As the weather in Canada turns warmer in the spring, many sports fans look forward to watching their favourite teams in the playoffs.

Often, that includes a trip to a local pub or restaurant to enjoy the big game surrounded by other fans.

For restaurant companies, these big events are a boon to the bottom line. “Oh yeah, it’s massive for us,” Vlad Ciobanu, senior vice-president marketing at Foodtastic said to FoodNX in an interview.

“Our sports bars, like Shoeless Joe’s; La Belle et la Boeuf in Quebec, and our pubs, they’re going to be performing very well,” he said.

But the impact not only affects in-restaurant business,

“Anything that’s more bar (oriented) that’s going to have TVs or be quick service, we see surges in orders, whether for takeout or through third-party delivery channels,” Ciobanu said. “All the restaurants are overbooked almost, and we expect very strong delivery and take-out for our quick-service segment.”

Big boost for bottom line

Sales numbers generally rise more dramatically during weekdays, explained Ciobanu, as a lot of the Foodtastic restaurants — which includes other pub-related brands such as Fionn McCool’s and Big Rig Kitchen & Brewery — are already heavily booked during weekends.

“We see anywhere live for sports bars anywhere from 20 to 50 per cent (more sales), in certain cases, especially when the games are during the weekday, so on from Monday to like Thursday,” Ciobanu said.

“On the quick-service side, we see anywhere, depending on the region, obviously where there are teams, we’d see a lift from anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent.”

Foodtastic was founded in 2016 and its roster includes more than 1,200 restaurants. Its sales have risen from $50 million to over $1 billion over its 27 brands, according to the company.

In order to best manage the influx of customers for big events, having the right employee mix is key.

“They need to be properly staffed. It’s the first thing for those events, and (customers) come in quick. Restaurants that are near arenas where the games are played, they’re going to get a massive influx of customers in that two-hour period before. In two hours you would probably make the same sales as you would in five or six hours because it has to be served quick, and it’s in and out,” Ciobanu said.

Its not as simple as doubling or tripling the number of staff, but by “properly using the booking and table reservation systems that we have. We use reservation systems like Libro and OpenTable for our full-service (restaurants). Throughout the week, leading up to the games, you’ll see exactly how many reservations you have,” he said.

Using television ads for brand awareness

Deploying the correct ad-buying strategy has worked wonders to boost the company’s sports-related business, according to Ciobanu.

“Take a brand like La Belle et la Boeuf in Quebec, which did a pivot to sports two years ago, and it coincided also with the Montreal Canadiens that started performing very well and we saw that our traffic spiked on game nights.”

“We associated the brand on a lot of TV channels, like TSN or the French equivalents, which is RDS and TVA Sport, that we broadcast our ads during the game. We really associated hockey to our brand, so that created that influx,” he said.

Besides straight ad buys to help increase traffic, the chain creates takeout bundles.

“A lot of our quick-service restaurants on the takeout app deliveries and third-party platforms like Uber and DoorDash will create game-day bundles. So those catering plates that we would normally have, we turn them around a bit to more of a mix-and-match for game night.”

Gearing up for FIFA in Canada

While the firm is currently enjoying healthy numbers as the Toronto Raptors, Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens continue in the playoffs, one of the world's biggest sports tournaments is coming to Canada in the summer: the FIFA World Cup.

“We’re very lucky to have games in Toronto and B.C.,” Ciobanu said.

In order to capitalize for the event, which runs from June 11 to July 19 with Vancouver hosting seven matches and six matches played in Toronto, there are a number of strategies Foodtastic will utilize.

“The restaurants are going to get a massive influx of tourism. We’re going to do strategies around search engines. For example, all these tourists are going to be looking for restaurants and places to eat. So the more traditional keywords: restaurant near me, are going to be highly competitive,” he said.

Interest peaks near stadiums

While the numbers are expected to be high for Canadian interest, “these guys are going to need to be very prepared when the influx of tourism is going to happen, because you’re going to get millions and millions of people coming in for those games, and the places that are near the stadiums are going to be very busy.”

During the 2025 Stanley Cup final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers, restaurant spending rose by 58 per cent during game one, 92 per cent during game two, and 79 per cent during game five, according to Retail Insider, citing a report by payment processing firm Moneris.

In Montreal, revenues spiked 41 per cent and 45 per cent during games three and four of the first round of the 2025 playoffs.

As well, Foodtastic learned from last year’s surprise appearance by the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series, where the team lost in a close series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“We’ve seen, even more on the full-service side, a spike on the Blue Jays game nights, of traffic. So if that happens again, we need to be a little more prepared, also on the marketing and capitalizing on this,” Ciobanu said.