New Poll: What does the future hold for online bingo?
What will be the main drivers for the sector over the next few years?
The online bingo industry has found itself as a crossroads, with operators often glossing over the vertical in results presentations and growth hard to come by in an increasingly commoditised market.
It’s not through a lack of marketing spend, and we are seeing advertising spend from the sector rise and rise, due in part to the greater freedom to advertise during daytime hours and the cross-sell opportunities this provides to multi-vertical gaming operators.
Bingo ad spend is on course to double 2010’s total of £26m this year, with operators’ outlay on TV advertising already reaching £19m in the first four months of the year.
But doubts remain as to where growth is most likely to come from. Regulated territories certainly represent one possible opportunity, though unfriendly tax circumstances have already curtailed early promise in Italy.
A number of regulated or regulating territories are beginning to see potential in the vertical, with Canadian province Ontario among the latest to do so. The province’s Lottery and Gaming Corporation launched an RFP for a bingo software supplier last month, prioritising bingo over casino.
Certain operators are looking towards social, perhaps lured by the inherently social nature of bingo in general, and the launch of real-money gambling on Facebook also offers hope, with Gamesys’ Bingo Friendzy the first pay-to-play title to launch on the platform, quickly followed by 888’s Bingo Appy.
Yet with Facebook insisting that the roll-out of real-money products on its platform would be a gradual process, it may be a while before the likes of Gamesys and 888 derive meaningful revenues from their offerings.
Mobile represents another opportunity, and while Crown Bingo investor Joe Saumarez Smith suggested to eGR that mobile bingo is “quite a difficult product to make work”, the channel is beginning to bear fruit for operators such as Rank Interactive.
So where do you believe there is cause for optimism within the online bingo market? Have your say in the poll on the right-hand side of the page, or visit the eGR LinkedIn Group.