Then we jump into uh Gaigo moment, or should I say Agenda moment. Uh, we will touch upon this a little bit more in sound off, but uh we welcome the first Gaigo in China, or should really this part of China, to be honest. Uh I can swear from my database that we've talked about another Gaigo that uh opened up uh in that territory. Either way, this is bringing over the proven Japanese entertainment model and dropping it in a new territory. I look forward to seeing how they're going to apply this in Vietnam and uh other areas of that region. Moving on and uh jumping to Japan. This one is still part of our Gender Moment because uh it's a Dynamo uh amusement project. Uh Dynamo is a Japanese operation that handles virtual reality experiences and attractions, and they drop them into uh location-based entertainments in that territory. And uh VR Base Tokyo had uh opened up previously uh near the tower, and now they've opened up a second uh operation under the VR Base Tokyo brand. Uh, this one at uh Tubo Zoo, which is a very popular tourist uh and visitor experience, an arena with a couple of uh ride-on VR experiences. Japan's still deeply in love with uh that technology.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Yeah, uh I mean I think this is something that can fit nicely into something like a zoo or aquarium. I think this is the type of use case for this type of um these types of VR attractions as augmented experiences within a larger, broader uh edutainment attraction or experience. You know, we've seen this with dark rides, you know, where dark ride pops in or um you know small uh uh amphitheaters with uh you know, with cinema. And and so this is a you know good fit into you know a zoo or aquarium or museum.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

The equivalent, the Western equivalent of this would be our friends at uh iMotion with uh what they've done uh at Zoos at an Aquarians. Uh again, sticking with Japan and the changing uh structure of their what I would call mid-scale entertainment facilities. These are the ones full of crane machines, claw machines, these are the ones with the sticker machines, and a little bit of amusement. Uh Soyu has uh about 55 facilities out there with their standardized Japanese approach, and this is their first of their game field locations, and it kind of seems to feel like uh an answer to the next generation. The the arms race that uh Genda has engendered uh is now being revealed with the new look and feel that uh other uh more established operators are applying to their venues. Jumping on, and active entertainment continues to blossom. Flying Squirrel, we've talked about them before. Uh they have about 18 facilities out there, and so they have uh Everett Washington now gets a 50,000 square facility, quite a large site. Uh it has the climbing walls, it has the trampoline, even has some valo motion uh technology dropped in there. But again, an example of not just a trampoline facility, but a trampoline facility with a serious entertainment punch.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Yeah, these uh they they do their facilities really well. And I think what's interesting about Flying Squirrel is they have, I would say, almost proprietary trampoline technology, but it is resold through their shock trampoline brand as well. Uh so they share ownership between the two different groups, and they they do a good job with their locations. They're um you know vibrant and always well laid out.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

This is kind of the example of you know, I always say about the vampire owning the blood bank, but you know, if you are a An operator of the technology, then you are the best person to sell it, uh, as it were, and this is their positioning on trampoline. Uh, anyone that thinks that uh uh operating, installing, and designing a trampoline course is a trivial matter, uh, is going to be very unhappy if they try it themselves. And so being able to go to a proven uh facility. 18 facilities can't be wrong, is uh kind of the example. Same with Laser Tag, same with uh uh uh laser mazes. Sandbox, we've talked about uh this particular facility. I am now led to believe that they have moved from their secret location now into a permanent location. I am depending on Brandon to uh get off his fanny and find out what their uh venue is like, because I have very limited information other than 4,000 square, and it may have some arenas and a VIP room.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Yeah, I'm gonna have to, and now I'm kicking myself. I was just in that part of Gilbert yesterday, checking out a different location, and I should have been checking out Sandbox VR while I was out there too. But uh I'll have to I'll have to do that for sure.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

Thank you. Our friends at launch, they have quite an accelerated rollout plan uh at the moment. Uh it's hard to keep up. They have another three venues that are in the pipe. Uh and uh this one, North Carolina Rally, I know it well. Uh 30,000 Square follows the same kind of model, you know, kind of what we've just been talking about with flying squirrels, uh, dedicated trampolines, climbing walls, amusement. But they also have mini golf, uh, they also have some mixed reality entertainment there. Uh, they also have a young uh kiddie component. So it's a much broader family entertainment zone rather than a trampoline facility, going by now the new branding or the established branding that is launch family entertainment rather than launch trampoline facility.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Yeah. Yeah, and you know, I think the one difference here is the addition of bowling and some mini golf and a few additional attractions that Flying Squirrel still tries to stay pretty much in the active play space. Uh launches launch started in that active play space. In fact, they were a Gen 1 trampoline park brand originally, and they've since continued to add and evolve uh their attraction mix. And now, yeah, they've changed to the point where they're launch family entertainment and and you know, not launch trampoline like they used to be.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

