New Scaratings

Thanks for the update Miser. Quick question, did your manager mention an exact date in Nov when it Might all be over? I have not got a date yet.

Also, if you talk to your manager could ask him about having the option of keeping BT in a BWW store by store option. That is if that BWW is a franchise not corporate. I’ve heard that some may choose to stay with BT. Hoping our MD franchise is one of them.

_________________
BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

"November" is all that was told to me. Next time we go, I'll see if I can inquire on if they know a date.

Even *if* they were to keep trivia, they really, really need to do something about the tablet situation. Not working, bulged, broken, cracked screens (thanks kids ...), you name it. Last time we were there the group that was playing got lucky and the boxes lasted. It didn't/doesn't always go that way. It was so bad one night we were snagging spares and using a corner charger that no one knew was there ...

I am not sure if the store we frequent is a franchise or corporate owned. I think maybe franchise as they own two others in neighboring cities, but I have no way to confirm this.

-Miser

On my current road trip to Chicago, I stooped at some BWWs. At 2 sites, the managers told me that if they had to pay locally, they would remove the game as they weren't going to pay for 2 or 3 players a week showing up. I can understand why they would do that.
We can only hope that BWW renews the national account. Yes, hopefully they will come to an agreement.

_________________
Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

See ... to me that's a catch 22. At my bw3 location at least ...

During the week, there's a die hard small base that shows up every night.

On the weekend (Friday/Saturday from late lunch on to night ...) , you used to not even be able to get a tablet, as with the regulars and extra players, most boxes were in use.

Then the problems started.

Some players got "pissed" and stopped coming as much.

You see where this is going. Now there's not that many players. Some still come during the week. Some get mad due to the box situation and don't come for awhile. I blame BOTH NTN and bw3 for not getting on top of this.

-Miser

Gogetem and Miser and anyone else that actually talks with BWW managers, could you ask them about a possibility on your next visits and report back here on this option?

If the price was reduced, possibly significantly reduced and there were no tablets or chargers to maintain would they sign a new individual contract with BT? They would have keep 3 or 4 TVs on BT at all times.

Some Bww have enough players to do it, i’d guess 3 or 4 regulars would be enough.

Please, all BWW players, start asking if your Bww would consider this and ask them to push this up their chain of managers or we will all be out in the streets and homeless.

_________________
BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

Unfortunately, I am on the road and away from home when I had this discussion. Our local BWW has plenty of players. I will talk to him, as he has a franchise of two locally.

_________________
Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

My BWs lost it for 6 months from May - Nov 2018 and then came back with brand new tablets. We have around 7 - 10 regulars although not always on the same nights. We all had spoken to the manager then and they said they fought it but also said that it was BT and not BWs decision so I have no idea who was at fault. Luckily, I have other options that aren't too far so just went elsewhere as we all did. I have no clue if it affected business or not but I did speak to the manager at the time who wanted to sell me on their other entertainment options.

I have asked if they are losing it again at the end of the year (new managers now) and they say they don't know but again, no idea if that is true or they just don't want to say. This is a corporate store and not a franchise though.

The Nov. 2019 end date is clearly stated in the BT last 10Q available on the SEC site.

It looks like they are pursuing both corporate and franchise routes to extend past Nov 2019

I mainly go to 2 Corporate stores and talk with the GM's on a regular basis. Both know I like to play and are very accommodating (like see me sit down and change the TV in front of me to Trivia without asking). Both are aware and informed me of the Nov. 2019 date long ago and they don't want to see it taken away. However it doesn't sound like Corp. stores will be given a budget or option on a case by case basis. It seems like their position is 'we like having it and like the folks who come and play, but if Corporate HQ says to remove, then we remove.'



https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data ... rm10-q.htm

Updated notes from discussion with corporate store GM today:

-Nov 2019 contract end date still intact. Not aware of negotiations to Extend. Test was done where BT was removed in select stores and no noticeable decline in sales which supports strategy change. Situation also compounded by BT failing to deliver tablet order and pay functionality which was tested from a competitor in the stores that did the test drop of BT

-Corporate stores mandated by HQ. No local empowerment to negotiate with BT directly on a case by case basis- if mandated, end of story for all corporate locations- they do what they’re told

-The master contact ending in Nov mandated franchises to carry as well. After that individual franchise groups or franchise locations can still decide on case by case basis, so there may be a small patchwork of franchises that keep it

Some BWW franchisees are signing on for extensions, see the new thread on that.

_________________
BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

If my BWW location is any indication, the boards are getting destroyed by kids brought in by their parents who give the boards to their kids to play on so they don't have to deal with them. We see kids dropping them, spilling on them, etc.

_________________
Malort. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

You must have come to the Willowbrook location. We've had that problem quite a bit. I'm not going to fight some 12 year old kids for a board. I'll drive a bit further to a bar so I don't have to deal with them. At least our bartender at BWW will now hold two boards behind the bar for us now.

_________________
Malort. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

When I was returning from the Midwest in July, I had a very pleasant experience. I visited the BWW in Longmont CO, as it was the only site close by.

