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3rd Online Bingo Summit 2008 - Bingo Awards, The Network Debate, Affiliates, Legal And Europe

In this final piece, I wanted to briefly mention some of the other themes that caught my attention from the Summit. There were a number of sessions that were very similar to sessions last year, unsurprisingly as in some areas there has been very little change since September 2007. Whilst still valuable I won't go into to much depth here as you can always refer back to my coverage of last year's event.

The Online Bingo Awards

Peter Lewis presenting the Online Bingo Awards This year saw the inaugural 1st Online Bingo Awards held as a part of the summit. The short list was announced before the event and the results voted on by summit attendees during the first day. This represented the first ever industry specific awards ceremony for online Bingo. The ceremony was held on the Tuesday night following the first day's summit activity. The awards were presented and compared by the 2002 Bingo Caller Of The Year Peter Lewis (who coincidentally used to call in my old home club). Peter put on a good show and was a very entertaining compare. The results were as follows:

Online Bingo Operator Of The Year: Foxy Bingo
Best Online Bingo Portal: Which Bingo UK
Best Newcomer: Paddy Power Bingo
Best Affiliate Programme: Income Access
Online Bingo Software: Parlay
Best Marketing Campaign: Foxy Bingo
Innovation: Parlay / Bingo Bets

Firstly, it's great to see online Bingo get its own awards to give it the recognition in the gaming world that it deserves. Normally online Bingo is lumped in with the other online gaming awards, but I think now it's mature enough to demand its own. Personally there is some concerns about the way the awards were voted on. There are some disadvantages that maybe make it a big unfair. Some companies have large groups of people at the summit who are naturally going to vote for their own company.

Also, in some cases it surprised me to see the nominations, and it surprised me even more to see the winners. For example, Income Access won the best affiliate programme, which was a real surprise as they only have the one Bingo site on their network, and it's a dollars based one that's not well known in the UK. Bingo Program is another that popped up in there, and has also won previous industry awards, but I'm yet to find an affiliate who works with it and rates it.

But still, I do tend to be overly picky in these sorts of things. It'll be no surprise then that most of the things I voted for in the awards didn't come in, but the good point is it wasn't down to me, it was down to a cross section of people working in the industry so there is some balance somewhere down the line. Overall it's good press for the industry, and something to aspire to for online Bingo operator hoping to make it on the list in next year's awards.

The Network Debate - Gone Now?

One of the most striking things for me compared with the amount of talk the subject got last year was the lack of discussion on the standalone vs network debate. There was very little mention of the benefits of joining a network, and it seems that most of the new sites hitting the space do so as part of a network. There is still room in the marketplace for the odd standalone site to make its mark, as Wink Bingo has done, but they are becoming less frequent and less viable.

With the vast majority of new sites hitting the market place being on some network or other, it would seem that the network model is the winner. But, as Wink Bingo has shown, there are benefits to stepping outside of the networks whilst still using their software. Maybe the next debate should be around how network sites and white labels can claw back some control of what they're able to offer to consumers. The Wink Bingo success is firm proof of the benefits taking such a stance. Given the bland sameness of many networked sites, allowing them some free reign to develop their own personality could just be the real saving grace for many of them.

Bingo Affiliates

The Bingo Affiliates Panel The use of Bingo affiliates was discussed in one dedicated panel, and was further mentioned during the summit. With such a small part of the summit dedicated to affiliate activity, it was good to see so many Bingo affiliates in attendance. There were a good number more affiliates this year than at last year's event. For dedicated Bingo affiliates (like myself) there isn't really any event that covers just the affiliate side of promoting the game. Given the growth in both good and bad Bingo affiliate sites, this could maybe be a subject that demands it's own gathering in the future.

The main panel on the subject of affiliate marketing featured a number of Bingo affiliate publishers and programmes. Given the sort of detail that could be gone into around affiliate marketing, the debate was pretty basic and only really had time to cover some pretty straightforward ground. There were similarities with last year's panel, and it seems that not really a lot has changed since then. Affiliates still have the same gripes about the programmes they work with, and online Bingo operators still have the same concerns about some of the practices that Bingo affiliates use.