And this you will see across many of the uh active entertainment facilities as they go from a singular attraction to a multiple attraction environment. Uh interesting one here. This could have been placed on the closes, but now it's on the openings. Uh 8-bit arcade bar, Illinois. Uh small, uh small retail unit that's been turned into a bar, uh sports bar kind of style, with uh a wide selection of amusement pieces. They closed down because they needed to expand their facility. They've expanded, they've improved the uh the FB offering, and they've rolled themselves back into the community. And we wish them a lot of luck.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

Yeah, same. Good luck.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

It's it's a crowded market, and let's hope their beer's cold. Now, our friends uh at Fly Club, they have been increasing their rollout of their competitive socializing darts environment. We were just at uh one of their facilities in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. They've now opened up another of their US uh offerings, now up to 27 international venues. I I couldn't get much detail on the size of this site, but it follows a formula which they feel has proven itself in the US market. It is just now how long will that be able to stand the test of time as a competitive socializing venue with only one entertainment offering, as we've been touching on before.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Yeah, this is the reckoning that is uh that is the reckoning that will be um these early Gen 1 social entertainment venues.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

And it's these Gen 1s that will be the uh canary in the coal mine uh to tell us. So we we are all watching very closely the Potchacks and the flight to see how their uh uh same site sales are doing uh uh towards being able to ascertain when they need to consider doing the pivot to multiple entertainment, and they will have to consider that. A little bit more in the attractions and experience side. Uh, we'll touch upon this also in sound off. Uh the Infinity Experience facility uh at uh uh Montreal in Canada has already been open, uh, but it is now installing a brand new attraction uh based upon the Netflix uh uh TV series Black Mirror. And this is a walk-round VR headset uh virtual adventure kind of approach. Uh, and it is very interesting to see this kind of IP and this kind of presentation. I would place this in the Felix and Paul style uh of uh presentation, um, not a million miles away from where Felix and Paul actually did have an installation, uh pop-up installation, but one to watch here because this will also be traveling to other cities in North America.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Yeah, absolutely. Uh looking forward to talking more about it in Sound Off.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Pop strokes, we will also be touching on uh pop strokes uh uh in Sound Off for a little bit of a different reason than just the brand new facility opening. But hey, we are up to 22 of their majoratively external or outdoor mini golf facilities, this latest one in Texas, quite a crowded market for them. This is what you get for$5.8 million. You uh you get your uh 10 courses, you get your restaurant and bar component, and ample parking, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Yeah, this is this is a this feels like a bigger pop stroke than maybe some other others, but um yeah, I mean I think primarily maybe because they have both indoor and outdoor mini golf courses, which is maybe one of the first locations that actually has indoor in addition to outdoor. Um, and unless uh unless their F and B in entertainment is strictly what's indoors because that's typically what pop stroke has been, and their mini golf courses have historically been outdoors.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

I look I look at the model and I can't see where the indoor component is unless they're saying big enough.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Yeah, it doesn't look big enough mini golf rays.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Yeah, that corner bit where they've covered part of the the green, maybe. But I again I I would uh rather say that this seems to fit their traditional model of outdoor, and maybe that indoor was uh a mistype. Uh and then continuing, and if you've got uh 10,000 square meters going spear, then you can create the ultimate uh active entertainment environment. This is very similar to the Ninja Warriors approach, uh, where a television uh series that uh does a kind of game show activity uh entertainment experience has now turned itself into its own entertainment facility. Gladiators was a popular 1980s uh active uh you know uh running man-esque kind of uh entertainment challenge. Now it has been turned uh into an entertainment facility. I don't believe this is a long-term entertainment facility. Uh, I get the feeling that uh they have leased this for a smaller window of time, installed it, going to operate it, and then it's going to be either moved to a new location or transferred. But again, it is competitors to all of your trampoline and FECs if you're in the catchment of this particular facility in Birmingham.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Wow. I mean, if this is if if you I mean if this is truly a temporary installation, that's a significant temporary installation at 10,000 square meters, that's close to a little over 100,000 square feet. Um, some of the attractions can be dropped in, mounted to the floor, whatever. But as we talked about when we were discussing Flying Squirrel, installing trampolines and some of the other things that they have here are not insignificant to uh amount of construction to put in. Uh, but it is also a pretty significant brand name to be an IP to be leveraging for something that's going to be in one single location in Birmingham.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Birmingham has always been used as a test bed uh for uh location-based entertainment actives. The Beer Grills uh Active Entertainment Facility tested its uh metal in that location and was found wanting. Uh, it'll be interesting to see how the gladiators experience does under the same uh harsh environment. And then finally, a weird one uh in the openings. It isn't an entertainment venue, though I'm sure many VR arcades would argue that it has uh entertainment components. Meta has decided to open their second uh Meta store. Um their first one was uh opened on the uh Meta campus in California. Now they've uh moved to New York. It is a retail multi-floor area, it is a high-level showroom, but it does have a VR demonstration environment, which would look very similar to a VR arcade, uh colored any other way. And it will be interesting to see how much of the current changed perspective of Meta is that they turn this uh showroom more into a demonstration and maybe play environment to show off their technology. Now they're pivoting more towards a game-focused VR future. Just one to uh to mark in your diaries, that's all.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

