Bingo in Britain has come a long way from its origins in Italy in the 14th century or the 17th century French salons where aristocrats played Le Lotto, an older form of present-day bingo. Today, working-class individuals play bingo in halls, marking their cards as the callers shout out numbers till someone wins the full house. Playing bingo online is also quite well-known because of its low deposit bingo sites.
Due to the increasing popularity of online bingo sites, bingo halls have been disappearing and a lot has to do with the smoking ban that was introduced in the UK around a decade ago. That said, only some of the bingo establishments were able to transition online.
Although, the UK is the world’s biggest online bingo market with about 3 million players according to Intertain of Canada, it still is in its nascent stages compared to all other forms of betting and gambling online.
While the total revenue from online bingo was about £130m last year, it didn’t compare to revenue from all types of online betting, which was about £3.6bn and from all forms of gambling like betting shops, casinos, the National Lottery, racecourse, and the rest, which was at a whopping £12.6bn.
Last year, the UK’s biggest bingo site, Jackpotjoy paid up to £375m! Even though, its brand ambassador is Barbara Windsor, the Queen of cockney sparrows, the bingo payouts are incomparable to the payouts of all other forms of gambling. So while online bingo is growing, it’s not as fast as the other forms of online gambling and betting.
The UK makes up the majority of the revenues of Intertain, a Canadian gaming company. Hence, it’s preparing to move to the London Stock Exchange by next month. They are hoping for a much better hearing from the UK investors than they had in their home country.
Moreover, online bingo is so-called ‘soft gaming’ – much like scratch cards or the National Lottery. Most players are women in their 30s who are betting a few pounds on a quick game or two, while they are more interested in the chat rooms. So, bingo is not really a game for the high-rollers.
But there is nothing soft about the business. In fact, there are hundreds of bingo sites out there, each one more glamorous than the other. According to Andrew McIver, Intertain’s Chief Executive, “The art lies in creating a buzz!” He goes on to say that the recipe for happiness for all online bingo operators is, “More games, more interest, more people and hence, bigger jackpots.”
That said, online bingo operators don’t become rich through only share of bingo winnings. The main income lies in winning new punters on their phones or desktops and encouraging them to spend as much as possible in only a few minutes. Hence, you’ll see a slew of sidebars on a number of online bingo sites that have other easy-to-play casino games as well as scratch cards. The only hiccup is that it costs a lot to attract the punters’ attention and keep them interested in spending more time on a particular bingo site.
More than that, the survival of smaller bingo sites is something to think about. The scrutiny of governments and regulators makes life harder. In fact, when the UK imposed a point of consumption tax on betting companies back in 2014, a lot of the smaller fish in the sea were wiped out!
So, at this juncture, whether Intertain is able to pull in punters and get them interested in sticking around and playing some more needs to be seen?