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2nd Annual Online Bingo Summit - The European Online Bingo Market And Its Development

The European Bingo PanelThere were a number of interesting panels concentrating on Bingo in Europe. Whilst this site focuses on the UK Bingo scene, it was interesting for me to find out more about the game around Europe, to see what sort of retail games are played and what the state of the online market is over there.

I can't claim to have understood a lot of the legal and technical side of what was discussed, so rather than concentrate on the technical side of it, I will give some brief insights that I picked up. Hopefully this will provide starting point for anyone wanting interested in finding out more of the foreign scene and offering their own services abroad.

European Online Bingo - It's Still Early Days

In the UK, the online Bingo market has continued to grow and mature over the last couple of years. The game has a wide audience and its appeal is growing with advertising and sponsorship campaigns aplenty. Currently, the UK's online Bingo market represents the largest share of the marketplace in Europe.

Whilst the retail game is popular all around Europe, the online version of the game is yet to see the sort of growth that it has in the UK. This is partially down to licensing and law related issues in the different regions. In some areas, broadband availability is another issue impeding the take up of the game. There are a number of cultural differences around the game that are different to the UK's. It was noted that around Europe players don't mind paying a little extra for their tickets as the average card price was higher in Europe than the UK. In the southern regions of Europe, Bingo is considered more of a family game - with families playing together as a leisure activity - more so than in the northern areas. One thing they all have in common is they play the 90 ball version of the game is played in all regions of Europe in retail venues.

Over the next few years, a number of countries with in Europe are expected to see considerable growth in the size of their online Bingo markets. Chiefly, Spain and France, with Turkey and Finland expected to be big markets as well, although so far they haven't quite lived up to the predicted expectations.

Due to the various licensing regimes in place around Europe, some countries pose a lot of problems for new providers trying to break in to the local market. There are a number of regions that have a number of legal hoops to jump through to provide online Bingo. Working within these at times confusing laws would be a must before it became feasible for a UK chain or site to focus on a specific country abroad. Due to the regional differences, it's not surprising that a number of the new European Bingo sites are built specifically to cater for one specific region rather than internationally.

It worth noting some of the issues a UK provider would face if it tried to extend an existing brand into new European regions. As well as the language of content, they would also have to find ways to manage having a number of languages being spoken by the players in the chat room. They would also need to look at local funding methods and find ways of making them compatible with the existing product. My conclusion is that offering a single product to multiple countries is not the way to go, instead, developing a new region specific brand is far more useful.

As an example this region targeting, Bingos provide a great model of the potential means into the market for UK based suppliers. They provide a distinct offering with an national flavour for each region they operate a site for. St Minver are also doing similar, offering sites with all the content and marketing directed at the individual country. Rather than trying to take established UK brands into these new arenas, they have built up new location specific brands online. It's also interesting to see how Bingos have managed to tap the Italian market given some very strict rules in place, I'll look at that in the next section.

Online Bingo In Italy

There was a panel dedicated to the Italian market, it raised some interesting points about the game in Italy for someone coming from the outside. The game is a popular pastime in the country, which is unsurprising given that Italy is considered the birthplace of the game. Unlike the UK, there are no real big club chains. The clubs tend to be smaller independent affairs, with some smaller regional groups operating a number of clubs in a region. There are around 300 of these clubs around the country.

Now, as for the online side of it, there seems to be a lot of legal red tape to get through, and at present, there's not really the legal framework to offer online Bingo for Italian Bingo operators. That said, there is currently a loophole that allows the online game to be pointed at Italian consumers, which is how Bingos manage to offer an Italian Bingo site. First up, to be in the local market, you must have a license to run a land based club. Now, if you were coming from outside the country, you could gain this license in two ways. 1. Buy and run an existing Bingo club and 2. Partner with an existing Bingo club.

This is where it gets confusing (for me at least) - the license you could gain would give you permission to apply for a license to provide online Bingo. However, the online license hasn't yet gone fully into law in Italy. So, if you bought a club or partnered with one, the license you'd get would not entitle you yet, and I stress the yet, to supply online Bingo. The license you get would allow you to apply for an online operator's license. I say yet, because this second license is not yet in law and and drafted out.

To make matters worse, there is no definite timetable on when this may happen either. Without the second license, you can not operate locally in Italy. I know the Italy has a reputation for over the top bureaucracy, but this seems a little extreme! There is a saving point though, a current loophole in the law allows you to offer the game online from outside of Italy, provided it's on a .dot com domain. This is how Bingos is able to address the Italian market - as it offers its Italian operation via the site Eurobingo.com.

It would seem the moral climate in Italy is currently favourable to the game being regulated and accessible to the Italian public, but it is hindered by a slow legislative environment and is not seen as a priority by the nation's government. At the moment, following Bingos' model and exploiting the loophole would seem to be the most cost effective method of targeting Italy from the outside, however, future changes in Italian law may close that loophole.

Online Bingo In Spain

The game is also very popular in Spain, the retail version can boast around 440+ halls in the country. The online scene in Spain is also growing slowly. I'm going to skip the licensing options for online sites as I didn't quite understand them - there's lots of regional licensing bodies, and it sounded a bit confusing to me. That said, I will instead mention a couple of interesting stats that were mentioned regarding online Bingo play in Spain.

The most striking was the ratio of men who play the game. In Spain, more males play Bingo online than females. Also, the amount of people playing the game stayed fairly constant all year round, as opposed to the UK where seasonal dips where in evidence. It's thought that online Bingo, like the retail game, gave the Spanish an opportunity to get out of the heat of the day. Here in the UK, we have a bit of sun and everyone flocks out to the beach for the day.

With the growth of the market in Spain, the government is also moving towards embracing and creating a regime where regulated gambling can flourish. Online operators considering moving into the market in Spain can once again look to Bingos to see their example of attacking the market. Like in Italy, they are not trying to grow their original brand, but instead launching a localised version of the game, specifically aimed at that Spanish Market. With the prospect for growth high in Spain, expect to see a lot more sites going after that market.

All 2nd Online Bingo Summit Articles

Author: David Lloyd - October 2007

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