As consumers increasingly seek memorable experiences, entertainment has become a crucial driver for attracting foot traffic and enhancing customer engagement across malls, urban centres and leisure destinations worldwide. Over the coming pages, RLI will explore the cutting-edge global entertainment concepts that are transforming the industry.
People just want to have fun… again. In 2024, consumers are spending more on food and fun. A growing number of entertainment concepts are hoping to meet this demand.
From state-of-the-art concepts to game-changing offerings, the world’s top entertainment brands are pushing the boundaries of innovation. This feature will take an in-depth look at a selection of world-class examples that are shaping these new entertainment models, from the gamification of retail environments to the rise of entertainment zones that blend art, technology and culture.
Entertainment Concepts Around the World
State of Play Hospitality, the leading international social entertainment operator, has announced that it has signed a lease in New York City to open Flight Club, an upscale technology-enabled Social Darts® concept, at 31 Union Square West. Flight Club New York will be the Group’s first venue in Manhattan, its ninth lease for the Flight Club brand in North America and a global flagship. The spectacular 10,700sq ft former bank, spanning both the ground floor and basement with a patio on 16th Street, most recently housed the Blue Water Grill restaurant and has a storied history. The opening of Flight Club, scheduled for late 2025, adds yet another exciting hospitality chapter to the building’s rich history.
TOCA Football, the world’s first technology-enabled soccer experience company, has announced their plan to partner with Major League Soccer (MLS) to bring TOCA Social to the US in advance of the World Cup. TOCA Social Dallas is set to open at The Colony’s Grandscape in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area in the summer of 2025. TOCA Social combines the best of soccer, entertainment and world-class dining, creating a unique and immersive experience for players of all ages and skill levels. With state-of-the-art venue and innovative soccer-based games, TOCA Social aims to revolutionise how fans engage with the sport. TOCA Social Dallas will be the first venue in the US, setting the stage for a nationwide expansion. The first TOCA Social venue opened in London, whilst the second venue opened in Birmingham, England this June. In addition, TOCA announced a joint venture with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield to expand TOCA Social venues throughout Europe and a franchise deal with Ventura Entertainment to open TOCA Social venues across Mexico. TOCA Social Dallas is the beginning of a planned expansion across major US cities, as TOCA aims to bring its unique blend of soccer and entertainment to a wider audience.
PopStroke Entertainment Group, a prominent miniature golf and entertainment concept backed by Tiger Woods, has announced plans for a new venue at the Parmer Austin corporate campus in Northeast Austin, Texas. This addition marks PopStroke’s continued expansion in the state, with the Parmer location set to be the first of its kind in Central Texas. Named PopStroke at the Pitch, the venue will feature two 18-hole mini-golf courses designed to offer a family-friendly golfing experience. This facility will also provide a variety of entertainment options and dining amenities, including a quick-service restaurant serving freshly made dishes, an outdoor patio with a bar offering craft beers and signature cocktails, and various outdoor games such as ping pong, foosball and cornhole. The construction of PopStroke at the Pitch is expected to commence by the end of this year, with an opening targeted for the spring of 2025. PopStroke, headquartered in Jupiter, Florida, currently operates 13 locations across the US, with nine additional venues under development and expected to open by 2025.
Launched in September last year by world-renowned celebrities Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake, T-Squared Social in New York is the golf and bar destination everyone has been waiting for. In a fairly unusual but welcomed partnership between the two, their new concept is complete with golf simulators, darts, duckpin bowling and 38 flat-screen televisions, one of which holds the distinction of being the largest indoor flat-screen in the city at 200-inches in size. The 22,000sq ft space is also a behemoth bar that features craft beers, cocktails and upscale pub food to round out the experience on offer to guests. Look-wise, the sleek destination boasts 24-foot open ceilings, a beautiful green-tiled bar and according to an official press release, “personal touches” from the two celebrity owners, including photographs of Woods on a golf course and Timberlake performing on stage, plus golf bags with their names on them and general branded merchandise. The duo are looking at launching a second location at St. Andrews, converting the pre-existing New Picture House cinema into a T-Squared Social venue featuring sports simulators, duckpin bowling and darts.
