Innovations sure bet for success at Redtooth
THE entrepreneur behind Redtooth, the UK’s leading pub quiz and poker operator, has unveiled ambitious plans for growth including the use of interactive keypads and a search for the next darts star.
The business, established by managing director Martin Green as Hemlock Promotions from an attic at his parents’ home in Sheffield in 1999, has grown to become the largest supplier of pub quizzes to the UK market.
Redtooth is the official pub poker partner of Carlsberg and supplies to many of the UK’s major managed pub groups, including Mitchells & Butlers, Marstons, Greene King and Young’s.
It is also one of the top companies in the leased and tenanted sector with clients including Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns taking its weekly paper quizzes.
In total, Redtooth’s pub poker league has more than 1,000 venues registered while its quizzes service more than 3,000 pubs.
Redtooth reported annual revenues of £2.2m last year with pre-tax profits of £850,000.
Speaking to TheBusinessDesk.com, Mr Green said despite the healthy profit margin nature of the business, innovation was key to ensure the business stayed ahead of its competition.
One of the products Redtooth is looking for success from is its ‘keypad quiz’, which Mr Green said will “revolutionise the industry”.
Redtooth already runs a paper-based pub quiz, which includes rounds such as news, pictures, trivia and general knowledge. The quizzes have a bank of six million questions, put together by its staff, and its annual turnover is around £500,000 with profits of £200,000.
The keypad quiz will see Redtooth send electronic handsets – sourced from China – to participating pubs where landlords will be able to download quiz questions and quizgoers will be asked to answer questions within a set timeframe using the devices.
“We’re going to develop different games for the keypads,” said Mr Green. “No-one can cheat using these devices. We’ve been researching it for three years and we’ll launch it in January. It’s fantastic and very exciting.
“It’s exciting times. We sell fun for a living. Quizzes in pubs are more popular than ever. They’re not dying.”
On the Redtooth Poker side of the business, which has turnover of more than £1m, ten pub poker players from across the UK have become the latest to win an all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas after competing in a national semi-final in Sheffield.
The group won the prize after competing in Redtooth’s Vegas 100 tournament in Sheffield.
More than 200 of the best pub poker players in the country took part in the first national semi-final, with the top ten securing their place and joining 42 other players, who are already heading for America after winning their regional tournaments.
Vegas 100, organised by Redtooth Poker, is offering 100 places to travel to Las Vegas in May. The tournament is the UK’s largest live pub poker league with more than 1,000 venues and 145,000 players registered with the event since it was launched in 2007.
Mr Green said: “This is the first time we’ll be taking 100 of the UK’s best pub poker players to Las Vegas as part of the national league.
“Vegas 100 has captured the enthusiasm of all UK-based pub poker players and has grown significantly in recent years. It is the tournament to compete in.”
Mr Green, who runs the business with Tim Smithies, is rolling the poker concept out to cover the sport of darts, which he says is “back in fashion”.
The idea is for pub darts players to take part in a competition, backed by world champion Phil Taylor, that will eventually see one player be given the chance to turn professional.
“We’ve got 230 pubs on board already and we really hope it’s going to be big.”
Other innovations include ‘Dukebox Junkie’ – a musical bingo game for pubs using the keypads.
Redtooth, whose logo appears on Sheffield United’s away shirts this season, presently employs around 20 people at its headquarters and a further 20 across the UK.
