Beacon to slash margin in bid for player loyalty

BEACON BINGO’S NEW WEB offering is to slash its profit margin to half that of rivals in a radical gambit to build player loyalty, operations manager Chris Drake has pledged.

BeaconBingo.co.uk was launched this month by Beacon Entertainment, the UK group which owns land-based assets including Europe’s biggest bingo club, Beacon Bingo in Cricklewood, north London, as well as five other UK clubs and the Starlight chain of adult gaming centres.

Speaking to EGRmagazine.com, Drake said: “We will slash our margin to half that of our rivals to gain double the player lifetimes. We believe that we can keep customers longer if we say that with the best will in the world, we have cut our margin to offer them great value. We are aware that is not what is currently being done by competitors, but if customers play on any other site, it can only be because they prefer lower prize money.”

Drake continued that the new site has also aimed to be simpler than those of competitors.

“We believe that online bingo is far too complicated for people who don’t already know the game or haven’t played for years,” he said. “If you go to a bingo site, you would be lucky to see a bingo ticket within ten minutes. And the simplest site we can find had 17 buttons ““ we’ve cut that to six.”

Beacon has also hired new digital agency The Ideas Factory, which has developed an online ‘host’ to guide new visitors to the site, and will launch a social media strategy to maintain a two-way dialogue with land-based clubs and online players next month.