There’s a moment every operator is already thinking about. The first World Cup group games. Probably a weekday evening, kick-off around 10pm UK time depending on which US venue draws the short straw. Every screen on, every seat taken. You know the scene.

Now answer this: when those 300 people leave your venue that night, how many of them could you email to come back on a quiet Tuesday in November?

If the honest answer is “not many,” you’ve got the same problem most UK pubs and restaurants are about to have. The World Cup will hand you the biggest footfall window of the decade. The venues that have a good winter will be the ones that captured it. The ones that just poured pints and cheered on the goals will look back in November wondering where everybody went.

Why this tournament is different

Every World Cup is a trading event. This one’s a bit special for two reasons. The kick-off times are friendly. The US, Canada and Mexico hosting means most games land in the UK at night rather than the middle of a Saturday afternoon, which is exactly when pubs want people in. Beer gardens in late June, packed screens at 8pm, then a second wave for the later game. Three trading peaks a day on a good day.

The other thing is that hospitality margins right now don’t need explaining. Energy, wages, food costs, business rates. You can’t price your way out of any of that anymore, the guests know their ceiling. So the question stops being “how do we get more people in” and starts being “how do we get the ones we already had to come back.”

That’s a database volume question. Not a footfall one. The World Cup is about to drop the biggest database opportunity of the year into your lap.

The November problem

Venues that struggle in Q4 usually don’t have an autumn marketing problem. They have a summer capture problem from three months earlier. The list is not full enough, the campaign falls flat, the offers get more desperate, and the cycle repeats itself.

This year you get a do-over. The people coming through your doors for Scotland vs Brazil in late June are exactly the people you want hearing from you about your Christmas party packages in October. The trick is just making sure you can actually reach them.

Five things to do before the first whistle

None of these are clever. That’s sort of the point. The clever stuff only works if the boring foundations are in.

Make people book the screening. A name, an email, a mobile, a marketing opt-in, and they’re guaranteed a seat for the Scotland game. You’d be amazed how many people will hand over their details for the certainty of not standing outside in a queue. Euro 2024 venues that did this came out of it with thousands of new contacts.

Make Wi-Fi accessible everywhere. Or at least, your QR codes for it. If the British weather allows it, World Cup trade will be in the beer garden for the earlier kick-offs, and most venues have a beautifully designed Wi-Fi login page that nobody outside ever sees because the details are hidden behind the bar. Tent cards on every outdoor table. The guest settling in for three hours of football is exactly the guest you want in your CRM.

Set up a match-day SMS. The morning of every home nations group game, an automated text goes out to your local segment. Doors open at 6, kick-off at 8, book your table here. This costs almost nothing to set up and fills tables on weeknights that would otherwise be patchy. It also works for the in-between days when there’s a good game that isn’t England or Scotland.

Reward the third visit, not the first. A loyalty scheme that rewards someone for showing up to one England or Scotland game is just a discount. Reward the third visit with something they can redeem in September or October. You’re not buying tonight’s pint. You’re buying the autumn one. Get them back for the quarter-finals, get them back for the final, and you’ve got a habit.

Time your review prompts properly. Asking for a review at full time, when someone’s either elated or fuming, gets you a wild card. Asking the next morning, when they’re scrolling their phone with a slight hangover and a fond memory of the place, gets you the 5-star one. Automate it.

A quick word on the data itself

All of the above falls over if the capture is sloppy. Double opt-in matters. So does tagging your World Cup signups as a distinct segment, because they’re a different animal to your Sunday lunch regulars and you’ll want to talk to them differently in October. A list of 8,000 unsorted contacts is worth less than a list of 2,000 properly tagged ones. Quality over quantity, every time.

The venues that have a good Christmas in 2026 are, mostly, the ones building the list in June. The work happens now, in the noise and the sweat and the spilled beer, when nobody feels like they need to do it.

That’s the trick of it really. Capture when it’s easy. Spend when it’s hard.