{"id":114,"date":"2007-03-06T08:53:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T13:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.80.208.152\/affiliateprogramadvice\/?p=114"},"modified":"2008-02-21T20:17:44","modified_gmt":"2008-02-22T01:17:44","slug":"uk-online-bingo-you-have-to-have-the-balls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/2007\/03\/06\/uk-online-bingo-you-have-to-have-the-balls\/","title":{"rendered":"UK online Bingo, You have to have the balls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bingo it’s a Players Market<\/strong>
\nWith RiverbelleBingo<\/a> being lunched last week via referback.com<\/a>, they are just one in a long line of the bingo bandwagon tapping into this growth area. Its growing at such a pace that it seems that there is a new bingo site or online casinos adding bingo into their mix popping up every week. Whilst this phenomenal growth from suppliers and operators is evident, no more so then in the UK, it’s survival of the fittest. Penetrating the bingo market takes time and some very clever marketing. It\u2019s most certainly not about how much money you can throw at new player registrations, it\u2019s about how to get your player to stick around. It\u2019s a players market.<\/span>Lessons have been learnt but at a cost<\/strong>
\nThe days of giving affiliates x for registered player is fading fast and lessons are being learnt through financial losses (the theory was short term financial loss for long term financial gain, is not good economic sense, not in this line of business) and we are seeing a movement back to CPA based on a depositing player.<\/p>\n

To explain a bit more. A large percentage of bingo players are what we call transients, lured into the online bingo sites with the enticement of essentially, free money or as we say in the industry, bingo bucks. But there is a whole heap of economic difference between a registered player and a depositing player. A registered player will burn through the free money and move on to the next online bingo operator, getting a player to deposit real money is the key.<\/p>\n

When online bingo started here in the UK, the most popular revenue model was a simple CPA based on a registration, Astrobingo.co.uk\u2019s affiliate program<\/a> was one of the few exceptions, using a simple CPA + gross %, the CPA would not be paid out until the player had deposited and for good reason. The good majority of affiliates are good as gold, but there will always be a rogue element looking to abuse the system and Astrobingo.co.uk needed to be able to eliminate this from their affiliate program, so this issue would never arise. I have heard stories about some online bingo companies where by their rogue affiliates would be getting their brothers and sisters and next door neighbours to register as a player to get the CPA of \u00a340 per registered player, in some cases it was more.<\/p>\n

All Change<\/strong>
\nSo things are now changing, what the bingo companies have lost in revenue in setting up poor revenue burning affiliate programs (much to the joy and delight of some affiliates) and squandering millions in other media buys for new registrations, sensible new player acquisition models are now filtering through, you guys learnt the hard way, but you are not out of the woods yet.<\/p>\n

With the glut of new bingo operators launching it\u2019s a players market and the focus is now about competing for small but growing number of online bingo players, even though the CPA based on registration has been removed, the operators will need to entice affiliates to still keep promoting them by way of better \u201cnew player” offers. Gala (Coral) bingo in the UK is by far the largest online and offline bingo company and are forging ahead, as we knew they would, after all how can you compete against more then 50 years of tradition (Granada Social Clubs, shame I cant find out the history even from the Gala website, the merger with Coral seems to have overwritten a large part of British Social (leisure time) History), for land based bingo in the UK is practically an institution. The simple answer is you can\u2019t compete against tradition and the name, but you can compete for their players, it\u2019s a level playing field and open season. Players are loyal to their purses or wallets (yes men play bingo too, more about that later).<\/p>\n

Its about winning
\n<\/strong>The whole point of playing bingo is about winning. If you have a high volume of bingo players in a bingo room, for a player this greatly reduces their chances of winning, its simple maths. So while Gala can rejoice in having the most players online, the player that never wins will inevitably walk towards their competitors, where there is a smaller progressive and non progressive jack pot but a higher chance of winning. Some times being bigger is not always better depending on which side of the fence you are sitting.<\/p>\n

Savvy Bingo Affiliates<\/strong>
\nNow any affiliate reading this will see immediately that where they are going to make their money is not by sending their bingo players to a big brand, that\u2019s already saturated, the smart affiliate will target the players that have yet to win anything, an even smarter affiliate will gravitate towards the online bingo player that has not only already penetrated the market space, but where the commissions are based on CPA + player life time rev share.<\/p>\n

