Written By: Jordan Crook (@jordanrcrook)
Published By: TechCrunch
NTN Buzztime, the service that puts trivia games and entertainment in the palm of restaurant diners and bar patrons hands, has today announced the ability to pay their bill through the Buzztime tablets.
This means that Buzztime’s tablets, which are provided to restaurants and bar owners that sign up for the service, will now display menu information for that establishment along with the ability for a party to pay for their meal via the tablet. Moreover, if six people sit down to a table, each of them will get their own tablet with a menu and the items will all be placed on the same bill.
Previously, Buzztime provided tablets to bars and restaurants so that users could play trivia games, whether it be on a national level across the Buzztime network, regionally, or in that very bar or restaurant. Beyond trivia, Buzztime also offered other types of games and entertainment, including an Arcade section for kids.
But Buzztime CEO Ram Krishnan explained to TechCrunch that 80 percent of BuzzTime’s clients serve food, so the ability to order and pay on the same device used for entertainment makes sense.
Buzztime charges the restaurant or bar a subscription for the use of the system, giving those bar and restaurant owners the opportunity to choose whether or not they’re paying for their customers to play the games or passing that cost along to the customer.
A number of services are looking to make ordering and paying at a restaurant more seamless, namely Cover, but Buzztime adds in the ability to provide entertainment, as well. That said, competitors like Cover focus on the user’s own smartphone as opposed to a restaurant-provided tablet.