I don't understand this at all. Um and I think I don't understand it strategically for Meta, given the fact that they've been pivoting further and further away from their VR products. That yes, they've got their uh their glasses that they've been trying to do, but uh a four-story you know location to showcase some AR glasses seems a bit of a stretch. So this one is uh seems to be like a strategic, hey, we just have a bunch of extra money. Let's grab a building painted blue in Fifth Avenue and then make something here. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

It does feel like a willy waggle. Uh it's it is um, hey, they've got Apple stores, we better have our own stores. That kind of egotistical move uh by the Meta board is going to need to be reined in.

unknown 33:23

Yeah.

Closings And What They Signal

SPEAKER_02 33:24

Yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Shots and sales, um, sad news, which we will touch on in a little bit more detail in sound off uh the closing of the control V chain. This was one of the first of the VR arcade uh operators that established a lot of the ground rules of how best to operate uh VR tethered entertainment in the tanning salon style of approach. They had their highs and they've had their lows. They went from 11 facilities after COVID, they dropped down to five or six, then they dropped down to four. Uh, and as far as I understand, one venue is going to stay open, but now separate of the franchise, as the franchise operation and company are closing and moving on to other things.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Yeah. Uh it's too bad, but I think this was a I think even when Control V came out, this was one that we we questioned uh when we first talked about this and opens. One of their other locations. I know they've been open for a while, but I'm saying one of their other locations, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 34:30

We touched upon the opening, uh the last opening of their facilities, which was funny enough in North America. Uh sorry, in America, away from their natural Canadian rollout. And we raised an eyebrow of how long that would uh last. Well, uh under 12 months. Yeah. Andretti's. This is a difficult one because many people misread this. This is the original Andretti's outdoor carting uh facility or Thrill Park. This is owned by uh the team that is involved with the Andretti's indoor uh carting chain, but this uh particular uh Florida facility has been going for 27 years. It does look a little tired around the edges, it doesn't follow the same mantra as the Andretti's brand now is pushing forward with its uh over 10 facilities that they have dotted around. Uh I would raise an interesting flag over the closure. The decision to get out of this site uh and then focus on their uh core business kind of tells us where the uh Andretti's Entertainment uh board is focusing their energies as they look towards the next phase of growth in their operation.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

Yeah, I mean, in some ways this is not surprising, just given the fact that they've expanded with their indoor model and their multi-floor, multi-level uh high-speed carting model that like supporting an outdoor carting course like just doesn't fall into the same realm from both a maintenance standpoint, from an equipment standpoint. So you can't standardize when you have this one outlier. And it probably got to the point where they saw the opportunity to redevelop this into uh you know, or sell the land to be redeveloped into something else, and they uh are gonna take the cash and probably pour that into some additional locations.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Totally agree. It is uh an outlier that can be turned into some very valuable capital. Uh the uh inter uh the interaction amusement experience. Okay, you've got to say that carefully. Uh popped up on our radar. It you know, from the looks of it, when it first opened, it was you know a labor of love. It had a a weird selection of interactive entertainment and amusement components. Uh, it was aimed more at uh the edutainment side of uh the coin than at the standard uh entertainment approach. Um from the design and the layout, it didn't really uh impart its message clearly, personal opinion, if I was having to do an evaluation of it. Anyway, after a period of time, uh it is now announced that it is closing, and a little bit of an angry comment from uh the owners sort of saying that local support received wasn't there when they needed it. Uh if you can't elaborate what your entertainment experience is offering, then how can you expect your customers uh to support you? I hope this is a lesson learner that they can take away all of uh this and then uh reapply their experience to a new facility.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Yeah, I mean, and look, you can't say that you didn't have public support when you had out of 58 Google reviews, five stars. So clearly you had public there that did enjoy what you had, and there was potentially just a different issue with a business model, pricing, um, operating hours, staffing, costs of goods sold, etc. Um, so there's many things that can cause this, uh cause a facility to go under, um, but it certainly wasn't for the lack of public love for what they were offering.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Uh try not to bite the hand at Fijiu uh is a word of advice, uh, especially if you're going to think about opening up a future facility. I haven't done the deep dive into their pricing model because I only do that usually when I'm being paid to do that. And uh I'm not going to uh burn the midnight oils doing the evaluation of what their uh entertainment price offering was compared to their competitors. But I will say this that uh those number of high star reviews kind of lead us to believe that they had some kind of following, but it wasn't retained. Anyway, moving to the close, LinkedIn, which has been busy at the moment. Uh please hit us up if you uh have any corrections. Or if you'd like to point out that my pricing model uh speculation is totally wrong. Or uh if uh there are some openings happening that have been missed from our radar. We have some Stinger reports out, some new Stinger reports. We will have a new uh entertainment social arena out uh looking at the facilities we saw in Vegas, and as always, there's our email.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