Global entertainment enterprise Falcon’s Beyond and Hong Kong-based cultural commerce giant K11 Group plan to launch new entertainment franchises and attractions across China. The first new attraction experience being developed by Falcon’s under the joint venture is the underwater adventure themed Vquarium™. Providing a science fiction-like experience that is rooted entirely in the natural world, Vquarium will be a story-driven interactive adventure that explores oceans and waterways around the globe in a wonder-filled narrative that offers intimate and empowering encounters with virtual sea life to entertain, educate and inspire. Vquarium will be introduced through an interactive attraction that allows visitors to simulate going on an immersive undersea voyage. A multi-room, multi-level experience, the attraction will also provide creative food and beverage offerings, along with retail components. The first Vquarium immersive LBE is expected to launch in 2025 at K11 Group’s heralded 11 SKIES retailtainment destination.
The Sparkx Sportainment Group story began with a spark and turned into Europe’s largest sports theme park. Sparkx Hasselt in Belgium is the biggest sportainment park in Europe. Perfect to visit with your partner, children, family and friends it offers more than 50 sports across 36 adrenaline-inducing attractions. Suitable for both experienced and inexperienced athletes, everyone can come together under one roof to discover new sparks or rediscover old ones, whether it be trying a climbing wall for the first time or rediscovering your love of dodgeball.
Elsewhere in Europe, KOEZIO PARKS is the French-based innovative family entertainment centres where guests can play, share, connect and repeat. Large mazes, high ropes courses, game modules, Virtual Reality experiences, escape rooms, action games, arcades, F&B, you name it and KOEZIO has it. Above all else, KOEZIO is about fun and team spirit, visitors will discover surprising, unusual and challenging experiences, adapted to everyone’s desires and where the unique objective is to enjoy a timeless moment with someone.
Entertainment and leisure operator, the Lane7 Group, announced the opening of its first venue in continental Europe at The Playce, Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany last month, as well as two upcoming venues set to open in Dublin in the coming months. While continuing the pace of its UK expansion – Lane7 now seeks to grow its European portfolio by some 10 venues over the next two years. Lane7 already has an established portfolio of bowling and entertainment venues in England and Scotland including London (Victoria), Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham (The Cube), Birmingham (The Bullring), Liverpool, Bath, Bristol, Durham, Leicester, Newcastle and Altrincham. The Group operates three branded venues, Lane7 its immersive, boutique bowling and gaming venue, Gutterball and two Level X format venues aimed at families and the youth market.
DTZ Investors has announced that Spider Box in Manchester, UK, a brand-new next generation social entertainment venue, is to make its debut at the Printworks this month. Occupying 8,000sq ft and serving as a differentiator alongside the Vue IMAX cinema and Europe’s largest digital ceiling, Spider Box is the latest addition to Printworks following completion of a £27M investment programme earlier this year to create a unique world of entertainment. Spider Box will offer visitors live music, karaoke and immersive music quizzes, complemented by a comprehensive food and drink offer. Designed to cater for families, groups of friends, corporate parties and students, Spider Box will bring an exciting new big box attraction to the heart of Manchester, reinforcing Printworks’ position as the focal point for entertainment, socialising and leisure in the city.
Castle Quarter – Norwich’s leading social, leisure and lifestyle destination in the UK – has secured motorsports gaming concept Drive Lounge for its first location within a city centre scheme. The virtual driving experience operator has taken unit UU08, located on the ground of Castle Quarter and totalling 1,606sq ft, on a trial six-month licence. As well as multi-format racing simulators, Drive Lounge will also provide a drinks and snacks offering to gamers between drives. Drive Lounge is a new virtual motorsports concept, fusing cutting-edge racing similariton with a vibrant bar environment to create entertaining and immersive spaces in which anyone can socialise, play, watch, learn and have fun. Its first location opened in Manchester in H1 2024. The arrival of Drive Lounge further strengthens the competitive socialising offer at Castle Quarter, which has repositioned towards innovative social, leisure and lifestyle operators while retaining its traditional retail strength. The picot has brought major new brands to the destination, including Boom Battle Bar, Putt Putt Noodle and Escape Hunt.
Competitive socialising operator Spinners has chosen Touchwood shopping centre in Solihull for its latest location, bringing crazy golf, interactive darts, shuffleboard and electronic clay shooting to the destination. Spinners has signed a new 15-year lease for a unit located within Touchwood’s dining and leisure-focused Upper Mall area. To meet Spinners’ requirements, the unit was extended through the conversion of an adjacent balcony and mall area and now totals 5,852sq ft. The arrival of Spinners marks the first competitive leisure operator at Touchwood, providing a range of activities, alongside a cocktail bar and dining space, aimed at socialising groups of friends, family and colleagues. Touchwood will be its third location, following existing operations in Plymouth and Reading.
