The LBX Show #81 - Hasbro's SixthWall, ROLLER Capital, Phase 2 Social & more! Artwork

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LBX Collective

The LBX Show #81 - Hasbro's SixthWall, ROLLER Capital, Phase 2 Social & more!

June 14, 2026 • Brandon Willey • Season 4 • Episode 81

0:00 | 1:12:10

Welcome And Today’s Lineup

SPEAKER_05 0:01

Tuning you in now to the LBX Show. With your host, Brandon Wyatt. Brought to you by the LBX Collective. Your community to connect, engage, and inspire.

SPEAKER_07 0:22

All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX show for June 14th, 2026. I'm your host, Brandon Wiley, and we have a great show lined up for you today. First, we're going to dive into some news you should know and then roll into a guest gab with Chris Rich. He's the VP of Financial Services at Roller to talk about Roller's new capital program. And then finally, we'll close it out with a robust open and shut with Kevin Williams to review all the opening and closing trends from the last week. And there are a lot of them. So we're going to be digging into quite a bit. It is a robust open and shut, but also very, very entertaining and educational, et cetera, et cetera. So first, before we get rolling into that, we'll do some news you should know. All right.

Brandon’s Next Chapter After IntelliPlay

SPEAKER_07 1:10

Well, today I'm excited to announce that my time is up at IntelliPlay and uh had excited to go head first into several projects that have been incubating for some time. Um, but uh first I'll just say I had an absolutely phenomenal time with an incredibly talented team building an incredibly complex product for the active play and family entertainment center industries. It's so great to see all the incredible traction that has happened and developed over the last two years. And um absolutely uh loved my time there and uh absolutely loved working with that team and uh very excited to see just all the growth that they've already had and will continue to have. Big fan of the product, big fan of the opportunity that they have that they're bringing to the Active Play market to track and um and gamify the adventure park and active play experience through uh smart wristbands that track the activity and location in real time, et cetera, et cetera. So uh anyway, um an absolutely a great time I had there, but uh there are more announcements to come as it relates to what's coming down the line for me. Uh but uh but first uh I will announce that uh the first couple of pilot locations will be testing out a brand new innovative rewards platform for the location-based entertainment industry over the next few months in uh several locations before uh an official launch. So stay tuned. That's just one of uh several announcements, but uh I'm excited to make. Uh, but that is uh that is coming and that is underway, but that is the first as you should

InterCard Events And Where To Meet

SPEAKER_07 2:39

know. Next, we've got a uh the InterCard lineup 2026. So this is uh where you can go and find InterCard, meet with them. If you were in Asia in Hong Kong just this last week, you would have met them at the Hong Kong uh IAP Asia Expo. It will be in Japan next year, um, but that is where uh InnerCard was at uh this last week. And then coming up the end of this month, June 28th to the July 2nd, is this Bowl Expo. This is the International Bowling Proprietors Association of uh of America. I don't know how it could be international anyway. Um, whatever. Uh so it is the International Bowl Expo, and that is happening in Nashville this year and June 28th to the second. Inner card will be there, and then they'll also be at the IAPA Latin American Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina from August 18th to the 19th. And then also August 18th to the 20th, they will be at the Southern Amusement and Entertainment Expo. So if you're looking to connect with InnerCard, please do go ahead and uh you know show up at one of those locations, find them in their booth, and talk with them about anything that you want to talk about.

Candyland Cafe Pop-Up Pricing Strategy

SPEAKER_07 3:42

All right, so uh two basically two little things I want to touch on here, and uh they both happen to do with Hasbro. So the first one is a new uh location called the Candyland Cafe. This is a pop-up location in San Diego, and uh you'll see why I'm bringing this up here in a minute, but um ultimately it opens in San Diego, California on July 9th, so in just a couple of weeks, and it is a partnership between Hasbro and BucketListers. If you're not familiar with bucket listers, they are sort of like a fever platform. Um so if you go to bucket listers.com, they have a bunch of different experiences there. And uh if you go to feverop.com, there's different experiences. Some of them are run by fever, some of them are not run by fever, some of them are created by fever, some of them are not. Very similar with bucket listers. So some of these experiences on bucketlisters.com website are created by bucket listers, and then others are uh just there to find on their site. So Candyland Cafe, one of those co-created with by uh well created by bucket listers in partnership with Hasbro and their IP, specifically around Candyland. And so you know, basically you'll be able to step into a real life version of Candyland. It'll have immersive sets, interactive experiences, and then a themed menu, obviously, because it is a cafe. So uh theme menu. Uh, it's again running just for a limited time, so it's just a pop-up. But the way they've typically done their pop-ups is they might run it in San Diego and then they'll take that pop-up and run it in Boston and then run it in Chicago and then run it in New York. And so if it works in one location, they'll typically then take that particular concept and roll it out across multiple locations. If you go to bucketlisters.com, you'll see one of their uh classic ones is the Malibu Barbie Cafe. They uh have recreated that in multiple locations. There's a Brady Bunch uh experience. You can go and experience like the Brady Bunch set. That's in a couple of locations. They have a bunch of others like that. Um, but this uh will some of the immersive dining options will feature Candyland paths that it'll take you through Towering Candy Castles. There's a whole theme setting, um, including the King Candy's Castle or Jolly's Gumdrop Mountains. And um, you know, there's a uh sweet adventure checklist. So you go in, you can like get this checklist and make sure you've done all the adventures. There's a DIY cookie decorating station, lots of photo opportunities. And uh, you know, this is uh basically a fast casual menu. So it's gonna have things like you know, comfort food with a sweet twist. So there's rainbow burgers, not sure what else is gonna be on a rainbow burger. I'm wanted to try it out. Uh chocolate barbecue sliders, themed milkshakes, and then a chocolate river fondue experience, uh, which could be really cool. Is it kind of like a candy, uh like a Willy Wonka thing? I don't know. Um, and then uh cocktails and non-alcohol drinks. I think one of the biggest things, like, okay, is this gonna be like a wonka experience? Can we fall flat? Well, I think um Bucket Listers has a really strong history of doing uh very well-themed and well-run experiences. And I think just if you look at the entrance to the space, this is they have not skimped on the theming whatsoever. This is very high-end theming, um, very high-end touches. And so I expect the Candyland Cafe to do very well here. Um, but this is uh what I find interesting though is their price, their pricing model. So it is $24.50 per person. This is it says including fees. So you know, some additional fees. Um, but starting at $24.50 per person, and this is for a 90-minute seating, it is a timed uh timed experience. So you go in, you go into the cafe, you can get the food, you can walk around, you can sit down at a table, but it's 90 minutes uh limited to that. But it comes with a $10 food credit and then a $5 merch credit. So ultimately, their ticket price is like if you if you strip that away and you do actually use those credits, their ticket prices are $14.50. Uh so uh excuse me, not $14.50, their ticket price is $9.50. Bad math there for a minute. So it you know, it is $24.50 and then you get a $10 food credit, $5 merch credit. Obviously, what that is doing is really trying to focus on driving up that per cap. If you come in and you've already spent $24.50, uh you're gonna be a little bit more reluctant to really spend the kind of money you want. Uh you know, you might want to on the food, uh, or you may not choose to go and buy any merch. But what they've done now is they've said, hey, you spent $24.50, but you're actually getting $15 towards something here. And it greases the wheels. It gets people thinking about going and putting that $10 credit towards some food. And now the next thing you know, they spent $50 on food. And then they're going to take that $5 merch credit and they're going to put it towards something. And next thing they know, their kids have asked them to spend $25 to $40 on merch. And it just drives up that per cap. So it's a really innovative model. Um, obviously, they're not they're not new to this, they know what works for these types of experiences. And so um, that is a Candyland Cafe and uh put on by bucket listers. If you want to go and visit, you can obviously go to bucket listers.com and check it out and go and visit. Uh, all