Perfect. All right, Kevin. Well, it was another great open and shut, and we'll see you on the next one.

SPEAKER_03 39:43

See you on the next one.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

If you run a location-based entertainment brand and want to attract more visitors, check out Radius. They use real-time location data and customized marketing strategies to help brands like yours stand out. Radius can boost your foot traffic and build a loyal customer base. Plus, they're offering a complimentary local market analysis to show you exactly how they can help you grow. Curious? Visit radius.co and ask about your free market analysis. That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-S.co.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

All right. Well, that was a great open and shut there with Kevin Williams. And coming up next, we have Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DiMonty, where we're gonna learn about how location-based entertainment brands can understand how they are winning. Let's get into it right now.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

Hello, and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DiMonti. That is me. And today I'm gonna cover a little bit more of a complex topic, somewhat, right? Uh, but honestly, it is really uh the way that location-based entertainment brands should be understanding if they're winning or not. Okay. So too often everybody's looking at vanity metrics. And what does that mean? You're looking at, you know, you're marketing, you're looking at clicks, impressions, cost, you know, CPM, you know, what is that stuff? You're even looking at your own revenue. And while obviously that's important and that tells a story, right? What you're not looking at is your overall market, right? So what does that mean? You and your competitors, okay? So often we speak to clients, prospects, uh, and they they think they're down or and maybe they are down revenue, or they think they should be doing more in revenue, and it's like, you know, maybe 50% more, like they don't really know. And it's like the problem with that is they don't understand what's possible. What is, you know, what does the market deem as possible? Okay, because if you have a market, and what that means is all the visits, like literal visits that are happening between you and all other competitors, okay? That's the size of your market, that's the size of your target audience that is doing these things out and about around you, right? And so how many of those are you getting? What is the size of your pie? Okay, and there are times, as of recent last couple years, that pie is contracted. There's less visits to be had between you and all your competitors, okay? But let's say you had 50% of that pie, right? You're a big FEC, you got 50% of that pie. How much more can you grow? Right? You have 50% of all the visits happening locally, right? Maybe you can grow more, maybe you cannot, you know, but that is gonna give you an indication of what's possible, what's not, okay? Now we use this in a very, very, very complex way, okay. But what I want to try and do is distill this a little bit for you guys so that you could use it and just start thinking through the lens of what we call market capture. It's unbelievably important. Again, because what could happen is your visits, your pie could shrink, right? The overall visits between you and your competitors could shrink. However, your slice of the pie could grow, right? So if the pie's shrinking, but you're getting more of that, it's super important. You want to make sure, you want to make sure you're not losing market share, okay? And if you are losing market share, that's bad. So if the pie's shrinking and your slice, size of your slice is shrinking, that's no good, right? You're losing in two ways, okay? So you always want to make sure that your slice is growing, okay? And so we do that, we look at individual areas, we go by the zip code and literally find high opportunity areas based on that type of information. It's way, way, way more complex. We'll bore you bore you with that today. But you know, what's a couple of ways you can start thinking through this lens? First and foremost, okay. Most uh location-based entertainment brands pull from a 20 to 30 minute drive time, depending on how you know rural to urban you are. Okay. So, what I would do if I were you, I would map that 20, 30 minute drive time locally to me. What does that look like? What is 30 minutes happen? And then map what are all the places that people could go to that are similar to what I own, operate, whatever, right? I want every single one of them. Is there five, is there 10, is there 15, is there 20? That alone will give you an idea of what the market share is, right? Or what the market size is. The more people, the more competitors in there, the denser, most likely the market, the more visits that are available. Okay, because they're obviously all staying alive, they're all operating, they're all, you know, hopefully producing some money at least, right? So there's enough visits to go around to keep us all fed. Okay. So that alone will show you an understanding of how size the how big. Market is more people, it means you probably got some more room to grow. Okay. If you have very big name brands in your market, right? And a lot of them, a good indication of there's there's a dense market. Okay. So first and foremost, I would map all of your competitors. Where are they? How far are they? Okay. The next thing I would do is I would