Nathan Nolan runs a unique Liverpool venue
Nathan Nolan from The Gamers Lodge in Liverpool city centre(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
A man overcame a challenging start in life to run two successful businesses. Nathan Nolan’s fortunes began to change when he went to the University of Liverpool to study economics.
After his studies, he set up a technology company called Vendi Tech, which he says boasts revenues of £20m to £30m a year. Last year, the 30 year-old opened The Gamers Lodge on Kempston Street in Liverpool city centre. It offers people the chance to play card, tabletop and board games, both casually and competitively.
The Fabric District venue sees thousands of people pass through its doors each day and has now been nominated for a major award.
Nathan has a similar venue to the Gamers Lodge in Preston and plans to open up more locations in the future. Speaking to the ECHO about how he became interested in combining business and gaming, he said: “I’m from Toxteth originally. I grew up on the poverty line, my mum was on benefits.
“When I was growing up, I used games – Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, whatever it was – to escape. It was like my little escape from my life and I just became quite passionate about it.
“I started playing and playing quite competitively with these like table top games, card games, like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon and whatnot.”
“I ended up going to to uni. I did economics and then a Master’s in economics. I went on into banking. I then started a business called Vendi Tech – that was my first venture into entrepreneurship. I did that with one of my best mates and we built that up.”
With The Gamers Lodge, Nathan wanted to create a place where people could share their love of gaming. He had seen many similar stores come and go, but he felt he could use his business experience to make it thrive.
Nathan opened The Gamers Lodge in June 2024(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Nathan said: “You often find that more fail than succeed in the industry, so I come in with the attitude to change that because I understand both sides of it.
“I just wanted a safe space for everyone because there’s a lot of people here that are on the spectrum, there’s a lot of people with disabilities, and it’s their version of going to the pub on a Friday.
“That’s why the lodge was born. I’ve managed to grow it quite quickly using all of my knowledge and skills that I have in business.”
Since The Gamers Lodge opened its doors in June of last year, it has built up a sizable customer base. Nathan credits the growing popularity of esports, where people play video games at a competitive level to win big prizes, as a factor behind this.
Nathan said: ”We’ve got thousands of people that come through the doors every month. Right now, a lot of people are collecting Pokemon, it’s crazy.
“The rise of eSports is creating a real path for gamers to quit their jobs. We’ve found that tabletop games are doing the same thing.
“So Magic: The Gathering for example, you can make hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. The Gamer’s Lodge is unique in that it caters to all people, whether they’re just casual trying to be competitive.”
It hasn’t been entirely straightforward for Nathan though. He didn’t have information at first about which games were the most popular, which meant he had to purchase sets without knowing if people wanted to play them.
Nathan said: ”The best thing you can do is take data from all of the other games based on how much people purchase it and how much people are willing to play it. Then you do some market research and then plan ahead.
“I didn’t have any of that data when I started, so I couldn’t take that approach. I had to wet my fingers, put it up in the air and kind of guess how much it was, so I lost a lot of money in the early days just over providing for stuff.
“The margins are insanely bad if you order too much. It took me a long time to build an actual knowledge base, to understand what people will be happy with and get some tangible information on how much to get in and how much to sell. I lost a lot of money in the early days not being able to do that.”
Nathan says thousands visit The Gamers Lodge every day(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
The Gamers Lodge has now been named a finalist in the 2025 Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards, shortlisted in the Early Stage Stand Out category.
Often referred to as “The Grammys of Entrepreneurship,” the awards celebrate the most exceptional and inspiring business stories across the UK.
Reflecting on his journey from a difficult start in life to this major milestone, Nathan said: “I feel very lucky. I feel like I don’t deserve it sometimes. I couldn’t believe it when The Gamers Lodge was nominated. I thought if I was going to get it from anywhere it would be from Vendi.
“But I’ve worked really hard. I work 100 hour weeks here, trying to make sure that everyone’s happy, they’re all constantly wanting to be here. I want this to be their place to play in their safe space, so to be recognised for it was quite humbling.”
Winners will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony on Monday November 17 2025, held at London’s Grosvenor House. You can find out more about The Gamers Lodge here.