diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 9c7057534e..01ea2f2d86 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ dist: xenial
 language: python
 cache: pip
 
-service:
+services:
   - postgresql
   - mysql
 
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ env:
   - TESTING_DB=postgresql
   - TESTING_DB=mysql
 
+before_install: 
+  - psql -U postgres -c "CREATE USER evennia WITH PASSWORD 'password'; CREATE DATABASE evennia; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE evennia TO evennia;'"
+  - mysql -u root -e "CREATE USER 'evennia'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; CREATE DATABASE evennia; ALTER DATABASE `evennia` CHARACTER SET utf8; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON evennia.* TO 'evennia'@'localost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;" -U postgres
+
 install:
   - pip install psycopg2-binary
   - pip install mysqlclient
@@ -21,8 +25,6 @@ install:
   - pip install coveralls
 
 before_script:
-  - psql -U postgres -c "CREATE USER evennia WITH PASSWORD 'password'; CREATE DATABASE evennia; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE evennia TO evennia;'"
-  - mysql -u root -e "CREATE USER 'evennia'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; CREATE DATABASE evennia; ALTER DATABASE `evennia` CHARACTER SET utf8; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON evennia.* TO 'evennia'@'localost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;" -U postgres
   - python -VV
   - evennia --init testing_mygame
   - cp .travis/testing_settings.py testing_mygame/server/conf/settings.py