Hasbro’s Sixth Wall AI Studio

SPEAKER_07 8:26

right. Um, so speaking of Hasbro, this uh we we actually go into this a little bit more deeply in sound off, this upcoming sound off um in on Tuesday, the uh 16th. And this is the uh they've they've Hasbro has launched a new artificial intelligence AI studio called the Sixth Wall. Uh so actually I think it's just called Sixth Wall, not the Sixth Wall. It's like Facebook, not the Facebook, uh, dedicated to bringing its characters into the AI era. So the the sixth wall was ultimately created, and this is this is, I mean, I think they're really freaking innovative here, like right on the bleeding edge. Like, really surprised this has come out of a toy studio versus uh one of the movie studios with like really complex IP and uh you know heavy IP. Like this, they are really on the bleeding edge of this concept. So basically, Six Wall was created in response to all of the unauthorized use of Hasbro's characters across chat and voice and gaming and content creation platforms. So, like basically tons of AI, um, tons of unauthorized AI use and stuff. And so um the third-party creators, rights holders, and partners uh that uh want to use Hasbro IP, Hasbro content, you know, Hasbro characters, etc., they now have the ability to do that. And what's really cool is you know, some of these types of experiences are like, you know, storytelling experiences, games and digital companions, connected physical products or robotics like used in dark rides, or AI-powered brand ambassadors, or even location-based entertainment experiences. You know, we've talked about a bunch of these different Hasbro experiences that that are out there, the Kenyland experience being one of those. And this uh so the Sixth Wall is actually powered by the character OS system. And the character OS system can actually preserve a character's personality, their canon, their voice, and and a bunch of other safety guardrails across all these multiple experiences. So, really, really interesting. And each character that's in the Hasbro studio on Sixth Wall is built using authorized source material because obviously it's done by Hasbro, and more importantly, human voice performances. And it's really interesting if you go to uh the if you if you go to the Six Walls website, uh, you'll actually see a really great uh like it's a two and a half minute clip about these voice actors who come in and do the voices for the different clue characters or for the Transformers or for Mr. Potato Head and um and Peppa the Pig. And and so like it's really cool to see that they are using real voice actors and that these voice actors voices are now then being embedded into their AI canon through the character OS system. And uh, so there's a cool video I'll I'll play here. Um, but they've actually this is part this is in partnership with the AI audio company 11 Labs to bring the select characters to their iconic marketplace. So 11 Labs has their own characters, but if you want like an iconic character, a branded character, you can go to Eleven Labs iconic marketplace, and those are authorized AI representations of particular voices from iconic characters. And Hasbro has brought uh you know 12 of their initial characters to the iconic marketplace to launch this. And so, anyway, really brilliant um you know move forward here. And I'm I'm just gonna share uh a quick little Instagram video from the Hasbro, uh the Hasbro's um Instagram feed. So just uh pull this up here and we'll give it a play.

SPEAKER_08 11:56

Every story begins with a question, and every question deserves a little drama.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

So listen carefully, because this is gonna be a wild ride. Because sometimes all it takes is one little voice and a whole heap of personality to make the entire world listen.

SPEAKER_08 12:21

Hasbro's iconic characters are now available on the Eleven Labs iconic marketplace.

SPEAKER_07 12:30

All right, so that is uh, you know, just a little touch of what they have done. You know, they've worked with the real voice actors to bring these characters in now. You can actually go and if you wanted to create something um for your space, uh, you know, you can go and leverage some of these characters' voices, but do it in an authorized, fully licensed way. And so anyway, it'd be really interesting to see how Hasbro and Six Wall continue to move forward. Right now, they say they're focused on experiences for those who are aged 13 and older. So they're not really developing AI products for young children, which I know I think is an interesting take. Um, and they really are trying to actively contribute to the broader industry uh discussions around safety standards and voluntary guardrails for AI-enabled play experiences. So, anyway, that is Hasbro Studio and their sixth wall, and that is news you should know. All

Roller Capital Why It Exists

SPEAKER_07 13:28

right, well, so that was uh great news you should know here. But um, now I'm excited for the next guest gab. So this is guest gab with Chris Rich, and Chris is the uh VP of financial services, as I mentioned, over at Roller, and he is here to talk about Roller's longtime partnership with Ad Yen and then also the rollout of their new product, Roller Capital. Uh, just to be clear, this is not a paid segment. It's not, you know, roller is not a sponsor. I just really thought this offering was worth covering on this show since it can really have a significant impact on the cash flow of a venue and reopen up a lot of opportunities. And it's a great, uh, it's overall a great capital product brought to this industry by both Roller and their partnership with ADN. So that being said, let's bring him on the show. Well, welcome to the LBX show. Thanks so much. Great to be here. Yeah, absolutely. So maybe we could start from the beginning. Uh, you know, Roller and Ad Yen have had a relationship and a partnership within the roller platform for some time. Maybe you could explain a little bit about Ad Yen and how you guys have worked together for a few years, and then we'll get into really the big announcement that we want to talk about, which is the microloans inside the inside the roller platform.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

Yeah, sounds good. Um, so we've been working with Adion since 2020. So we're one of their long-time platform customers. Addian's a global payment processing company. Um, they're based out of Europe, but they support us with payment processing in 31 countries, and they've been a critical partner for us in helping us support our venues with integrated payment processing for in-person transactions, online transactions. And then more recently, uh, we've started introducing embedded financial services products because our belief is that our venue operators want to be able to get access to embedded financial services products within the roller platform so they're not having to work with other third parties. Um, the roller payments product powered by ADIN has resonated really well with all of our customers, not just in the US, but across the UK, Europe, and Australia. Um, so it made sense for us to sort of uh invest further in the partnership uh and and start offering some embedded financial services products that'll really benefit our customers.

SPEAKER_07 15:50

Yeah, so that is uh so maybe we could talk a little bit about, first of all, you know, why you know when we talk about this, uh embedded payments, you know, is obviously the credit card processing, like I said, like built into the overall system, both for online booking and also for in real time point of sale. Um, but you then began to see clearly, you know, maybe we could walk through the history of where did you begin to see this need that uh these venue operators, owners had for really what we're here to talk about, which is this new announcement around the micro loans that you have available now within the roller platform.

