Guillaume Derian will distribute the connected tables of PongConnect on the French market. – Guillaume Derian
- Imported from the United States, beer pong has become a great classic of student parties.
- A young Breton launches into the distribution of connected tables on the French market.
- He hopes to appeal to bars, nightclubs and game rooms when they reopen.
The game is well known to students seeking intoxication on Thursday evenings. Even Alain Juppé devoted himself to it while he was campaigning for the right-wing primary for the 2017 presidential election. Born on American campuses, beer-pong, or beer-pong in French, has become in a few years a great classic of drinking games thanks to rules that are not too heady.
Usually played with four players, two against two, beer pong consists of aiming at the opposing cups filled with beer with a ping-pong ball. If the throw hits, the opposing player must drink the contents of his cup. The game ends when one team has successfully eliminated all of the opposing team’s cups.
One to two hours of beer pong each evening
Guillaume Derian knows well this game which punctuated his student years in Staps in Rennes. “We played there almost every evening for an hour or two,” says the young man, rather skilled in the matter. “I played basketball so it helps in terms of precision,” he smiles. Now settled in Pluvigner between Lorient and Vannes (Morbihan), the 23-year-old young man was far from suspecting that this delirium between friends was going to turn into a professional activity.
While he was doing odd jobs, the Hong Kong company PongConnect in fact offered it at the end of 2019 to become the exclusive distributor of its connected tables on the French market. “I originally wanted to import one of their machines to open a bar, but the project had stopped there,” he says. Then the idea resurfaced and the opportunity presented itself ”.
It targets bars, nightclubs and game rooms
New brand ambassador, he now ensures the promotion of these connected tables equipped with LEDs which offer different game modes and the possibility of keeping his scores or of competing with online players from all over the world. The health crisis still slowed down his momentum and the first five tables he received are still waiting to be unpacked.
“I expect bars, nightclubs or game rooms to reopen to offer them the tables for hire,” he says, confident in his success. “I’m sure the concept will be a hit, especially in student cities, and my order book is already starting to fill up,” says the young man.