Taking a page out of the playbook of HQ Trivia, Buzztime Sports has announced that it will start dishing out daily monetary prizes for its mobile sports trivia game.
NTN Buzztime will offer $100 prizes to the winners of its daily 30-minute game, which features topics pulled from recent sports headlines.
The game, which runs seven days a week during happy hour and is currently available at more than 2,700 partner bars and restaurants, has racked up more than one million minutes of playtime since launch last month. Similar to HQ Trivia, Buzztime runs live games, ranging from 15 minutes to an hour, at the same time across the country.
Buzztime Sports earns money through an advertising model. Last month, branding messages and promotions were seen by engaged guests on 15,000 screens and 65,000 Android tablets.
For its brick-and-mortar partners, the idea is that the game can draw sports fans to physical locations that have Buzztime terminals, where potential patrons can interact with the trivia game while simultaneously watching live sports content on TV and paying for food and drink in the venue.
“Since Buzztime Sports covers what’s trending in sports, the trivia is an exciting companion to watching live games—while also sparking conversation and fueling friendly rivalries among fans,” said NTN Buzztime CEO Ram Krishnan, in a statement. “The chance to win $100 heightens the energized atmosphere and draws more sports fans to our partners.”
This is also likely a ploy to grow the Buzztime player base, since it requires entrants vying for the prizes to first register for a free account. The 10 million players currently registered receive alerts about new games, special offers, and incentives to return to partner locations.
“They return often to play their favorite games and trivia, and tend to stay longer than typical patrons—which gives our partner locations more opportunity for increased revenue,” Krishnan said.
SportTechie Takeaway
Buzztime is one of a few companies in the sports technology space attempting to lure fans to physical venues. Another major player doing this is FanWide, which enables fans to book Meetup-like events at local bars for games. Last week, FanWide announced a partnership with the social streaming service SportsCastr. The deal incentives fans to broadcast live from FanWide partner bars and restaurants in exchange for FanChain cryptocurrency, known as FANZ. The partnership opens up FANZ, which SportsCastr is attempting to make the ubiquitous currency of the sports world, to eventually being accepted at FanWide’s roughly 10,000 partner locations.