Who says making money can’t be about fun and games? We’re no strangers to the concept of sports franchises, traditional sports or e-sports, and we’re also quite familiar with casinos and other businesses that form the gaming industry. This well isn’t about to dry up anytime soon because, Hey! People love playing games! Games make people happy. And what brings happiness can be profitable. On this episode, we’ve got Troy Warfield showing us how they’re taking the sports/gaming industry to a whole new level with their franchise! Troy Warfield is the CEO of The Social Gaming Group, and a Board Director of Surf Lakes. Other notable positions he’s had include President, International for Topgolf, and Executive Board Member of British Airways. So, how is Troy and The Social Gaming Group taking the gaming world be storm? Troy and his team came up with the idea of mashing fine-dining with social games, like darts and shuffleboard, supplemented by state-of-the-art technology and unparalleled service, to create shared happiness for their guests, franchisees, shareholders, partners, community and employees alike. Besides fun and games, they’re in the business of delivering great financial returns and opportunities to their franchisees. The brand thrives because they attract social adults who want to have fun, and because they’re valuable to client companies who invest in Social Gaming Group’s services with the goal of building a rich culture and better connections. Troy and his team are constantly on the move, in search of new gaming concepts, in order to expand their reach and bring happiness to even more people. What’s really their USP? Is this concept future-proof? What other factors favor this brand’s success? Do games and moving towards financial freedom perfectly match your interests and goals? Tune in to our Podcast to learn more about everything you WANT and NEED on franchising, investment, financing processes and options. This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future. Lance Graulich Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising Eye On Franchising
Who says making money can’t be about fun and games?
We’re no strangers to the concept of sports franchises, traditional sports or e-sports, and we’re also quite familiar with casinos and other businesses that form the gaming industry.
This well isn’t about to dry up anytime soon because, Hey!
People love playing games! Games make people happy.
And what brings happiness can be profitable.
On this episode, we’ve got Troy Warfield showing us how they’re taking the sports/gaming industry to a whole new level with their franchise!
Troy Warfield is the CEO of The Social Gaming Group, and a Board Director of Surf Lakes. Other notable positions he’s had include President, International for Topgolf, and Executive Board Member of British Airways.
So, how is Troy and The Social Gaming Group taking the gaming world be storm?
Troy and his team came up with the idea of mashing fine-dining with social games, like darts and shuffleboard, supplemented by state-of-the-art technology and unparalleled service, to create shared happiness for their guests, franchisees, shareholders, partners, community and employees alike.
Besides fun and games, they’re in the business of delivering great financial returns and opportunities to their franchisees. The brand thrives because they attract social adults who want to have fun, and because they’re valuable to client companies who invest in Social Gaming Group’s services with the goal of building a rich culture and better connections.
Troy and his team are constantly on the move, in search of new gaming concepts, in order to expand their reach and bring happiness to even more people.
What’s really their USP? Is this concept future-proof? What other factors favor this brand’s success?
Do games and moving towards financial freedom perfectly match your interests and goals?
Tune in to our Podcast to learn more about everything you WANT and NEED on franchising, investment, financing processes and options.
This is Eye On Franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise future.
Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
franchisees, aki, franchising, people, business, proposition, gaming, franchise, golf, world, food, love, darts, big, p&l, hospitality, socializing, called, top, australia
SPEAKERS
Lance, Troy, Lance Graulich
Lance Graulich 00:02
Welcome to Eye on franchising. Are you looking for business opportunities? Well, you are in the right place. We represent over 650 franchises and business opportunities. We will help you find your perfect franchise for free. We even have a free assessment on our website that will help us determine the best businesses for you based on your investment level, mindset, skill set, and life experiences. This is Eye on franchising, where we share our vision for your franchise’s future. I'm your host Lance Graulich. Each week, we will speak to fascinating folks from the world of franchising, franchisors and founders, franchise funders and franchisees, are you looking to find your perfect franchise? Or perhaps you are an independent business owner looking to grow and scale your business by setting up a franchise?
Either way, our team can help you. Eye on franchising where you will learn the A to Z's of the franchise.
