The SpeedQuizzing guide to tackling cheating at pub quizzes

If you’ve ever been to a pub quiz (if you haven’t why not?) there is always that burning thought of “are other teams cheating?”.  We get it, you feel like you’re smashing this quiz out of the park and yet somehow you are still only second or third, so how are those other teams doing it? Chances are they are just really clever and good at quizzes, but yes there are teams out there that don’t think twice about cheating.

Pub quiz cheating makes national news

There are a number of recent articles talking about examples of teams cheating and being banned from pub quizzes, one major example being a pub called The Barking Dog in Urmston, Manchester which seems to have made the national news, but this happens a lot more than the articles would make out and it’s up to the pub or the host to ensure it’s dealt with correctly.

Firstly, it’s important to say that the vast majority of quizzers will sit and play a quiz without cheating, it is only a select minority that feel the need to cheat.  They will be using Google to look things up or services like Shazam to identify songs.  With the integration of AI being used on smartphones, its apparent that technology is going to get better and better at delivering answers for you, quicker and easier.

So what can a host do to prevent cheating?

As an overall piece of advice for all quizzes, a blanket ban on smartphones being out or used while the quiz is taking place is probably the best rule to enforce.  Of  course, if you are hosting a SpeedQuizzing quiz, its obvious that the device you are using (one per team) can be out as that is the method you are using to play, but any other devices would need to be away and out of sight.

With smartwatches, things get a little more tricky. In the BBC news article reporting on what went down at The Barking Dog pub in Urmston, the team cheating were caught “whispering into their smartwatches”. Additionally, Shazam-like music detection apps are often passively integrated into phones/smartwatches and this presents itself as a very sneaky way for players to cheat during music rounds. So, do we tell people to take off their watches? Probably not, but you could, at the start of quiz, ask for a show of hands of anyone wearing one and encourage players with them to keep them out of sight as much as possible. From there, it is down to the host to be vigilant in monitoring their players.

Get a wireless microphone

With a wireless microphone, a host can free-roam around the room and keep an eye on what everyone is doing, much like an invigilator in an exam (but probably less intimidating).  Cheaters are much less likely to take a sneaky look at Google whilst the host is looming next to their table.

Still far harder to cheat with SpeedQuizzing

When SpeedQuizzing first hit the UK pub quiz scene over fourteen year ago, our many cheat-resistant features gave cheats little room for manoeuvre. Back then, Googling an answer took manual effort and Internet connections were so much slower and more unreliable. This left very little scope for sourcing and inputing an answer during the imposed ten second countdown.

Even now and even with technology getting faster, this ten second window makes cheating so much more difficult than at a tradition quiz.  At a pen and paper quiz, players can go back to questions right up until the host calls for the sheets to be marked. During that time, a team member could leave the room (a cheeky toilet trip perhaps) and make the relevant Google searches away from peering eyes and return with the answers to add to the sheet. A ten second countdown puts a stop to all of this kind of thing.

Lower the stakes

We have found before that players are more likely (or tempted) to cheat if there is a bigger prize on offer.  With something like a £30 bar tab, people will most likely play how you intend them to, but if there is a large jackpot at stake, the temptation will always rise for some, to cheat their way to winning.  We fully understand that jackpots are introduced in order to bring more people in, but this is also going to come with the risk of people trying to obtain that money, no matter what.

If jackpots are a must for the quiz, then one thing that many hosts do using SpeedQuizzing is to make the quiz prize small but then to use the Bingo feature in the software for the rollover, as Bingo is definitely something that people cannot cheat at.

Cleverer Questions

Despite the fact that there is less time to cheat using SpeedQuizzing, people still do try and therefore another of our approaches is to write questions that have Google and AI resistance built into them.  Questions such as “what is the age difference between these two people?” (while displaying a picture of two well known actors) is going be very difficult to search up.

Shame the Shazamers

For music trivia “Shazam” type cheating, we have had success before by uploading a red-herring song on to Spotify and giving the song a title that starts with the letter “Z”. This really does catch them out because no players will have heard this unknown song and so honest players will either abstain or guess, but a guess would normally be a common letter like “S”. Therefore, for any team who submitted a “Z”, you know, with one hundred percent certainty, that they have taken the bait and have been caught red handed!

Other considerations

SpeedQuizzing also introduced a feature called “Anti-Snoop” which makes it harder for people to have a crafty look over your shoulder, to see what answer you’ve put.  Now, obviously the biggest flaw with this, is that cheaters are trusting that the team they are spying on are even getting the answer right but it’s still not a nice feeling if someone is peaking at your answers.  The feature in the app, gives you the option to turn down the brightness on the button you have pressed so it’s almost impossible to see what option you have gone for.  You would have to really look hard in order to be able to see it.  This can be found by pressing your team name at the bottom of the screen, once you have logged in.

It is important to remember however, that quizzes are supposed to be fun and that too many rules and methods trying to catch cheats out, may make it less enjoyable for the majority of people that are just coming to play and have a good night out.  So whilst we recommend some of the options outlined above, you also need to remember that it is still, just a bit of fun.