888 Sell Dragonfish Bingo To Broadway Gaming
Published On 15th December 2021
Just when you think that the bingo business merry-go-round has spun enough for one year, out pops one more rabbit from the hat. This year we've seen Tombola get purchased by Flutter, Heart Bingo jump over to Pragmatic Play and Gala take up residence on Entain's platform. We've also seen Gamesys be purchased by Bally and 888 potentially become the new owners of William Hill. And it's 888 who are involved in what may well be the last big bingo deal of 2021. They've sold their Dragonfish business which includes the bingo platform and brands to Broadgaming who run Butlers Bingo and other sites. The deal is apparently worth $50million!
888's Strategic Review
According to reports the sale of the Dragonfish business comes after a strategic review by 888. Itai Pazner, CEO of 888, explains that "we have taken the decision to sell the bingo business. This strategic transaction will enable 888 to further increase its focus on its core platform and unified, scalable and proprietary technology, and grow our key product verticals of casino, sport and poker, as we continue in our mission to be one of the world’s leading online betting and gaming businesses. The high-quality bingo business has been an important part of 888’s history, and over many years we have developed an advanced B2B offering alongside a suite of popular consumer-facing brands". With the potential acquisition of William Hill in the offing this does mean 888 can focus on that - and possible involvement in The US - without the distraction of the Dragonfish platform.
Delighted To Reach An Agreement
Whilst 888 will be focusing on sportsbook and casino, Broadway are forging forward with bingo. David Butler, CEO of Broadway Gaming is delighed with the acquistion: "by combining these [the bingo platform and brands] with our existing business and brands, which include Butlers Bingo, we will be able to achieve an even stronger global footprint in key regulated bingo markets. We have worked intensively with the 888 Group over the course of the last few months and have been very impressed by the quality of the bingo platform and product, the B2C and B2B businesses, its approach to safer gambling and player protection, and above all the management team". One of the key elements of the acquistion is that 888's bingo team will join Broadway and continue to develop and improve the product. The deal isn't expected to be completed until Quarter 2 of 2022 and is subject to UKGC licencing criteria etc.
What Does This All Potentially Mean?
First of all it means that brands such as Wink, 888 Ladies, Posh, Costa, Sing and Fancy yet again have new owners. It's fair to say that in the last couple of years none of these have been as active as they once were back in the day. Posh for example is in dire need of a revamp whilst Costa is a million miles away from when the likes of Mel B adorned it's homepage. In the short term we don't expect too much to happen with these brands but Broadway could choose to breathe new life into them or maybe close one or two. Dragonfish also powers a lot of "white label brands" such as Duck Duck Go, Bubble Bonus, Moon, Robin Hood and So. We'd be amazed if the worst performing brands survive under new ownership. A new owner generally means new contracts and that means an opportunity to implement a parting of the ways if needed. As when Entain took over from Cozy it could see a lot of "bit part" brands close their doors.
A New Dragonfish
if any bingo platform needed a kick up the butt then it's Dragonfish. It's lagged (in our view) behind Playtech, never competed with Tombola and has Pragmatic Play breathing down it's neck. It's become a little bit stale and none of the brands residing on the network really stand out from the crowd. Whilst the likes of Entain (Friends Bingo), Pragmatic Play (Masked Singer Bingo at PlayOJO), Tombola (The Machine) and Playtech (Spirit Twister) have all innovated the best Dragonfish has offered is Even Stevens games and 52 ball versions. Hopefully under new management and without the constraints within the 888 business stucture, Broadway will be developing the platform and getting it back to former glories. A few standout brands and some exciting player promos could also help the cause.
All Change At Butlers?
Butler's Bingo launched using the Microgaming bingo platform but switched to Pragmatic Play during 2021. Now that Broadway have their own platform it's hard to see why they'd continue running their own brands with a third party. Foxy/Gala for example all switched to Entain so it makes sense for Butler's to eventually become a Dragonfish powered brand. We don't envisage that to happen immediately. In our view we'd anticipate a period of transition for Dragonfish and Broadway to mesh the teams together, a bit of a tweak of the platform to give it some much needed improvements and a test on estbalished brands like Wink to make sure all is good for the players. Once the platform is right then expect to see Butler and it's sister sites such as Rosy move to Dragonfish (or whatever the new platform will become). For us this plus the potential for a new improved platform are the exciting aspects of the purchase.
What About Affiliates?
This could be one area of the purchase which isn't exciting. We've been an affiliate of Wink for well over a decade; we were one of the first B2B customers with Prize Bingo and Loquax Bingo (both closed) and have enjoyed promoting 888/Dragonfish brands. When a bingo site gets taken over it's not unusual for the affiliate side of things to stop and it's possible that it could stop for all current active Dragonfish powered sites. That could have a massive impact on affiliates who have built up revenue share bases for several years. If Broadway maintain all Dragonfish affiliate deals and with improvements to the platform that may result in happy days for all. Ending those deals could have a massive impact on the affiliate landscape. Only time will tell what's in store for bingo, players, affiliates and Dragonfish in 2022 but as ever in this industry it's going to be interesting finding out.
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