SPEAKER_04 16:23

Yeah, for

Pre-Qualified Offers Inside Roller

SPEAKER_04 16:24

sure. Um everyone at Roller talks to our operators every day, you know, from our CEO all the way down to our support teams. And having spoken to customers over the last three years, it became pretty clear that whilst we were doing a great job of getting money in via our roller payments products, so whether it's in-person or online checkout or via memberships, like you said, um, our our customers often go through cash flow crunches, you know, a lot of them are seasonal. You know, they might have really great summer periods in the US around June and July, and then they go through a quieter period where, you know, they're wanting to make capital improvements to their park or they're wanting to, I don't know, you know, buy up on inventory ahead of like the Black Friday sales and things like that. And cash flow can be a challenge, but also going to their bank or existing banks that are based in the US, getting these smaller loans of sort of, you know, $20, $30, $40,000, $50,000 can often involve weeks and weeks of paperwork. You know, there's credit checks involved, they're having to submit a ton of documentation. And having spoken to a lot of them, you know, they just get flat out declined, or it was just too much of a burden for them to bear. Um, so in working with ADIN and sort of investigating their capital product and their capital offering within their platform, we realized there was an opportunity to be able to provide these smaller loans provided by Adian to sort of front run some of those capital investments that they needed to make and help them out during these periods so that they could continue, you know, growing their business, which obviously helps them, helps their guests, provides a better guest experience, uh, but also gives them comfort that, you know, they can they can pick up a loan from us via AdDian to make those investments, you know, in a timely manner without having to go through too much, um, too much process and paperwork with a banking partner.

SPEAKER_07 18:03

Yeah, absolutely. So, how do they go about getting uh approval for this? Uh, and what is it based on? I mean, imagine if it's you know, if they're not running credit or there's got to be some underwriting involved for for issuing these types of loans.

SPEAKER_04 18:17

There is, yeah. So the the qualifying terms for our customers is if they've been processing on roller payments for three months in the US, and this is globally as well, but talking about US customers specifically, as long as they're processing on roller payments, and luckily we've had customers processing on roller payments for you know up to five years. So we have a really good idea of what their transaction history looks like. We know how much they're processing in any given week, month, or year. So it means that Addian, who as our banking partner, who's who's effectively floating them the funds, has a really good idea of you know what their business looks like and what sort of loan they might be eligible for. And unlike a traditional loan where you'd go to your bank, you'd provide a bunch of documents and say, hey, like, you know, I want to apply for a $50,000 loan and they're asking you for credit checks and business owners, uh, we capture, we've already captured all of that information once they've signed up to Roller Payments. And then AdDian can also make some risk assessments based on what they're seeing in the transaction volume that's coming through Roller Payments. So instead of uh our customers having to apply for a loan, uh, we surface pre-qualified offers within the platform. So if Brandon owns a trampoline park and Brandon's been processing on roller payments for the last two years, you can log into Venue Manager, which is where you can access everything you need to do to power your venue. And you know, something will pop up saying, hey, you know, based on your processing volume with roller payments, you're eligible for a loan of $50,000. You know, would you like to proceed? And based on a couple of quick, quick button presses and reviewing a simple set of terms and conditions and effectively a term sheet, um, you can click that button, request the funds, and they'll be available in your account in the next couple of business days. So we're making these pre-qualified offers based on the, well, Addians making these pre-qualified offers based on transaction history and the information that's already been provided to us to set up the roller payments account. So it really cuts down on all that sort of front-end friction so that operators can feel really comfortable in accepting a loan offer that's been put in front of them because it's all based on their transaction processing history with roller.

Fees Repayment And Daily Withholding

SPEAKER_07 20:16

Yeah, so that's really interesting. And you talk about them getting this term sheet, it's already pre-approved. What do the terms typically look like from both a term, right? Term of the loan and payback, and then like overall percentage. I'm you know I'm sure there's a range based on the amount and based on certain levels of qualification and and also probably certain levels of history based on how much payment history is there inside the platform.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

Yeah. Um, all the all the underwriting, I guess, and and all sort of like the risk assessment and stuff is handled by adding on their back end. And I'm sure there's you know hundreds of different signals they're taking into account to assess that loan amount. But in broad strokes, this loan is is kind of different to a traditional bank loan where you'd go and apply for a $50,000 loan. There'd be an interest rate or an API, APY that they need to pay. There's minimum monthly repayments and late fees and all that sort of stuff. Essentially, the way it works with Roller Capital is they're offered an amount, let's call it $50,000. There's a fixed fee applied to that loan. Um, and that can vary depending on all of those risk factors. Typically, it's anywhere between one and 12% of the loan amount. Um, that's added to the principal. And then we don't charge interest on that loan. There's no additional fees that the the operator needs to pay. Um, it's simply a set repayment rate of their daily takings via roller payments. So that can range anywhere between one and 15%. So as an operator, you know that you're taking out a loan for $50,000 plus a fixed fee, which is only applied once. And then a percentage of your daily takings are just automatically deducted from your account each and every day, which then effectively pays down the loan over a term. And that term can range anywhere between six and nine months. So it is a short term loan, it's not over sort of the course. Of 12 or 24 months, but it's designed to be a quick injection of capital that's easily repaid down through your takings via roller payments. And it's a really clear fee structure where the fee is laid out in black and white in the term sheet that you agree to. And then that's just simply tacked onto the principal. You pay it down based on those repayments on a daily basis. And the best part is that you know if you have a couple of slower days, that repayment percentage doesn't change. And no one's going to come chasing you for additional repayments or anything like that. It's all based on the shape of your transaction volume throughout the week. So if you have a really great Saturday and you pull in $10,000, that's awesome for you. The loan repayment amount will be 12%. If you have a quieter Sunday and it's only $3,000, it's only 12%. So it's it's a it's a fixed repayment amount over the life of the loan and it and it works based on that transaction volume that we've come to expect based on your processing volume.

SPEAKER_07 22:51

Right. So it becomes a little bit more of a predictable repayment uh to align with cash flow. Um and and you know, again, like so you have this great big Saturday, and while your payment amount for that day uh might be higher because you had a big Saturday, uh, at least is it a predict it's a predictable percentage that you know is going to come out of that particular day. Is it are these draws that happen? So basically, instead of if if my if I have a $10,000 in credit card processing that happens on a Saturday, um, I'm assuming that I'm my deposit that comes in is just less that 12%, right? Or is it um or is it I get the 10,000 and then 12,000 is then pulled back out. I'm assuming because you're processing it and handling it all together through the same platform, it's just I'm getting the net of that loan repayment amount.

