Tombola Acquired By Flutter Entertainment For £402m
Published On 18th November 2021
2021 has been an exciting one for online bingo. We've seen Gala complete it's move from the Playtech platform to Entain whilst Heart have relaunched themselves on Pragmatic Play; BetVictor and Novibet have launched new bingo channels whilst Kitty and Lucky Pants joined their sister brand, Mecca, on Virtue Fusion. But 2021 obviously isn't quite done with changing the landscape for bingo players. In what could be quite an interesting move, Flutter Entertainment who own Paddy Power, Sky Betting and Betfair, have today acquired Tombola in a deal worth over £400million!
Who Are Tombola
Tombola was set up in 1999 by Phil Cronin and in it's first role was the platform behind the original online site for Sun Bingo. The latter jumped ship for Gamesys and the old site adopted the Tombola title. Losing Sun Bingo proved to be the catalyst for the site to rise to the top of UK bingo sites. Tombola has stood out from it's competitors with it's own propriatary platform, community spirit, low wagering and wagering limits. With innovative games like The Machine, Paper, Pulse and Hex plus the arrival of Tombola Arcade it's no wonder it attracts around 400,000 average monthly users. Many people will also know the brand from it's sponsorship of I'm A Celebrity but it has also sponsored Emmerdale and even their local club, AFC Sunderland.
Mergers & Acquisitions
All these factors helped Tombola become the destination for bingo players and a viable option for acquisition. In many ways it's sad to see the most successful independent bingo brand become part of a bigger stable. We first started working with Tombola pretty much from the get-go and were one of the first sites acting as an affiliate via 'Playmates'. But mergers and acquisitions are the way of the world. In recent times we've seen 888 acquire William Hill, Gamesys and Bally merging, DraftKings considering buying Entain and rumours suggesting that Playtech could be about to be purchased by for £3billion by a consortium including Eddie Jordan. The US market is slowly opening up and corporations are jostling for prime positions. Tombola is very UK heavy with respect to players (over 80%) and therefore merging with Flutter may well provide them with the necessary team to break into other regions, including The United States?
Why Have Flutter Bought Tombola?
Mind there's no mention of going Stateside in Flutter's press release. Instead Peter Jackson, chief executive of Flutter explains that "Tombola is a business we have long admired for its product expertise, highly recreational customer base and focus on sustainable play. The brand aligns closely with Flutter’s safer gambling strategy, a key area of focus for us". But surely there's more to it than that? Flutter is made up of several brands including Paddy Power, Sky Betting which comprises Sky Bingo and Sky Vegas and Betfair. All of these brands have bingo games powered by Virtue Fusion. With the acquisition of Tombola Flutter now have their own bingo platform and a company renowned for making quality games? Could we therefore see Tombola bingo games eventually replace those powered by Virtue Fusion on Sky, Paddy Power and Betfair?
A Tombola Network?
A few years ago GVC, now Entain, purchased the Cozy Games platform. They didn't buy the group for the multiple brands that used that software, as they closed them all, but instead to acquire a ready made bingo platform of their own. That platform now powers big brands such as Foxy, Cheeky, Ladbrokes, Coral and Gala. It also means that Entain are no longer paying out to the likes of Dragonfish and Playtech for using their bingo products. This makes a lot of sense in business terms although in our view it limits originality and dilutes brands. We're not convinced that Gala on Entain - which is now a Foxy clone - is a better option for players than Gala on Virtue Fusion for example. But if Flutter opted to create a 'Tombola' network then in many senses that would mean better games for their own brands. On the flipside that may end up in diluting the unqiueness of Tombola and Tombola Arcade as standalone independent brands.
What Happens Now?
Of course all the above is speculation on our part. But expanding markets, creating gambling powerhouses and being in charge of your own bingo software makes a lot of sense. Short term we don't expect there to be any obvious changes. Players may get a few cross-sell emails with old PPB and Sky registrations perhaps being invited to discover Tombola. It'd be a surprise to see current Tombola players however being encouraged to go the other way though but anything is possible. Long term we hope that Tombola continues to develop as it has done since day one. The adage of "if it ain't broke" is usually rubbish but in this case it applies. One thing is for sure and that's 2022 is going to be another fascinating year for online bingo.
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