# Dave & Buster's Entertainment

Dave & Buster's Entertainment is an other based in Coppell, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** other
- **Headquarters:** Coppell, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Coppell, TX, United States
- **Founded:** 1982
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** daveandbusters.com

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Dave & Buster's was founded in 1982 by David Corriveau and James 'Buster' Corley, two entrepreneurs who saw a gap between pure-play arcades and full-service restaurants. The concept opened first in Dallas, pairing a traditional dining menu with midway-style games in a single venue under one roof. After early expansion and a merger with Jillian's in 2004, the company went public in 2014 through a resurgent IPO that created a dedicated public entity for what was then 75 locations. The wealth origin is purely operational — no single family office sits behind it, and the firm has no wealth- or estate-management function. The business deploys real estate capital in suburban power centers and urban entertainment districts, with unit capex per new store running roughly $7 million to $10 million depending on site work and leasehold improvements. The model targets four-wall EBITDA margins above 25% by pricing play cards higher than legacy arcades and layering liquor sales on top — an alcoholic-beverage mix that can account for roughly 30% of total store revenue. Geographically, the footprint concentrates in Texas, California, Florida, and the Midwest, with international licensees operating a handful of locations in markets such as Canada, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. The management team now numbers fewer senior executives than during the growth phase, following a round of corporate-level layoffs. Adjacent to the core brand, the company operates a secondary concept called 'Main Event,' a family-focused bowling-and-arcade chain acquired in 2022, which targets a more suburban, birthday-party-driven demographic with lower average checks and higher game-play mix. The structural differentiator is that Dave & Buster's treats real estate as its primary investment vehicle rather than a technology platform — each new store is a single-asset capex bet on a 15-year lease with landlord contributions, making the firm's balance sheet more akin to a retail-REIT-plus-operating-company hybrid than a pure consumer-play business. The absence of a franchise model for the core brand means nearly all unit-level risk sits on the public-company balance sheet, forcing a slower, more deliberate expansion cadence than competitors who franchise heavily.

## Sectors

- Media & Entertainment

## People

- Chris Morris — Chief Executive Officer

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Dave & Buster's?

Investment decisions — primarily new-unit real estate selection and capex allocation — are managed by CEO Chris Morris and the CFO, with ultimate approval from the board of directors. Morris joined from Main Event in 2022, and the company does not maintain a separate investment committee or allocator arm; capital deployment is indistinguishable from ordinary-course operating decisions at a public restaurant company.

### How does Dave & Buster's source its new location pipeline?

The real estate team works with retail brokers and commercial landlords to identify vacant big-box spaces in high-visibility power centers and entertainment districts — often former movie theaters, department stores, or fitness-club shells. Site selection favors 30,000- to 40,000-square-foot footprints with strong daytime and evening traffic generators anchored nearby, such as multiplex cinemas or major mall properties.

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z

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