Dave & Buster’s, a destination for dining, drinks, and entertainment, has announced the opening of its second location in India alongside an aggressive international expansion plan with several new locations already under construction. The 22,000 square-foot Mumbai venue located on the fourth floor of Infiniti Mall, Andheri, represents a move in Dave & Buster’s continued expansion into India in partnership with the Malpani Group. This opening leads a pipeline gaining momentum for 2026 and 2027 that includes Manila, Santo Domingo, Perth, and Mexico City.
The new rollout follows Dave & Buster’s entry into the Indian market in Bangalore.
Shreya Malpani has been serving as the Director of The Malpani Group. She is the spokesperson for Dave & Buster’s India. She has been spearheading the launch of Dave & Buster’s in India. From concept to execution, she has led the creation of this premium entertainment venue — a blend of gaming, F&B, and interiors. Her strategic approach to positioning and guest experience aims to firmly establish Dave & Buster’s as a preferred destination in the Indian market.
Medianews4u.com caught up with Shreya Malpani Director The Malpani Group.
Q. What is the opportunity that Dave & Buster’s sees in India?
There is definitely a growing demand for unique leisure options and with a strong GDP growth the market is definitely set for a substantial growth in entertainment. We see a huge untapped potential for adult focussed entertainment with a clear cultural shift towards more multi-dimensional, more high quality experiences. That is what the opportunity is, what we saw and that’s when we decided to bring in Dave & Buster’s as a partner for India.
Currently we have the exclusive franchise for Pan India, not for Asia. We want to be a leading player and at least amongst the top three in the next five years. So, our overall fundamentals are quite strong.
I think India is one of the most important markets for international players.
Q. What is the investment being made?
Our investments are made on a store by store basis and they typically range from 2 to 4 million dollars depending on the location, the size, the scale and also the game mix. So, in our current phase, we are in our phase one where we are targetting Tier One cities and those are the priorities.
But we are eventually going to enter the Tier Two markets as they have rising disposable incomes and that market is also hungry for high quality experiences.
They don’t have many avenues for premium entertainment. I think that is what makes it a natural fit.
Q. What is the challenge going to be in scaling profitably?
Scaling actually enhances profitability. With each new location, we actually improve our purchasing power, share resources more efficiently across the network and maximise the organisational bandwidth.
Industry evidence shows that clustering these entertainment venues in strategic locations actually boosts footfalls and cross venue synergies which in turn ramps up in time.
I think that the key is to be disciplined location during the selection and ongoing innovation as per our guest feedback so that they keep coming and returning.
Q. What trends are being seen in terms of the willingness of young adults spend on outdoor entertainment?
We are seeing a clear shift towards experience-led spending. People don’t just want to dine at a good restaurant, they want to also combine their outing with activities and more social competitive gaming. So, I would like to say that the overall socialising landscape is definitely changing in India.
There’s a growing demand for high energy interactive experiences. So, where people can connect, they can compete and also have this high energy lively setting.
Q. Any figures you can give in terms of how much they spend and things like that? What is the data showing you?
On an average, when we have a customer who comes into our store, they spend anywhere between Rs. 2500 – 5000.
So, it depends again on the target group or the kind of people who are coming in and how much time they are spending in the store as well.
Q. The goal is to open 15 outlets in the coming 5-7 years in cities like Hyderabad and Delhi. How does the concept of eat, drink, play and watch set Dave & Busters apart from other arcade venues and other outdoor entertainment options?
Our USP definitely lies in offering a very seamless all-in-one experience that combines these four pillars of eat, drink, play and watch and everything under one roof.
Unlike traditional venues that just cater to one aspect of entertainment, we’ve integrated these high quality F&B immersive gaming or live music all of that into one single destination. This eliminates the need for guests to actually visit different spaces to dine. They don’t have to visit a different place to play or party.
So, we’re providing a more holistic and engaging experience. And what exactly sets us apart is our curation of the selection of games and F&B that we’ve done. So, we have over 60 plus arcade games which are all A-grade equipment and A-grade quality games.
