Edinburgh escape room operator to run Red Bull world championship challenge

A Scottish escape room company has built and will operate the challenge for a flagship global competition to be held in London this week.

Escape founder Daniel Hill hailed the 'unique opportunity' for the firm. Picture: Lenny Warren/Warren Media

Escape has constructed the game that will be used in the finals of this year’s Red Bull Escape Room World Championship.

Starting on Friday, the contest will see the best teams from 23 countries competing for the world title, which is currently held by Slovenia.

The room has been designed by Scott Nicholson, an escape room designer and director of the Brantford Games Network research lab at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, and constructed by Escape.

The Scottish firm will also operate the room, which is due to become a permanent fixture in London after the competition.

This will be the second world championships in the discipline and is to be broadcast live across the globe.

Escape, which claims to be Scotland’s first escape room operator, was founded in Edinburgh and has expanded from a single room in 2014 to run more than 200 rooms worldwide.

It now employs around 150 staff in the UK.

Founder Daniel Hill said: “Escape games continue to soar in popularity and after Edinburgh played such a pivotal role in the global phenomenon, it’s fantastic that the world championship is being held in the UK.

“It’s a privilege to have been asked to build the unique escape room.

“For a company that started with just one room in Edinburgh in 2014, with no idea whether anyone would even knock on the door to play, it’s incredible that we now find ourselves on the global stage.

“This is a unique opportunity to put Scotland’s role in the escape phenomenon on the map.”