Russian sports betting operator BingoBoom has rebranded as BetBoom to better reflect what the company actually does.
On Friday, BingoBoom chief marketing officer Pyotr Kipa announced that the company would henceforth be known as BetBoom. Kipa said the company would spend the next couple months and around RUB200m (US$2.7m) transforming its retail and online operations to reflect the new identity.
Speaking at an event in Moscow, Kipa said the company would recoup the rebranding costs by attracting new customers, particularly younger adults who may not view bingo as the hippest thing on this planet. Russia’s latest bookmaker Bettery is reportedly also pinning its hopes on developing a hip young clientele.
BingoBoom reported revenue of RUB20.1b ($271.2m) in 2019, good enough for fourth place among Russian-licensed bookmakers, although this was down one notch from the year before.
There is already a Curacao-licensed site operating under the BetBoom brand, albeit with a hypen twixt bet and boom. It shares the Russian company’s red-and-yellow color scheme, and while the site promotes Russia’s popular Qiwi and Yandex Money payment processing options, the site claims that it is “not intended for use in the Russian Federation.”
Most Russian-licensed bookies have branded sites based in jurisdictions outside the country that offer products not approved in Russia, such as poker and casino games. These sites are ostensibly operated by unaffiliated third parties under license from the Russian brand owner.
Russia’s telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor is engaged in an endless (and largely fruitless) game of forbidden gambling domain whack-a-mole with these internationally licensed sites. For instance, 166 domains affiliated with the Curacao-licensed Bet-Boom have been hit with Roskomnadzor’s ban-hammer over the years.
The country recently approved legislation prohibiting Russian-licensed bookies from registering their businesses in foreign jurisdictions that are beyond the reach of the Ministry of Finance’s probing eye. Russia has taken a greater interest in online gambling payment processing as its domain-blocking efforts have proven incapable of stemming the tide.
Meanwhile, the resumption of Russian sports events following their long pandemic pause has sparked a flurry of bookmaker sponsorship deals. Olimp announced three deals this week with second-tier Football National League clubs, including Moscow’s Torpedo (taking over from BingoBoom, FYI), FC Nizhny Novgorod and SKA-Khabarovsk.
Meanwhile, Winline has struck deals with two Russian Premier League clubs, Krasnodar and St. Petersburg’s FC Zenit. Both clubs were previously sponsored by 1xStavka, the Russian version of 1xBet.