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another great episode of Eye on franchising. I am your host, Lance Graulich. Today I have, of course, a special guest who has come all the way via zoom from London, England. And let me tell you about this one. Let me tell you about this one. So this gentleman, you talk about gastro gaming, and tech-driven modern darts, yes, modern darts. And they're all set up for franchising across America. And we're going to hear his amazing story. And we're going to also hear about the group that he's the CEO of the social gaming group. Welcome to the show, the CEO of a social gaming group, Troy Warfield.
Troy 01:53
Lance, great to meet you. And I've been a big fan of the podcast and I've got to say as a, as an introduction, or as a sort of knowledge on franchising. It definitely delivers.
Lance 02:04
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Troy. Appreciate it. So social gaming group, the brand we're going to talk about, you have a few brands, but the brand we're talking about today is Aki and AKI is a modern darts, social gaming brand, let's, let's go back, let's go way back had a toy Warfield become toy, Warfield. I mean, you have a ton of international experience. So let's talk about that first.
Troy 02:27
That's a big question to start off. But so I was born in Australia. And I think one of the things Australia does is you're a long way from everywhere. So it gives you a sense of wanting to go and see the world. So I went through school and university and I joined a company called Unilever, a very global company. And then the first thing I said to them, was I wanted to get a global opportunity and roll and they moved me to London, so I hadn't experienced Australia and London, and I moved back and forward with them. So that was great in terms of getting deep brand and sales experience. I joined a company called another big US company called Kimberly Clark, and I was the managing director of the UK and Ireland and then became the vice president of Europe. And that was really about sort of gaining sort of broad, multi, multi-international experience. So that was looking at the whole of Europe and eventually further afield. That then sort of walked into the service industry. And I must say, once I got hold of the service industry, I had a deep love for it because you could finally touch the end customer in terms of the full-service experience. And so I joined Avis Budget Zipcar and went into car rental. And I must say when I was headhunted into car rental, I said no way, don't have anything to do with it.
Lance 03:50
Not a sexy business like hospitality.
Troy 03:53
Not a sexy business, but boys do learn a lot. And I think the two big things came out of that. One is deep e-commerce. So really getting hold of the whole digital world, developing everything from scratch. The other thing I was Chief Commercial Officer for international everywhere by the US. And but the other big thing was I also became the global franchising and licensing officer. So 150 countries, 200 different businesses, every one of them with a different business model. So I was trying to learn as fast in that job as you've done through the US in terms of your podcasts. So it was little learning. But that was probably where my first love of franchising came from, to join a very big British company, British Airways and I was on their executive committee. And my whole job was to look at the end-to-end customer experience. And to do that one of the big things I did was to redesign the entire business class, everything from food to sleeping to the digital journey for the customer. So really, really sort of X rating way of getting into that, that full and very full hospitality because I also looked after the global catering that moved me then into the world of competitive socializing, which is the broad industry where they try and lump all of these businesses and that that was with a company called Top Golf, which I think is reasonably well now on
Lance 05:20
Top golf is, is certainly a big name a lot of people know Top Golf.
Troy 05:25
Yeah, so I became president of Top Golf International. I took what you would be familiar with in the US and sold it around the world sold about three and a half billion dollars worth of franchise contracts around the world Unbelief, and took top golf out of being what was predominantly a US proposition, to now being a truly global proposition. That then moved me into a company called snowflakes, which is for the first time in my history I joined an Australian company, and I'm on the board of surf lakes, and that is a surfing, competitive socializing big, a big plunger goes in the middle of a 12 acre lake and sets off 200 waves and are of different sizes. So you could do that where I live in Las Vegas. Vegas, Vegas would be perfect for it. So. So yeah, no, that's it. But within that, I became the CEO at the time when I joined was the CEO of Aki. But since then, we've combined Aki with another company called European shuffleboard. And we brought them together and we now called the social gaming group. So a quick sort of evolution in terms of how you get there, but you can see deep brand and sales experience from my early career, then big franchisee experience combined with Avis, and, and top golf. And then competitive socializing has pretty much been my world for, I would say, pretty much since the inception of competitive socializing.
Lance 06:55
I love the terminology, competitive socializing, who coined that phrase?
