Bingo All Stars To Close Down
Published On 10th May 2023
Bingo All Stars, the brand which brought bingo together with celebs such as Christopher Biggins, Linda Lusardi, Rustie Lee, Derrick Evans, Russell Grant and Jean Martyn has announced that it will be closing it's doors for good later this month. In a very short email players were informed that the site was "writing to let you know that Bingo All Stars will cease to operate as of the May 25th 2023. We want to thank you for playing with us, and we invite you to withdraw any cash funds you have with us before the site closes". This means that if you have an account with the site then we advise getting any outstanding funds from them as soon as possible. As yet we don't whether this is a one off closure or the start of a series of closures stemming from Broadway Gaming's purchase of the Dragonfish platform.
The History Of Bingo All Stars
To be fair Bingo All Stars hasn't had the easiest of times. They were due to launch in early 2020 just as the entire world started to go into lockdown due to the pandemic. Indeed Linda Lusardi was very ill around the time the site was originally expected to kick off. The site officially launched in July 2020 and we felt that it would easily be a shoe-in for 'Best Newcomer' simply because it was something brand new for bingo players. The idea of Bingo All Stars was that the 'stars' would get involved with the site, be part of the online chat and also provide exciting prizes for players to win. The prizes - as suggested on the site - could be along the lines of a "shopping trip with Linda Lusardi", "a cooking class with Rustie Lee" and a "personalised fitness plan from Mr Motivator". None of this materialised as it was not possible to offer these prizes. On reflection the only celebrity prize we can actually recall was the chance to win Rustie Lee's Christmas Cake. We don't recall any chances for players to actually meet one of the All Stars. However the pandemic didn't stop folks getting online and surely the All Stars would be available to regularly hop into exclusive bingo rooms and interact with players? Sadly not.
Lack Of Live Bingo & Celebs
Unfortunately the lack of live bingo and limited interactions with any of the stars hasn't helped Bingo All Stars' cause. Again looking back the only one of the six we can recall actually getting involved with any kind of chat was Rustie Lee. What the other five celebs brought to the party, other than their images and the occasional "Biggins recommends this slot" messages, we just don't know. It's almost as though they happily signed up to earn a few quid but not do any work to boost the brand. What we did know was that at least one of them - Mr Motivator - was popping up at Gala Bingo for online chats just six months after the site carrying his name had arrived. We felt that this wasn't a good look for Bingo All Stars and commented that the site would go down as "just another addition to the growing list of Dragonfish brands that promise much but deliver little to the table". They've not been helped by the sale of Dragonfish to Broadway Gaming. The platform has to be a factor in the closure because under Dragonfish and now under Broadway Gaming there's been little offered to attract players to sign up and play. You could have Brad Pitt as a Bingo All Star but if the product is poor then eventually bingo players will go elsewhere.
So Why Close Down?
Bingo sites generally close down because they don't make any money or enough money. In Bingo All Stars case we wonder whether those involved decided not to continue or had lost interest in the project. Most certainly a few of them had zero interest in it. Did Jean Martyn or Russell Grant actually do anything? The use of celebrites to promote gambling brands, something which The UKGC no longer permit in some cases, obivously could also play a part in the decision to close but we're not convinced that the likes of Grant, Biggins and Lusardi appeal to a young audience. And if the brand was doing well then it could still run minus the 'All Stars'. Of course there could also be an element of Broadway Gaming starting to clear the decks too. This would most certainly tie in with revenues because if the site isn't bringing in players and/or income then it's a dead duck. Brands have limited scope for marketing and limited budget too which makes it hard to turn around a sinking ship in bingo terms. Bingo All Stars will go down as a good idea on paper, but in reality it just wasn't good enough to be an A Lister along the lines of Foxy, Gala and Buzz.
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