Co-Founders of Gravity Active Entertainment, Harvey Jenkinson and Michael Harrison, have transformed the company into one of the UK’s leading leisure destinations. Gravity, which launched its first site in Castleford in 2014, started life as a pure play trampolining business. It has since expanded to include climbing, golf, darts, bowling, VR, sports bars, go-karting and much more to cater for all ages. Gravity now operates 25 sites across the whole group and is on track to hit turnover of £40M this year. It employs close to 1,000 people in the UK and started to expand internationally in 2018 through a franchisee model. Gravity now has overseas sites in Saudi Arabia, Mauritius and Malta, where firms are looking to tap into its best-in-class knowledge when it comes to health and safety regulation.
Ballerz, a new competitive socialising brand, has scored an entertainment first in London, UK. Ballerz delivers a mix of training, gaming and entertainment, with specially developed pro pitch technology and immersive effects. Names from the world of football, music and entertainment have been among the first to test out the tech at the opening of the first venue, which is located at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent. Ballerz is a multi-million-pound football exhibition venue covering a 30,000sq ft football dome. It is home to a tech-loaded 5G pitch, developed specially for Ballerz. It has been designed so players of all skill levels can experience the beautiful game like never before – with stadium-like immersive tech. It features a tunnel and walkout experience, FX lighting, real-time crowd noises and goal highlights shown on-site and easily sharable to social media. As well as the state-of-the-art, six-a-side stadium pitch, Ballerz has a SkillZone, which challenges players to seven football fitness games that test technical, physical and mental skill.
Earlier this year, the UK-based Topgolf continued its expansion by opening its 100th global outdoor location with the debut of a venue in Montebello, California. In addition, its holding company Topgolf Callaway Brands has teamed up with Golf Saudi to open new Topgolf venues across Saudi Arabia. As part of the partnership agreement, Golf Saudi plans to build three Topgolf destinations in the kingdom by 2028. These will be owned and operated by Golf Saudi, which has the option to open another two locations in the future. In addition, Callaway Golf, Odyssey, TravisMathew and Ogio will become the official equipment and apparel brands for the Saudi national golf teams.
FlowRider, a global leader in stationary wave system technology, has announced an exclusive licensing agreement to bring the Flow House brand to Saudi Arabia. The agreement marks a significant milestone for both companies as they collaborate to introduce the unique concept of combining food, beverage, and surfing entertainment to the Saudi market. Flow House venues offer a dynamic atmosphere where guests can relax and enjoy food and drinks while being entertained by the thrill of surf. The heart of each venue will be a FlowRider surf simulator, which provides a safe and enjoyable surfing experience for people of all ages.
BOUNCE first opened in Melbourne, Australia, in 2012 and is now the home of freestyle with 32 venues across four continents. It is the biggest trampoline and entertainment park in the Middle East, with locations in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Doha, and Riyadh. BOUNCE combines trampolines, airbags, and adventure challenge features to create Freestyle Playgrounds that lead the world in action entertainment. BOUNCE is about inspiring everyone to forget the serious stuff and immerse themselves in adventure and fun! Back in July, a new unit opened in Abu Dhabi at Forsan Central Mall in Khalifa City, with every part of the 3,500sq m park built for adrenaline. With more than 25 activities, this will be the go-to spot to jump, flip, and fly. For thrill-seekers, the venue is also home to the all-new “Drop Zone”, featuring nine slides, with the tallest Speed Slide taking you down a jaw-dropping 6.5m alongside a pair of Racing Slides for those with a competitive side.
Five Iron Golf, the world-renowned leader in indoor golf and entertainment has announced the opening of its centre in Dubai on Friday 6 September. This new flagship location, situated in the Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina, is the largest Five Iron in the world, encompassing an impressive 32,038sq ft. Five Iron Golf Dubai redefines the concept of leisure and entertainment, seamlessly blending the thrill of golf with luxury and diverse leisure offerings all under one roof. The company said its Dubai venue is equipped with 17 state-of-the-art simulators powered by Trackman technology, six of which include the TruGolf MultiSport function, offering an array of sports experiences from football to basketball. In addition to the unparalleled golfing experience, Five Iron Golf Dubai also boasts of having a top-tier restaurant led by an award-winning chef, four unique bars with a variety of signature and classic drinks, a nine-hole mini golf course, an indoor putting green, augmented reality darts and a variety of engaging table games.