Troy 07:02
Oh, now say, this is an industry that if you speak to different people, you'll get a different answer. But I think it was the analyst community who were trying to get their head around it. We know there's a lot of money in this, we're going to try and work out what all these things like Top Golf and other businesses like that, what are we going to call them and where it came back to is at the end of the day, people and in particular, that the people that we focus on the target are really sort of 20 to 40-year-olds, and you look at that millennium’s edge generation and really what they're looking for is they want an experience, they just don't want to go and eat and drink, they want to go somewhere where they can experience something. And when they experienced it, they want to share it and predominantly they want to pick up their phone and share it with not only the people there but to share it with all their virtual networks right. So this sort of socializing is part of it. The competitive part becomes is where they each fall on top of golf you've got golf with. With ours with Aki, you've got darts. And we've automated the game of darts. We've also got another brand called shuffle, which is automating the game of shuffleboard. So that's where the competitive side comes in. I love it. Outside of the 20 to 40-year-olds, about half of our market is corporate. And there's nothing, nothing more entertaining than seeing a team-building group go out and then start eating and drinking and then getting into one of our hockey games. And you can when you hear the laughs go up, but you also see that the socializing and competitiveness come in.
Lance 08:34
I love it. So let's, let's kind of break down a little further. What AKI is. Did you start? I have you have four locations now. Four locations? That's correct. And the first location was Norway? I have Norway. I have Holland, Australia, and Sweden.
Troy 08:51
Yeah. So I started in Oslo. 2018, then moved to Brisbane in Australia. And that was part of the core team that was there at the time. One of the moves to Australia open up knew how to do Australia, of course, you know what? It's a labor of love to have to go back to those venues. I must say now I'm based in London. And then we opened in Amsterdam and Gothenburg so wonderful. And we're about to, we're about to launch next month in London.
Lance 09:22
So at what point did you say I think we're ready for the United States, the crazy Americans?
Troy 09:29
Well I think that was deeply embedded in me from my top golf experience, which was they had top golf fantastically successful business in the US, but to sell it overseas, that question came, but will it work here? And I think what Aki has done brilliantly is it's now shown it works in Oslo. It's working now 15,000 miles away, almost the same numbers coming out of Brisbane and then and then working in Gothenburg and so on. So when you look at that, in a short period of time, they've almost started to correct the prop the question marks that could have laid around Top Golf. So when I look at that, and when I look at this is millennial and Zed generation, insight of people wanting to socialize and people wanting to be engaged, the US is a prime market. And I think their engagement already in other forms of competitive socializing says, if we get the proposition, right, which we are convinced by where we've been at the moment, then for franchisees in the US, we've got the opportunity for them to be to have a very successful financial model in that market.
Lance 10:39
Yeah, one of the things as you know, in franchising is people are always looking for, you know, proof of concept, pattern, obviously, a history of success. And one of the things your resume is obviously amazing. The fact that you're with Top Golf, I think you've confirmed to yourself as the CEO A while ago, that I would imagine Top Golf numbers were pretty amazing in the United States.
Troy 11:07
A very successful business. And yeah, when I joined, they had about 30 venues and 30 proof points, I think they're up to about 60 Odd now. So I think that was, that was a good basis for it. And yeah, as I said, then you've got to, you've got to internationalize it. And you know that that was what drew me when I saw Aki and I thought, okay, right, you're already seeing across four different countries, very similar, different, say very similar numbers. And so that, that goes to show that sort of combination of the proposition that we've put together, which is gastronomic Michelin star food with great cocktails, craft beers, wines, with a game that we know really engages with automating the game of darts. Yeah, yeah, that combination seems to be transcending cultures and countries.
Lance 11:56
So I want to talk about the food, but I can't get off the fact that you know, again, proof of concept, your experience with Top Golf, your success, and for countries. And it becomes almost a no-brainer when you come to the United States, because you've seen the success and how Americans have loved Top Golf. And this is just done differently. Let's talk about the food. I mean, I was going nuts, looking at the food and saying Michelin star food. What's going on with this Dartz Michelin star food?
