The landlord's blog Quiz nights
How to run a pub quiz that fills a quiet Tuesday
A plain plan for a midweek quiz people come back for: the timing, the rounds, the prizes and the small habits that keep the back tables playing.
Tuesday is a hard night to sell. Payday is a long way off and the telly at home is free. A quiz won't fix that on its own. A quiz that people plan their week around can.
This is the plan we'd give any landlord starting from scratch. None of it costs much. Most of it is about doing the same thing, well, every week.
Pick a time and never move it
People build habits around fixed things. If the quiz starts at 8pm one week and half past the next, you lose the people who turned up at eight and gave up.
Pick a start time that suits your regulars. Put it on every poster and every screen. Then start on the dot. Starting late punishes the people who came early, and they're the ones you want.
A good shape for a weeknight:
- Team names and answer sheets out from 7.30pm
- Round one at 8pm sharp
- A break after round three or four, long enough to get a drink in
- Finished by about 10pm, so people can get home
Two hours is plenty. Midweek, people have work in the morning. A quiz that drags to 11pm loses tables early, and the last round gets played to half a room.
Keep the rounds short and mixed
Six to eight rounds of eight to ten questions suits most pubs. Mix them up so no one team runs away with it. General knowledge, a local round, sport, a picture round, then general knowledge again.
The local round matters more than people think. Questions about your street, your estate or the local club give the regulars an edge over the clever lot who only come for the prize. It also makes it feel like your quiz, not one pulled off the internet.
Watch the difficulty. If the winners score 90%, it's too easy. If the bottom team scores 20%, they won't come back. Aim for the middle team to get about half right.
Make it easy to hear and easy to follow
The fastest way to lose the back of the room is a question they didn't catch. Read each question twice, slowly. Say the question number every time. Say the round name before you start it.
Better still, put the questions on your TVs so nobody has to rely on hearing them. We wrote a whole post on why the back of the room can't hear your quiz and the cheap fixes.
Prizes: small, regular and fair
You don't need a big prize. You need one that's worth the walk. A bar tab for the winning team works well, because it gets spent in your pub. A small prize for second place, or for the best team name, keeps more tables interested.
Some pubs add a jackpot question that rolls over if nobody gets it. It gives people a reason to come back even when they didn't win.
Keep it free to enter if you can. If you do charge, keep it small and be clear where the money goes. The Gambling Commission says prize competitions rely on "an element of skill, knowledge, or judgment" to decide the winner. That's what keeps a quiz out of lottery rules. Its guidance also says simple multiple choice questions usually aren't enough on their own. If you charge entry and pay out cash, read the Commission's definitions first. Our post on prizes that bring people back goes through the rules.
Tell people, then tell them again
Most quiz nights don't fail on the night. They fail because nobody knew about them.
- Put the quiz on your TVs every day, not just on Tuesday.
- Put a card on every table with the day and the time.
- Post the winners and their scores on your social pages the next morning. People like seeing their name.
- Ask the winning team to come back and defend their title.
Give it at least six weeks before you judge it. A new quiz often starts slow and builds as the same teams return and bring friends.
Look after the regulars
Learn the team names. Say hello. Hold their table if they ring ahead. A regular team is worth more than any prize. They come every week and they bring new people with them.
They'll also tell you when something isn't working. Ask them what they'd change, then change it.
A word on music rounds
Music rounds are popular, but playing recorded music to customers usually needs a licence. The government says you usually need one to "play recorded music in public or at your business". PPL PRS lists music in quizzes as one of the uses its licence covers for pubs. If you already hold TheMusicLicence, check your quiz is included. If you don't, sort it before you add the round. There's more in our music licence post.
Sources
- Gambling Commission: Definitions, from Understanding the consumer landscape in free draws and prize competitions
- GOV.UK: Get a licence to play live or recorded music
- PPL PRS: TheMusicLicence for pubs and bars
We checked every source on 23 October 2026. Rules change, so check the latest version before you act. Nothing here is legal advice.