Says Willy Wong of Astrobingo.co.uk<\/a> \u201cUK market is saturated with operators or close to it, but the UK market has only just been penetrated and by only a few online operators and of that there are really only three that people know about, thankfully astrobingo.co.uk got in there early, our business model is effective and proven, we know this as we have had years of experience when our US online bingo site was launched many years ago. We know our business. There were subtle differences between the US and UK market, which we had to overcome, but we had a good affiliate manager who has a good internet and business head to guide us, without Jess and our affiliates, we may not have penetrated the market at all, so its only fair that we treat our affiliates with respect and reward them as generously as we can, CPA + Gross %. Affiliate marketing has and will always be factored into our business model which is all about loyalty to players and affiliates alike.”<\/p>\n

Astrobingo\u2019s strength, from the players perspective, see below excerpts from Astros informal survey; What makes astrobingo.co.uk great?
\ngood customer service and attentive to players needs
\ncommunity based
\ndynamic with changing of games
\nmore specials, more fun and excitement you can win, less players in one room, the probability to win is by far better than a big bingo hall.<\/p>\n

Men like bingo balls too you know<\/strong>
\nMen are often overlooked when it comes to bingo, but here is an interesting statistic according to Astrobingo.co.uk, 2% of the bingo network are males who play consistently at bingo and a further 2-3% males coming to play casino games, namely poker and slots, but they are transients. They last on an average of 12.3 months (over 1 year ).
\nThey are in most cases more loyal.<\/p>\n

Average age is 31.5 years old.
\nThey redeem more, they average at 30.35% versus low 20\u2019s or hi teens in redemption
\nThey deposit less, 26% less than their female counterpart.<\/p>\n

Social behaviour
\nThey talk more as all male in the bingo hall are chatty, and flirtatiousThey love the company of women, and they are all well accepted and loved by the females.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Its older women that play online bingo?
\n<\/strong>The older generations of bingo players 35+ who are from the land based bingo halls are likely to migrate to online bingo if they have access to internet, especially with the no smoking law coming in. These older generation players are likely to join institutional operators. However, the more younger 26+ and computer savvy females who have more disposable income are likely to join online bingo halls that are more dynamic but smaller bingo hall which puts more emphasis on fun and community spirit.<\/span><\/span>Casino players versus Bingo Players<\/strong>
\nCasino players are risk takers and will play through, deposit, win a little and play it all back. The life span of a casino player is short, yet the volume of cash they burn through ranges from modest to obscene. Its addictive and comes with highs and lows and the majority of casino players are transients. There is little or no social interaction, online casinos is a solitary form of entertainment.Its easy to shut out the world, it\u2019s anti social.<\/p>\n

The average depositing bingo player has a longer player lifespan and is loyal. They deposit small amounts but with regularity. We have seen players sign up to astrobingo.co.uk on day one and who are still with us. In essence, these players are worth more then casino players in the long term. Bingo players will budget. Bingo players are playing in a social environment where there is a heavy emphasis upon community and interaction between other players, CMs (Chat moderators) and the software. There is a camaraderie where flame is almost unheard of, bingo players are social and do forge friendships with other players, so of course they will come back again and again, and deposit \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

In conclusion<\/strong>
\nIt is evident that the bingo operators are propelling and spurring on the potential players, the ones who have yet to get with the bingo hype that\u2019s being created. The new player incentives will rise in the quest to be that bit more attractive then the competitor, just watch\u2026 recently we all upped the free sign up bonus from a standard \u00a35.00 now \u00a310, what will it be next week?.<\/p>\n

As an insider I can say that at present, it\u2019s a false market as big money has been invested in this relatively bland game (personal opinion) and the roi in most cases from bingo operators has not been achieved. There are not nearly as many players in the UK, at the moment as the operators would like us to believe, which is why so little stats are being produced. If I had a penny for how many articles there have been about \u201cThe potential\u201d, here in the UK, I could almost retire.<\/p>\n

How ever, give it a year or so and Ill be writing a different article. We will see small independents whither and fade and being replaced by the big guns, even Gala and Bingos will be in shock and awe at the kind of companies coming to town and the budgets they will be wielding.<\/p>\n

Mergers & Acquisitions will soon begin, and there will be more deals being done then your average poker tournament. The Bingo seeds are being sewn and I predict\u2026.<\/p>\n

You aint seen nothing yet!<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bingo it’s a Players Market With RiverbelleBingo being lunched last week via referback.com, they are just one in a long line of the bingo bandwagon tapping into this growth area. Its growing at such a pace that it seems that there is a new bingo site or online casinos adding bingo into their mix popping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.affiliateprogramadvice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}