WhichBingo recently released their inaugural Online Bingo Annual Report 2016 at the ICE and London Affiliate Conference 2016. The report gives a review of the online bingo market covering topics like TV advertising spend by brand, social media usage and SEO performance as well as site launches and closures. The report also features the largest ever survey of bingo players by any bingo affiliate, offering unique insight into player likes, dislikes and habits. Also included in the report are a number of industry leader’s views on what the online bingo industry might look like in 2016 and beyond.
Here are a few highlights and snapshots from the report.
TV Ad Spend 2015
2015 was a record breaking year for the igaming market and for bingo particularly, with an estimated £56m spent in the period from December 2014 to November 2015 on TV Ad spend.
Tombola, a long-time favourite of bingo players was the biggest single bingo brand advertising on TV, accounting for 20% of the total media spend.
SEO Visibility of Bingo Brands
The top three bingo brand organic search volumes are dominated by Gala Bingo, Jackpotjoy and tombola which correlates the findings on TV ad spend.
The report suggests bingo players are searching for brands rather than generic search terms and in terms of brand dominance, Foxy bingo is right up there and continues to dominate in other bingo related searches.
Social Media
The report holds no punches when it comes to social media. It suggests that bingo brands were merely broadcasting messages on a daily basis via social media instead of focusing on audience engagement. And despite high industry averages of fans on Facebook and Twitter, the report says brands are failing to reach any specific or significant social media results.
However, the report suggests that Sing Bingo had the best referring website traffic from social media at 6.91% – twice as much as the industry’s average of 2.98%.
Interestingly, the report also shows that the majority of bingo players are not interested in using Twitter as either a communications tool or support channel.
Online Bingo Player Survey
With half of online bingo players in the UK aged between 35 – 54 the survey reveals that although the market is significantly ‘middle-aged’, the second largest segment by age are those in the 55 – 64 age bracket. The findings suggest that just under three quarters of those surveyed fit in the 35 to 65 years age range. Interestingly the youngest age group 18 – 24 year olds only make up 3.5% of all survey respondance.
Some interesting key findings;
● 1 in 5 players surveyed have never made a deposit at an online bingo site
● More than 40% of players deposit £25 or less each month
● Those that deposit £100 or more per month account for 20% of the market
● 40% of players surveyed spent their money on slots as opposed to bingo
● More than a quarter of players play online bingo for 3 hours or more in one sitting
● Nearly 8% of players play bingo on the toilet
● Almost a third of players surveyed have never made a withdrawal from an online bingo site
● And worryingly, 40% of players admit that they don’t fully understand wagering requirements.
When asked about mobile usage, playing bingo on mobile isn’t really a big deal and desktop still dominates, according to the survey.
Bingo Sites and Software
From the report, 59 new online bingo sites were launched in 2015, of which, notably 24 were from Dragonfish,16 from Cozy Games and 12 from Jumpman Gaming. This brought the total of online bingo sites operating in the UK with a licence to 416.
Jumpman Gaming is rising as a serious industry challenger with a prediction of at least 11 new online bingo site launches for 2016 – almost twice as many as those predicted for Dragonfish.
The WhichBingo Online Bingo Annual Reports predicts that by Q2 2016, Jumpman Gaming will make the top three online bingo software providers pushing Playtech into fourth place.
If you would like to read the report in full, please visit http://www.whichbingo.co.uk/reports/
About WhichBingo
WhichBingo is the largest online bingo directory, listing every bingo site in the UK market. WhichBingo first launched in 2000 with the UK-focused site debuting in 2004. The site also runs the online bingo industry’s premier awards, the WhichBingo Awards, the ceremony for which this year, takes place in May in London. The site was named ‘Best Bingo Affiliate’ by EGR and iGB respectively and has previously won awards from EGR, iGB, GaffG and the Online Bingo Summit.
