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 Post subject: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:27 pm 
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-BO- Derek?

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Our group was told that BWW was dumping Buzztime Trivia, the last day being this upcoming Sunday. This was in Roseville, MN. It is a corporate store so I imagine that means it will be nationwide.

Our server showed us the sheet they were given that was basically a FAQ. It explained that they are getting rid of trivia and their tablets and going to study any impact on their business.

I can't think this is good for Buzztime. :cry:


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 4:02 pm 
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I called the Roseville store.She did not have all the facts,but said it was a test and did not think it was all the buffalo wild wings.As far as she knew it was Roseville,Savage and Elk River in Twin City area.She also said it was corporate's decision and they were trying to convince corporate not to include the Roseville store.If anyone has anymore updates please let us know.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 4:12 pm 
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HILTER wrote:
Our group was told that BWW was dumping Buzztime Trivia, the last day being this upcoming Sunday. This was in Roseville, MN. It is a corporate store so I imagine that means it will be nationwide.

Our server showed us the sheet they were given that was basically a FAQ. It explained that they are getting rid of trivia and their tablets and going to study any impact on their business.

I can't think this is good for Buzztime. :cry:


Yes, this bodes ill. It could be that BWW is trying it out in a few corporate locations so they can compare those stores to others that keep it for now. If others on here play at BWW, is probably worth asking management there what is going on. I will make sure that one of us checks in with BWW-Kent.

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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 4:21 pm 
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Well, hell. Given Buzztime's recent failures with the 4th generation tablets, this comes as lil surprise. It will be interesting to see what happens next week in Buzztime's Site-Poor Backyard after this lil old grump returns from his first Vegas getaway this year.

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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 5:46 pm 
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-BO- Derek?

Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2011 1:54 pm
Posts: 10
Bugg, thank you for the updated information. Thankfully there are a few non-BWW locations we can try out.

I won't be too surprised if their test shows no impact to their business. Buzztime's numbers have steadily gone down ever since their major format change over a decade ago.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:54 pm 
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You are welcome.I agree with you.I beleive the number of players playing has declined.There is a market for buzztime trivia.It is a narrow market since in reality very few people want to play it.Currently,the quality needs to improve .There is way too much repeat content.They need to get back to more diverse games.They need to put the games where there is a ROI.They need to nurture it.I also beleive a company should not rely on one business to sustain it.That being said I hope BWW keeps buzztime.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:26 pm 
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Location: Baytown, TX and Coaches Pub
Was told tonight that the bwws here in Baytown, Tx is getting rid of it.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:46 pm 
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I agree the number of players has declined. But I place this blame directly on Buzztime. They still think their market is the bars. They sell the bar owner a bill of goods as to how much business it will bring in. Then when the bar installs Buzztime all support disappears. I've seen this all too often in our area - multiple bars have installed Buzztime but drop it as soon as their one year contract is up.
Bar owners don't know how to market trivia, and don't have time to do it. Buzztime does NOTHING to promote it. The ONLY time I have seen Buzztime in our area was to try to promote the stupid OpionionNation Live game. That was done once at 5:00 PM at the bar I was frequenting, with no preliminary advertising. Is there any question as to why it was a bust?
Buzztime needs to realize their customers are the PLAYERS. The bars are just the means to connect with those customers. They need to advertise and hold events with prizes at bars. The prizes don't need to be big or expensive - even a large order of wings would be appreciated. Buzztime-logoed trinkets would also be appreciated. And posters for the bar to post in high traffic areas are cheap when mass produced.
But alas, Buzztime doesn't understand their market, so their decline will continue. How much longer before they give up the ghost? If BWW drops them, there won't be much left.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 7:20 am 
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Yes,give prizes.Give each bar a stipend every month on prize money.Make it immediate.Many people want more than personal satisfaction about doing well.Bring back popular games that were dropped.Improve content of games without the nonsense of all the repeat content.Do not oversell to business clients.The market for this is small,but many thriving companies have a niche market.If anyone has any other answers that would actually get more people to play and play longer please feel free to comment.To me in a nutshell the games need to be in places people will play and a quality product must be presented.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 9:34 am 
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This sounds like another test as was done in Minnesota in the past. Hopefully short term as long as no one goes into those test locations and calls every week to ask when BT is coming back.

However, the Texas one is disturbing. Nomar do have any more info? Just a test or for good? Maybe the new Roark Capital owners are letting each franchise decide what they want to do.

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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 10:53 am 
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Location: Baytown, TX and Coaches Pub
BUD wrote:
This sounds like another test as was done in Minnesota in the past. Hopefully short term as long as no one goes into those test locations and calls every week to ask when BT is coming back.

However, the Texas one is disturbing. Nomar do have any more info? Just a test or for good? Maybe the new Roark Capital owners are letting each franchise decide what they want to do.

One of the managers just said it was suppose to be gone by Monday, he wasn't happy about it.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 2:48 pm 
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NTN stock up 29% today. What could be the reason? Incidentally, no one would notice if the BWW in Forest Hills, Queens (New York City, Buzzies!) dropped the game, since they only have one working box.
By 4 p.m. end of the trading session, it had dropped to only an 18% gain, but still...something. Do you suppose Jeff Berg could have resigned?


