Q&A: Alison Digges, director, Gala Bingo

eGaming Review (eGR): Why have so many operators seen a decline in bingo revenue recently?

Alison Digges (AD): I believe a number of sportsbook operators have not given bingo enough focus, as it is normally a third or fourth tier product for them, and has allowed those bingo centric operators like Gala Bingo to continue to take market share from them. Our focus is 100% on the bingo market and the bingo customer is at the heart of everything we do in terms of our product roadmap and service delivery. For smaller operators, they simply don’t have the funds to invest to compete with the larger operators either from an acquisition or retention perspective. So if a player has multiple accounts they are more likely to spend the greater share of wallet with those companies that are investing more in terms of promotions, bonuses and loyalty programmes and are regularly refreshing their product content.

eGR: How do you think growth can be achieved in the future?

AD: For Gala Bingo, the past 12 months have been highly successful and we have demonstrated the highest growth rate of any UK bingo operator. This has been achieved through a strong product portfolio, differentiated and exclusive products that can only be found at Gala Bingo and a strong acquisition and retention programme. Cross-selling to non-bingo products (which of course make the highest percentage of profit for bingo operators) particularly in mobile is key to accelerating growth and driving up SPC.

eGR: How important could incorporating social elements be for achieving growth?

DG: Socialisation of real money bingo sites has been ‘the next big thing for bingo’ for the past 12 months with new sites launching with social features as a key part of their proposition. I believe adding social hooks that reward customers for achievements and loyalty will become far more prevalent across bingo sites as operators find more innovative and creative ways to differentiate and make their site stickier. So yes, it is an opportunity to improve retention and loyalty and ultimately SPC and LTV’s providing it is well executed.

eGR: What are your predictions for the future of the bingo market?

AD: There is a lot of recent talk in the egaming press of the UK online bingo market being in decline and becoming saturated, however this is not something that we have seen at Gala Bingo. I believe there will be quite a shake-up in the market in the next 12 months with the PoC tax coming into effect and I think many small-to-medium sized operators will disappear or be bought up by the larger operators as margins will simply not be there for them to have a viable business moving forward. For larger brands this creates opportunity of course. International expansion is of course also going to continue as more markets regulate so we will also see more internationalisation of bingo brands moving forward