Costa rivals Cheeky as busiest bingo site on Dragonfish
Relative newcomer Costa Bingo has overtaken Foxy Bingo and Wink Bingo to rival Cheeky Bingo as the busiest site on the Dragonfish network, reflecting the ascendency of the free online bingo model in the UK this year.
Costa Bingo has overtaken Foxy Bingo and Wink Bingo to rival Cheeky Bingo as the busiest site on the Dragonfish network, reflecting the ascendency of the free online bingo model in the UK this year.
According to portal and data provider BingoPort.co.uk, relative newcomer Costa Bingo, launched in July 2009, has so far averaged daily player numbers of 1,408 during December 2009, ahead of the 900 recorded for Cashcade’s Foxy Bingo, and just behind the 1,608 boasted by Cashcade’s free-play offering Cheeky Bingo.
BingoPort managing director and co-founder Scott Logan said: “This is testament to the effectiveness of Costa’s free online bingo rooms. But that said, Cheeky Bingo still holds the number one position on the Dragonfish Network.”
Spokesman for portal and bingo site data provider FreeBingoHunter.com Simon Smiley confirmed that Costa Bingo now consistently had more players than Wink and Foxy, but said it was “too close to call” which of Costa or Cheeky was the largest when measured purely in player numbers.
“Costa’s emphasis on tailoring rewards and benefits to different types of players has worked well for them. It will be interesting to see if Costa or Cheeky can put more daylight between themselves and their rival over the next few months” said Smiley.
Costa’s chief executive Richard Skelhorn (pictured) said the BingoPort and FreeBingoHunter figures proved the effectiveness of using free bingo to attract new players, and that Costa would push ahead with the strategy.
“We are confident in our product offering and encouraging players to try our free bingo experience before making the decision to deposit with us.” said Skelhorn.
Simon Collins of Cheeky Bingo owner Cashcade, which pioneered the 24/7 free bingo model, said Costa had done well with what Collins described as “the revolution of this year, which has driven a lot of the user adoption and growth.”
Collins said: “Costa has also added a lot of innovation on the social media side, which we have admired and tried to emulate. But too much free-play will impact your net profit. It is difficult to forecast how much sites are making without seeing promotional schedules, cash-backs and redeposit values being put into the system.”
Skelhorn at Costa added that that the acquisition of longer established Dragonfish licensees Cashcade and Wink by large PLCs in the last five months promised to make the year ahead “very interesting” for Costa.
“We will have to work even harder to provide the best online bingo experience we can. Hopefully being independently owned means we can continue to operate a nimble business and focus on growing new players while rewarding our active base,” said Skelhorn.