Pool Rooms and the Internet $$$$

Tom In Cincy

Tom In Cincy

AKA SactownTom
Silver Member
Wi-Fi access in the pool room? Does it keep customers from playing?
Is streaming suppose to bring customers into a pool hall?

Why would you want internet in the pool room?

Some cable companies are offering packages of internet, phones and TV for $99/month with a 1 year contract. Plus installation.

That beats the current Cable TV prices and Phone costs on a monthly basis.

What is the advantage of having internet in a pool room?
 
Tom, I can't give you the skinny on it from a RO's point of view but here is my observation.

I have seen at a lot of tournaments many, many laptops open. The spectators use them to keep from being bored from just watching pool. + without it you can not stream any events or action matches and we all love to watch some good ones from time to time.

During lunch time crowds I have also seen many students and business people alike in pool rooms multitasking on there PC's while having lunch and playing pool with friends or coworkers.

To me it looks like a benefit for everyone involved because basically most POOL PLAYERS come into a pool room to play pool but they also bring friends and if those friends can get Wi-Fi access in a pool room they may be more likely to come back time and again and play pool, buy some food and drinks while making new friends in a good hang out.

Having free Wi-Fi access has almost become a necessity to compete with other business as many people use it on there laptops, Ipads and phones. I think it is a great amenity to offer customers. Unless of course your pool rooms name is AMES then its just pool mister.



Tom In Cincy said:
Wi-Fi access in the pool room? Does it keep customers from playing?
Is streaming suppose to bring customers into a pool hall?

Why would you want internet in the pool room?

Some cable companies are offering packages of internet, phones and TV for $99/month with a 1 year contract. Plus installation.

That beats the current Cable TV prices and Phone costs on a monthly basis.

What is the advantage of having internet in a pool room?
Click to expand...
 
Everything Geno said is right on the money. but it doesn't hurt to have more bar clients wiht laptops coming in, the ability to look up anydrink, ustream is always going at my room... ect..
 
when i had my room we used the net.then i put in the wifi and made it a hot spot.it was a good move.worked well for the leagues too.they really apreciated it.their is also machines and games that use the net access.
internet jukebox was a hit.

bill
 
WiFi in a room

I have seen more and more budding players bring their laptops (with instructional videos, drills, and shot logs) to the rooms. I see Wifi as an added bonus to attract both this sort of business as well as that of other ball bangers and their entourage and all the gadgets they carry.
 
Im all for it!

The time has come to embrace the future, even in the pool rooms of America. I know that I would like to have the ability to reach the internet when I felt the urge, or had the need. I'm sure that many people feel that way as well. I see only good in having it.

However, as for the first part of this comment about embracing the future, lets not lose sight of enjoying the great game of billiards with it's rich and colorful history and just concentrate on the internet. Play pool!

RD
aka ... rogedjohn
 
I had a man bring in his daughter and she was on the internet and he was playing pool. She would from time to time play and go back and forth to her computer. Just one time when WIFI was useful. ( They even called and asked if I had it before they came )
 
I'm not a RO, but if you have internet access there are a few things you can do with it. Like the coffee houses providing wifi, its a loss leader.

1. provide wifi. The current generation of kids never experienced life without internet. They're considering adding texting to 911, because most kids rather text than call.

A couple of years ago, an ex-girlfriend and her mom bought a house for the purpose of renting it out room by room to college students. The kids didn't care about the lack of laundry machines, shared kitchen, or that there were only showers, no bathtubs. They didn't care that the neighborhood was still edgy, located in Bushwick Brooklyn, and mere blocks from Do or Die Bed-Stuy. All they cared about their internet access. The kids called their parents and friends on Skype, and downloaded tv shows using bit torrent. I hard wired up every room and made sure every floor had its own wifi, and for redundancy had both cable and DSL (serving as backup) internet. Internet access worked both ways as it allowed me to wired up every entrance on the property with infra-red webcams, which I hooked up to a bank of slingboxes. This allowed easy remote monitoring of the property, especially at night when my ex or her mom weren't keen going that neighborhood at night.

