Organising a pub quiz at your bar: the full playbook
For a bar, a pub quiz is one of the few activities that both fills a quiet evening and brings in regular guests. Whoever takes part comes with a group, stays two hours, and drinks more in those two hours than during a regular visit.
The problem isn't the idea but the execution. Coming up with questions takes time, keeping score takes time, and one evening where the score doesn't add up costs you half your participants.
What you need
- A fixed evening. Every week or every other week, always the same day. Irregularity is deadly for turnout.
- Forty to sixty questions, divided into four or five rounds with their own theme.
- Someone to host the evening and link the rounds together.
- A way to keep score that nobody doubts.
- A prize that's worthwhile without being expensive.
The setup of an evening that works
Length
An hour and a half to two hours, including breaks. Shorter feels like too little for the effort of coming; longer and the last round plays out in front of a half-empty room.
Rounds
Four or five rounds of ten questions. Vary the difficulty and make sure each round has its own character: general knowledge, music, images, something local, and a round that has nothing to do with knowledge, such as estimating or guessing.
The local round
This is the round that sets your evening apart from every other pub quiz. Questions about the street, the local area, the history of the building. Regular guests feel at home and new guests learn something.
The local round is almost always the round that gets the most laughs, and the reason people come back.
Keeping score: where it goes wrong
Having guests hand in answers on paper and marking them yourself costs you ten minutes between rounds, and in those ten minutes the energy in the room drops. On top of that, arguments start as soon as one answer has been marked wrong.
The variant that solves this: guests take part via their own phone and the scores add themselves up. At TablePlay, each table scans the QR code, picks a table name, and the standings appear live. No paper, no marking, no arguments. Check out the games to see which quiz variants are available, or the page for bars to see how this works out in a bar.
The questions themselves
Whoever writes a quiz for the first time almost always makes the same two mistakes: too difficult, and too much factual knowledge. A quiz where a team gets two out of ten right isn't a challenge, it's a humiliation.
The breakdown that works
- Two questions that almost everyone gets right. These are there to give people the feeling that they're taking part.
- Six questions you need to think about or discuss. This is where the fun is.
- Two questions that almost nobody knows. These decide who wins.
The discussion in the middle is where a pub quiz gets its value. A question that only one person knows and the rest don't leads to no conversation. A question that four people can figure out together does.
Formats that work better than factual knowledge
Estimation questions (how high, how heavy, how many), image questions, music clips, and questions where you have to determine an order. They have one thing in common: you can take part without knowing the answer. That keeps teams in the game who would otherwise drop out after round two.
Prizes that work
The prize doesn't have to be big; it has to be visible. A round of drinks for the winning table, a voucher for next time, or something on the house. A voucher has one advantage over cash: it brings the team back.
Hosting the evening
A quizmaster doesn't have to be funny, but must be clear. What keeps an evening running smoothly is almost entirely rhythm:
- Read each question twice, with a pause in between. Reading it once guaranteed gets a hand up asking you to repeat it.
- Give the same thinking time per question, and say beforehand how much that is.
- Announce the standings after each round. That's the moment the room wakes up a bit.
- Keep the break short. Ten minutes is enough; a quarter of an hour and you've lost half the attention.
The final round
Let the scoring of the final round weigh slightly heavier, or keep one round in reserve where teams can wager points. Without this, a team that's ten points behind after round three is mentally done, and you'll notice it at the bar.
How to fill the first evenings
- Announce it three weeks ahead, not three days.
- Ask your regular guests personally if they'll bring a team. That works better than any poster.
- Put the date on your Google profile and on social media, with a photo of the venue and not a quiz logo.
- Make the first evening easier than you'd like. Anyone who feels they don't stand a chance won't come back.
What it costs and delivers
Budget two to four hours of preparation per evening if you write the questions yourself, plus the evening itself. In return, a quiz night becomes the best-attended weekday evening in most pubs, with higher spend per guest than average because people stay seated longer.
Want to skip the preparation? Check what a ready-made quiz costs at the prices.
How long does a pub quiz take?
An hour and a half to two hours including breaks. Shorter feels like too little for the effort; longer and the final round plays to a half-empty room.
How many questions do you need for a pub quiz?
Forty to sixty, spread over four or five rounds of ten, each with its own theme.
How do you keep score without hassle?
Checking paper answers takes ten minutes per round and leads to arguments. Joining via phone with automatic scoring removes both problems.
Which evening is best for holding a pub quiz?
A weekday evening that's currently quiet, usually Tuesday or Wednesday. The goal is to fill an empty evening, not make a busy evening busier.
What's a good prize for the winners?
Something visible but not expensive: a round of drinks, something from the house, or a voucher. A voucher also brings the team back.
Want to try table games yourself?
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