Member Article

York-based SpeedQuizzing taps into bingo craze with launch of free digital bingo game to support pubs

SpeedQuizzing, a York-based tech company that’s revolutionising the pub quiz through its industry leading app, has expanded its product portfolio with the launch of a free interactive bingo hosting platform.

The Speed Bingo platform, which can be accessed through the free to download SpeedQuizzing app, has been created primarily to enable pubs to host fast-paced, interactive games of bingo. It allows pubs to do away with the old pen and paper model, with customers instead connecting to the game and playing through their smartphones or tablet devices. As it’s free, anyone can download it, not just publicans, and use it to host bingo games either in the pub or elsewhere – no activation payment is required.

A pre-populated 4x4 grid of sixteen numbers, from 1-80, is automatically generated for each player on their own touch-screen device, with players pressing each number as it is called out by the host. The game, as the name suggests, is designed to be fast-paced and, should multiple players achieve ‘bingo’ on the same number, the software will determine the victor according to who successfully completed their digital card first.

It’s the first non-quizzing game to be developed by the company and welcome news for pubs who are increasingly turning to alternative forms of entertainment as they look to drive sales and footfall against a challenging industry backdrop.

Commenting on the launch of Speed Bingo, joint founder and head of tech, John Leach, said: “We’re constantly evolving and developing our quiz games, but this is the first time we’ve done something away from that and we’re thrilled with the result.

“Bingo has made a real comeback over the course of the last few years and we wanted to create our own take on a classic game, taking the best bits and blending them with 21st technology to create something new and exciting.

‘We believe we’ve done exactly that with Speed Bingo and we’re confident it’ll help to drive footfall, sales and fun in pubs at a time when such a tonic is badly needed.“

The launch of Speed Bingo marks the end of a milestone 12 months for SpeedQuizzing, with year-on-year sales of its digital quiz packs up by 35% and SpeedQuizzing events hosted in over 1,000 venues every week. These range from small village pubs with a handful of teams, to large bars with up to 400 players.

The company hopes 2020 will be even stronger, with plans in place to add new and exciting features to its SpeedQuizzing app aimed at making it even more fun to play and host. The duo behind the business, John and his brother Alan – better known as the drummer in indie band Shed Seven – are also looking to take SpeedQuizzing into new markets outside of the pub sector and grow its international presence, building on the 225 SpeedQuizzing events currently hosted in over 25 countries every week, including the USA, New Zealand and India.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Thompson .