Run a weekly trivia night without hiring a host
A trivia night gives regulars a reason to come back on the same night every week. Athena puts the questions on your TVs, turns guests’ phones into answer pads, and keeps score for you, so your staff can keep serving.
What you need
A TV
Install Athena Trivia on a Fire TV or Samsung Smart TV, or open atsetup.com in any TV’s web browser. Pair as many TVs as you like: they all show the same game.
Your guests’ phones
Guests scan the QR code on the TV and pick a nickname. There’s no app to download and no account to create.
An Athena subscription
The Venue plan is $39.99 a month with every game included, and starts with a 3-day free trial.
Set up your trivia night
- 1
Pick a regular night
Choose a night and a start time and keep them the same every week, so regulars can plan around it. A slower weeknight is a natural fit.
- 2
Connect your TVs
Set up each TV once and pair it with your venue. Whenever a paired TV connects, Athena opens a game for guests to join, ready to go.
- 3
Tune the questions
In your venue settings, choose how many questions each round has (up to 50), how long guests get to answer, the highest difficulty, and whether quick answers earn a speed bonus.
- 4
Choose the format
Start a new session from your dashboard. Tournament plays a set number of rounds, up to 50, and ends on a final podium that crowns the winner. Leave Trivia as the only game for a pure trivia night, or keep others in for guests to vote on between rounds.
- 5
Spread the word
Put the night on your socials, your menu, and a sign at the bar. Players join from the QR code on the TV, so there’s nothing to hand out.
- 6
Give people something to play for
A gift card, a free appetizer, or a name on a weekly winners board. Announce it before the first round.
On the night
Guests scan the QR code on the TV, or go to play.athenatrivia.com and type the code on screen. They pick a nickname and they’re in.
Each question goes up on every TV with a countdown, and guests answer on their phones. The answer is revealed as soon as everyone has answered or time runs out, and after the last question of the round, the leaderboard shows everyone’s points and the running totals.
See exactly how a round plays, all twelve question types, and how scoring works on the Trivia game page.
Mix it up between rounds
Every game is included in your plan. Leave a few in the session and guests vote on the next one after each round.
- Sketch & Guess Draw, guess, and laugh Players draw on their phones while the whole bar guesses on the TV. Timed rounds, difficulty levels, and hilarious reveals.
- Wordsmith Race to find the words Everyone gets the same set of letters. Spell as many words as you can before the clock runs out — longer words score bigger. Hidden gems revealed at the end.
- Bingo Daub, watch, and yell BINGO The bar classic, gone digital. Numbers call automatically on the big screen while players daub their cards. First to complete the pattern takes the win.
Trivia night questions
Do we need a trivia host?
No. The TV shows every question, the timer, the answers, and the leaderboard, and Athena moves from question to question and round to round by itself. Staff can still step in from the dashboard: pause, skip ahead, restart a round, or remove a player.
Can we run each round ourselves?
Yes. With the Standard join rule, the game waits for staff to press Start before every round, so you control the pace of the night.
How long does a round take?
About five minutes for 10 questions at the default 25 seconds each, and less when everyone answers early. Fewer questions or shorter timers make for quicker rounds.
Can people join after it starts?
In a Tournament, the lineup locks when the first round starts, so ask everyone to join beforehand. With the Drop In rule, guests can join at any point.
Can guests play as teams?
Each phone plays under one nickname. A table that wants to compete as a team can share a phone and use the team name as its nickname.
What if the TV loses its connection?
The game pauses straight away and carries on when the TV reconnects, so nobody loses their place.
Run your first trivia night this week
Play the free demo on your own TV, or start a 3-day free trial.