GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 9 - June 2009

34 First, Fraser points out that the manner inwhich the bingo operatorsmarket and present the game will decide its success going forward. “These companies are spendinga fortune on acquiring new players,” says Fraser, “What they need to realize is that if you focusmoreonplayer retention you’rego- ing togainmore revenue.” A good portion of that “for- tune” Fraser refers to has come in the formof television advertising. In 2008 online bingo companies combined to purchase more than $10 million in television adver- tisements, led by FoxyBingo ($3.27 million) and a new site called tombola ($2.54 million). The trend has con- tinued in 2009 as bingo ad- vertisinghasremainedprom- inent in theU.K. “That’snot agood thing from a competitive standpoint,” warns Mason. “It gives too much of an edge to the big players in the industry that have deep pockets. There’s thepossibility that the small- er players could get squeezed out.” Differentiating the product is also very important, accord- ing toFraser. “Bingo is bingo. There’s re- ally not great variety to the game,” he says. “It’s a pari- mutuel game so you need to have the right balance be- tween the number of players playing and the opportunity towin. And youneed to offer different games, prizes and drawings. Youhave tokeep it fresh.” Lastly, and maybe most im- portant to the future of on- line bingo, the market must expand since itspopularity in theU.K.mayhavealreadyhit itspeak.Frasersays thatafter seeing a 10percent growth in the U.K. month-to-month over the course of last year, recent months have shown an increase of more like one percent eachmonth. “I’m not sure howmuch more room for growth we can expect,” Fraser says. “I think just like everybody else, the econo- my ishavinganeffect.” But fortunately for the industry, there are signs that expansion is happening already. Fraser’s company launched a Spanish portal called QueBingo.com last year and saw the number of bingo sites in Spain increase from six to 57 between 2007and2008. Ireland, Australia and New Zealand are potential future “hot spots,” according to “Casino Jack.” In May, Virtue Fu- sion, amajor provider of bingo software, launched amulti-currency, multi-lingual product in Sweden. Meanwhile, Peter Trinz, the Senior Vice President of Par- lay Entertainment, another oneof thegiants in theworld of bingo software providers, says that markets are begin- ning to open up in Poland andGermanyaswell as Italy, where the company teamed up with poker and sports betting provider Microgame S.p.A. earlier this year to launch a bingo network for the Italianmarket. Tomeet the demandof these new markets, Parlay’s latest software release–calledPar- lay5– isdesigned formoreof a global audience, not just a singlemarket. “The foundation of Parlay5 is our enhanced internation- alism features,” says Perry Malone, Parlay’s Chief Tech- nologyOfficer. “Clearly there isstrongdemand forsoftware that simplifies the process of configuring bingo games, jackpots and chat rooms us- ing multiple languages and currencies.” Now, with a new adminis- tration in the U.S. that has shown signs that it is more open to thepossibilityofhalt- ingUIGEA regulations, Fras- er is hopeful that someday in the not-so-distant future he and his bingo cohorts will be backwhere it all began. “Now that would bewonder- ful,” he says with a rush of excitement in his voice. “The U.S. market was incredibly profitable before the UIGEA. With all of the advances in technology [since then], the skywould literallybe the lim- it. We can only hope. That’s allwe cando ishope.” “Bingoplayers tend to stay on the ‘soft’ endof thegam- bling spectrum.They’ll try the slots, they’ll try scratch cardsorvideopoker.They mayevengiveagame like roulettea try.But that’sas faras it’sgoing togo.” —DebbieMason, BingoLore.com GPWA Times | Online Bingo