Have Some Brands Lost Interest In Bingo?
Published On 25th July 2022
A few years ago we used to run a number of different bingo portals. These included Play Bingo, Prize Bingo, Bingo Blog, Penny Bingo and The Free Bingo Site as well as content on Loquax. Back in the day it was relatively easy to populate these sites with content because there were so many different promotions running. In fact it was easy to miss promotions simply because there were so many to choose from. Many of the prizes were pretty decent too with a lot of brands happy to giveaway cars, holidays, gadgets and cash. The Daily Mail Bingo even offered their players the chance to win a dream home in Spain. In fact it was so busy promotions wise that other portals didn't have to check in on Loquax to find out what's going on and then write their articles a few days later.
It's All So Quiet
Today however the bingo world has a whole different landscape. Whilst we have to acknowledge that we're at the start of the school holidays and that summer is typically a quiet time for online bingo, it's actually been a pretty quiet time for quite sometime now. Many big operators have reduced player promotions or opted for daily free to play games as their main lure. Smaller sites, especially those on Dragonfish and Jumpman, rely only on what their network provide and in the former's case that's slim pickings. In the past there have been some Dragonfish sites that have ran their own exclusive rooms (e.g. Chit Chat) and there's still the likes of Prizeland Bingo which have prize rooms but big names like Wink, 888 Ladies and Costa have done next to nothing in recent times. So what is going on? Are these reductions in player promotions evidence of a decline in online bingo? Have some operators lost interest in the channel and simply "accommodate" it? Or is it simply that it works out better to offer daily free to play games as opposed to big prize promos?
Losing Interest In Bingo?
There are a handful of operators who are perfect for the losing interest in bingo argument. William Hill for example used to be very proactive when it came to online bingo but we have to go back to 2018 in our news articles to discover a newsworthy prize promo from them. William Hill are also the only big name who don't offer new players a welcome bonus. You can get one by signing up for William Hill Vegas but as a bingo player the only real offer is daily free play on The Bonus Drop. This is OK in that you don't end up with wagering terms on any bonuses, but it's not a great incentive to join. MrQ is another brand that seems to be less interested in bingo which is ironic as it set out initially to make the game more fun. We've mentioned many times on these pages that three rooms and a couple of games a day just isn't enough to excite anyone. We're also going to throw Bet365 into the mix here. They do have a few offers but their interest in bingo is reflected in the way it's kicked out affiliates from their program. Rather than help affiliates boost the channel they're more interested in losing them under the guise of compliance.
Cost Cutting Exercises
One of the beautiful things about bingo and slots is that once they're going they pretty much look after themselves. And if you have enough players happy to spend money then you don't necessarily need to spend a lot in keeping them coming back as the games do the work for you. Perhaps now big bingo brands have reached a level where they no longer need to throw cars and holidays into the mix to attract new players. Or perhaps the bean counters have figured out that cars and holidays don't actually pay their way. Why giveaway a £10,000 holiday in a two week promotion when you can offer a daily free to play game that pays out a maximum of £100 a day and a whole bunch of free spins? And why spend £x on bingo players when spending £x on slots incentives can attract you higher wagering? In fact slots have a lot to answer for when it comes to online bingo. Ironically Bet365 Bingo are one of the few who currently don't involve slots in their promotions. But elsewhere you can win slot spins through various offers such as bingo games at Moon or on the daily free to play games at Jackpotjoy, Sun Bingo, Buzz and Gala. In short these free games are fun but they're also a lot cheaper to admin (at least in our view) than offering exciting prizes and setting up expensive promotions.
But What About...
Of course there are exceptions to the above. Mecca Bingo, Betfred and Sun Bingo have recently been dishing out holidays whilst Tombola have upped their cash giveaways for their daily free to play games on bingo and arcade. Virgin Games are running a monthly promotion this July too. The Jumpman Network also like to dish out £3000 worth of prizes each month, albeit shared across nearly 200 sites and it always involves slots. We have also seen the likes of Paddy Power, Betfair, Heart and Buzz offer players the chance to win something tangible. After that though what is there other than regular games and the same old same old offers? Can you remember when Costa Bingo last did anything sizeable (e.g. holiday and car sized giveaways)? How about Moon or Robin Hood? What about Gala and Foxy? Perhaps after the summer holidays, or even once the UKGC have released their White Paper on gambling, things will pick up, but surely we can't be the only ones wanting bingo operators to offer more?
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