At 7pm on Sunday, March 29th, exactly 150 teams will log into what QuizBiz is billing as a month-long lifeline for quiz addicts across the UAE. After that, the virtual door shuts.
The Dubai-based entertainment brand confirmed it will host free online quiz nights every Sunday throughout April, with host Graham Chambers steering participants through rounds spanning geography, film, music and pop culture. Teams join via Zoom while submitting answers through the SpeedQuizzing app on their phones—a dual-device setup designed to replicate the adrenaline of in-person competition.
No entry fee. No catch.
Well, one catch: capacity caps at 150 teams, and organisers are urging early login to avoid disappointment. For a company that typically runs 25 live quiz events per week across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the shift to virtual marks a deliberate pivot toward accessibility during what the brand describes as “unsettled” times in the region.
The prize pool carries weight beyond bragging rights. Four venue partners—McCafferty’s Wafi, Solutions Leisure, McGettigan’s Factory The Palm and Rags to Riches Restaurant—have backed the series with brunch packages for four, dining experiences and F&B vouchers. Top-performing teams walk away with tangible rewards, even if they never leave their sofas.
QuizBiz founder Charlotte “Lottie” Jones built her business on a simple premise: make knowledge social. A former primary school teacher, she hosted her first paper-and-pen quiz in Dubai back in July 2022. Eighteen months later, in November 2023, she formalised the operation as QuizBiz. The brand now delivers what it calls “high-energy, game-show style” quiz nights, blending technology with themed rounds and competitive socialising.
The virtual format isn’t entirely new territory. Interactive entertainment pivoted hard to digital platforms during pandemic lockdowns, with varying degrees of success. What distinguishes QuizBiz’s approach is the app integration—SpeedQuizzing lets participants answer in real time, preserving the pace that defines the brand’s in-person events. Chambers, who regularly hosts the company’s live nights, will anchor the series from a studio setup while teams compete from living rooms, balconies or wherever their WiFi reaches.
Jones also writes The Zuggler children’s book series, stories set across UAE cities. Her work, whether hosting quiz nights or publishing illustrated tales, circles back to the same philosophy: making learning feel less like work and more like play. The virtual quiz series fits that mould—an hour of distraction that doesn’t demand much beyond a stable internet connection and a willingness to guess which year “Titanic” won Best Picture.
The venue partnerships reveal another layer. Restaurants and bars took a hammering during regional disruptions, and offering prize packages for a free quiz series amounts to marketing spend with community goodwill baked in. McGettigan’s Factory The Palm, for instance, has leaned into experiential promotions as foot traffic patterns shift. Solutions Leisure, which operates multiple outlets, has similarly backed events that drive brand visibility without requiring immediate cash outlay from participants.
Whether 150 teams will fill every Sunday slot remains to be seen. QuizBiz’s social channels will share Zoom links ahead of each event, and the company is betting that word-of-mouth will do the heavy lifting. The format accommodates friends gathering in one location or families scattered across emirates—even internationally—joining the same team remotely.
The April schedule runs every Sunday at 7pm UAE time, a slot that sidesteps Friday brunches and mid-week fatigue. Participants need a laptop or tablet for Zoom and a smartphone for the SpeedQuizzing app. Questions span general knowledge with enough variety to keep teams guessing, and Chambers has hinted at surprise rounds that deviate from standard trivia fare.
For a brand founded just over two years ago, QuizBiz has carved out territory in a crowded entertainment landscape. Interactive formats—from escape rooms to board game cafés—have proliferated across Dubai, but few have matched the frequency and scale of QuizBiz’s weekly output. Twenty-five events per week translates to roughly three to four per day, a cadence that requires rotating hosts, venue coordination and constant content refreshment.
The virtual series also serves as a testing ground. If April’s free nights prove popular, the model could extend beyond a single month or evolve into a hybrid format. Jones has already developed corporate team-building packages, themed fan quizzes and specialty formats including Risky Quizzness and QuizKidz, suggesting an appetite for experimentation.
By Sunday evening, the first 150 teams will know whether the dual-device setup delivers the promised competitive buzz. The rest will wait for week two—or scramble to log in earlier next time.