Exclusive: Mandalay rebrands as bgo
Co-founders look to offer all products under new site with Xbingo players migrated to new operation.
Mandalay Media, that includes Xbingo, is to rebrand as bgo as co-founders Richard Skelhorn and Alex Holt look to extend their gaming portfolio from initially offering casino and bingo to sports betting and lottery products by the end of the year, eGaming Review can exclusively reveal.
In a statement seen by eGR Mandalay Media said it would rebrand and launch the new bgo operation on 4 October as part of a “global trading strategy to bring all elements of the software, entertainment and gaming business under the bgo umbrella”.
“The launch of bgo.comspearheads the rebrand, built on a multi-lingual, multi-currency software platform, it offers a full scale gaming destination for players worldwide”, the statement added.
The site will initially launch bingo, casino, slots “ many of which have been designed in-house “ and live games on Thursday offering a simplified single wallet across all verticals allowing players to move between games and products without the need to transfer money into different sections of the site. X Bingo players, which only launched last summer using Mandalay’s own software, will be migrated to the new site over the coming days. Mandalay has an existing Isle of Man licence, however the company has also been approved for a second licence in Alderney as a result of the expanded offering.
“2012 is a significant year for us,” said Holt. “We are continuing to invest and grow our Dragonfish powered bingo operations as well as looking at new verticals, opportunities in mobile and social and growing our international player base,” he added.
The Xbingo site currently informs players that they can expect to find “all the fun” they experienced on the previous site but with “bigger jackpots, more free bingo games, better bonuses and a new Vegas style slots area”. eGRhas also learned that the bingo offering on bgo will offer a new loyalty system which will guarantee a weekly cash back bonus of 20% for each player’s losses, however it is not known whether or not this promotion will be extended beyond the launch period.
Three dimensional slot games, supplied by Sheriff Gaming, will be available later this month, with a lottery and a sports channel added to the site by the end of the year, the statement read. Skelhorn and Holt are also known to be considering adding poker to the platform however a firm decision has yet to be finalised.
The platform has also been developed for iOS as a native application and for HTML5 to support the growing mobile user base, with both expected to launch by the end of the year.
Mandalay also owns 11 year-old super affiliate Casino Choice and in 2009 moved to becoming an operator with the launch that summer of Costa Bingo. Following the success of its bingo business, and after 18 months of investment in software development, it launched its own independent gaming platform in June 2011. This was used to support and power Xbingo.com.