We have a lot of first-of-a-kind games as well that we’ve introduced in India. And beyond that, I think our F&B offerings are crafted to compete with the best restaurants also around the area. So, we’ve ensured this elevated dining experience as well.
And another factor for us is consistency and scale. So, as we continue to expand, we will be able to deliver the same experience across all our stores. And apart from that, I would like to add that with Dave & Buster’s what makes the partnership so unique is that along with the A-grade equipment that we are bringing in, we also have fixed reinvestment policies and access to R&D that Dave & Buster’s does at a global level.
It ensures that we keep our stores up-to-date. We are using the latest technology and up-to-date with all the market trends. So, I think this allows us to constantly innovate and evolve with the market and consumers.
Q. Could you talk a bit more about the R&D that is done to help Dave & Buster’s keep in touch with evolving trends?
R&D is done on the basis of all the four pillars. There’s definitely a lot more focus on the technology and gaming part of it because that is constantly evolving with so many things like AI and other aspects coming in.
So, we get first-hand knowledge in terms of what is upcoming and what we can foresee in the future and that helps us be prepared in a better way.
Q. How is Dave & Buster’s India going to leverage AI from agentic AI to gen AI in all its forms?
For now, AI’s role is emerging but it’s still limited. While AI isn’t a direct driver for the guest experience, we integrate these latest technologies across our operations. There is immersive VR to interactive gaming, high-tech darts, we have glow-in-the-dark with projection.
There are a lot of advanced scoring systems. I think that technology really helps us optimise and ensure guest feedback and improve our overall service efficiencies.
Q. From operating iMagicaa World what are the learnings that can be applied for Dave & Buster’s?
We actually bring in a very strong foundation of SOPs, systems and processes. So, along with definitely the financial and operational backbone of The Malpani Group, we have the expertise in entertainment with iMagicaa World. We currently operate eight parks across the country and this gives us a solid platform to launch Dave & Buster’s in India.
So, this also fits in with our guest-first approach where The Malpani Group really prioritises our guests and the kind of hospitality and service we want to offer.
Q. How important is predictive analytics going to be for Dave & Buster’s in terms of improving offerings and also in terms of deciding where exactly to launch?
It’s definitely going to be extremely valuable. Predictive analytics allows us to forecast footfall. It allows us to understand guest preferences and fine-tune our game and menu mix.
Based on this, we can design targetted offers and encourage more repeat visitations.
Q. Hyper-personalisation is an important focus area across all categories, even in BFSI.. In the outdoor entertainment area, could you talk about its importance?
Hyper-personalisation, I think, post-COVID, has gotten more and more important and more significant for us now.
Consumers are wanting that extra level of personalisation to enhance their overall experience. So, it’s definitely an ongoing process. We want to ensure that we are creating more memorable spaces.
I feel that now we are not just competing with other venues, we’re actually competing with how people are choosing to spend their time. Every moment for a customer is a choice when they decide to walk into your doors or walk into your space and that is something we need to keep doing to stay relevant and stay in trends.
Q. Could you give me a couple of examples where hyper-personalisation has helped?
I won’t be able to comment on Imagicaa World as such, but for Dave & Buster’s, in terms of hyper-personalisation, we’ve targetted certain WhatsApp integrations to ensure that we are sending out F&B recommendations to a guest and some soft upsellings that we’ve done based on that.
Based on their feedback, we’ve also started building out personas for each customers to what they prefer. That would help us cater better for them when they visit us next.
So, we’re definitely also working on a great loyalty programme for our customers and that’s a work in progress.
Q. Is the vacation period going to be key for business growth?
While summer and festive seasons like Diwali, Christmas are naturally strong for us, our goal is to be a year-round destination. So, through ongoing events, mid-week offers and live sports meetings, we want to keep the experience very fresh and appealing every week of the year.
Q. Could you talk more about how you will achieve this goal of keeping it appealing throughout the year?
We have a programming calendar set in place for the entire year with all the important dates that we want to mark out and we are also looking at very exciting new collaborations and cross collaborations with other brands that are trending in the market.
