The news from Arooga’s, winner of the America’s Next Top Restaurant Franchise contest, keeps getting better as it adds a customized entertainment experience to make guest visits even more fun and engaging.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based Arooga’s Grille House & Sports Bar announced it is making next-generation tabletop tablets from Buzztime, North American supplier of bar and restaurant entertainment, the brand standard for all current and future corporate and franchise locations.

Arooga’s provides the Buzztime BEOND tablet-based entertainment system, featuring 7-inch touchscreens, at all nine of its Pennsylvania locations, and will have the system at all future Arooga’s. Buzztime tablets are connected to a network that delivers single- or multiple-player games like Trivia and Texas Hold ‘Em and are also pre-loaded with more than 25 arcade games for guests of all ages to enjoy. Additional features, such as requesting songs and television programming, ordering food and drink, and paying the bill, are expected to be added in the near future.

“Everything we do at Arooga’s is designed to turn new customers into regulars by providing an exceptional experience,” says Gary Huether Jr., president and co-founder of Arooga’s.  “With Buzztime’s cutting-edge tablets, we are with the times in terms of customers’ expected technology, and we exceed their expectations for their overall entertainment experience. Buzztime is a great solution for Arooga’s because we know it keeps people entertained and it also keeps our guests coming back.”

Since Arooga’s opened its first restaurant in 2008, it has been an industry darling and ahead of the curve in all aspects of its business, from its focus on great food and having a huge selection of draft beers to striving to provide more screens than any other sports bar. Arooga’s was selected as America’s Next Top Restaurant Franchise, beating more than 250 entrants from 36 states in a program co-sponsored by Sysco Foods and The Franchise Edge as part of a nationwide search to find an independent restaurant to become the next great franchise.

Now famous for its exceptional food and beverages, Arooga's Signature Wing Sauces have taken top honors at the National Buffalo Wing Festival, the crown jewel of wing contests, five years in a row, in addition to nabbing numerous local awards.

Buzztime BEOND tablets are now part of the Arooga’s footprint as it pursues a strategic growth plan that includes franchise development in its home state of Pennsylvania as well as New England, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Florida, Texas, and Arizona.

“We are extremely pleased to have this rock star of a sports bar chain in the Buzztime family,” says Vladimir Edelman, chief development officer at Buzztime. “It’s an exciting time for both of our brands as we look to redefine the consumer entertainment experience inside restaurants, creating a new standard for enjoyment.  Partnering with cutting edge brands such as Arooga’s, whose guests expect a next level of entertainment, is fundamental to the Buzztime experience.”

Buzztime’s tablets are the newest addition to the suite of entertainment products that Buzztime has been offering to bars and restaurants for more 30 years. Buzztime, in multi-month trials in 2013 with a large customer, also saw a 500 percent increase in gameplay on the BEOND platform compared to the prior-year period versus its Classic platform. In all, Buzztime games are played more than 50 million times a year. 

Arbitron studies have shown that Buzztime players spent 27 minutes longer and spent $5 more on average than non-players in the bars and restaurants where they play. Buzztime registrations average more than 150,000 new players a month, with about 200,000 new player registrations in the most recent month, April 2014.