Troy 12:30
Well, we have one of the people we've got two great chefs guy called Michael longer. And you're going to love the next guy's name, Niels Van Halen. So these two guys, Neal's Michelin star chef, combine and create our global menu. And we have a combination of the favorites that we have for Aki. But we are also very sensitive the food is a very local, very local, enjoyed. So what we do is we also then take anything that we think locally, we need to boost the menu. So it's a great combination of what we know is successful anywhere, and what is successful locally. And what we've done is we've what I looked at the whole competitive socializing world, and having done a lot of research across as well as being deeply in it, is if you think about cinema, you think about bowling, and the theater, you may go to be entertained. But you don't necessarily think the food and beverage proposition is fantastic or elite you'd write home about nor would you actually go as a destination for it. No, but we saw that as a great opportunity. And we so, therefore, we recruited the right people to be able to claim that, and then we've developed a menu that does things like civic chi and Aaron cine balls and bail bonds essentially bow and one which is a great specialty is a thing called that spicy tuna cone. And it comes out in a tray and the Michael a chef has smoked and it takes off the lid and the smoke comes out it's an Instagram moment or we've seen everywhere and but this is about raising the level of it now the thing that we're also conscious of is the way we do it we don't have to raise the prices to a point where we become a specialist we are where it has affordable prices. So people could see it as a regular visit place rather than an occasional place.
Lance 14:31
I love it. Yeah, so everything you mentioned earlier, you know corporate team building events, you know Happy Hour date night a bunch of girls getting together a bunch of guys getting together I mean it's you know, in a way what Top Golf created but you're doing it in a completely different you know, venue
Troy 14:50
Yeah, totally different venue, and what we say is we've got a natural sort of seating area because you have the what the AKI which it is you've got the dark board. But around it, you've got two tables that serve as the place where we can put our delightful sharing plates. And a bed. It's perfectly good if you've got six to eight people from work, or if you've got 20 People from work you have to Aki side by side. So what it allows, what it allows people to do is to have in a very social setting, be able to eat and all of our food is done in a way that you can pick it up and just eat it straight. So you don't need knives and forks. Because it's all about a sharing experience. It's all designed so you can play a talk with your friends and colleagues. So the elevation of the food is really about the corporate market because it's a big thing these days. Yeah, particularly after COVID gets people back to spending money to build teams because you need to start to reengage the culture. That money you have to think about, in which case, you don't want your team to be disappointed by the Food and Beverage proposition that you have. So we firmly believe that when people go, they've got something that they'll thoroughly enjoy and come back for.
Lance 16:03
So Troy, portable, portable Michelin star food that I'm eating with this hand and throwing a dart with the other. I got it.
Troy 16:13
Lunch, the very few talented like, like, you probably could pull it off. I would say most people do eat it with one hand and then and then they'll get up and play because it gets very serious when you start playing darts. So you don't want any distraction at all.
Lance 16:27
In my mind. I'm quite talented and darts, in reality, not so much. So let's go back. Oh, well, let's talk about the investment level. This isn't a low investment, talk about square footage, talk about the franchisees you're looking for the commitments, you're looking for your target cities, let's talk about some of that.
Troy 16:48
Yeah, so it's a footprint between sort of eight to 10,000 square feet, you can get larger than that, but the sweet spots, eight to 10,000 square feet, when you look at the sort of investment now the good thing and the force places where we've already built them, we landlords love the uniqueness of what we're doing. And so they tend, we tend to find that we get great support from them. So if you looked at sort of a net position of anywhere between about one and a half to 2 million US, and it could be far lower than that when we launched Aki and Oslo, The Real Net capital position was close to zero. So depending upon how engaged you know, certain landlords around the world that we're talking to, are very engaged in what we're doing.
Lance 17:39
So I think that's that sort of gives you a ballpark but also a very, it's a very special brand that's going to attract a lot of attention. A lot of other co-tenants around it in a big Lifestyle Center. Or, you know, in Vegas where I am on the Las Vegas Strip, of course, that Vegas is brilliant.
