Having enjoyed an “incredible” 2025, competitive socialising operator 501 Fun has continued to see exceptional growth across its product portfolio this year, with operators employing both AR Darts and Interactive Mini Golf witnessing stronger customer engagement and increased spend on food, drink and entertainment. 501’s Johnny Powell explains.

The CEO of 501 Fun has explained why multi-experience venues are becoming such a powerful model in the UK entertainment and hospitality space, with multiple attractions in one destination helping to create “longer, higher-value dwell time.”

Commenting on the brand’s continued success in the competitive socialising sphere, Johnny Powell encouraged operators to see the opportunity in offering an experience guests want to stay in, which can lead to multiple benefits including greater spend per head.

“Since 2018 we’ve supplied products to venues all around the world, and irrespective of whether or not they are Tier One cities, or small regional towns, we see a really consistent pattern emerging in terms of the business case,” said Powell. 

“Essentially what our products do is they boost footfall into the venues. New bookings come in, and whether or not that’s date nights or corporate bookings, they increased dwell time, they increased spend per head, and – importantly – really increased repeat visits to those venues.”

Speaking on the effect that a multi-experience offer can have on creating a “captive audience,” Powell added that offering more than one entertainment experience “can be really beneficial to a venue.”

“Let’s say, specifically; our darts and our golf products. Having one product obviously has all the benefits I’ve just spoken about, but when it’s combined with two, there’s a really exciting benefit to the venue, in the sense that they can control a high value, high spend time in between those two activities.”

The social spend

Johnny Powell said… “Essentially what our products do is they boost footfall into the venues. New bookings come in, and whether or not that’s date nights or corporate bookings, they increased dwell time, they increased spend per head, and – importantly – really increased repeat visits to those venues…