So, it would depend from city to city but this is something that we’re actively doing and our marketing team is working on this.
Q. What are the kind of brands that you would look at for cross promotional activities?
In terms of Bangalore, since we opened our store in December of 2024, we have collaborated with a few brands and hosted a lot of events as well.
We’ve collaborated with certain run clubs in Bangalore and created a coffee rave concept in the store. We’ve also collaborated with certain dining brands and curated an experience for dining and bowling and a competition for them. So, I think it depends again brand to brand but we’re again very open because we feel Dave & Buster’s is a very versatile brand it can complement any and every brand.
Q. What marketing activities is Dave & Buster’s going to be doing to create awareness?
Our strategy includes pre-launch bus campaigns, it includes influencer partnerships, a lot of neighbourhood activations and high impact digital advertising including certain special offers through a lot of aggregator platforms and for Mumbai, I think mostly we’re focussing on local outreach initiatives.
We’re definitely extensive on social media and we’re leading up to that for the entire launch and we also have a strong sustenance plan in place.
Q. Could you talk about some of the local outreach initiatives that you’re doing?
In terms of local outreach, we’re partnering with certain communities, certain colleges and in and around the Andheri area, towards Goregaon and towards Santacruz.
Q. Could you talk about the social media strategy to engage in the consumer conversation and will short form video be important on platforms like Instagram Reels?
The kind of target group that we’re looking at is the one that is so dominant within the social media space and that’s exactly where our attention is on as well.
We are ensuring that we touch upon all the different kinds of influencers, so there are different niches and different categories of influencers in terms of interest space as well. It could be F&B, it could be Lifestyle, it could be fashion etc.
We’re also tapping into all the different communities through social media and since it’s a very experiential driven service or a product that we have to offer, again we try to highlight all the USPs within that to ensure that our space is brought out through the social media campaigns.
We are using a mix of everything. We are doing a lot of performance ads, SEO, influencer campaigns and tying up with a lot of aggregator platforms to have a strong social media presence.
Q. Will traditional media have a role to play in marketing like TV, print or is that too mass-based?
We avoid doing traditional media too much in terms of especially TV but we are doing a little bit of print ads and we are looking at a few ATL activations as well in and around the area.
The key is that it needs to be a little bit more geographically localised because it’s not for pan India or pan Maharashtra, it has to be more hyper focussed towards that location.
We want to focus more on the BTL activities although ATL and BTL will go hand in hand, we are doing maybe about a 20% for our ATL activations.
Q. Are you looking at roping in celebrities?
We are looking at a few celebrities as well and as in when we get closures from them once they start visiting the store we’ll be able to understand better and get more content via them as well.
I think celebrities really bring in that credibility also for the brand so that’s something that we’re are focussing on.
Q. F&B can be a disappointment in outdoor entertainment venues whether it’s a theme park or an arcade venue or even in a multiplex. How is Dave & Buster’s in India going to confront this challenge that there’s too much focus on the gaming part of an outdoor entertainment venue and not enough on F&B?
This is one of the key points that we also wanted to address and while bringing in Dave & Buster’s we knew that they would go in depth and that’s what we did for launching in India where each menu item, each recipe and the process was so standardised and we perfected them.
I think this is a major differentiator from any typical arcades or other entertainment hubs that you can see where we focus on F&B and for Dave & Buster’s this area is as equally important as the gaming section.
Our food and drinks menu are designed to actually stand out and while we took the bold American signature dishes we’ve also localised the menu by 40% to suit the Indian taste palette.
Q. Is quality real estate another challenge for Dave & Buster’s India?
Absolutely. I think for us we actually need very large format spaces with a single floor plate, We need very high ceiling heights and also high footfall spaces which are definitely limited and come at a premium in India.
So, this makes the location process and selection the critical factor for our expansion strategy.
Q. How are you dealing with this challenge?
Beforehand itself we are targetting and scouting certain locations. We have a set of requirements that we have in place and based on that we have an extensive scrutiny of each and every space before we confirm.
