General knowledge genius makes £60,000 a YEAR playing pub quiz machines and has even paid university fees and wedding

• Christian Drummond took up the unusual job after struggling to find work
• Now earns up to £60 an hour thanks to incredible general knowledge
• Graduate wants normal job after hitting more than 10,000 pubs and bars

Trivia titan Christian Drummond earns up to £60,000 a year - playing pub quiz machines.
The 40-year-old, from Brighton, Sussex, makes his living solely by playing the games in pubs, bars and nightclubs all over Britain.

Christian estimates he has visited well over 10,000 pubs, earning between £40 and £60 an hour, and tax free because his earnings are classified as winnings from gambling.

Clever boy: Christian Drummond earns up to £60,000 a year playing pub quiz machines. He discovered the unusal vocation almost by chance

Riches: Christian estimates he has been to 10,000 pubs and bars across the UK and earns up to £60 an hour

The English literature graduate has even earned enough to pay for university, holidays abroad and his wedding from winnings.
Christian, who favours the Chris Tarrant-fronted game The Colour of Money, said: 'You can earn £40,000 to £50,000 a year no problem.

'If I run out of pubs in a city, I just head to another one.

'I have measured out my life in pubs. When you get paid in coins every eight minutes you go a little crazy.'

Christian can name all 500 Dickens characters, the populations of African cities and the number of sets in every Wimbledon final.

He has been evicted just once by an angry landlord in Harrow on the Hill and had two machines turned off by barmen to prevent him winning.

Christian takes two-week trips visiting as many pubs with a quiz machine in his chosen city as possible before travelling to the next.

One of his well trodden routes is Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, and on to Glasgow before doing the journey in reverse.

Haul: His vocation has paid for his university fees, exotic holidays and even his wedding

You do what?: Most people struggle to believe Christian when he says what he does for a living

He added: 'The travelling around can be difficult and it is very taxing on the brain, staring at a screen.

'After ten hours in a row doing it you begin to get a bit flaky and crazy by the end of the day.

'I wanted to use my brain to earn money, and I am doing that, but it is not quite how I imagined I would do it.'

His career began while studying English Literature at Sussex University, which he achieved a top first class degree in.

But after watching punters win the jackpot on the quiz machine, he decided to give it a shot himself and has never looked back.

He said: 'I was working in Scotland and saw a guy playing and realised you could win as much as £40 out of them. I had a go on my lunch hour and I won £20 on my first go. I did the maths and decided I could make a lot of money from it.

'The first day I ever did it I won £80.'

After moving south from Glasgow, he struggled to find work as the recession bit.

He added: 'I tried to find work but got caught in the crunch.

'I couldn’t get any job, not even a bar job, so I decided to try to ‘go pro’. I’ve been doing the quizzing for five years ever since as my main source of income.'

Christian has had to deal with irate bar staff who objected to his winning ways

But Christian, who honed his general knowledge skills on long car journey’s with his map maker father, revealed people never truly believe him when he says what he does for a living.
He said: 'It is very difficult when I have to tell people what I do. There are some people who simply don’t believe you.
'People think you are a gun runner or a burglar or something nefarious like that.
'My wife didn’t believe me either when I first told her what I did. But once she realised she told me to stop because she didn’t want me gambling.

'She is fine with it now, but I try to take her out for dinner with the proceeds whenever I can and we have been lucky enough to travel a lot off the back of the winnings.

'We do have one rule that is I’m not allowed to play the machines when we are out together.'

Christian, who has only ever encountered one other professional quizzer, has revealed his secret to success at the pro quizzing game.
He said: 'Knowing the questions is very important and possessing the sheer bloody-mindedness to keep going.'

But now the former University Challenge team captain is planning his exit strategy.

Christian said: 'It was very exciting at first, but now it has become work, but not just that it has become drudge work.

'It is not what I studied for, so now enough is enough and I want to get a normal job.'

WANT TO BE A QUIZ MASTER?: CHRISTIAN'S TOP FIVE TIPS

1. After a while you can't help noticing patterns in the questions - maybe deliberate - more likely lazy data or accidental repetition. The most striking is on answers with a numerical value - 80% of the time it's the middle one of the three given. Similarly on dates it's almost always the earliest.
2. There are many different games on machines these days - try and play one which gives you a numerical target to reach for the cash game. You can then gauge from the target if the machine is being nice or nasty.
3. Always play the same game - different games have different question sets. The machines will also pull out preposterous questions when they don't want to pay - If you get asked: 'Which of these UNESCO biosphere sites was approved first?', it's time to go.
4. Where possible don't gamble. If you answer the questions and the machine wants to pay, it will.
5. Aim to win small and often - it is MUCH easier to win four fivers than a £20 jackpot.