Splitsville Entertainment, a family entertainment chain specializing in bowling, arcades, and upscale food and beverage offerings, is making major strides in its Canadian expansion. With 13 locations already open with two to open in early 2025 in Kanata, Ontario and northwest Calgary, the company is positioning itself as a leader in the modern bowling experience.
Pat Haggerty, President of Splitsville Entertainment and its distribution arm, Striker Bowling, both owned by Hollywood Bowl out of the UK, said “we’re not just a bowling alley anymore.”
“We’ve taken a page from the evolution of movie theatres. Bowling centres today are a mix of traditional lanes, cutting-edge game rooms, and upscale food and beverage offerings. We’re creating an immersive guest experience with state-of-the-art lighting, audio-visual technology, and comfortable seating. It’s all about elevating the fun for families, friends, and even corporate groups.
“We like to think of ourselves in leading the trend in the guest experience. We’re truly trying to make sure that that guest experience is fairly high. Ultimately our goal is to have people return more sooner than later.”
With Edmonton slated for its latest development, Splitsville plans to open a new location at Christy’s Corner in late 2025. This will bring the total number of Canadian locations to 16. Haggerty is optimistic about the region’s potential, noting its well-planned infrastructure.
“Edmonton has a fantastic ring road system, which makes it easy to move around the city,” he explained. “Our vision is to have four centres here: Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast. The goal is for anyone in Edmonton to have a Splitsville nearby for easy access to top-tier entertainment.”
Splitsville isn’t stopping at Edmonton. Haggerty outlined ambitious plans to grow the chain to 30-35 locations nationwide, targeting major urban centres and feeder communities like Red Deer, Medicine Hat, and Lethbridge.
“Canada’s urban centres are ripe for family-friendly entertainment options,” Haggerty said. “With our unique blend of recreation, sport, and leisure, we’re tapping into a market that caters to everyone from kids to retirees.”
One of Splitsville’s core strengths is its broad appeal. “Bowling has been around for 5,000 years, and for good reason,” Haggerty shared. “It’s accessible to everyone—from toddlers to seniors and even those with physical or mental challenges. We offer sport, recreation, and entertainment, ensuring there’s something for everyone at any time of day.”
The company’s programming reflects this diversity. “We have leagues early in the week, corporate events on Thursdays and Fridays, and families during the weekends,” he added. “Millennials and younger crowds love our late-night vibe. It’s a wave of different guests filling our spaces at different times, which makes it so exciting.”
Haggerty emphasized that Splitsville’s success hinges on delivering consistent, high-quality guest experiences that keep patrons coming back. “We’re all about creating an environment that people want to return to sooner rather than later,” he said. “With every location, we’re fine-tuning what works to ensure we’re the go-to destination for fun and entertainment.”
As Splitsville Entertainment prepares to break ground on its Edmonton project, Haggerty is optimistic about the future. “We’ve done our homework, and we know there’s a strong demand for what we offer,” he concluded. “Edmonton residents can look forward to a fantastic entertainment option that’s worth the wait.”
Splitsville is bringing a modern bowling and arcade experience to Edmonton:
- 21 lanes of 10-pin bowling with digital scoring equipment, interactive bowling games, comfortable seating, VIP lanes, and lane-side food and drink service.
- State-of-the-art arcade to bring out the kid in everyone featuring games from arcade classics to the newest VR technology and an impressive prize redemption counter.
- Bar and lounge with casual dining, pool tables, and all your favourite sports games.
In 2022, he had a company called Splitsville with five family entertainment complexes across Canada. He was looking to expand and met the folks at Hollywood Bowl, who own 80 centres in the UK.
In May 2022, Haggerty sold them the five locations and they retained him as President.
“When we look at Canada, there’s seven, eight major cities.
We want to be in all of those. We want to be sort of in their feeder, when I call it feeder communities and specific say to Alberta, we would like to be in Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge at some point, but really our concentration right now is in the bigger urban areas like Calgary, like Edmonton,” he said.
“We will actually create programs through the days of the week and the times of the day to be attracting anybody and everybody that can make their way to our facilities to ultimately have a really good guest experience. Create that experience so that they are coming back more sooner than later, so essentially anybody that’s out there really becomes sort of a client of ours. Where our heavier concentration comes from we’ll have the leagues during the early part of the week the Mondays, the Tuesdays, the Wednesdays then we migrate into more corporate in the Thursdays and Fridays, and then we’re into families, daytime, Saturdays and Sundays with the Millennials coming later at night.”
Related Retail Insider articles:
