Argentina
France
Mexico
Spain
Australia
Germany
New Zealand
Sweden
Brazil
Greece
Poland
Thailand
Bulgaria
India
Portugal
UAE
Canada
Ireland
Singapore
UK
China
Israel
South Africa
USA
Cyprus
Malaysia
Worldwide
Scott Murray on what inspired the business idea...
“I grew up in my father’s nightclub business, which is actually one of the oldest independent nightclubs in the country, so a bit of inspiration from my father.
I was also an amateur boxing champion. I was at a boxing training camp in Huston, Texas back in 1987 when I saw the first sports bar.
I had never seen a sports bar in the UK before
“After a hard sparring session I went for a few beers in a sports bar and realised I was better at drinking beer then I was at boxing! But joking apart, it inspired me.
“I had never seen a sports bar in the UK before. No one was doing it and it was something I wanted to do. We were actually one of the first dedicated sports bars to open in the UK.”
On the transition from boxer to businessman...
“It’s the same challenges in the ring as it is in business. You get knocked down in the ring and you get up to carry on winning the fight; it’s the same in business, you get knocked down but you’ve got to get up and keep fighting.
“You’ve got to stay focused and work on achieving your objectives. Boxing actually helped me with business I think and gave me the strength to get through it.”
On franchising the business...
“I saw the advantages of it being a quicker and easier route to expand via franchising. We opened our own second bar in 2001 and further bars then followed.”
“We also won Entrepreneurial Business of the Year with the Publican Awards and Best Sports Bar of the Year with the Morning Advertiser Awards. This then inspired me to look at franchising in 2007.
“We actually only launched the first franchise last year, and our first franchisees are about to open this year and throughout next year.”
