Industry News
888 Holdings Expand Their Online Bingo Offerings
Since they burst onto the online gambling scene in 1997, 888 Holdings have grown from strength to strength. From pioneers to market leaders, their meteoric rise has been fuelled in no small part by the shrewd business decisions of the group’s board of directors. Many of these decisions have involved buying out and taking over competing businesses, and last month 888 Holdings added another big name to their portfolio with the acquisition of Costa Bingo from the JPJ Group. The deal, which included other Mandalay Media games, came to a total of £18 billion and is expected to be finalised by the end of March 2019.
The Mandalay Media group had previously been bought by the JPJ Group, then called Intertain, in 2014. In 2018 it generated £11 million worth of revenue for them, amounting to £3.7 million profit – meaning that if the brand’s success continues, 888 Holdings can look forward to a quick, and large, return on their investment. For their part, the JPJ Group have gone on record as being glad for the opportunity for the investment, as it now enables them to ‘concentrate on a more focused brand strategy’ in the United Kingdom promoting their other online games.
888 Holdings have a long history of deals within the online gambling market. The company first ventured into the bingo world in 2008 when they launched their own bingo site aimed at women. In a bid to expand further into the market, they soon attained Wink Bingo, the successful deal has ensured the online bingo platform has become 888 Holdings’ second-largest bingo brand with almost 1,000,000 registered users worldwide. Wink Bingo has since become a major household name in the United Kingdom thanks to a significant marketing campaign which drew in new players in droves. The fun and friendly atmosphere of the chatrooms and the variety of games have brought people back again and again.
And their first investment paid off, proving to be hugely successful almost immediately. In the first five weeks after adding Wink Bingo to their portfolio, 888 Holdings saw a 52% increase in customers signing up to their sites, and the average daily operating income rose by 18% compared to the previous 3 months. Obviously buoyed by this success, since 2008, 888 Holdings have gone on to acquire a further six bingo sites, including Posh Bingo, Tasty Bingo and most recently Red Bus Bingo. The purchase of Costa Bingo and its sister companies including Wish, Sun, City and Fancy means that they now own and manage a considerable chunk of the online bingo sector.
Although 888 Holdings started out as an online casino company, since diversifying into the bingo market they have fully embraced the different atmosphere and looked closely at understanding the needs of their new clientele. Eager to offer something extra to their loyal customers, 888 Holdings have linked their biggest bingo sites together within their unique Joy of Bingo network. Players can earn Joy points and transfer their points between all of 888’s sites, or exchange them for virtual gifts and bonuses. It has proven a wildly popular addition to the bingo community.
They have also been busy developing software to give their games a technological advantage. 888’s bingo software, Dragonfish, runs not only their own games, but it is licenced out to other companies looking for the best place to host their games. They are now ranked in the top three online bingo software providers in the world for 2019. Just as they revolutionised the emerging online casino industry 20 years ago, 888 have now gone above and beyond to make sure that they are instrumental in shaping the current online bingo market, a marketplace which has enjoyed continued success in recent years.
However, not everything has been as rosy for 888 Holdings. Although they are a Gibraltar-based company, their websites are accessible in the United Kingdom and have therefore been affected by recent changes in UK gambling laws. These laws have mostly been centred around the promotion of responsible gambling, with gambling establishments, both physical and online, now having to show that they are looking after their clientele in the same way a bartender has a responsibility not to serve those who are too drunk. As a result their UK revenue fell by 18% last year, mostly due to a change in their practises as they look to work with the new regulations.
And yet, the decision to purchase Costa Bingo underlies their commitment to the online bingo marketplace. 888 are not going to be dissuaded by a small bump in the road. Costa Bingo and the rest of the Mandalay group have not been served well by JPJ in the past and have been viewed by industry experts as underperforming. 888 Holdings have the market experience and capital to turn these great games into winners on a level with their other brands. Linking these new acquisitions to their existing Joy of Bingo will bring them to the awareness of thousands of potential new players, and they will almost surely benefit from a similar level of marketing to 888’s other famous bingo brands. Whether the Mandalay group games will prove to be as successful and profitable as Wink Bingo has been remains to be seen. But judging by the jump in 888 Holding’s share prices after the deal was announced, it seems that everyone is backing this to be yet another success for the online gambling giant.
Industry News
Maximising Your Cross-Market Appeal
With Bitblox introducing an entirely new breed of crypto-based price prediction games to the iGaming industry, we talked to CEO, Brandt Page, to discover how combining elements of both chance and skill with lightning-fast betting rounds has helped improve their cross-market appeal.
When Bitblox was first established, our core concept was relatively simple; we didn’t just want to provide players with a new twist on an existing format like slots or casino games, but instead sought to create an entirely new vertical that combined elements of chance and elements of skill.
One of the main drivers behind this decision was the fact that we wanted our releases to appeal to as broad an audience as possible – and I think from the figures we’ve seen so far, we’ve already had some notable success on that front in terms of the players that are engaging with our games.
Funnily enough, I was recently talking to the Head of Marketing from one of the operators that we work with and they told me they were struggling to place our games optimally. Initially, they’d put them in with crash and instant win content, but they soon discovered a lot of their in-game traffic was coming from sports bettors. A move to the sports betting tab followed, but the exact same-thing happened with casino players, leading to the games eventually winding up on the front page.
As this was going on, our games were continuing to post solid numbers with the customers who bet on both sports and casino – and all of this engagement was coming without there being any additional promotion from us or the operator. So why was it that our games were performing so well across these different player segments? I believe there are a number of contributing factors.