Troy 17:51
And Vegas is definitely a place where we have our eye on and when you look at it, corporations love having us nearby because we immediately come to a place, we do lunch, we do have quick lunch, in and out in 45 minutes. Now they can just eat because we have sharing plates, which means caterers Well, or they can eat and play, we cater for both of those. So we're people position and, and when we think about our locations, the ideal location is somewhere close to large corporations sort of in the core part of the city, but places so that's Monday to Friday, we have a very good flow through the week. So Monday to Friday, we bounce off the back of corporations finishing and then coming for team building. And then you've got pretty much Thursday through to Sunday. And that's when you start to think about the social side, you know that 20 to 40-year-old groups. So it has to be a place that's good in the city. But it can't be a ghost town on weekdays or weekends, it has to be a place that caters to buying. So that's a good requirement. And we've got really clear real estate briefs to be able to meet for that. I think you know, the other parts that we're looking at, you know, we're looking at some core targets across, we see that this would work equally on the west coast to the mid across to New York on the east coast. So we've got sort of clusters that we're looking at that we can see that franchise partner that what we tend to find is they like to operate within a state or then close by states. And that's the ideal sort of partner that we'd look for someone, someone that's willing to be able to take one of these states that could have multiple hotkeys and across the piece, and knowing their geographic proximity will help them to do that.
Lance 19:46
Now, one thing I didn't ask you yet is where the name come from.
Troy 19:49
Yeah, you know, what are we? So we have a majority owner called carbon invest. It's of its pretty much one of the largest IT investors in the world. based in Norway, our founders are founders of carbon investors. Yen's Rousseff and Runa Syverson and our chairman of the special gaming group is the CEO Kristian Breton. So Yen has a real passion for marketing. And when I was thinking about it in hindsight Aki sounds a very straightforward thing is it's a line where you throw the dart from but, but also just getting that being able to trademark and also short punchy brand names really resonated. So the founder of our majority owner came up with the name.
Lance 20:36
I didn't even know hockey was the line where you throw the dart I didn't I didn't even know that.
Troy 20:42
That is it. That is it. The easiest way to do it, particularly in ice hockey, Mad World, like, like the US it's hockey without the age.
Lance 20:50
That makes it easy. Absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about you, back to you, and how you got started. So I talk a lot about entrepreneurs, you know, are you born that way? Is there a crazy, you know, lab laboratory accident, and all of a sudden, you don't want to work for anybody anymore? What gives give me a little bit about your home life and your upbringing because I sense there might be a story there.
Troy 21:18
Yeah, look, whether I'm whether it was born into it, or grew into it, I, I think definitely both. A little bit about my background, I'm very much the product of my two parents, my mother Dawn was, I guess, one of our great business inspirations, and really gave me a sense of ambition. She, went from shop floor working in a place like Macy's equivalent in Australia, right up to becoming the general manager and first general manager of Cartier in, in Australia. So I, the way she did that was a real passion for business, but a real love of people. So I take that side, the other side, and I would say definitely the entrepreneurial part of my two parents is my father. So apart from owning racehorses, pubs, or hotels, he also had a coin amusement business, which was about putting amusement machines into pubs. Now, whether I was born into it, whether I whether that was sort of ingrained in me, but I now look many, many years, the future, and my job is I now run restaurants, pubs around the world, and what our other part of their business social gaming solutions is about putting some of these things into hospitality around the world. So a very strange quirk of fate. But I'm a big believer in fate and karma. And I think probably along the way, the top golf, the Avis, British Airways side, probably built on my sort of parental foundations.
Lance 22:58
You didn't know it at the time, but you were building a puzzle or fate was building a puzzle for you that you have now solved.
Troy 23:08
Yeah, and I guess you only learn that in time, don't you?
Lance 23:12
Yeah, absolutely. All in due time. You know, today, a lot of people talk about building a team of employees. A lot of people are struggling to find great employees and build a great company culture. You've been involved in so many wonderful companies over the years. What are your secrets, tips, and tricks, to building an outstanding company culture?
