A new connected entertainment company has been formed by three highly experienced industry personalities who have named their new product Jigsaw. Connected Entertainment operates from their dedicated data communications premises near Hull, on England’s East Coast.
Tony Eyre, Andrew Ludlow and Paul Whitbread, who have many years’ experience in the UK gaming industry, took their new company to the ICE Totally Gaming show in London.
Jigsaw is a touchscreen driven PC-based software content aimed at hospitality venues, including pubs, bars, entertainment centres, cruise ships, holiday parks and similar locations.
“When someone wants to attract people and keep them on-site, Jigsaw is an ideal method to achieve it,” said Tony Eyre. “Elements of the software include music which the company procures through a supply agreement with the UK’s leading music content provider SoundNet, which already supplies 25 per cent of the UK’s pub market, and globally recognised karaoke from Australian based Sunfly also procured via SoundNet. There are also a series of traditional pub based games such as pub quiz, higher-or-lower, Bingo Beats and a team challenge game, Head 2 Head.”
Bingo is also a key element of the Jigsaw compendium, and comes in three variants; in-house cash bingo, in-house prize bingo or the unique main stage linked bingo. Main stage linked bingo is fast becoming a new bingo benchmark. Initially developed for the UK’s holiday park market, it enables holiday park operators to join together for a series of games at pre-determined times of the day for larger prizes. Even the UK’s National Game will soon be available to Jigsaw customers.
“We have moved away from the traditional method where an activity is sold and perhaps rewarded through one of many coin-operated terminals, to one where a games compendium is used to drive footfall and helps to keep players inside a venue to gain more spend.”
Eyre said that the company’s attendance at ICE had far exceeded their initial expectation. “On the second day we played host to some of the industry’s leading figures from the UK’s major licensed hospitality companies and it became something of a ‘who’s who’ of visitors.”
