This year, it will increase the number of stores by 15 percent. The success has allowed the company to add stores at a rate of 10 percent per year. "I’m not sure the consumer would have told us to make the billiards area a sports book." "You can take big positions and big bets on things," he said. "The model proved itself to be very cash flow positive." "It lifted the entire brand," King said, reflecting on the three-year period when the company spent $100 million on store renovations. In the most recent fiscal quarter, EBITDA increased 11.5 percent over the same quarter last year, according to a recent company financial report. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization have been consistently strong. Sales and profits surpassed expectations. The financial results confirmed the validity of these changes before the guest satisfaction surveys were completed. "We jumped there before we had 100 percent clear data," he said. To make the stores appealing as fast as possible to an audience looking to engage in sports games and also be able to watch sports, King made these changes without the benefit of a lot of customer research. "We thought there was an opportunity to create something much more relevant to our target (customer)," King said. One of the most significant changes was moving the billiard tables to a less prominent space in the store to emphasize sports betting, a rapidly growing business.
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In addition to changing menus and uniforms, he installed large TV screens to encourage sports viewing. When new owners took over Dave & Buster’s in 2010, they encouraged King to take whatever steps were needed to reposition the brand. "This gives our staff the ability to focus more on other guest needs such as food and drink service, game assistance or questions/concerns of any kind." "Between both the power card kiosks and rewards kiosks, they allow customers to self serve when they need to purchase game play, check balances or register for rewards," Peters said. About half of the company's new rewards members now register via the kiosks. "Allowing members to register their card while they're in the store lets them begin earning rewards from the moment they leave the kiosk," Raechel Peters, Dave & Buster's CRM and email marketing specialist, told Kiosk Marketplace. It was a way to accommodate the needs of customers as they become more comfortable with interactive technology. In 2009, the company redesigned its loyalty kiosks to provide ticketless rewards points directly to the gamer's cards. King knew loyalty rewards encourage customers to buy more offerings once they're in the store. It was also important to make it easier for customers to leverage their loyalty rewards. He saw, for instance, the need reduce the amount of time customers were spending to buy their gaming cards, which he addressed by introducing self-serve kiosks. "We had all of these tools that were available to us when I walked into Dave & Buster's," he said. He immediately recognized the need to bring Dave & Buster's up to speed technologically. Having already served 22 years with Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, the parent of TGI Friday's during its most aggressive growth period, King was well versed in the interactive technologies being deployed in the restaurant space. "We're really an entertainment brand that has food and beverage as a complement." "Having both (food and entertainment) opportunities is really important," King told his audience of hospitality, foodservice and gaming establishment listeners. He was interviewed on stage by Carol Roth, a TV host and entrepreneur. During his talk, "Play: Dave & Buster's Path to Accelerated Growth," King detailed the various steps he took in addressing this challenge. Stephen King, a keynote speaker at the Global Gaming Expo at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas last week, recognized this challenge when he joined the company in 2006 and was soon named CEO. Stephen King, flanked by interviewer Carol Roth, takes a question from the audience at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. with 100 stores, a distinction the company holds today. Making the leap from being a restaurant to a combined restaurant and entertainment facility presented a major branding challenge to Dave & Buster's before it became the largest such establishment in the U.S.
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