Troy 23:36
Yeah, I mean, this is a very big question. Because I think in hospitality around the world at the moment, this is one of the biggest challenges, how do you attract the best people and keep the anchor? Even more important, the top line of my CV is, and has been for about 30 years has been how can I create an environment where people want to walk through the door in the morning, and that's very easy to put at the top of the CV to live that every day becomes pretty difficult. So I think the first is do you have a compelling vision of where the business is going? And based on your authenticity, and delivery, do people believe that the vision is, is more than words? So I think there's you've got to have a vision of where the business is going. Secondly, you've got to be authentic. And third, and the reason why I talked about my mother is and father because he also had a deep love of people. You've got to have a deep love of people you got to you got a desire to see them grow, to see them have the capability of being the best they can. And in that you then think about, you know, job development, training reward, and I think the reward one sometimes is overplayed. But it's important, but recognition I think is really important. So we do a lot about recognizing little milestones that people do. A quick email or phone call But then you know that some of the larger stuff recognize that in different ways and more ceremonial ways. So a lot, a lot of these little East aspects, I think a rule is all very important, but it's almost at whatever level of the business I ever get to, I go back to Troy Warfield when he was 22. And thought, well, if I was him, who should I be for that guy? And, and then and then holding on to people is really important. I must say since I've been here, we have had less than I would say less than 5%. Leaving right across our business. So impressive, very, very minor. And that's, that's, that's, that's not through me. I think it's a combination of the belief in the leadership team and the belief in where we're heading. But also they're seeing things happen.
Lance 25:54
So you know, try didn't even ask the for existing locations. They are all corporate locations.
Troy 26:00
Really good question. No three, Oslo, Amsterdam, Gothenburg, ah, Brisbane is franchise. Wonderful. So Brisbane is the first franchise. Yeah. And what we're really delighted about so one of the things that we do, because the thing we write about our franchise proposition is how do we look at ourselves as a franchisee and measure ourselves? Because at the end of the day, if we're not the best return on investment proposition that they have in their portfolio, we're not going to get invested one of the things we're really conscious of, is to look at ourselves through the eyes of being a franchisee. So, you know, we look at our p&l and we put all the costs that we would ask from a franchisee, and then we say, well, what margin and we make. And then that then keeps us honest through the rest of the p&l to say, Okay, how do we think through cogs? How do we think through people? How do we think through the cost of what we do within the business to make sure that our franchisees look at us and get the best return on investment from our, our business compared to anything they're doing? Because we know if we're not doing that, they've got other places to invest?
Lance 27:04
Right? That's, that's, I love that. That's great. Let's, I have a note here to ask you about your social gaming theology.
Troy 27:14
Social gave me theology? Well, look, I am a big believer, and I've seen it firsthand when I was at Top Golf and, and, and the interaction, even surf like to surfing is, is that people really do want to see a bit more than just sitting opposite each other now, and, and eating and drinking this, this sort of the gaming aspect just provides almost a fluidity to a social occasion. Aside from that, it's just fun. And I mentioned seeing corporations. And it's always a little awkward when you start the night because whilst you're working with people through the day, you're now with them socially. But it's a fantastic icebreaker, and to watch how people go from sort of quite stilted conversation at the beginning of a session at Aki to the end, where they're all high fiving and yelling and, and then eventually holding someone up, as you know, as the winner really does show you where, why it's social and gaming, and the two combined. So I, I must say, since being involved with it, it really has become part of the way of thinking about business. And there's a real big advantage from a very, very practical p&l perspective, which is if you think about f&b margins, we know across a variety of different propositions, what range you've got. But the big thing about social gaming for a franchisee is the gaming is Cost of Goods free. So pretty much the margin you're making on what you make out of gaming goes straight to the bottom line. So immediately you're adding three to five EBIT points to any p&l that you're looking at.
Lance 29:02
It's why I always love product mix. It's a mix of you know, you have some items that don't have a good food cost don't have a good liquor cost. But you mix in gaming, and all of a sudden you have the ability to make some money, right?
Troy 29:13
Yeah, that's it. And I was recently in Vegas at the multi-unit franchise conference. And it was quite interesting because we were big Stan, we stood out anyway, we also had Michael by executive chef cooking foods, so we have lots of people eating the food. But I think what resonated with the really, really astute franchisees was, I get it, I see that game. When people pay for the game, they flow straight through. And therefore, that became a highly relevant differentiator to many of the other sorts of just sort of cool food items. franchises that you saw.
