Summer is here and the bingo industry in the UK is rejoicing the cut in bingo duty from 20 percent to 10 percent. The Bingo Association had gathered more than 330,000 petition signatures and the support of a more than 50 MPs for the proposal, which was announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his recent budget.
The sector is looking forward to renewed investment, with the opening of new bingo establishments and innovation. So what does the remainder 2014 hold? For me for it's the continued growth and convergence of online bingo with that of land based bingo which should be regarded as the true success story of the social gaming scene. Bingo is popular, more socially acceptable, and regarded by most as being on the softer side of the gambling spectrum. It shall push the innovation envelope.
With bingo advertising being so prevalent on mainstream television, combine this with mobile commerce shall continue to drive market accessibility and growth. The hugely popular tablet which is taking more market share of device usage and engagement away from TV's and laptops as screens of consumer choice - will become the must have companion for bingo players - especially if a major bingo brand brings out its own branded tablet similar to the likes of retailer Tesco's Hudl. With tablets tumbling in price it could be a possibility similar to all the branded poker sets that entered the shoppers' realm previously. Just in the way media broadcasters supply digital boxes for platform connectivity and indeed it wasn't that long ago that certain spread betting companies gave away smartphones, that bingo operators could provide tablets with preloaded software to further entrench the player to the brand - watch this space as you heard it first inBingoLife magazine.
This convergence is already happening as we see more bespoke and dedicated gaming content being deployed on tablets, linked to TV programming content or advertising content in the form of ad breaks to the game play.
Indeed in the UK, Ranks chairman and chief executive officer, Ian Burke, obviously agrees with the tablet and convergence concept as the business has recently introduced playing bingo on tablets. He is quoted as saying, 'a tablet device requires less concentration and allows players to eat, drink and chat while playing'. This statement of course also holds true for online bingo players. At home in the living room, with the day-time soaps sponsored by major bingo brands seeping into the sub-conscious mind shall only increase the neuron connection with the bingo operator.
So what are you waiting for? Please do get in touch with Bingo Life and share your bingo innovation story, we'd love to hear from you.
