Rubber Road
Rubber Road Ltd is a British company founded on 28th September 2012 by former GAME executives Ben Grant and Matt Precious. Its headquarters are in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. Rubber Road serves as the mother company to a number of business ventures within the gaming industry, including Trade In Detectives, Appey Studios, Numskull and Yellow Bulldog.
History
The company was founded in 2012 when founders Grant and Precious returned to the UK from their respective roles as Marketing director and Commercial director at retailer GAME Australia. The name Rubber Road is derived from a combination of the Beatles’ Rubber Soul and Abbey Road album names.
Yellow Bulldog
Yellow Bulldog launched on 30th April 2013 and handles the buying and selling of second-hand electronics and video games. Initially selling on existing seller marketplaces such as Amazon and Play.com, the business saw enough early success to justify the launch of its own independent website, YellowBulldog.co.uk, which launched on 17th May 2014.
Appey Studios
On 31st May 2013, Grant and Precious founded an app development company called Appey Studios, under which the Geek-o-meter brand was launched. Geek-o-meter is a series of app quiz games, testing players’ knowledge of gaming sounds, cover art and characters, as well as TV show theme songs, music album covers, film cover art and quotes.
Trade In Detectives
On 7th August 2013, Rubber Road launched TradeInDetectives.com, which achieved rapid early growth in both web traffic and user sign ups, claiming to have achieved over a million unique visitors in the first 3 months. Alongside the comparison service, Trade In Detectives also offers gaming news, reviews, blogs, competitions, game hints & tips and a gallery of funny gaming-related pictures.
Numskull
Numskull is a company that produces officially licensed products in conjunction with well known gaming brands such as Sony PlayStation, Capcom, Ubisoft, and Bungie Studios. Its debut product was a replica PlayStation 4 gift card holder, which was stocked in GAME stores in the UK and also through Yellow Bulldog’s various marketplace channels.