Bringing the best VR gaming to the UK

Andy Scanlon B’09 is on a mission to bring the biggest and best VR gaming to the UK with plans to launch the largest VR venue in the world in Birmingham this summer and, in his words, “is only just getting started…”

Since leaving Worth, Andy spent close to a decade in the finance sector and, after completing a Masters from Cass Business School, moved to Singapore where he first visited a Sandbox VR venue. Andy picks up the story; “Sandbox VR at the time was a young location-based virtual reality company that offered shared VR experiences exclusively at their venues. That seminal experience was so entertaining that I set my goal to bring Sandbox VR to the UK & Ireland and build it into a leading entertainment brand.”

Andy’s company acquired the exclusive franchise rights for Sandbox VR in the UK & Ireland in 2021 and launched their first venue in Covent Garden in July 2022. Since then they have welcomed over 35,000 guests and cemented their position as a new leader in the UK’s burgeoning competitive socialising landscape. They will be launching venues in Birmingham and Dublin this year with Bristol, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool scheduled for 2024. 

Andy tells us, “With any entrepreneur, the one trait I’d say is most critical to success is 'versatility'. Every day brings a variety of challenges and opportunities, and the ability to adapt can be the difference between success and failure. My time at Worth introduced and encouraged the pursuit of academia, sports, arts and leadership commensurately, which fostered an innate sense of confidence in my ability to adapt. This has immeasurably impacted my ability to manage a company with over 40 employees and tens of thousands of customers, and will continue to support me as we grow into a leading entertainment company in the years to come.”

And the good news keeps coming with last month’s announcement that later this year Sandbox is exclusively bringing Netflix's most ground-breaking series, Squid Game, to life through the first-ever, fully immersive Squid Game virtual reality experience.

Why not go and discover some of Sandbox’s virtual worlds - whether it’s a journey to space or surviving a zombie ambush - and Toni, the UK’s first robotic bartender, over the Easter holidays: https://sandboxvr.com/london/