SPEAKER_04 23:38

Because we're using Adjun right through the stack. So whether it's for in-person payments or online payments or membership payments, um, if you take in 10,000, $10,000 in in gross credit card sales on the day, um, there are payment fees that that we charge for for processing roller payments transactions. They're stripped out and they get sent to sent to us. But then that 12%, you know, in that example for the loan amount that you need to repay, that's all pulled out and then you're just settled net, those funds. So that might come out to you know $9,500 once we've taken everything out that needs to come. So there's no like complicated repayments. You don't need to make any manual payments. Um, we just settle you the amount that's owed to you, um, less you know, any fees that are coming out. So the benefit of having it all integrated under the one payment processing partner means that operators don't need to sort of do a day-end reconciliation to go, okay, well, you know, I owe Rolla 1.5% in fees, and then I owe, you know, Adion 12% for my loan. I've got to make these payments to the bank. You know, you're not doing that on a daily basis. We're simplifying all of that and making it happen in the background and just settling you what you're owed. And that money that's coming into your bank account is is yours and yours to keep and deploy where you see fit.

SPEAKER_07 24:47

Yeah. Yeah, that's excellent. I mean, we've uh familiar with Stripe Capital uh in one of my past companies. Uh we you know, we were a software company and we leveraged Stripe for our credit card processing inside of our platform. Obviously, Stripe is not like part of a point of sale typically, it's usually embedded into software platforms, that kind of thing. Um, but um, but they had a similar program. And you know, what was really interesting is if we successfully and when we successfully repaid that loan, um, you that were typically presented with another one, or and it was maybe slightly better because now you've shown history of a successful repayment. And so I'm assuming that I know this is a new program, but that that's an intended effect as well.

SPEAKER_04 25:27

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, to date, I was sort of looking at the numbers earlier today, and we've issued, I know in the press release we talked about a million dollars USD in loans issued already. Um, that's creeping up towards two million um, you know, really quickly. And I'm looking at some of those folks who have sort of had early access to the program, and some of them have already repaid somewhere between 40 and 50% of their loan already. And what will happen towards the end of that loan term is they'll be given the offer to essentially take out another loan if that's something that's been beneficial to them. And what we've seen historically and what AdDon have shared with us is that the re-uptake is is really high. Like sort of once folks get the idea that they can sort of front run their revenue a bit and pay a small fee to get access to those funds earlier, it means they can invest in their business earlier, take opportunity of like any um, they can take opportunity, you know, when when they need those funds. Um but yeah, absolutely, like the the repayment um, the the re-uptake of loans is is is really high. And something that, you know, Addian have told us and shared with us with their other platform customers is that, you know, that that loan amount does typically increase over time for all those reasons you mentioned. And hopefully, you know, folks are deploying these funds that they receive in their loans to grow their business, you know, add new attractions, make capital investments, which in turn grows their revenue, which means that you know they get larger loan amounts and it grows their revenue. And we sort of see this virtuous cycle where you know we're hope we're helping our customers grow. And as a benefit of that, you know, they're able to bring more revenue in and and um and you know provide a better guest experience for their guests.

Real Uses For Fast Venue Funding

SPEAKER_07 26:57

Yeah, that's excellent. Um of these you know, million now pushing $2 million in loans, what do you typically see? I mean, we talked about what you could use this capital for. What have you historically been seeing in, you know, again, just the last month and a half, maybe two months of this beta test uh that you you had initially rolled out before you did the formal announcement. Um what are you seeing them deploying this capital towards?

SPEAKER_04 27:19

Yeah, it's it's really interesting. And it's been um, it's been really, I mean, when I worked at Square previously, I was supporting a lot of retail and food and beverage operators. So, you know, they were they were using uh Square Capital to buy things like new coffee machines or inventory or pay casual staff. Um, we support a wide variety of different leisure and attractions businesses. So whether it's trampoline parks, family entertainment centers, bowling attractions, axe throwing, you know, there's all there's all sorts of businesses that we support. So their spend is slightly different. But having spoken to a few of our early access customers, um, typically been on capital improvements. So, you know, if they're looking at purchasing new hardware, they want to add on a new point of sale at their check-in to sort of ease that burden when they're checking in a ton of guests on a busy weekend, uh, they're using it to buy a ton of inventory ahead of like a rush period, or they're simply just using it as sort of a cash stop gap. You know, they might have bills due, um, insurance premiums due, they might have um, you know, other lease agreements that they need to fulfill. So basically just pulling that revenue forward and knowing that, you know, they're confident in the fact that, you know, their revenue is going to continue through so that they can just deploy that capital when they need it, rather than sort of having to wait and experiencing that, you know, that nasty cash flow crunch where they're kind of like, hey, like I've got these bills and you know, things that I need to pay for in order to keep the business operating, but just bringing that revenue forward so that they can make those decisions. But yeah, honestly, it's um it's been it's been a wide variety of things, but like capital improvements and like new equipment, upgrading their attractions, you know, anything that's gonna make their park more attractive to their guests.

SPEAKER_07 28:51

Yeah, that's excellent. Um, Chris, is there anything else that uh our audience should know about the roller capital uh platform? Um assuming if they want to learn more about, first of all, roller and how to get roller, but also the roller capital program, they can visit roller.software. Um, that is uh um you know the website. Um but anything else that you want to share?

SPEAKER_04 29:11

No, I mean there's a ton of information on our website um and in our help center as well that sort of answers questions around, you know, commonly asked questions around our capital offering. Um there's a landing page under the features section on our website where you can see me and and and a couple of other team members talking about the program. Um but no, overall, look, we're really stoked to be able to offer it to customers, not just in the US, but across the UK, selected countries in Europe, Australia, and and you know, we're adding more countries each and every day. We've got customers you know all over the globe who would really benefit from a program like this. But um, yeah, we're definitely encourage folks to check out our website, um, learn more about it. And then, yeah, obviously if they join Roller and sign on to Roller Payments, um, they're gonna be able to take advantage of this offer in the region in which they operate, you know, as long as they stay with us and keep processing on roller payments.

SPEAKER_07 29:56

Yeah, it's excellent. Well, Chris, thanks so much for coming on, talking about roller payments. When I saw it, I was very intrigued and very excited. I know this could be a great benefit to uh all the operators and venue operators out there. So thanks so much for doing this. And uh we'll see you on the next guest gap. For sure. Thanks for having me. From

InterCard Ad And Segment Change

SPEAKER_07 30:29

play cards and credit cards to mobile payment and QR code. It is introducing the industry's first part in 1989. Innercard has helped operators boost cash handling, increase debt spending, and run smarter venues. Innercard is the world leader in cash list technology. If you aren't already part of the global family technology, it helps you become one too.com. All right. Well, it was a great uh guest gap with Chris Rich. Uh coming up next, we've got open and shut with Kevin Williams.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Hey,

Open And Shut Trend Roundup Starts

SPEAKER_00 31:10

a big hello and welcome to the latest open and shut. I hope you I find you well, Brandon.

