Bingo was his Name-O
November 17, 2005
Bingo playing is spread evenly across all age categories, with the average age of players being under 50. Over £999 million was paid out in prizes in 2001 in licensed bingo clubs. Figures for 2001 show an estimated total market of around 85 million admissions.
Although only a brief overview of the online bingo market, suffice to say that it is a vibrant, fast-growing niche within the online gaming market and one that deserves to be looked at in more depth by anyone looking for an opportunity in online gaming.
Interestingly 40% of online bingo players do not take part in any other type of online gambling. For those operators in the online casino market this is great news entering the bingo arena will open up new audience streams for them rather than cannibalising their existing player base. However if you really want to see what this audience looks like, pop into any bingo site.
- Compared to the 1800 online casinos, the bingo market is small, but its growing quickly. There were only ten credible pay-to-play online bingo offerings in April 2000. A year later this had increased by 50%. One year later, by February 2002, this had double to 30 sites. As I write (December 2002) this figure has risen by more than 60% in less than year and the current count is at 52 sites. ( All these numbers exclude white label sites and affiliates etc.).
- Online bingo? But the little old ladies who play bingo don't have internet access, I hear you say. That may, or may not be the case, but land-based bingo is huge, and its not only played by little old ladies.
- 70% of bingo players are women, and 30% are men. Estimated total industry pre-tax profit for 2001 was £149 million. This then brings an additional marketing tool into play; the Chat Host. Simply the Chat Host is there, in the chat room, to develop a community atmosphere and offer immediate customer support. A good Chat Host (or CM as they are known) can be the difference between an OK site and a great site. Importantly, they can also be an influencer as to whether a player returns or not.
One of the main reasons a player will play at one site rather than another is because their friends play there. Thats not friends from the local neighbourhood, but friends across the whole internet. The basis of this community spirit within the bingo games is the chat window. The chat window is open during the game and players interact throughout the game, creating the community atmosphere.
Again, as with the online casino market, the games come in download, Flash and Java versions, with the download option seemingly returning to favour after an up-turn in Java and Flash in the last year. All pay-to-play bingo sites offer slots games (as per their land-based cousins) but recently there has been a surge of new additional games on offer including Video Poker, Keno and other card based games.
Multi-player Bingo on the internet (as opposed to single player, Keno-Bingo) falls into three basic groups; Free Bingo, Game Sites with Bingo and Pay to Play Bingo. Free Bingo is offered by a small number of specialist sites. Game play is free and prizes are usually points or small denomination cash prizes.