Last edited by xtrain on Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 2:55 pm 
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I still remember the days when a rep would show up locally on site, bring swag and repair or replace non-working boxes.

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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:07 pm 
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Is NTN viable without BWW's involvement?


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:26 pm 
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At this stage, it is doubtful.

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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 4:01 pm 
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xtrain wrote:
NTN stock up 29% today. What could be the reason? Incidentally, no one would notice if the BWW in Forest Hills, Queens (New York City, Buzzies!) dropped the game, since they only have one working box.
By 4 p.m. end of the trading session, it had dropped to only an 18% gain, but still...something. Do you suppose Jeff Berg could have resigned?


The stock price did the same big jump up a week or so ago on no news. There was no news today either, Berg leaving would have been major news. Bigger volume today though, way more than recent. Who knows what's up???

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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime at 3 locations as a test
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 4:11 pm 
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The following letter was written by Sean Gordon a Buzztime investor trying to become a Buzztime board member . His email is srg4investing@gmail.com if anyone wishes to add some info to his worthy case.

>>>>>>NTN Buzztime activist determined to bring about positive change sends follow-up letter to the Board of Directors
PR Newswire PR Newswire•March 26, 2018

NEW YORK, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Adding context to my NTN board proposals, I will be releasing highlights from prior conversations with management regarding NTN's sales malaise as I continue to press forward for change.

Over the past decade, NTN has not achieved market leader status in its core industry of gaming in restaurants/bars. Instead, the company has lost its edge, becoming a market follower that's unable to execute in a timely/efficient manner. As such, it's handed the low hanging fruit to its competitors, not only in gaming, but also in menu/order/pay and mobile. Thankfully, NTN recently announced a new vertical/hardware order, but it absolutely needs higher margin/recurring software orders and to reclaim its core market. Also, with NTN going all-in on its hardware strategy & abandoning mobile phones, it runs the risk of being leapfrogged again, this time by low-barrier-to-entry mobile competitors.

Highlighted below is a broad snapshot of the restaurant/bar market, which is core to NTN and should have provided numerous opportunities over the past decade.

U.S. restaurants/bars – overall market size vs. NTN's:
There are 600,000 restaurants & 70,000 bars in the U.S.
a) Of this, NTN's site count is just 2,730 (a measly 4/10ths of 1%) Q4 2017.
b) NTN's site count is down 30% from 3,877 a decade ago.
c) CEO Ram Krishnan during the 2016 LD Micro conference predicted having 10,000 sites in 5 years, but NTN has only lost sites since then.
d) 200,000 restaurants/bars have stand-alone digital gaming & many more have trivia contests (both allegedly NTN's core competency).
e) Given the overall size of these markets, it's clear NTN is missing a large opportunity in its core market.

U.S. restaurants/bars - industry composition vs. NTN's:
Half of all U.S. restaurants/bars are national chains & half are independently owned. NTN's business is similar with 56% national chains & 44% independently owned. Both client types have their pros/cons & offer strategic importance.

National chains:
a) NTN has never won a national chain under Chairman Jeff Berg's tenure.
b) Even the company's largest customer was won 25 years ago when it was just a small independent, which grew organically into the powerhouse it is today.
c) NTN needs to get past its sole & circular reliance on claiming it needs a national chain reference to win a new national chain. NTN already has a national chain for gaming that it hasn't leveraged—so how do they expect to leverage them for menu/order/pay when they couldn't for gaming?
d) Meanwhile, several new competitors have won large national chains with 1,000+ locations, directly out of the gate (as their very 1st customer).
e) I previously advised NTN on alternative tactics to obtain national chains, but given the hyper-competitiveness here, I won't publicly disclose them.
f) I also suggested several large-scale unconventional/vertical clients. One recommendation was to leverage Board member Paul Yanover (Fandango) & his movie theater connectivity to license dynamic trivia to 5,500+ movie theaters via NTN's mobile app or to Fandango's 46,000,000 mobile phone app users. NTN minimally took advantage of my idea, but missed a much broader opportunity as it only ran a limited-time Fandango-themed game specifically for its existing bar/restaurant clients using NTN's tablets.

Independently owned restaurant/bars:
a) In my conversations with the Chairman & CEO, I've repeatedly highlighted the need for NTN to target large markets with dense populations.
b) New York City is the #1 Designated Market Area DMA via Nielsen Ratings
c) In NYC alone, there are 30,000 restaurants/bars combined.
d) NTN is only available in 4 NYC locations (just 1/100th of 1%).
e) Since Jeff Berg became Chairman a decade ago, we've had multiple conversations about NTN's historical failure in large DMA's. Mr. Berg highlighted this as a key focus going forward by leveraging his out-of-home media expertise. However, results never materialized & have instead been replaced by ever-changing excuses.
f) During my last call with CEO Ram Krishnan about the continued inability to grow NYC, Mr. Krishnan noted that NTN has saturated the market with its legacy gaming product. So apparently with 4 NYC establishments out of 30,000, the company believes it's "saturated the market."
g) Moving closer to NTN's own backyard, there's the Gaslamp district of San Diego. The Gaslamp is a famous tourist area with 150 restaurants/bars and is often enjoyed by NTN's employees during their recreational time. However, NTN has zero locations there that utilize its products.
h) When I suggested Mr. Krishnan follow Starbucks' passionate founder Howard Shultz's playbook (he visits 25 stores a week to better understand their challenges), Mr. Krishnan said that's what NTN's salespeople are supposed to do. Unfortunately, he completely missed my point, as the company's salespeople still haven't grown NTN's reach in the Gaslamp or NYC, and they continue to lose clients nationally.