SPEAKER_07 31:17

Doing well, doing well. Uh man, looking forward to seeing you tomorrow for some AWE. It's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yeah, if they allow me in, I'm looking forward to seeing you too. Perfect. All right. Should we dive in? Anyway, let's jump straight into it. So we are inundated yet again with a selection of facilities. You know, any investment community that would be looking at the location-based entertainment industry and seeing some weird guy in England able to cover over 20 facilities each week, uh, with a couple of exceptions, for the last couple of months, let alone years, was kind of say that is an industry that is uh worthy of some interest. And to be blunt, I have actually been having conversations with certain investment operations that have been making this uh assumption. Though, for the life of me, I can't work out why our trade associations aren't as uh active regarding this kind of situation. Though some sources say to me that many of these new facilities opening, and even some of the uh established chains are not members of the trade association, so they don't really appear on the radar. And there's many reasons we can go into, maybe in an open and shut at some point in time, about why um the latest crop of uh location-based venues do not want to play with the associations. But anyway, moving on, the Tourist of Pain, uh, for all of those that enjoy this, and you can see where the clustering is, and it is very interesting where the clustering is from this slot.

Boutique Bowling Keeps Spreading

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Jumping straight in, and there is a theme, and that theme seems to be 10-pin bowling. Sorry, bowling in general. A lot of these new venues all comprise a string bowling or a boutique bowling capability, and that is very telling. So we jump straight into the UK, and the UK celebrates a new 10-pin. 10 pin's part of a chain of 60 facilities dotted around the UK, and they've just uh thrown open a new 33,000 square foot facility, an ex-department store turned into an entertainment facility, and that is kind of telling of where we are. The have space will fill is uh a mentality that we're seeing across a lot of the competitive socializing and boutique bowling venues.

SPEAKER_07 33:50

It still just continues to blow my mind to some extent. Not that bowling continues to uh uh have the presence that it does in these venues, but that the same mix continues to show up in these venues. Bowling, laser tag, amusement, some social, some karaoke they're throwing in here now. And then, you know, the escape room is always an odd one to throw into an FEC. Uh, but uh but yeah, it's it's just it's mind-blowing that these groups continue to just bang out the same standard mix that's been done for the last 20 plus years.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

It is a formula. Uh, I don't like getting into the if it ain't broke, don't fix it mentality because I do personally believe that the uh there is something rotten in the House of Denmark uh regarding uh how some of these uh uh operations are going. But from the established chains like Tempin and Hollywood Bowl and such like that, they feel that uh they can continue down this path quite happily and quite merrily seeing ROI. And again, we don't really get that close transparency to the ROIs. Jumping on a uh uh to our next ones, and of course, another established uh chain, our friends at lane seven. Uh with 25 facilities out in the market, and you know, we wake up to the news that they're dropping in a facility into Leeds. You know, we're talking 23,000 square, um, but again, it's following the cookie-cutter kind of approach for uh this type of uh approach in the market.

SPEAKER_07 35:30

Yeah, yeah, same thing. I mean, at least they're beginning to experiment with some social bays, some social entertainment, but you know, it is uh lane seven is slowly, I feel like, dipping their toe into that water, at least under the lane seven brand. Obviously, they have some other brands that uh they're they're focused a little bit more heavily on that.

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Yeah, I I'm I'm seeing an internal pivot. Obviously, these guys aren't going to uh you know shout this from the uh the rooftops because they have so much competition, but uh there is definitely a slight pivot or a slight deviation to the super tankers course going on at the moment. And then we have pin stacks. Uh I forgive, you know, please forgive me, guys, at Pin Stacks. I always keep on mixing you up with pinstripes, but uh that's just uh my AD H D. Um the problem that uh uh I have about mixing these two ones up is you know, a violently successful approach to the boutique uh bowling sector compared to sadly uh a facility that went through uh pain and anguish, and we still haven't heard the end of uh that one. But dealing with the positive side, uh Pinstacks, they you know follow the same kind of model, a larger facility, but is that because we're in America? I I think it is, they have more space to play with. Purpose-built facilities well here, very impressive there now, really doubling down on the boutique bowling. Thank you, Brandon.

SPEAKER_07 37:00

Yeah, and uh this is one where I am a little bit confused based on the you know, some of the attraction mix, and maybe just because they have uh, you know, they have to fill the space, uh, but they uh you know when they go in and throw in a climbing wall with bowling and some social entertainment, and you know, it's just one of those things where people are not quite ready to go and do this big major climbing uh situation, you know, alongside laser tag and amusement and everything else. So anyway, I just always wonder what you know, what the designers are thinking when they're putting in those types of active play adventure park style attractions alongside traditional entertainment.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

This Virginia site is a purpose-built facility. This isn't going into a previous department store uh you know, uh and uh repopulating it. So they've got no one to blame for the machine mix other than themselves, rather than, as you say, trying to fill dead space. I always get the feeling from where pin stacks and another of uh of the this kind of chain of operations are trying to be the main event plus kind of approach. They do have that uh climbing uh jungle gym above the amusement machines, but they don't have the laser tag, but they you know they have something uh equivalent for a more older audience. Um you know, we we're up to nine facilities here in the chain. They are taking their time in rolling out, though I think we're due to have a spurt of action because of these purpose-built facilities. But again, going for purpose-built means that it takes it long, it takes you longer to open sites, and so your competition can catch up. So there's swings and roundabouts all around here.

Batting Sims And Sportainment Reality

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Jumping from bowling, uh, the other, you know, we're sort of like Sesame Street. Uh, what is the letter for the uh for the program? But you know, definitely bowling was one, and uh bat simulation is the other. Interesting, our friends at Batfast, the company behind uh the uh cricket, baseball, and I think they even do a football ball launching projection system, has uh rolled out a number of facilities in the UK rolling onto that uh uh competitive socializing bandwagon. One of those is a slugger installation. Now, the venue where they've uh start this is a facility that is seasonal. Very well, if you're going to stick uh an entertainment facility on a rooftop in central London, you're gonna be seasonal. Uh and uh Roof East uh has just launched its uh 2028 season. I I'm I'm I'm not trying to work out in their marketing exactly how they do that, but I've been to this facility in previous guises when they had a season. They open up usually around May and then they uh close uh as soon as the snow starts turfing up uh in uh October. The the issue with this is that one of the attractions on on this rooftop is cocktails, they're the more physical, you know, cornhole and uh batchy balls and stuff like that. But they've now added a group of uh what they you know they've defined as pitching platform machines. Uh, these are baseball machines, and they've themed this area up under the slugger name. For for our friends at Batfast, this is kind of them dusting themselves off a little bit, I think, from the debacle that they've been through with sixes, and this is giving them a you know another chance to push forward uh their particular realistic um, but in this case, baseball simulation. I personally feel that this is a higher level of realism that competitive socializing needs, and I wish that they would consider developing a uh social entertainment variant of their machine rather than just hoping that they can change a little bit of their normal training simulator and chuck it into the market.