I arrived at the site, started checking the boxes for working or charged ones and wasn't having much luck. The manager came out to ask if I was planning to play trivia. Of course, I replied in the affirmative. The manager went into the office and brought out 2 new ones. I'm not sure if the paint had even dried yet. He told me that he got new ones for the players only and the old ones were left out for the kids. When one quits playing, just hand them back to the manager. I like that idea.

The boxes held a charge for several hours and worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, I did not.

_________________
Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

I have been hounding the local BWW manager for months about the specific ‘November Drop Date’ for BT in Corp owned stores. Just told today that day is Nov 15

Our local BWW manager told us there is a meeting with BT in a couple of days regarding their future as a customer. I might add that it is a franchise.

_________________
Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

Hopefully your local manager knows about the options available to him. I don't know that BT is telling all that's out there or in the works.

There is the option of keeping a few Bww individual stores with BT, it's not all or none for franchisees. Our franchise of 14 bww is considering keeping a few stores. I don't know if that's the full BT set up as we have it now or switching to buzztime basic with no tablets. I only know of Buzztime Basic (also know as Buzztime Lite) being in 83 places in Southern California and some BWW in Missouri and maybe Ohio.

There is also the option of sending all the tablets back to cut expenses and hassle but keeping the current system and it's computer on for using the BT app. This is not the buzztime basic system.

So the basic system with no tablets might not be available to all BWW right now but should be talked about before the manger gets to that meeting with BT.

_________________
BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Caps and Os!!!!

I doubt if the app would work for the players here. Unfortunately, they would likely give up playing.

_________________
Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

Went to the local bw3 this past Friday.

Out of 20 box "slots" available, there were maybe, MAYBE 8 boxes available in various states of bulge, not holding a charge, not working, etc.

After about the 4th box swap I gave up.

My SO tried to use the app on her Android (latest version) and it said (while Countdown was running) "No games available at this location."

I've got reward points and coupons to use. Once those are gone, unfortunately an era is coming to an end. Can't believe I started playing at the local bw3 in 1998.

There's a non-bw3 (local bar) location near $work that we'll probably stop in occasionally to keep my NTN handle active.

It's been a long time since I moved sites. What happens if the local bw3 totally dumps trivia? Do I still need to pick a "home" site?


-Miser

You don't need to pick a home site. Several players don't have one.

_________________
Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

Thank you - that the info that I needed.

Unless I'm mis-remembering in the "old days" you only had so long of a grace period to pick a home site if yours went under/off the network.

-Miser

That was true, but that rule changed.

_________________
Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

From the latest InvestorEarnings Call, it looks like if you are lucky enough to be in one of the extended franchise locations, they are keeping the tablets and not going to mobile phone app only.

As mentioned on prior calls, the multiyear Buffalo Wild Wings agreement expires in mid-November. Over the last few months, we have engaged with franchisees directly to secure continuing service. We signed extensions with 72 franchise locations, have verbal commitment from 40 locations and are in continuing discussions with 300 additional locations. Franchisees that sign extensions will offer Buzztime without interruption. Locations not continuing service will be decommissioned, and to ensure continuity of play for our players, we have migration plans in place. We will communicate with players, educating them about other Buzztime locations to continue to play our games.

It's important to note that the majority of franchise locations that extended are keeping the Elite solution, illustrating that tablets continue to offer strong value. Their new managers tell us they like that our tablet offering provides gaming experiences for all ages.

That means they have signed 8 more franchises in addition to 64 Diversified Restaurant Group previously announced with 40 more verbal commitments pending.

July 29, 2019, — NTN Buzztime, Inc. (NYSE American: NTN), signed an agreement with Diversified Restaurant Holdings to extend its entertainment services for 64 Buffalo Wild Wing franchises through December 2020.

That's all the migration plan is, someone looking at the site finder to tell the player where the next closest place is to play.

One of the players on our team emailed buzztime telling them our next closest non-BWW site is 20+ miles and 40 minutes away & that she can't drive that far. They asked her where she plays now & gave her the next closest site to play.

So I guess you can at least give customer support some credit for trying to retain players by giving them a timely response. But all this information is available on the site finder. They need actual sites to replace BWW, and buzztime seemed to greatly neglect trying to do that for years & years while they had the contract and one BWW site after another kept popping up.

BTW, our local BWW manager also confirmed that BWW is launching its own trivia game in January. But given the surveys we've seen from buzztime over the years (on if you'd be willing to pay a small fee for trivia) and what you see on Olive Garden tablets (the $1.99 fee for a badly watered down trivia game), I doubt it will be anything more than that. As Sherman on Friday Night Lights says, that's a piece of crap.

At my local BWW (a franchise site) today they posted the latest BWW weekly update, which is an internal memo. It is posted by the Buzztime player rack. Here is the wording as best as I remember it:

The Buzztime games will be ending Friday (15th). We will be transitioning to a new more robust system including real time games, live trivia, cash awards, yadda yadda... which customers can play using their own devices.

Current Buzztime player's points will be retained in the Buzztime network.

Blazing Rewards points will be able to be used for future games (implying some will be pay to play?)

Time frame for the new system is after the New Year.

Eff that. Only thing I'm using rewards points for is FOOD.



-Miser