In summary, NTN has been unable to grow its core gaming & restaurant/bar markets. In addition, its development/deployment of menu/order/pay has been painfully slow, and its over-dependence on one large customer for these services has set it back on numerous occasions. Thus, I remain convinced NTN needs external help to unlock shareholder value of $25-$50.

Sean Gordon as a proposed Board member
a) Brings 20+ years of sales skills & business building
b) Driven by results, not excuses
c) Passionate & focused on moving quickly

Initial Board letter 1/24/18:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data ... _ex991.htm

Sean Gordon
email: srg4investing@gmail.com >>>>>>>>>>>>>

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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 4:13 pm 
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Based on past performance, I'd recommend shorting. ;-)


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 5:12 pm 
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Interesting. I wrote here about Sean Gordon last June, noting he had 8.6% ownership of Buzztime as of the annual report, and was one of five entities that collectively owned just over 50%. But had no other information about him. I think I even googled him at that time to no avail. Interesting to find out he is an activist on this and gives a shit. Kind of nice to see someone rich and important and active give a shit about Buzztime, hope it is not too late.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 5:23 pm 
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Giving the bars a stipend won't do any good. They're already paying Buzztime; if Buzztime gave them a stipend it would just mean they had to pay more.
Bars don't know how to promote Buzztime. Buzztime needs to do it. They need representatives who actually show up at the bars like they used to, handing out swag and prizes. Joke Throw is right - some people (most people?) want more than just the personal satisfaction. Live trivia is very popular around here - you can find a live trivia game with lots of players basically any night of the week. What's the difference? They are advertised and they give prizes. Maybe just an order of wings, but the prizes are there.
And in response to Something's question - no, I don't think Buzztime is viable without BWW. At one time, yes. But not any more.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 5:34 pm 
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whales wrote:
Interesting. I wrote here about Sean Gordon last June, noting he had 8.6% ownership of Buzztime as of the annual report, and was one of five entities that collectively owned just over 50%. But had no other information about him. I think I even googled him at that time to no avail. Interesting to find out he is an activist on this and gives a shit. Kind of nice to see someone rich and important and active give a shit about Buzztime, hope it is not too late.


I do remember that post Whales. I too did some googling and was able to find his sales related listings and some other minor stuff. He wasn't much, small time but now seems to be attracting more attention.

Main question...does he actually play BT? :mrgreen:

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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 5:46 pm 
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I would speculate he has been a highly interested player of the games at some point. He said he has been following the company's performance since 1991 (1991! That's the heyday Downs Brothers era, Pete Rozelle as a board member, etc.). He is also keenly aware of the dearth of sites in his home city (4 sites, and critical of Ram Krishnan for saying that 4 sites across NYC is market saturation). He likely can't play as much as he might want to.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 6:23 pm 
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Well,there seems to be a consensus that buzztime has failed to deliver a quality product.I remember the local reps also.Many restaurant owners simply do not have the time and perhaps know how to promote the game.Myself,many times I contacted buzztime and did not receive feedback.I felt my concerns were being neglected.So perhaps there will be changes and hopefully a better buzztime experience emerges.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 9:04 pm 
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A buddy was a VP at an 80's chain called OToole's Roadhouse Restaurant.
They were mainly Canada and northeast U.S.
He opened dozens of them and put NTN in them all.
The old original QB1, Showdown, Sports triv rotation.
Think it was $1200/month back then.
He said if it was promoted correctly, Monday and Tuesday put you break even.


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 Post subject: Re: BWW Dumping Buzztime
PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 9:50 pm 
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Himself Fodder

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Shakes wrote:
A buddy was a VP at an 80's chain called OToole's Roadhouse Restaurant.
They were mainly Canada and northeast U.S.
He opened dozens of them and put NTN in them all.
The old original QB1, Showdown, Sports triv rotation.
Think it was $1200/month back then.
He said if it was promoted correctly, Monday and Tuesday put you break even.

90 minute SD on Tuesday, 90 minute STC on Thursday. CD and Wipeout the rest of the time lasting 45 minutes. Really slow place and interminable breaks. But it was so far ahead of it's time people couldn't get enough of it.

Now technology has caught up or passed it and there is next to zero support for sites when in the old days reps were visiting each site a minimum of once a month as well as helping with promos. Until about 10 years ago NTN/BT listened to their core players and all was good. Seems as though they stopped listening beginning with travesty of August 2008.


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