2. Many of the newer large screen TVs are HDMI and some have built in internet access. With a cheap computer, you can show live streaming of pool matches (TAR Mika Shane match, Accu-Stats) to bring in customers. Roku, Apple TV, Western Digital Media Player are the 21st century version of the cable box. Netflix, iTunes, Hulu & YouTube are the HBO and Showtime channels of the 21st century. Like people getting rid of the landlines for cell phones, pretty soon you'll see people getting rid of cable tv service and just keeping internet portion.

3. You can setup cameras on tables, and broadcast your own live stream. The equipment is cheap enough nowadays. Provide an internet presence of your pool room. Get a really good match-up and maybe charge for it like Accu-Stats and TAR.
 
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I'm a street vending operator, and I must say adding free wifi is always a nice to provide customers with.. With many Iphones and Android phones out there, it's always nice to have a faster connection than 3G..

Integration with Digital Internet Jukeboxes from your smartphone is right around the corner as well.
 
How about buying a couple of USB and iPhone chargers, and letting customers charge their cellphones. While waiting around, some may buy drinks or shoot pool.

n0risc said:
I'm a street vending operator, and I must say adding free wifi is always a nice to provide customers with.. With many Iphones and Android phones out there, it's always nice to have a faster connection than 3G..

Integration with Digital Internet Jukeboxes from your smartphone is right around the corner as well.
Click to expand...
 
Heck yeah! I think many of the phones out now all use the same charger... or pretty much all of them, "micro-usb".. Thats a freaking great idea actually..

ctyhntr said:
How about buying a couple of USB and iPhone chargers, and letting customers charge their cellphones. While waiting around, some may buy drinks or shoot pool.
Click to expand...
 
Internet in pool rooms?

Tom In Cincy said:
Wi-Fi access in the pool room? Does it keep customers from playing?
Is streaming suppose to bring customers into a pool hall?

Why would you want internet in the pool room?

Some cable companies are offering packages of internet, phones and TV for $99/month with a 1 year contract. Plus installation.

That beats the current Cable TV prices and Phone costs on a monthly basis.

What is the advantage of having internet in a pool room?
Click to expand...


I recently added free wifi to our pool room, so I thought I'd add my 2 cents to the thread. We had no internet until 6 months ago, but I wanted it for myself to use at work, and figured I may as well make it available to everyone and see how it goes. Depending on your business, there are definate advantages. If you sell food or alcohol you'll have people come in to use the wifi and maybe spend some money. League and tournament players appreciate being able bring their laptops to use between games, and I have a few business owners who bring their computers and work while waiting for a game to come in. Internet service is required if you want to have a camera system that you can monitor remotely, and as an owner it's nice to have computer access for research, supply shopping, and az billiards:)

There are also some negatives. I'm sure there are times when people are on the internet rather than playing pool. Also, some of those people that come in to use the wifi and take up your seating and your electricity won't spend any money. You never know what people are doing online, so that can be a concern, and you have to make sure your employees don't bring their laptops and play internet poker all night instead of working. It occurred to me to post this yesterday as a customer was using my wifi to compare all the cue prices in my display case to the various internet billiard sites. Just the world we live in, I guess.

In the end, I think it depends on your specific business. You have the option to make your service password protected, and give it out as you wish. For some, that may be the best option.

Dave Smith
 
I agree. If I had the choice of one room that had it and another that didn't I would most likely choose the one that did. Not because I bring my laptop with me all the time, but because of my phone. I am always checking scores to games, facebook, youtube, etc. I can do all of that without wifi yes, but I would much prefer it with it because everything loads WAY faster. I have an iPhone4 and pretty much everyone I know has some kind of the newer smart phones now a days that would love to play in a place with wifi.
 
Plus having WiFi adds to the pool time. They take breaks to watch a video on YouTube, show their friends and email someone showed them, waiting for the girlfriend to upload some homework before shooting the next shot. No downside to having WiFi I have seen yet. Of course now that I said this there will be SOME kind of issue tonight...lol.
 
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