SPEAKER_07 41:32

Yeah, and this is one of those scenarios where I really wish that Home Run Dugout was providing some better competition to Batfast's technology just to see where some changes in innovation could happen and you know to see which one could ultimately win out. Um, you know, obviously Home Run Dugout focuses heavily on their own venues, but they have the ability, if you go to the HomerunDugout.com and you go down to the bottom, there's a licensing and partnerships section, and you could license their technology, and it's clearly something they're willing to do. They spend an enormous amount of money at IAPA Expo to promote their technology and their licensing. And yet Batfast continues to outsell them and outpace them and just uh you know puts their stuff in. And I think it's uh you know, Home Run Dugout just has a better, if we're talking about comp uh social competition, you know, competitive socializing, Home Run Dugout is better for that. It's more accessible than a Batfast simulator.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

I I've had conversations with the guys, you know, they're very kind with their hospitality at IELTS but I don't know what uh where they're located this year, if they're still outside uh this year because of the West North Hall split.

SPEAKER_07 42:43

That's true, they could be inside now, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:45

Yeah, they could be inside. Uh and you know, I'll I'll need to check that up afterwards. Please do that future Kev. Uh, but the the issue here really is that uh they need a sales guy and uh and a positioning guy uh for them to develop what I would call a pop-up installation variant to compete with not just Batfast, there are a couple of other companies, uh Togo and some others uh in Asia that uh develop this type of uh system. And it is that simulation application that uh our friends at Batfast have made their own. And suddenly, surprise, surprise, while I was doing some research into Batfast, I find out about Hits. And Hits is an app-based uh golf, sorry, well I say golf cricket training facility. And what you do, you know, these are there's about 14 of these things littered around the UK, usually in um, you know, kind of industrialist states. You walk up, you click your app, the doors open, you go in, you put on your uh batting gear, uh, and you uh do a couple of rounds. There's an App there that tracks your scoring and your abilities. It is a training system where for people that don't have access to cricket training grounds. And it's a fantastic, it's also obviously an exercise system. There is very little entertainment here. This is pure uh sporttainment at its very broadest terms. But again, it is an example of where this kind of proficiency of creating a sports simulator wins compared to the more softer uh sporttainment, social entertainment approach that we are talking about.

SPEAKER_07 44:39

Absolutely. And this is the perfect use case for Bathfast. Uh, this is a training, and you're not going to get grandma or the or or seven-year-old, you know, uh, you know, boy or whatever here to come like they're coming here to train to hit balls that are coming at them fast. And so this is a perfect, great uh example of the right use case for a fast pitch batting simulator.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

Moving on, and we jump past a few. You know the rules. Hit the pause button if I zip past anything too quickly. We'll touch upon this in sound off a little bit more, but our friends at uh Genda have pivoted their Geico concept to go all in on uh supporting the trains. We we knew that this was an inevitability, that this was going to actually happen one day, that they would just say, forget it, let's just do a venue that is a hundred percent uh train. Well, it isn't totally a hundred percent train, you can't can't do that with Geico, but it is a train oasis. Uh, we know that they're thinking about some of their other venues also being pushed more towards uh uh a heavy crane usage. And there's some unusual things about this crane facility that I would like to touch upon in a little bit more detail later on.

Titanic VR And Taste Boundaries

SPEAKER_07 46:04

Yeah, looking forward to talking about this a little bit further and sound off.

SPEAKER_00 46:08

Moving on, and we have the next of uh the virtual adventure systems uh again. This one, another one from Fever, uh, another one that uh is really based on the Titanic. So if it isn't blasting zombies in virtual arenas, you are walking around the Titanic in virtual adventure systems. Uh, I suppose they're both zombies in some way or the other. The the issues here are that it is dropped into uh you know a high-level tourist area within Bristol in the UK. Uh you know, it is a mixture of uh a mini exhibit and virtual environment, though again, I'm looking at the virtual reality experience, and this is not on the same level as the mass audience virtual adventure systems we're seeing, but it is going back to what we were talking about a few open charts and sound-offs ago, uh, that it is uh being dropped in like a gallery exhibition into a space on a short-term lease.

SPEAKER_07 47:16

Okay, and so here's where I'm a little bit uh interested and love to get your thoughts on this since we're not gonna be talking about this on sound off. Um I'm gonna flip here to uh this. So on their site, this is just interesting that they are promoting this particular adventure as a team-building adventure options for bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, and birthday parties. Um, what are your thoughts here?

SPEAKER_00 47:45

I've had problems about the Titanic um tourist business long before millionaires uh compacted themselves into sugar cubes going down in uh mini-subs. Uh, this is a gravesite for me. Uh, it is a disaster that we've learned from. Yes, a large number of rich people perish. Yes, a very successful uh film was created on it. And since the sinking of the Titanic, uh the populace has had a uh uh uh an affinity to you know, a morbid affinity, in my opinion. That's my personal opinion. Uh, and I don't want to you know do the downer on anyone that uh is fascinated in the historical side. I am a fa uh fascinated in World War II uh information and history. So you know, if someone could turn around to me and say, you know, a lot of people died during that process, you know, why you enjoy that. Here, this you know, there are limits for me of how much is this a historical uh experience, an education uh uh edutainment experience, or is this a virtual reality, you know um, free-for-all experience where you can have a bachelorette and have some cocktail drinks while you're wandering around the dead ship. You know.

SPEAKER_07 49:14

Sorry to be Debbie Downer on this one, but well, no, I mean, and that to some extent, that's what I'm you know, wondering. Like, okay, sure, their school groups is one of their options available.

SPEAKER_00 49:24

Education, fantastic.

SPEAKER_07 49:26

Yeah, so education, all right, sure, I get that. But I just found it fascinating that they actually were promoting this particular experience for birthday parties and team building and bachelorette parties. It just doesn't seem to me to be something that, like, hey, you know, I'm a I'm a 13-year-old and I want to go have fun. Let's all go to the Titanic VR experience. Um, seems odd to me that this is something that they would be promoting. And uh, by the way, uh, also on MetaQuest IIIs, so that also will be an issue for them going forward.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

I I'm I'm getting a lot of this where I see the marketing footage created using MetaQuest IIIs, and then when I see the pictures from people who actually went to the experience or the trip advisors, they're wearing peacoats. So I think there's been someone somewhere must be sitting on a hell of a lot of quest threes that they're trying to get rid of at the moment, uh, that look like they've uh they were once on the Titanic. More ice with your drink, anyway. Uh uh enough of that flippancy from me.

Australia Karting And Pub Game Upgrades

SPEAKER_00 50:30

Uh Power Play. I they hadn't appeared on my radar, and suddenly I am inundated with Australian openings. And I thank uh our friends at Interfun uh for keeping us up to date on uh the you know the openings of new facilities that my bots don't find for themselves. And you know, I I really would point people to uh our friends uh to Intergame Interfun uh if they also want to follow uh up on new openings and developments in the amusement uh sector. Powerplay is a facility chain of eight karting uh sites in Australia. They've just opened a new one in Sydney. I wish I had the numbers uh on how big it is and a little bit more detail on the amusement and attractions component, but sadly that Australian uh what would you call it? The kangaroo firewall is uh pretty difficult. And I haven't got a VPN running uh at this moment to do some delving. But I can tell you that we have a number of Australian openings coming up in the next opens and charts.

