Ultimate Quiz Night Ideas for Pubs (And How to Auto-Generate Them With AI)
Quiz night coming up and you're drawing blanks? You’re not alone. Every pub manager has faced the dreaded "last-minute quiz scramble" — dodgy questions from the internet, copy-paste disasters, and that one regular who always complains it was “too easy.”
But don’t worry — we've got your back (and your brain).
This is your ultimate guide to running killer quiz nights at your pub — complete with:
- Unique theme ideas 🎯
- Free question examples 📝
- Witty bonus rounds 🧠
- Tips to pack the house on a Tuesday
- And yes… an AI tool that builds the whole thing for you.
Let’s dive in.
🍻 Why Quiz Nights Still Work
People love proving how smart they are — especially when they’re half a pint down.
Quiz nights:
- Boost midweek footfall
- Encourage regulars to bring mates
- Create an unbeatable "local" atmosphere
- Pair perfectly with food + drink promos
📊 Pubs that run themed quizzes see a 20–40% increase in midweek revenue. According to VisitBritain, events like quizzes help create a unique identity and boost customer engagement.
Still not convinced? Think of it this way: football nights come and go. Karaoke depends on tech. But trivia? Trivia never fails. It’s timeless, it's versatile, and it turns passive drinkers into repeat competitors.
🎯 10 Quiz Night Ideas That Always Work
- Themed TV Nights
- Love Island, The Office, Peaky Blinders — if your crowd watches it, quiz it.
- Booze & Brains
- Cocktail tastings between rounds? Yes please. Pair questions with signature drinks.
- Banter Bingo
- Where you answer trivia and fill out bingo cards at the same time. Pub chaos = beautiful.
- Name That Tune – Live DJ Edition
- Your DJ drops the beat — teams guess the track. Add bonus points for dance moves.
- Couples vs Singles
- Round 1: General knowledge.
- Round 2: Flirtation intensifies. Great for Valentine’s or anti-Valentine’s themes.
- The Great British Quiz Off
- Add a bonus baking contest. It’s weird, it works. Extra points for punny round titles.
- All About the 80s
- Neon decor, cheesy music, trivia — what more do you need? Costume bonus optional.
- Dogs Allowed: Pub Pet Quiz Night
- Bonus points for barking during the answer. Photo round? Featuring regulars' pets.
- Foodie Facts & Fiction
- Half trivia, half taste-test challenge. "Wasabi or horseradish?" is always a crowd-pleaser.
- Manager’s Revenge
- Where staff write the questions and finally get to be smug. One night only, pure chaos.
🧠 Bonus Round Ideas (Because Why Not?)
- Draw Your Teammate Blindfolded
- Lip Sync Battles (Pub Edition)
- Guess the Beer by Taste
- Whose Receipt Is This?
- Real Headline or Made Up?
Need to mix things up even more? Rotate your bonus rounds monthly and introduce a quiz leaderboard with monthly champions and bragging rights. Add a cheeky photo wall, and you’ll build community faster than you can say "tiebreaker."
🔧 The Problem: Making This Happen Weekly? Exhausting.
Creating a quiz pack manually takes:
- 2+ hours of Googling
- 3 “is this even right?” moments
- 1 emotional breakdown in the stockroom
And next week? You have to do it all over again. Plus you’ll need a new theme, new poster, new questions… and you haven’t even announced it on social media yet.
According to CAMRA, consistent event planning plays a huge role in building loyal pub audiences — but keeping that momentum going without burnout? That’s the hard part.
🚀 The Solution: Quiz Pack Generator by SmartPubTools
Our AI-powered Quiz Pack Generator does the hard work for you.
Just type in your theme → boom:
- Full quiz night with multiple rounds
- Music rounds, picture rounds, and curveballs
- Bonus tiebreaker questions
- MC-friendly opening lines and banter intros
- Printable posters and social captions
Use our built-in themes, or invent your own. Want an Only Fools and Horses quiz with a TikTok round? Sorted. Planning a Halloween horror night with bonus audio effects? We’ll generate it.
All done in seconds. No stress. No repeats. No "blank screen panic."
“I ran our quiz, built the poster, and scheduled the promo in under 10 minutes. My regulars think I’m a genius.”
– Jamie, GM at The Thirsty Fox
🖨️ Want to Try It?
Head to the SmartPubTools Quiz Generator →
You can create your first one free — no signup, no card, just pure pub power.
Want to see it in action first? Watch our 2-minute demo video and watch a full quiz night appear before your eyes.
🧠 Pro Tips for Running a Wildly Good Quiz Night
- Keep the rounds short — 6–8 questions each is the sweet spot
- Add a “Joker” round teams can double their points on
- Play background music between rounds to stop energy dips
- Use your mic voice. Even if you don’t have a mic.
- Bribe the winners with actual good prizes (free drinks > pens)
- Start a leaderboard and name a "Quizzer of the Month"
- Post highlights and team photos on your socials to build next week's hype
- Follow Hospitality Compliance Guidelines to keep your venue safe, legal, and quiz-night ready
🏋️️ Final Thoughts
Running great quiz nights is part art, part science, part remembering to print off the tie-breaker.
With SmartPubTools, you can:
- Automate the hard bits
- Add fun and flair
- Look like you spent hours on it (when you didn’t)
Create more community. Sell more pints. Stress less.
Try it now, and let your customers crown you the pub quiz king or queen.
