THE drummer of York indie rock band Shed Seven is looking to tune into new global markets after discovering international demand for his online pub quiz venture.

Alan Leach and his brother John are rolling out their Speed Quizzing software across the globe as demand soars for their product, which was initially developed as a hobby.

The venture specialises in providing pub quiz systems which enable quiz masters and teams to receive and send questions and answers electronically through an app on their smartphone or tablet, designed to eliminate cheating, and produce quick results without the need to swap answers for marking.

Speed Quizzing hosted 300 quizzes a week last month, with users in 12 different countries.

International growth has grown to such a level that the business, based in Eboracum Way, is now recruiting two new members of staff to devise quiz questions for customers in the US.

Alan Leach, who came up with the idea after running pub quizzes in York for around 12 years, said: "It's a happy accident really. We developed it, and it became apparent there isn't anyone else doing it.

"It wasn't until about four or five years ago when everyone started getting smart phones that we thought we could build on the idea to be used across all devices.

"John created the app, but it didn't catch on immediately. However the last years have really seen people take to it, it's almost grown too fast.

"We haven't invested in any marketing, it has just grown through word of mouth locally, and through people searching for this type of thing online. There isn't anything else like this out there.

"Development is ongoing. A lot of people in our position would have to pay a developer, but because John is the programmer we are constantly working to improve, which gives us an advantage.

"I never dreamed in a million years I would be sitting in an office running my own business. Until about two years ago this was always just a sideline to the band.

"There's such a huge potential for growth, not just by spreading the brand geographically but by targetting other areas such as education."

As well as preparing to launch their latest version of Speed Quizzing, Mr Leach and his team are in contact with translators ahead of targetting the non-English speaking market as they look to build their presence in Europe over the next three years.

More details of the Speed Quiz venture can be found at www.speedquizzing.com