First and foremost, having this hybrid model of games of chance and games of skill that I’ve already mentioned has placed us in a fairly unique position within the iGaming industry. On the one hand, the simple premise of our Bitcoin-based titles – coupled with their attractive designs and intuitive UI – makes them highly accessible to casino players who are just looking to have fun.
On the other, the fact that Bitblox games aren’t based on RNG and are instead pinned to the real-time movements of the Bitcoin market certainly resonates with a sports betting audience. As they have the ability to follow the charts and use this information to inform their decisions, they definitely feel they have more control over the outcome than if they were playing a traditional slot.
Another key aspect of our cross-market appeal is the fast-paced nature of all Bitblox releases. With casino players being accustomed to the quick wins and instant gratification of slots and crash games and sports bettors also showing a growing preference for in-play wagering, we’ve ensured each game round is resolved quickly and that there are multiple opportunities for betting.
When we first launched Up or Down?, which features one-minute betting rounds, we soon learned that even this timeframe is too long for some players. This resulted in us developing Up or Down? Turbo – a game which kept the same mechanics as its predecessor but reduced the betting window to 20 seconds – and this has gone on to become one of our most successful titles.
Keeping all this in mind, one of the things I’m most excited about is the upcoming release of our latest game, 3 in a Row, as I think this is a title that really ties everything I’ve talked about so far together. Designed to look like a slot machine, 3 in a Row challenges players to correctly predict how the Bitcoin price will move over three separate 20-second windows for even bigger payouts.
Intended to appeal to casual users and serious sports bettors alike, players can elect to either spin the reels for fun and select a random price sequence or use the bet builder feature to put together their own custom prediction. With the latter essentially functioning like an accumulator bet, players can select up to three possible combinations – i.e. Up/Up/Up, Up/Up/Down etc – and only one result needs to land for them to win, ensuring they stay engaged until the final seconds.
I believe that 3 in a Row can help build on the strong foundations we’ve laid down with casino and sports bettors and provide operators with another popular option that offers significant cross-market appeal. Based on what we’ve seen from previous Bitblox releases, the audience for titles that combine elements of chance and elements of skill is definitely out there – and I’m looking forward to our unique brand of crypto-based games being enjoyed by even more players in future.
Industry News
Gaming Corps to launch with lotteries in the USA via EQL games deal
In-demand content provider extends reach into largest iGaming market in the world with its full suite of games made available via iLottery aggregation platform
Gaming Corps, a publicly-listed game studio based in Sweden renowned for creating industry-leading games, has made its debut in the US market through a breakthrough agreement with leading lottery provider, EQL Games.
The distribution agreement will see Gaming Corps’ full suite of games made available to EQL Games’ powerful iLottery Aggregation Platform, developed to provide lottery operators across America with direct access to a portfolio of proprietary and third-party games.
Following the integration, EQL Games’ lottery operator partners will be offered proven Slots, Table Games, Multiplier Games, Mine Games and Plinko Games, as well as titles under Gaming Corps’ innovative and trademarked Smash4Cash™ series.
The deal and integration come at a time of growing demand among online lottery operators in the US for non-traditional content, a format that Gaming Corps has excelled in, especially with its Smash4Cash™ games, which have been a hit with players in global markets.
EQL’s aggregation platform has been developed to allow online lottery operators to quickly and easily access content from multiple game studios simultaneously through one integration and one commercial agreement.
Its iLottery Aggregation platform simplifies the process of adding new games to an online lottery brand across regulated states. In addition to the third-party content provided via its aggregator platform, EQL Games has a portfolio of in-house titles.
This includes games produced under licence with Team USA which were rolled out by several state lotteries for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this year, with new titles being planned ahead of the Winter Games in Milan (2026) and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles (2028).
Juha Kauppinen, CEO of Gaming Corps, said: “The USA has always been somewhat of the holy grail for game developers like us, which has been further emphasised as markets in several states have become regulated. The potential in the American market is enormous, and the impact for us is a bit difficult to assess, but we have great hopes for the collaboration with EQL Games, which has an impressive platform towards U.S. lotteries.
“We believe it will have a significantly positive impact on our revenues. I would like to personally take the opportunity to thank EQL Games and Brad Cummings for the collaboration, and we are now working hard to complete the integration so that all our games will be offered to EQL’s customers via their platform.”
Brad Cummings, CEO of EQL Games, added: “Including Gaming Corps as a supplier to the EQL Games iLottery Aggregator is an exciting step forward in our mission to offer unique, high-quality content to state lotteries. Gaming Corps’ expertise in iGaming, along with their unique game portfolio, fits perfectly with our vision of enhancing the lottery experience through dynamic and engaging content.”
Industry News
Public Voting Starts for Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0
The highly anticipated Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0 has officially entered the public voting phase as submissions are closed.
More than 70 game providers have turned in over 160 submissions, including Tom Horn Gaming, Pragmatic Play and RubyPlay. Public voting involves enthusiasts casting their votes to pick the winner of the Game of Public Choice category.
The Public voting phase ends on December 1st 23:59 GMT+4.
Concurrent to public voting, the first phase of private voting also starts during which all participants who have submitted entries get the chance to vote for one favourite in each category. An international auditing company oversees this phase to eliminate duplicate votes and self-votes. This phase ends on November 19, 23:59 GMT+4.
The second phase of private voting will also take place with a jury of industry experts making their decisions based on the shortlist picked by participants during the first phase.
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