We saw a list making the rounds recently of the best jobs to have in the United States. Number one on the list? An actuary. We don’t even know what that is; it just sounds like someone mispronounced “actually.” We also recently heard about some college friends who turned beer pong into a solid career – we don’t know what their job titles are, but we’d like to nominate them for the number one spot on that “best jobs” list for next year.
The company is called “Snatch Alley Tables” and it was founded in 2007 by three (then) college students: Matt Shannon, Rob Stella, and Kris Riddar. Their original plan was to create a company that sold custom pong tables for customers across the country. They wanted them to be easy to transport, durable and awesome. The custom-made tables were great, but they were a bit too expensive for college kids. That was when they decided to approach things from a different angle and start running beer pong tournaments in New England-area bars.
Now, Snatch Alley Tables provides everything a bar needs to run a successful pong tournament: cups, tables, balls, music and event coordinators to run the show. They also handle all of the marketing for the bar’s tournament. All of the pong tournaments are double elimination, every team has two members, and every team begins with six cups, which are partially filled in a triangle formation. The only catch? The cups are filled with water. It sounds like they get a lot of crap for the water thing, but when you’re playing drinking games in a public location like a bar, that establishment can get in BIG trouble if you leave and do something stupid. You’re obviously welcome to drink as much as you want while you play in the tournament, but they’re just not going to fill your cups with beer.
So, if the cups aren’t filled with beer, what’s in it for you?
$200 bucks, if you’re good enough. Everyone chips in $10 to play and the winner walks away with a cool $200. And your mom said your college drinking days would never pay off for you.