Partner Article

Why the switch to online bingo?

Major wins on online bingo sites tend to be around £500 at best - it’s hardly huge money. And, with it being about total blind luck, it’s fairly inevitable that players will generally spend more than they win, so what is the draw of online bingo for the ever-increasing numbers flocking to the many online sites available now?

Over the last few years, there has been a huge increase in online bingo sites offering ways to play bingo online. Back in 2004, according to research carried out by whichbingo.co.uk, there were less than 20 and in 2013 there are more than 350, including www.chitchatbingo.co.uk. That’s quite the increase. It’s now estimated, according to Parlay Entertainment, that the global gross gaming yield of online bingo (not including the US) is around $1 billion.

So what’s the big deal? Online bingo sites use random number generators in place of someone calling the numbers as in real life bingo - that one’s pretty obvious. But the other facet that has clearly been hooking people in and getting online bingo player numbers up is the social functionality on the sites.

Bingo sites are all about the sense of community and fostering a friendly, interactive ‘club’ like atmosphere to encourage players to regard the site as a safe, friendly place to come back to over and over again - yep, it’s that business buzzphrase ‘customer retention’ that lies behind the success of online bingo sites.

According to research, real life bingo hasn’t decreased under the onslaught of online gaming, as you might have reasonably expected. In fact, online bingo seems to have tapped into another market and audience entirely - players are from younger demographics than the traditional bingo hall customers, although the appeal seems to reach across all the generations.

Players are typically women, however, something that has been seized upon by marketers and advertisers - most online bingo sites are heavily branded in a way that is clearly designed to appeal to the female demographic. The social side of the online bingo sites is also heavily promoted and is clearly a draw for many users.

So, despite the simplicity of the game itself and the fact that for many years bingo had a rather outdated reputation as the pastime of working class old women, the untapped potential of the game has been reawakened thanks to technological advances and the prevalence of high speed internet connections in most homes across the country.

Primarily marketed at women - who are, after all, the traditional devotees of bingo in real life - online bingo sites are often branded pink and purple and portray the social aspect of playing bingo online. The chatroom element is a huge draw, particularly for the younger generation, who are also taking advantage of online bingo sites in their droves - it’s definitely not just for an aged generation. Online players can chat as much as they like, with some sites even filling in their cards for them automatically, so the social aspect isn’t disrupted.

It certainly could be described as the female equivalent to the prevalence of online casino sites, which are traditionally used more by men, but it doesn’t have the same gambling stigma as some of these sites can have. Bingo is much more likely to be seen and enjoyed as ‘harmless fun’ rather than hardcore gambling, although there is a lot of crossover in the product offering and marketing as casino sites are heavily cross-promoted on many online bingo sites.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Juliette Dupres .