SPEAKER_07 51:42

Yeah, and you know, the bit that I'm able to find on them is that they are pretty much primarily carding. They have a game zone that is their arcade, but it looks pretty limited. It's you know, probably not even it may or may not even be based on you know card-based, it could just be even cash-based. Um, but it is a high-speed carding facility. Everything they show in their videos is like people giving high fives. Like, definitely, this is this is for those who are into high-speed carting. This is not your um, you know, your your regular, like I would say, family entertainment carding situation.

SPEAKER_00 52:18

Agreed. And moving on to something that we've been waiting to see a lot more happen. Uh, no matter what people say about the UK pub trade, uh, there are still successful outliers in there. And they're uh what are the pubcos, the large pub corporations that still survive, where the more independents have been hit quite hard after COVID. And they now can even smell the blood in the water regarding competitive socializing, and they are dropping back in to uh pubs, especially ones that have been redeveloped. Um, what I would call pub, traditional pub games, but some of them given a mix of uh competitive socializing. We rot a little bit on. And so here we have uh the Plines Arms in uh Wales, they've just gone through a uh 350,000 pound redevelopment, and part of that is dropping in uh some uh interactive darts. Uh again, I can't quite work out if these they're not they're not AR darts, obviously, but I'm not sure if they're automated scoring because I can see a uh chalkboard uh in the photo. I also put a table in there, and there's meant to be some uh other levels. I doubt if beer pong is in there, but this is an example of the PubCo waking up to the point that they need to join the competitive socializing uh boondoggle, uh, though it's a toe in the water and it is a freehold being forced to put that toe in the water rather than one of the bigger chains just doubling down, which I'm not uh throwing away as a statement. I do expect one of the big PUBCs, either in the UK, Europe, or uh North America, to just bite the bullet and go all in and adding a component of competitive socializing to their venues.

SPEAKER_07 54:16

Yeah, and you look, this they didn't necessarily go all in, at least as far as it's considered, you know, from an augmented standpoint and gamified and automated scoring standpoint, but they did move further down that path. And this is uh, you know, for a 350,000 pound investment, uh, you know, which is not a small amount of money, but it's also not the same as developing something from the ground up. This is you know a sign that it's not too inconceivable that if you are a competitive socializing venue and a bar down the street is uh you know, looks at their opportunities and their square footage and their space and what should we do to be competitive, that you could end up with a competitor very quickly in a space where you didn't expect to have one.

SPEAKER_00 55:03

From what I saw of Mr. Fogs when we visited uh their facility in City of London and met with the team, I could quite easily see one of the Pubcos going and just dropping in. And as you say, one day you're a happy competitive socializing facility with no uh competition in your area, and then the next day you have that Dave and Busters moment where you suddenly find out PubCo is going to add a Mr. Foggs to their uh business and you've got problems. And again, this is another factor about why I talk about phase two of the competitive socializing sector when you have oversaturization, and then when you start to have the big boys starting to copy your game, copy your homework, then you're gonna have to pivot, and you need to have a path to be able to pivot to.

Restaurants Adding Arcades And Bowling

SPEAKER_00 55:56

And then really, you know, hey, the restaurant boys are getting into it. Why not, you know, why not go all the way? I'm not a you know, I I know of Flavortown, uh, and I am familiar with the downtown Flavortown property concept. You know, we are into the second facility of the downtown Flavortown uh concept incorporating an arcade, uh, or what I would call a uh competitive socializing entertainment component. Uh chosen uh amusement machines, 18 lane bowling, you know, a hundred amusement pieces in what is claimed to be a restaurant, kind of tells you where you know where they're seeing their money made. This is a Dave and Busters kind of number of amusement machines being in there. You know, um, Guy, I'm familiar with uh his visage and uh what he's done on certain streaming services. I haven't had any of his burgers yet. Um and uh hopefully the food is good uh and the salt is thrown. But this is a big arcade component on top of his restaurant, and I'd love to know how those other facilities split between how much money they're making off the food and booze and how much money they've been making off of the entertainment.

SPEAKER_07 57:21

Yeah, and when you look at the video that's playing here, for those of you maybe listening, it's uh it's really interesting that they you're clearly a restaurant first, with you know, but then they do add the bowling to it. So, okay, so they've got bowling, yeah, but their arcade uh is you're right next to the like in a really odd spot in the sense that it's it's right next to the main restaurant. So if you're there for a restaurant uh experience and you're really just there for the food and not necessarily for the games, then you are definitely going to hear those machines. Those we know those game floors are not quiet. What did you say again? Exactly. If you're there for a conversation and you're sitting right there by the game floor, you're going to have a hard time having that conversation. So um, when the all when when basically the the video here shows 80% of it is about the food and about the restaurant, and 20% of this video is about the bowling and the amusement. You know they're leaning into the restaurant component. I do wonder how much the amusement is going to actually uh impact the quality of the restaurant experience.

SPEAKER_00 58:28

It's the Dave and Busters situation. Have a good bar and cantina, have a good arcade, put the two together, and it was thought to have been a slam dump, but it took the two guys behind Dave and Busters a lot of work to work out the positioning where the food wasn't interrupted by the uh the midway amusement. And I really do get the feeling that Guy added this arcade uh to uh to the restaurant mix as a uh as an afterthought, really. You look at the layout of the machines, you see the selection of the machines, you see the placement of the bowling uh at their other sites uh as well as at the new site, and you you kind of wonder who who's who's doing who? Is this a problem that they were trying to address? Did they have too many kids running around and uh with the families while they were eating and they needed to give them something? The arcade mix would argue against that. Did they see that they needed a secondary and tertiary spend because people weren't spending enough time and money at the bar uh and at the restaurant component? Whatever it is, we'll we'll be given a you know a front row seat now because Fave Amusement, who are the people who put the machines into uh this facility and you know laid out the amusement site, are going to have to give us a little bit more transparency on how well this is working. You know, no uh operation is an island. We will know within the next couple of months how those other facilities are doing based on food sales uh compared to uh amusement sales, no matter how much they try and hire.

