What Pour House Trivia does

Pour House Trivia is a privately-held live pub trivia hosting company founded no later than 2011 and headquartered in Frederick, Maryland, with operations across Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, California, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Its core product is a recurring weekly trivia night hosted on-site at hospitality venues — primarily bars, breweries, wineries, restaurants, cideries, distilleries, and sports pubs — by professional hosts supplied by the company. Each session runs approximately 2.5 hours and includes portable sound equipment, music, written materials, and structured multi-round gameplay with categories, wager rounds, and rules prohibiting phones or collaboration. A team of in-house writers produces the question content, and a host-training program standardizes the on-premise experience. A points-based season standings system feeds two postseason tournament tracks: the semi-annual PHT World Series (Mid-Atlantic) and the California Championship, with Wild Card games and Semifinals culminating in a finals event offering cash prizes.

The technology stack supporting the operation is intentionally low-tech and field-deployed: portable sound systems, written answer materials, a public schedule website, and a blog/newsletter for daily hints and schedule changes. There are no public APIs, SDKs, integrations, or mobile applications; the scheduling/standings product is a web-based tracking system rather than a transactional platform. Distribution and content delivery are human-mediated, with hosts physically traveling to each venue weekly.

The business model combines a recurring subscription-style service for venue hosting (weekly sessions at bars, breweries, wineries, etc., on a monthly billing cadence) with professional services revenue from private events (corporate gatherings, school events, parties, fundraisers, quoted on a custom basis). GTM is event-driven and field-sales oriented: a small central team signs hospitality venues on recurring weekly nights, primarily to drive foot traffic on slower evenings. Marketing is largely organic, relying on a daily newsletter, blog content, Instagram daily hints, and venue-to-venue referrals within the hospitality community. The company has bootstrapped its multi-state growth without disclosed outside funding and operates with a 5-employee core team supplemented by a distributed host workforce.

Name

Pour House Trivia

Legal name

Pour House Trivia

Website

https://pourhousetrivia.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Pour House Trivia is a privately-held live pub trivia hosting company operating across Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, and California, providing weekly on-site trivia nights at 100+ bars, breweries, wineries, and restaurants via in-house hosts and writers, supported by semi-annual championship tournaments.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Live Entertainment Services

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990), Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Party Games, Activities & Interactive Entertainment (HSACACAJ)

Keywords

• Live pub trivia
• Trivia hosting services
• Bar entertainment
• Private trivia events
• Trivia tournaments

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington DC Metro Area

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Venue Hosting Services: Pour House Trivia charges bars, restaurants, breweries, and similar hospitality venues for hosting weekly live trivia nights. Venues pay for the entertainment service which helps bring in regular crowds on slower evenings and converts occasional guests into regular customers.
2. Private Events: The company offers trivia games for corporate events, school events, private parties, and fundraisers. These one-time or recurring private event bookings provide additional revenue beyond regular venue hosting.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Pour House Trivia provides live, professionally hosted pub trivia entertainment to bars, restaurants, breweries, wineries, sports pubs, and similar hospitality venues on a recurring weekly basis. Each trivia night runs approximately 2.5 hours and is led by a trained host who brings a portable sound system, music, and all written materials, while the venue only needs to provide an outlet and a table. The service is structured around seasonal competitions with standings, Wild Card games, Semifinals, and a postseason World Series championship with cash prizes, designed to drive repeat foot traffic on slower weeknights.

Product overview

Pour House Trivia is a single-service live pub trivia hosting company operating across Maryland, Virginia, DC, and California. The core offering is weekly trivia games held at partner venues (bars, breweries, restaurants, wineries), supported by a proprietary scheduling and standings tracking system. The product portfolio includes the main trivia hosting service, a Private Events module for custom corporate/school gatherings, and two championship tournament products: the PHT World Series (DC/MD/VA region) and the California Championship. A newsletter subscription rounds out the service offerings. The company provides its own hosts, sound equipment, and materials while requiring only an outlet and table from host venues.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Pour House Trivia Live Pub Trivia Hosting
• PHT World Series Tournament (Mid-Atlantic)
• California Championship Tournament
• Private Events Trivia Hosting

Quantifiable outcome

• Trivia nights last approximately 2.5 hours

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Trivia Mafia: Regional pub trivia operator (Minneapolis-based) running weekly live trivia nights at bars and breweries, with a comparable host-driven, venue-partnership business model.
• Geeks Who Drink: One of the largest pub trivia operators in the US, running weekly hosted trivia nights at bars in dozens of states with similar content, host, and venue partnership model to Pour House Trivia.
• City Trivia: Regional pub trivia operator running hosted weekly trivia nights at partner bars and restaurants, competing for the same venue relationships in overlapping US markets.
• Big Brain Trivia: Pub trivia company that hosts weekly trivia events at bars and breweries, with a similar seasonal competition structure and host-driven delivery model.
• Quizzology Trivia: Hosted pub trivia operator running weekly trivia nights at bars and restaurants, using a comparable host-led, multi-round format and venue partnership go-to-market.
• Sporcle Live: Trivia brand best known for its online quiz platform that also runs a live, in-venue weekly pub trivia circuit at bars and restaurants across the US, directly comparable to Pour House Trivia's hosted format.
• Brainstormer Trivia: Live pub trivia company hosting weekly trivia at bars and restaurants with a similar multi-round format, host-led delivery, and seasonal tournament structure.
• Challenge Entertainment: Game show and live event entertainment company that produces hosted bar trivia, pub-style game shows, and private team-building events, overlapping directly with Pour House Trivia's hosting and private events offerings.

Emerging players

• Tailgate Trivia: Mobile-app-driven pub trivia platform that pairs a player app with hosted bar trivia nights, representing a more digitally enabled model that competes with traditional host-led pub trivia operators like Pour House Trivia.
• Game Show Trivia (Game Show Experience): Live event entertainment provider offering game show and trivia experiences for both weekly bar nights and private corporate events, partially overlapping with Pour House Trivia's hosted trivia and private events offerings.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pour-house-trivia

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Pour House Trivia