go visit those competitors. I would see what I could see from the front, right? Go on a Saturday, how busy are they compared to you, right? Uh on a weekend or whatever. We you know, go see how busy they are compared to you. What is the experience? What does it look like? What do they offer? What's their price? All that stuff. Look at see what you could see in terms of social media engagement. Are they getting a ton of social media engagement? A huge one is Google reviews. Are they getting a ton of Google reviews? That'll mean they're getting good or bad. That would mean they're getting a lot of traffic, right? If if people are reviewing them often, right? So again, you can look at some things like that, Google reviews, visiting them, right? Um, uh social media posts and engagement, right? What are they doing for marketing? Or are they you could look at meta-ad library, right? You could literally see if they're running ads by using something called meta-ad library. So again, the biggest thing is how many people are out there, give you a size of indication of your market, okay? Then uh, you know, going to those locations, seeing how they're doing, right? Just sort of visually, are they very busy? Are they busier than you are on a busy weekend or whatever your busy time uh of your day is, okay? Uh looking at digitally what they're doing and what you could sort of infer from that. Are they getting a lot of views frequently? That's a big one. Okay. There's sometimes say this place is usually you know busy or how busy it is, you know, busier than usual, right? I'm sure you've all seen that on Google before. So all those things are important. It's gonna start giving you an understanding of what is my market size, who am I playing this game against, right? And how are they doing against me? Okay. So that's the second. So first step is map your competitor. Second, shop them and also you know, do some uh analysis on them digitally, right? Third thing you want to look at are where your customers are coming from. Now, some of you might not be able to do this, some of you might be able to do this, right? So again, if you map that 20, 30 minute drive time with some zip codes that are in that 20, 30 minute drive time, if you have a waiver system or a CRM that captures that zip code data, what you could start to do is now map that zip code data, okay? And what that allows you to do is see where you're getting most of your visits from, okay. Unfortunately, you're not gonna see a full picture, which is something like we could give you, is also where your competitors are getting your visitors from. But you'll be able to see on a map, right? And you'll be able to see where you're where you have less visits. Again, the one thing you won't be able to see is like how many visits are available in that market. There might be a lot of people coming from that zip code, but what you can do is pull population data and stats. Use AI, AI is your friend, right? So map these zip codes. You can do all this very quickly with AI. Say, hey, what's the give me all the zip codes in a 20, 30 minute drive time of my zip code, right? Um, give me population statistics on all these zip codes, right? Find where there's a lot of population with what you think is your age range, demographic, and all that other stuff. Map the visitors you have, right, in your CRM, hopefully, to understand what your your sort of um uh you know, your your chart looks like in terms of where you're getting visitors from, and then see where you're potentially underperforming, right? And and that is what's important. It's it's market capture, are you capturing more of the market? And even more important, now market to those areas. If you feel like you're underperforming, market to it and then measure are your waivers increasing from that area. Now we do this in a very super complex way. We acquire mobile location data to do this and you know have a lot more layers in our in our model. Uh so if you ever really want to see a true picture of your market, feel free to contact us. But that is the concept, and I promise you, it is the one and only way to measure performance as a location-based entertainment brand, okay? Because you only can grow them two ways. Either your entire market grows, so there's more visits to be had, and you get a tailwind from that, right? But maybe your competitor is getting more of those visits, right? So your market share would still be decreasing. So your price is increasing, but more of that is going to the competitor, right? Or you gain more market share. It's the only way to grow. Okay. So hopefully that was helpful. Complete new way of looking at things. Most operators are not looking at it that way. All right. Uh, and again, if you ever want to see a full you know, snapshot of what your market looks like in those high opportunity areas, please reach out to us. We're happy to create what we call a visitor blueprint for you.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

All right. Well, that was a great Primo Pro Tips with Chuck Tamatti. Thanks so much, Chuck, for putting that together. And uh look, we've got sound off number 116 with Kevin Williams coming out on this Tuesday in two days, April 7th. And uh look, I hope if you're listening to this today, uh, I hope you're having a great Easter. I hope you're having a great time with family and friends and enjoying your time uh looking for eggs and doing all the other stuff that you do on Easter. So, anyway, that is the wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.