Q. What are the requirements?
Currently for our Bangalore store it’s a 27,000 square foot space so it’s a large space with a single floor plate so it’s not a multi-level space.
The requirement is that we need to have a single floor plate apart from that ceiling heights we need a minimum ceiling height of at least 16 feet so that we can get in all the games. A lot of the arcade games have that high height.
We also need to ensure that we are able to keep that world-class experience in place. That is also really important when we are looking at the space and the kind of look and feel that we want to create.
Q. Your views on how experiential marketing is evolving?
The experiential landscape has changed so much over the years, I think even for experiential detail that the space that we’re in consumers aren’t just buying products or they’re actually buying certain moments, stories and emotions.
The shift has only accelerated post-Covid, now we feel people value that connection and convenience and personalisation more than ever. So we are trying to create more experiential spaces with Dave & Buster’s where it’s not just a place where people come to eat or play, it’s where they actually spend time, celebrate and unwind.
I think that kind of emotional engagement would go beyond any typical retail transaction.
Q. Who’s the TG that you are targetting?
Dave & Buster’s is a very unique concept because it’s something that all ages can enjoy, but we are focussed more towards the age range of 13 to 40. Basically from college students to young adults, that’s the core TG.
Q. What are the other entertainment companies that the Malpani group is looking at considering tie-ups and what do you look at before partnering with someone?
We’re definitely open to collaborations to add something new to the Indian entertainment landscape and we’re looking at both outdoor and indoor formats.
When we’re looking at a kind of format, we actually look for a strong brand identity, we look for operational excellence, scalability and the ability to create memorable high quality experiences for guests.
Q. Dave & Buster’s has been operating for a long time, over four decades. Has it had to reinvent itself to appeal better to Gen Z and to a younger target group who may not be aware of it at all?
The brand has definitely been constantly evolving and with the continuous R&D that’s happening at a global level to stay up to date with these technologies and trends from adding immersive VR games to more esports style games and creating Instagram worthy F&B, a lot of theme nights and interactive experiences.
This is done while keeping the core of eat, drink, play and watch as the essence intact. That is something what the brand is focussing on.
Q. How is Dave & Busters India approaching B2B marketing through platforms like LinkedIn to approach corporates and other entities on the B2B side?
A huge chunk of our business definitely comes from groups and corporates. So we are extensively doing a lot of outreach. We have a strong sales team in place that does this on a day-to-day basis as well.
And one of the unique aspects of our space is actually that we have private rooms for functions and events. So within each store we have these rooms that cater to this and this gives a very personalised and private space for anybody to come and either have their company outing or celebrate a birthday and it just gives them a great experience.
Currently, I would say for Dave & Buster’s India specifically, LinkedIn is something that we’re slowly building.
It’s not yet generated any leads but having a presence on LinkedIn is definitely important and it’s a good thing to have in order to build it in the coming years.
Q. You had mentioned earlier about WhatsApp integration and WhatsApp recently has introduced a lot of features for businesses. Has it grown in value as a platform?
I think we’ve been in this industry because we’ve really seen the shift from email marketing and now how important WhatsApp marketing is.
From all the unopened inboxes to how the viewing rate or the opening rate for WhatsApp is like. So I think that has played a key role as well for us because WhatsApp is again very easily accessible to our consumers and with all the new features in terms of adding in more links or adding in some video element or a visual element is something that really hooks the user and through different platforms and integrations like chat 360 is what we’re using where we are able to really engage and be in touch with our guests on a constant basis and provide certain upselling options or provide certain offers and certain updates about our events that are coming up.
Q. In terms of consumers making reservations, will you rely on external platforms or your own internal platform?
We have everything in place. We have different aggregator platforms and we have our internal platform that we’ve built as well. Everything is consolidated into reserve book and that’s how we get our customers. We don’t want to redirect them or make them download something specific to book a table.
We want their user experience and journey to be more seamless. So we have tied up with certain apps like Zomato and Swiggy for reservations as well.
