Between 2015 and 2023, we hosted the Games Room of the Year award, an annual nationwide competition dedicated to finding and celebrating the UK's most impressive home entertainment spaces. Entrants from across the country submitted photos of their customised man caves, converted garages, home bars, and arcades. To qualify, each space had to feature at least one core gaming item, such as a pool table, arcade machine, or dartboard.
After our in-house panel of experts narrowed the submissions down to a top-ten shortlist, the competition was handed over to a public vote to crown the ultimate winner. The champion took home a £1,000 cash prize, a prestigious winner's plaque, a permanent spot in our Hall of Fame, and, of course, the ultimate bragging rights.
Gain inspiration for your own games room, or simply scope out the fierce competition of years gone by, with our Hall of Fame winners below:
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2023 Winner, Aaron, and The Dog House!
Your homage to Pompey has won you the Games Room of the Year Award 2023.
Aaron will go home with:
- £1000 in cold hard cash
- The Games Room of the Year plaque
- Bragging rights for having the nation’s number 1 games room
Check out the moment we broke the good news to Aaron below:
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Here we have Dean Mirfin's Bar 152. Forget about going to town for a crisp pint or game of pool, when you can take a few steps through your own garden to an incredible hideaway full of everything you need for a brilliant Saturday night... or any time in fact! This uber-trendy home bar is what Dean has created during 2021, securing him a sure place as a finalist for Games Room of the Year 2021. After purchasing a pool table from Home Leisure Direct, Dean's wife shared some photos online of the finished project and received a great response from others who said they just had to enter the Games Room of the Year 2021 competition.
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We created our games room in our basement. It is very 'grungy' and dark yet warm and cosy. We have an arcade machine, pool table, darts board and poker table. We are awaiting an American pool table too.
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2018 was the fourth time that we ran Games Room of the Year - the response from the public and quality of entries this year was amazing.
We were inundated with entries, from home bars with a Pool Table to barcades hosting a range of Arcade Machines and Pinball Machines, we had a wide range of contestants enter for the chance of winning the Games Room of the Year 2018 crown.
The entrants were narrowed down to 10 finalists overall by our judging panel and 2 wildcards chosen by the public via Facebook voting, the choice of winner was then down to the public voting for their favourite games room.
We counted up all of the votes and there was one clear winner - Ryan Paterson from Dundee! Congratulations to Ryan for winning the title this year, it's very well deserved.
Andy gave Ryan a call from our Bristol showrooms to tell him the fantastic news, he was absolutely thrilled. Jono and Ben then flew out to Dundee to pay him a visit.
ENTER GAMES ROOM OF THE YEAR 2020 HERE
His games room is a fantastic tribute to Dundee FC - The Derry Bar. Named after one of the stands at Den's Park that generations of Ryan's family have been watching matches from for years, The Derry Bar is a beautifully finished space in Ryan's garden.
The room was built by Ryan out of his love for Dundee FC over the course of 6 months, the day we visited was in fact the first anniversary of him games room's completion!
Congratulations to Ryan who has now been officially crowned the owner of Games Room of the Year 2018.
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2017 was the third time we ran Games Room of the Year and the excitement around the competition was fantastic.
For the third year running, we were inundated with stunning Games Room of the Year entries. The amount of entries received was a lot more than previous years, making it really hard to choose the finalists.
After narrowing the entries down to 10 finalists overall and 2 wildcards chosen by the public via Facebook voting, it was the public's turn to vote for their favourite games room that they thought should be crowned Games Room of the Year 2017.
We counted up the results and Graeme Strachan is the overall winner. His prize was £3000 to spend on anything he likes!
We gave Graeme a call from our Bristol showrooms to tell him that his games room had been crowned Games Room of the Year 2017, then we went to visit him in Brechin.
Graeme's games room was truly a worthy winner, it's filled with a dartboard, bar, Aberdeen FC memorabilia and much more.
Graeme entered the competition after turning his empty attic into his dream games room. The transformation is incredible.
Congratulations to Graeme who has now been officially crowned the owner of Games Room of the Year 2017.
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2016 was the second year that we ran our Games Room of the Year Competition, after the fantastic reaction when we first released the competition, we though it would be amazing to make it an annual event!
Once again, we were bombarded with your Games Room entries and they were amazing.
After narrowing the entries down to 10 finalists overall, it was the public's turn to vote for their favourite games room. We counted up the results and Darron Stumo came out on-top. His prize was a Terminator 2 Pinball Machine worth £4,000!
We gave Darron a call from our office in Bristol to tell him the great news, then we went to visit him and his family to present them with their Terminator 2 Pinball Machine! Here's what happened...
Darron's Games Room was a worthy winner. His Tottenham Hotspur's themed man cave hit the spot with many of the voters.
His room features a Fully-Stocked Bar, Pool Table, Temorabilia, Tottenham Hotspurs Bar Lighting and much more.
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2015 was the first year that we ran our Games Room of the Year Competition and we were overwhelmed when the amazing entries started to roll in within the first few days of the competition.
After narrowing the entries down to 15 finalists overall, one for each region within the UK and 5 wildcards, it was the public's turn to vote for their favourite. After a public vote, Chris Embling was announced as the winner on the first ever Games Room of the Year competition.
Their pub-style Games Room at the end of their garden was named 'Rory’s Return' in memory of their son Rory who passed away suddenly in 2014 due to an underlying heart condition which they were all unaware of.
Their Games Room is filled with a fully-stocked bar, pool table, memorabilia, a stunning jukebox and signed football shirts too! It's a great way to remember their son.
We went to go and visit the Embling's under the guise that they had been narrowed down to the Top Three Finalists, when they had actually won. Here's what happened when we broke the news to them:
Chris Embling came 1st with 20% of the votes, Massimo Ciampi came 2nd with 18.4% of the votes and Simon Randall came 3rd with 18% of the votes.
