Our Brief History

In the Beginning...

In late 2008, long before the official birth of Trivia Kings, individuals came together in search of a trivia solution to entertain the guests of Union Jack's of Ballston, a new British pub that was opening in Arlington, Virginia. After researching countless third party providers across the country, no single option met the various factors deemed necessary in order to have a truly successful trivia night at a large sized venue. As a result, the burden was placed internally to develop a product that could provide the quality entertainment patrons desired, increase retention, and promote the quick growth that could consistently meet capacity attendance to the point of being an actual draw beyond the local neighborhood.

Growing Together...

Through 2009, it was quickly discovered that many measures taken had positive effects in reaching certain goals, but there was still much work left in developing a format that made things faster, easier, economical, and more enjoyable. Our initial success resulted in expansion to Union Jack's in Bethesda, Maryland where the format testing continued. Over the course of the year, through various trials and errors, the primary quiz format was repeatedly refined until a final product was developed that was unique, diverse, consistent, and capable of being easily mass produced in a larger scale.

Making a Breakthrough...

By the end of the year, it was clear that all the hard work made in developing the format and procedures was a great success as weekly attendance was almost 300 patrons in Arlington and 200 patrons in Bethesda, the largest of any venue in the Washington Metropolitan Area and Montgomery County, Maryland respectively. In addition, reviews from those that attended other trivia nights by notable competitors regarded our format and presentation as far and away the best in the region, if not the best they have ever experienced anywhere in the country.

Vision Towards the Future...

All the work and costs involved were too great to limit to a few locations and aggressive expansion was the only way to create an economy of scale that could offer continuously innovative entertainment and value to patrons as well as save on overhead costs. It was from that foundation, where Trivia Kings was born in 2010 with the vision of building a brand synonymous with quality trivia entertainment in the best neighborhood venues within the region and beyond! Today Trivia Kings is the largest brand of pub quiz in the Washington, D.C. area with more locations, guests, and positive reviews per capita than any other local or national competitor. In addition, Trivia Kings offers branded and private label pub quiz nights in almost a dozen states throughout the country making it one of the top 25 live quiz night providers in the United States.

Pub Quiz Origins

The history of trivia nights in general go far back in time. Allow us to shed some light on the topic.

British Roots

Trivia nights, originally known as Pub Quiz, traces its roots back to the United Kingdom as early as the 1960s. In general, it began as a form of adding entertainment for patrons as a means of having them stay longer durations and increase business. According to a British newspaper study, over 20,000 bars & pubs in the United Kingdom offer various trivia quizzes on a weekly basis, making it the highest concentration in the world.

Game Variations

Over the years trivia nights have grown to have assorted variations in how questions are asked and answered, the days and time they are held, and if there was some sort of charge involved, among other issues. Different locations may use written materials, spoken words, or electronic devices for their operations. While Thursdays appear at the most popular day in Europe, in the United States, the most popular are Mondays and Tuesdays. Large in part, trivia nights are free of charge throughout most of the US locations.

Regional Providers

Today in the US, trivia nights are largely run on a individually proprietary basis by the staff of bars. Beyond that, regional providers have grown to consolidate resources and offer services to a few dozen locations in major cities. In general there are between 25-50 smaller regional providers in the US that offer similar services. A small few of those providers have grown in size to be major competitors in national market share. Currently, there are approximately five providers that regularly offer trivia content, though not necessarily quality implementation or any form of data archiving, to anywhere from 50-250 venues across the country that play live team trivia. While these mega-providers have built their brands throughout the country, there is an inherent quality control issue between their various locations.