Power Up with Arachnid!
New Galaxy 3 Charger Comes With Cellphone Charging Ports
We’ve all been there….You’re out for a night of fun and you nervously watch as the power on your smartphone zooms down to the dreaded red zone. You look around and there’s not an empty outlet to be found.
Thanks to the latest dart machine from Arachnid, such worries will be a thing of the past for bars and other locations with their new Galaxy 3 Charger electronic dart game. The unit, shipping this month, has four ports capable of recharging both Apple and Android phones.
Explained Arachnid President Sam Zammuto, this latest Galaxy 3 can charge phones even while the game is being used. It also features customizable pricing and times, including league-adjustable fees.
As you would expect, the new Galaxy 3 Charger comes with all the latest technology including 19” LCD wide flatscreen monitor in an impact-resistant cabinet. Special features include two-color cameras for Remote Play and Remote Leagues, a target that flips from 15” to 13”, tri-color LED illumination and effects, eye-catching marquee and multiple games.
Explained Zammuto: “The idea came about a year ago through my visits to bars watching league players arrive for the night. It seems their phones were always half charged and they would start searching for a place to plug in. They hit all the sockets along the wall and I’ve even seen them wander into the kitchen to see if there’s an outlet in there they can use. Meanwhile, they’re shooting darts, but their phones are 30 feet away. One of them always has to keep watch to make sure the phones don’t get stolen.”
He continued, “I started to think that’s a minimum of eight players at the location for two to two-and-a-half hours, all wanting to get a phone charged and wondered if there wasn’t some way they could do this while playing darts right at the machine. So about a year ago, we started developing the Galaxy 3 Charger,” he advised.
Citing the existence of machines on the market dedicated to phone charging that sell for between $2,000 and $4,000, he feels this is a no brainer.
“With our new dart game, operators get a dart machine and a charger in one,” Zammuto said. “We have operator-selectable options so, for example, they can set it to a free charge for their league players, then pay-for-charge for non-league hours, or however they like. With league play, the game knows when the match is over and it can switch so anyone else in the bar has to pay for their charges.”
He said the machines come off the assembly line set for 50-cents for 30 minutes of charging time. “It’s a reasonable rate, but operators can adjust this and may opt for $1. Again, the time and price are adjustable,” Sam said.
“It looks sharp, too,” he added. The four phone-charging pockets are LED lit and the color changes once the charge period has expired. It makes it easy for the players and others in the bar know when a spot opens up, explained Zammuto.
“If the operator can make a couple of extra dollars a day on the charges, that’s good! After all, the base just sits there doing nothing, and doesn’t affect the game play, so why not make some money off of it,” Sam said. “We want to help the operator make more money.”
Bars and taverns are the prime locations for the Galaxy 3 Charger, but the factory expects pizza parlors and all sorts of other locations to work well, too, just as they do with their regular dart machines. They also suggest operators mix them together. “Operators in the Midwest might have three dart units, and maybe one of the three will be the charger unit,” Zammuto explained. “If they have 10 dart games in a single spot, they might want to have three or four with the charging capability.”
Life’s Good In Dart Land
“Overall, things are going great at Arachnid,” Zammuto said. “We’re a dart company that has been here for 40 years and sells dart games every day, month after month, year after year. We are starting to see some competition, especially from Asia, but we continue to lead the way in product development and sales.”
Their promotion engine continues to run at full steam and is building year after year, too.
“Our BullShooter tour is up easily over 15% and different areas of the country are now participating in dart leagues and tournaments,” the top exec said. “Darts are on the increase in the U.S. for us. Even the San Diego area is catching on. Texas is into darts big time now with probably 30 or 40 operators participating in dart leagues and tournaments. Florida is getting to be a tremendous marketplace, too. And, obviously, the central and eastern states continue to be strong. For example, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut have been spectacular for Arachnid darts and the BullShooter tour for 25 years.
“We’re finding that the player demographic has also been changing in a remarkable way,” he concluded. “The fathers (our older players) are still playing, but now their daughters and sons are, too. Remember, electronic darts is a sport that doesn’t cost a lot of money to play, especially if you compare it to bowling, which can get very expensive. You can play a game of darts for a quarter. Youth leagues are getting bigger, too, thanks to the efforts of the NDA. They’ve been growing every year!”
For more about Arachnid, its BullShooter tour, and the Galaxy 3 Charger, visit www.bullshooter.com or call 800-435-8319 or 815-654-0212.