Lance 29:54
I love all the points of differentiation. Let's talk about franchising in general. So why franchising? I mean, at what point did you decide franchising is right for us, in the US or for that matter in Australia, and you know why franchising is a good place for people to be,
Troy 30:15
it takes me back to my days when I had over 200 Different businesses running, franchising for us. And I really saw the power of if you've got a really good core proposition, you can expand far quicker by going through a franchising model. Now, obviously, the trick is to find the right partners and work out how we deliver that in partnership with them. But what do we want to grow? We want to grow fast. And yes, you know, we've with carbon investors, our backers, we've got a lot of capital that could back us. But we do see that if we can partner out there with great partners across the US, we can see we're going to move a lot quicker. And some of my experience with Avis was some of the businesses you partner with have a fantastic experience that we bring back into our business and make our business better. And that's one thing I really encourage when we get these partners across the world is how do we form a community so that we learn from each other? Because that way we know we can we can make the better returns for our franchisees overall.
Lance 31:26
Yeah, I always tell people that, you know, you know, you're gonna get great support when you're matched up with the right franchisor you're gonna get the great support and training and mentorship. A lot of people don't consider the best practices of other successful franchisees that you get to tap into, which essentially is included in your fee, so to speak. So you're a part of this amazing community, and everybody has the same vested interest in watching each other grow. So that's what I titled, I talked about that often.
Troy 32:04
Yeah, I totally agree. I did that at Avis and brought through probably 10 of our best together. And everyone learned from each other I did it again at Top Golf and brought our top groups together. And it was just wonderful to watch the interaction of hospitality and of knowledge across the business.
Lance 32:24
So Troy, with the social gaming group, the ownership group, and their vision, obviously, there are big things going on the recent acquisition or you know, I shouldn't say the acquisition, but it's shuffle, adding shuffle to the mix in the shuffleboard. So tell me about that and how that whole thing plays together in the vision.
Troy 32:46
Perfect, well look at the social gaming group. sitting underneath that we have our Aki brand, which is our automated dots, we now have a shuffle brand automated the shuffleboard game. And we have a social gaming solution, which is more our b2b offer. Looking at putting this into broader hospitality. The social gaming group was therefore created and the umbrella is our vision is that we're a tech company in hospitality to create shared happiness for our guests. And so shared happiness is an interesting, interesting phrase to put into a vision. But where it comes back to is deeply about how the proposition works. So when you come to an Aki, you're sharing drinks, you're sharing food, you're sharing the game, you're sharing the experience. And what we tend to find with 20 to 30 year old says they pick up their phone and they share it with everyone else virtually. I love it.
Lance 33:42
Now. It's a look, it's on point for today and for the future. And everybody wants to have fun and everybody wants to be happy.
Troy 33:53
Exactly. And I think I think that's the secret to life, isn't it? The pursuit of happiness?
Lance 33:59
I think Troy you've been outstanding. Any final thoughts or wisdom, words of wisdom as we wrap up here?
Troy 34:08
Look, I'm really, really excited about the fact that we're heading towards the US. And we'd really encourage franchisees, you know, when you look at our proposition of f&b plus the gaming which deliver you fantastic returns with a proven concept, and I've got a highly experienced team that I've been able to bring on board. I've got people from five guys from Gordon Ramsay's restaurants from IHG hotels. So a wide variety and deep deeper technology and hospitality experience. So I firmly believe we've got in carbon invest the right backers, the team that I have sitting around the right team to deliver this and in the right p&l and country, You have a proposition to really make any franchisees in the US. Very happy. There we go, we can end the happiness.
Lance 35:07
That's where we'll end today shared happiness in business. Troy Warfield, thank you so much for being here today.
Troy 35:15
Lance, it's been an absolute pleasure.
Lance 35:17
The pleasure is all mine.
Thank you very much for listening today. Please like follow and subscribe so you don't miss anything here at eye on franchising? Visit our website at Eye on franchising.com eyeonfranchising.com and complete our free assessments so we can assist you in finding your perfect franchise. This is Lance Graulich. Until next time