Bingo: A Thriving Market Needing Recognition

Bingo is a thriving business, and Lilian Gray thinks that the sector is not getting the recognition it deserves. Operators must fulfill the rising demand from players to keep driving growth.

Based on information from Google Trends, inquiries related to bingo games have seen a substantial rise.

For instance, searches for “online bingo” have been steadily increasing each month from the start of 2020 to April 2020:

January – 42
February – 45
March – 63
April – 85

* Google Trends reflects the volume of specific searches each month. Search terms are scored on a scale of 100, with 100 representing the peak search volume.

The figures for March and April are particularly noteworthy, representing a 40% and 98% increase, respectively, compared to the same period in 2019.

It’s understandable that online bingo searches began to decrease as sporting events and sports betting resumed in June, but the key takeaway is that they remained at or above the previous year’s levels.

May – 72 (+64% year-over-year)
June – 56 (+ 21% year-over-year)
July – 66 (+69% year-over-year)
August – 43 (flat)
September – 44 (flat)

This is supported by recent participation survey data from the Gambling Commission.

The survey found that the proportion of players participating in bingo games increased from 24.1% in 2019 to 38.7% in 2020 from January to June, a 60% increase over the previous year.

The growth momentum is sustainable.
As the data indicates, “online bingo” searches continued to rise year-over-year even after lockdown restrictions were lifted and sporting events and betting returned.

Although growth stayed stagnant in August and September, search volume jumped by 23% and 46% in October and November, respectively.

Naturally, fascination with bingo sometimes surges, typically driven by unique factors – for instance, a considerable spike in search volume was observed in the week beginning March 16th.

However, despite this, the data reveals that interest this year has remained consistently above 2019 levels.

While operators might be more concentrated on slots and casino games, as they are the primary revenue generators, there is a genuine and substantial interest in online bingo.

For instance, there are 2,800 monthly Google searches for “top casino sites” but 5,500 for “top bingo sites.”

Some operators have acknowledged this and grasped the opportunity, which has fueled growth this year. The difficulty is how operators can maintain this level of fascination.

This largely relies on marketing and customer relationship management, and our sources suggest that some operators are about to initiate major TV advertising campaigns.

But this needs to be combined with enhanced bingo products – branded rooms, new game formats (Slingo has proven very popular), and bonuses that provide real value.

Why should operators adopt bingo?
Beyond the increasing player demand, the bingo vertical offers operators several benefits that will aid them in expanding their business in the coming months and as the industry encounters new obstacles.

Many gaming companies already have a list of bingo enthusiasts in their records, and if they don’t offer bingo, many of these players will choose to use other platforms.

Earlier this year, when PlayOJO introduced a dedicated bingo product, the company noticed that a quarter of its existing players had moved to other companies to play bingo.

By introducing bingo, operators can make sure that players don’t leave, increasing their revenue, improving player loyalty, and reducing the rate at which players leave.

Bingo also allows operators to attract new players and specific groups of people, especially women between the ages of 35 and 55 – a group with significant value in terms of the cost of attracting customers, loyalty, and the potential to sell them other products.

In fact, the cost of attracting bingo players is considerably lower than casino and sports betting players. For example, the cost per click for “best casino websites” is $110 (£81.3 / €89.8), while the cost per click for “best bingo websites” is only $35.

More importantly, bingo players often participate in other types of games offered by operators.

If you look at the high-value players on online bingo sites, you’ll see that their value doesn’t come from bingo, but from slot games. All operators need to do is effectively sell them other products.

Bingo meets new safe gaming requirements:

Perhaps the biggest advantage of bingo is that it is more in line with the latest responsible gambling and safe gaming requirements being implemented by global regulatory markets.

Its undeniable, this is certainly the situation when it comes to wagering restrictions. The UK might implement betting limits if certain government agencies closely monitoring the sector have their way.

While online slot enthusiasts can and do wager more than £100 per spin, bingo tickets can be purchased for as little as £0.05, implying that the industry will be less impacted by any tightening of regulations.

Data indicates that bingo is flourishing, and this, combined with ongoing regulatory examination, should be sufficient to raise concerns among operators.

Some have already recognized the opportunity available – PlayOJO, LeoVegas, and 888 continue to make daring moves in the field – meaning others must act now or risk being left behind.

Lillian Grey is the Head of Content at BingoSites.net and is regarded as a thought leader in all aspects of online bingo.

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