Acquisitions Revive Legacy Attractions

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

Moving on, and we go to the shots. Shock horror, we have some shots. Well, not really shots, acquisitions to be more uh accurate. And uh again, we're talking about another old school um facility. I think we've actually talked about the closing of this uh uh roller rink facility uh a few months back, but happy news, Sunrise uh uh roller land in California has been acquired. Uh someone had 3.5 million burning a hole in their pockets, uh, and they've taken over the facility. Now, the facility has gone through some uh updates, uh and the acquisition is part of uh a long-term uh opportunity to grow this as a going concern and possibly expand the brand. But it is always nice to see a facility, especially a veteran facility, you know, opened up in 1973, uh to then now be uh taken over by new hands and hopefully skillful hands.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:21

Yeah, that's what I think. That's what I hope for anyway. I mean, this is going to probably need quite a bit of work. I I think interestingly, Sunrise Rollerland for the name, um the strange name, it definitely had a medieval themed feel to it on the inside. And so, you know, hopefully, um arcade monsters or whoever, whatever they end up making this into, uh, you know, leans into that as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:51

Yeah, we'll we'll have to uh well keep an eye on it, of course. It's uh another acquisition, another uh venue that uh is a veteran site, uh another facility that is now going to have an injection or is in the process of having injection of cash put into it. Hopefully, some of that cash will go into them actually having a bloody website of any use. Um, that would be a start. Um, again, family concern, bowling, you know, you can see the kind of theme the sports bowling will now be eased back as they drop in a much more boutique bowling approach, better amusement, bish bash bosch. But again, uh an acquisition, uh a good story, a new pair of hands taking over a tired brand.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:40

Let's hope they can turn it around. We do.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

Uh again, acquisitions of uh a space. We had talked about this, I think, uh previously uh the uh the Welch facility, and I think I did at the time suggest that someone would be mad not to come along and uh acquire it. Well, someone had uh four million pounds burning a hole in their pocket, and they've taken over Dinosaur Park. Um part of the Magic uh Entertainment Partners, which is a group of uh entertainment entrepreneurs that have been buying up within this particular region, uh, entertainment going concerns, tourist sites and stuff like that. So you can see a mini empire on the build. Uh again, this site didn't need too much TLC, it was a workable operation, it just was out of the league of the current owners. And now uh, under a going concern, let's hope that uh it gets that injection of support that it's needed.

Mini Golf Closures And Market Resets

SPEAKER_00 1:03:52

Um a weird one here, real weird one. You know, I wake up to the news that uh two uh uh mini golf facilities have closed down, boom, boom, and I'm thinking we've gone from one extreme to the other. I'm not being told about closures to now being told about multiple closures happening in the same area. But in Kansas City, the craft part chain of two facilities uh had you know has been bouncing along. The first facility opened three years ago, this uh, and then uh another facility opened, and then all of a sudden, last month, um contractual reasons, landlord reasons, they closed and they closed hard. You know, social media closed, thank you for all your service, the door, don't let the doors hit you on the way out, kind of approach. And that was kind of led me down a rabbit hole of looking into what type of entertainment they were offering, how much of a competitive socializing mini-golf environment of this. And what I can say from my research of the two facilities that have closed is the word vanilla doesn't do it justice in what they were offering as a competitive socializing environment. And I am now wondering if okay, you didn't get the people in, you didn't hold your audience, you didn't have any retention. So it was it literally became a one and done. Your revenue has cratered. Now, are we going to see someone turn up with Craft Potts 2.0 going into the same space and learning these lessons?

SPEAKER_07 1:05:33

Oof, I don't know, hopefully not, into the same space. Um, you know, it's a lot of square footage for, like you said, a very, very vanilla uh mini golf experience. Uh, no automated scoring, no tech, no gamification, just elevated green beds with a few uh obstacles in each of the holes. Really, really basic. And uh yeah, you know, a lot. Square footage to carry for especially when you're only charging ten dollars per person for your mini golf, and you also have other games you know basically available for free as well that uh people can play. So they can come there, have some food, have some drinks, maybe play mini golf, maybe not, but you have to then really rely on your restaurants uh business in order to justify it. It just was unsustainable and not surprising to see this thing uh you know have to close after a short period of time.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:28

A craft hospitality owner thought he would jump into the competitive socializing, skimped on a mini golf approach, didn't quite understand it, made some money off the first site, opened a second site, vampired his business because he'd oversaturated with vanilla and the rest is history, would be my personal opinion from my lofty lofty uh London position looking at what's happening in Kansas City. But the plague is moving through Kansas City, and I I hope that uh this uh outbreak can be can be held back because not just uh our friends uh with uh the uh the craft parts, what a name, uh Sinkers Lounge has also uh suffered in Kansas City and opened up in uh 2022. What happened in Kansas City? That everybody went uh competitive socializing mini golf cocktail mad. Well, that didn't last too long, and the fever broke, and suddenly out of uh the three sinker lounges uh that uh were open uh a few months ago, um uh they're down one, and uh two remaining are still going, but uh uh again, another what I would call light mini golf social entertainment experience disappears. No gamification, a weird menu, and I would say that about uh uh uh craft putt as well. You know, they they didn't have a menu that was compelling, they didn't have an entertainment experience that was compelling, they were a one and done site, they were a party site, one and done, and then you are looking at either rethinking your model or you're in serious problem. And this is the serious problem that we're looking at.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:29

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, and this is maybe in Kansas City we're seeing one of those resets where Kansas City was super hot with the Chiefs and NFL, and uh a lot of entertainment and restaurants and everything else flooded the market, and now you're seeing maybe uh a reset. And it's those that offer a more vanilla or simplistic approach to their entertainment that are the first ones to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:56

And if they're not going to learn that lesson here, this is going to bite many people internationally in the butt if they don't learn from this lesson. This could be the beginning of the uh the migration, the full migration over to phase two, uh, competitive socializing, or this is just the normal churn in the hospitality sector, which is if you don't offer good hospitality and social entertainment engagement, you're living on borrowed time. Anyway, that is enough from me for

Sound Off Preview And Final CTAs

SPEAKER_00 1:09:30

this. Uh hey, I've updated something for a change. We have uh the uh Stinger Report. I got some Stinger reports out, I've got some uh entertainment social arenas out. I'm a I've been a good boy. Uh please hit me up on uh LinkedIn if you uh have any information you want to pass on, or via our email address if you want to deal direct. Please remember that on Facebook we have uh the Friends of the Stinger Report group, where um you know everybody gathers and prods and pokes at uh the latest developments and trends that we post up there. Uh but again, I'd also like to thank uh those that have been passing on information to us uh about the developments. Uh I think we were right about the reason why there was a log jam uh for information about uh closings and changings, but we can deal with that uh at a later date in the sound off, I think.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:34

Perfect. Perfect. All right. Well, Kevin, a great open and shut, and we will see you on the next one.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:42

Have a good one.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:52

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SPEAKER_07 1:11:24

All right. Well, on this week's sound off number 125 with Kevin Williams, he's going to answer some of the outstanding questions uh for the Friends of the Stinger report on Facebook and much, much more. We dive in. It is a robust sound off for uh with Kevin. And that is happening this Tuesday, June 16th, while we are in Augmented World Expo in Long Beach. So we'll definitely have a deep dive debrief on our time at AWE during uh next week's LBX show. But until then, uh this is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.

Brandon Willey

Host