20 years, turned into a method
What our founder learned from running events became a way to measure what keeps each player in the game.
Not home. Not work. The Third Zone.
America’s #1 sport has no Topgolf equivalent. We’re building it.
A football target wall for indoor venues of any size. The game adapts to whoever is playing. The first prototype already works.
Meet us at TechCrunch Disrupt, Oct 13–15 · CREtech New York, Oct 20–21 · Web Summit Lisbon, Nov 9–12 · ICSC New York, Dec 9–10
Most players need to win. About one in five needs a real challenge.
Our founder saw this across 4,000+ events. A game with one fixed difficulty can’t serve both. Third Zone learns from every play which balance of hits and misses keeps a person engaged, and adjusts the game to match.
Choose a player
How it works
Every play becomes data.
Sensors read what happens at the wall, a computer on site runs our engine, and the next round adapts to the player. Open any part to turn it in 3D and see what already works in our prototype.
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01Built
Catch every play, hits and misses alike.
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02Built
Runs the game on site.
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03Built
Collects the signals from every target and passes them on.
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04Built
Our own code. It reads each player’s type from how they play and picks the next round.
Simple parts. Serious results.
Raspberry Pi and ESP32 are boards every engineer knows. We chose them on purpose and get the most out of them.
- Compute
- On site. The game needs no internet connection.
- Privacy
- No cameras. Sound is measured as volume only.
- Parts
- Off the shelf and available anywhere.
Everyone at the table can win.
In the UK, half of 16- to 34-year-olds say that losing discourages them from competitive socializing (Mintel, 2026). At a Third Zone wall, each player competes against their own usual score, not against the others.
Whoever improves the most wins the round. So a beginner can beat an expert, and friends of any level can share a game.
Samusually hits 9
tonight 9
tonight 9
100%
Alexusually hits 4
tonight 5
tonight 5
125%
Alex wins the round
Illustration.
Play hospitality
Hospitality standards, applied to play. What makes the game ours is the method, the engine built on it, and the way each guest is hosted.
Every guest, treated like a regular
The wall runs on its own. Venues that want more can add a trained host who greets guests by name, explains the rules in 30 seconds, and asks what they thought of the game. The standard is documented and ready for staff training.
Next
AI that will keep learning
AI will review the play data at regular intervals and improve the engine wherever it can. Every new venue will make it smarter.
We share the engine’s technical details, such as how it identifies player types, with investors under an NDA. Request a meeting
Fits the room you have
One wall takes a corner. A row of them fills a hall.
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Concept render One wall in the corner of a small room
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Concept render Two walls side by side in a mid-size room
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Concept render A bay for each group in a large hall
Why now
US offices are emptier than ever, and AI is now cutting the jobs that filled them. Young adults spend far less time together in person, and fewer of them drink. Landlords and venues both need a new way to bring people back.
21%
of US office space was vacant in early 2026, the highest share on record.
Moody’s Analytics, 2026
22%
of US job cuts announced from January through August 2026 cited AI, up from 5% in 2025.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 2026
15040
minutes a day that Americans ages 15 to 24 spent in person with friends, 2003 vs. 2020.
U.S. Surgeon General, 2023
50%
of Americans ages 18 to 34 drink alcohol, down from 59% in 2023.
Gallup, 2025
Topgolf turned golf into a game for everyone, not just golfers. Giant venues are the costly part: the company’s valuation fell from about $2 billion in 2021 to about $1.1 billion in 2025, and Pinstripes filed for bankruptcy. We bring the same idea into rooms that already exist.
Callaway; PitchBook; Restaurant Business
How the business works
We bring the walls, the engine, and the hosting standard. There are two ways in: existing venues and empty floors.
Revenue from every game
Players pay per game, and we split the proceeds with the venue, the way jukeboxes and dart machines already work. The panel mounts on an existing wall, so nothing has to be built.
Empty floors that fill up
Property owners bring an empty floor. Mika builds and pays for the game walls. Fit-out and operations are set up as a partnership, with terms agreed floor by floor.
An engine to license
The engine also works for other sensor-based games, such as baseball pitching, so it can be licensed beyond our own wall.
Concept render
Next
Every wall joins one network.
Players will be able to compete with friends at their table, across the venue, or in another city. Each new venue will give every player more opponents.
This model already works at scale
65,000+
TouchTunes jukeboxes, run by more than 2,500 local operators
TA Associates
30,000+
networked dart machines from Arachnid, which TouchTunes acquired in 2024
RePlay
1,450+
venues licensing Toptracer, with no upfront payment
Toptracer, 2026
Where we are
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Now
First prototype
It runs on a test board. Real players come next.
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Next
Pilot
Our own venue-ready walls at 2–3 sites, tested against a standard skill handicap. A property owner can host one of them in their building. The goal is to show whether players come back.
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Then
Scale with partners
We will take the pilot results to companies that already operate games in venues, as well as property owners with vacant floors.
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Later
Worldwide
Third Zone walls in venues across many countries.
Who’s building it
“For 20 years I’ve run 200+ entertainment events a year with big crowds and can tell exactly what brings each player back. Our software is built to do the same, live.”
4,000+
events run
50–500
players at each event
Mika designed and built the first prototype.
Common questions
Is this gambling?
No. Nothing is wagered, and no cash prize is ever tied to an adjusted outcome. Adapting difficulty to the player is a principle video games have used for decades.
Why American football?
It’s America’s favorite sport to watch: 31% of adults name it, nearly three times the share for basketball (Gallup, 2026). A game played by hand takes less room and is safer than kicking or swinging. The rules take 30 seconds to learn, and anyone can join in.
What data does the wall collect?
Game results, visits, and sensor readings, with each player’s consent at sign-up.
Is it safe?
Players stand behind a marked line, a net or barrier runs along the side, and the panel doesn’t bounce the ball back.
Talk to Mika
Write to us about investing, a pilot venue, an empty floor, or a partnership. You can also ask to meet, in person or by video, at a time and place that suit you.
- contact@third-zone.com