Golden Tee, the golf arcade game par excellence for at least two decades now, is popular for a lot of reasons: It offers a wide variety of courses and modes of play, its trackball-based shooting is easy to grasp, and its graphics are sharp and up-to-date. (Also, have you seen how much golf clubs and greens fees cost these days? Compared to that, spending a few bucks on a round of Golden Tee seems downright economical.)
Today, Golden Tee is nearly as much of a staple in sports bars as weekend drink specials. It’s not only the most popular golf arcade game ever, but it’s also been recognized as the highest-earning pay-to-play arcade game ever, period. And just like the actual sport, it has a national tour featuring full-time pros, the best of whom get ranked on a leaderboard.
All of this demonstrates that Golden Tee is serious business, and when it comes to increasing revenue for your business, you should take this amusement seriously. If you have one of these arcade games in your establishment or if you’re strongly considering adding one, here are a few ways you can leverage consumer interest in Golden Tee to grow your bottom line.
You have some options here: You can do one-off or periodic tournaments for your patrons only. (The Golden Tee Caddy app can help with this—more on that below.) Or you could have your establishment participate in official Golden Tee competitions that include other sites across the country. You can have a tournament that involves a standard round of golf, or you could set up a contest based on a closest-to-the-pin format. You could have this be an informal affair involving a few regulars who agree to meet up at a certain date and time, or you can create a big marketing push and develop up banners and free swag for all participants. The point is, you can find an approach that gets more people through your doors to play Golden Tee (and order food, buy drinks and so on).
Incredible Technologies, the company that designs, programs and manufactures Golden Tee, releases an updated version of the game every year. While that doesn’t necessarily mean you should always have the most current edition, you should probably try to have one from the past three or four years. Anything older than that will likely look dated by comparison.
Whether you’re announcing the arrival of a new Golden Tee edition or sharing photos and videos of your patrons enjoying a tournament, social media can be an effective way to get the word out about how you’re using this game. Beyond that, you can follow Golden Tee’s accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to find out about official competitions, keep up with game upgrades and participate in conversations. And don’t forget to use hashtags like #ItsGoldenTee to get your posts noticed!
Golden Tee also offers the more serious player the aptly named Caddy app for an enhanced experience. Available via the App Store and Google Play, this free mobile app has uses ranging from the practical, such as paying for games through mobile phones, to the fantastic and fun — for example, designing personal avatars that look like Pamela Anderson or Hunter S. Thompson. Perhaps the most important feature from the perspective of bar and restaurant managers and owners is the Invitationals section, which allows you and your patrons to more easily organize and manage contests, provided they (and you) have downloaded the Caddy App.
Sources:
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/06/golden-tee-the-history-of-a-beer-soaked-american-pastime
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/golden-tee-caddy/id941918387?mt=8