On-line for tournament success

Tournament games are beginning to make an impression on the pub industry.

Leisure Link, Kunick and the independent Cosmic Video Amusements (CVA) are all moving beyond the trial phase and winning pub customers are raking in cash prizes.

CVA now has 10,000 of its Megatouch machines in pubs, and no major estate, it claims, is without them.

Tournaments are run in four-week formats with £21,000 in prize money up for grabs at any one time. Nearly 500 pubs have so far taken part.

"We have been running national tournaments for the last six months and we are exceeding all our targets," said the company's Terry Farr.

Players have a personalised log-on which they can take to any pub in the network and their scores are logged by CVA's central computer.

The final tables are accessible on-screen, winners send in or e-mail a claim form and the cash is paid out within 48 hours.

Around £250,000 has been paid out in the first six months, the cash coming from the 30 per cent CVA takes from tournament plays.

There is no flat fee so, as Terry puts it, "no plays, no pay".

"The market has been begging for this," he said.

"On-line tournaments have been the buzz for so long and now they are starting to happen.

"By the summer we shall be ready to take it to the next level, providing in-house tournaments for pub companies and creating regional leagues."

Tournaments are being trialled in a whole variety of formats.

Leisure Link's Sheep - a virtual sheep dog trial - recently ran for eight weeks on 250 Itbox terminals producing a winner in Matthew Stretton, a customer at the Dry Dock, a Six Continents pub in Leicester.

Kunick is experimenting with wireless interactive pods which will enable tournaments to be fought out among customers at a single pub, or between customers in two or more pubs, without the need for major cabling.

The company predicts such systems could go live within the next year to 18 months.

Pictured: Sheep tournament winner Matthew Stretton collects his £250 prize money from Leisure Link consumer marketing manager Lindsey Newman​