On a wider note there still seems to be some enmity towards the work that affiliates do with Bingo programmes. I don't think it's an understatement to stress that if you're launching a new site, affiliates can go a long way to making or breaking it for you. Once again I'll point to Wink Bingo as an example. They came on the scene with the strongest affiliate reward I've ever seen. The first few months that wasn't any site not promoting them as a result, and this has contributed a large amount to their success. There is increasing awareness that a good affiliate can be a good cost effective means of customer acquisition, but it's not all good news.

For me, from some quarters there still seems to be the notion of affiliates as being a necessary evil. In the opening panel affiliates were cited as one reason why operator's profits were being cut. In the wild, there are still a large number of providers with affiliate programmes that are less than user friendly and completely under resourced. Others show their lack of enthusiasm for affiliates with uncompetitive offers and strict terms and conditions. Without a willingness to respond at the same level as the quality programmes in the marketplace, these unwilling programmes are missing a great opportunity to gain new partners and customers.

From the panel there were requests for affiliate programme operators to improve their approaches to affiliates in some cases. It was mentioned that affiliate schemes needed to realise that most affiliates run their business as just that, and each has a different business model, and what works for one doesn't necessarily work for the other.

From the affiliate point of view it was interesting to note that operators were finding it more and more difficult to get onto some Bingo portals due to the sheer demand for slots. It was also mentioned that affiliates could act as a filter between players and Bingo operators, and how some affiliates would not publicise certain services due to the poor quality service they've got from them. Personally this is something I believe all Bingo affiliates should actively participate in, testing the sites they promote to see if they offer a good level of service before they advertise them to their readers / users.

In the consolidation session there was talk of the consolidation between online Bingo affiliates. Unlike the online Bingo world, there has been very little of this consolidation taking place in the affiliate space. To date I only know of one such consolidation, but for reasons of non-disclosure I can't mention where that has happened. Promisingly for online affiliates, there was talk of operators looking to purchase high quality affiliate portals and brands. Given the ingenuity of most affiliates, this sort of sideways promotion and acquisition could turn out quite lucrative for both parties.

Legal Issues - White Lists And Jurisdictions

The Legal Panel Following on from the implementation of the 2005 Gambling Act in September last year, there has been little new to consider. There's information on last year's legal panel in the last year's articles, so you can follow them up there if it's of interest. There's also information around the site about white list licensing, so once again I won't go into it here. I do need to update my lists here, because in the intervening time since I last updated my white list page, a number of operators have since gained a white list license. This is a good sign, now 99% of what I'd consider the main UK focused site are legally licensed in an approved jurisdiction.

The Alderney and Isle Of Man Panel And speaking of white listing, there was a presentation given by representatives of the two local non-UK areas of Alderney and The Isle of Man. Robin Le Provost of Alderney Gaming was involved in the panel last year that directly tackled licensing. He returned this to give a joint presentation alongside Garth Kimber from the Isle of Man DTI. They both talked about the benefit of licensing with each of the various islands. If I was in such a position as to need one, I think Alderney would pip it for me due to it low ongoing costs. Alderney seems to be the choice for online Bingo operators, I can't really recall seeing any online Bingo's that have based themselves on the Isle of Man yet, but I'm happy to be corrected on that point.

As of last year, the high taxes involved in getting a license here in the UK has meant that there have been no new takers since the last summit, and of the licenses still pending, they seem to have been taken out just in case and will not likely be used. It was also interesting to note that there was talk of companies moving from the jurisdiction of Malta to Alderney, due to uncertainty and concerns of the technical infrastructure, political situation and possible changes in the local legislation.

As I mentioned in the Bingo On TV article, there is discussion around the legal definition of what is TV Bingo. The legal panel had concerns about what problems arising in the future surrounding what TV Bingo is, as there's no set definition in law. As it stands it can be perceived as a prize draw or numbers betting. Given recent scandals around call-in quizzes on ITV, any sort of potential issues with Bingo on TV should be guarded against to prevent the press getting any sort of ammunition against the game.

Finally, and with relief to many operators, it was mentioned by the legal panel that they thought it highly unlikely to be any changes to UK laws in the next few years given the amount done with recent gambling laws. But, they also warned that if there were any issues that did crop up and need the attention of the UK Government to implement new laws and legislation to fix, it was unlikely to respond very quickly to the industry. The retail side of the business knows this only to well following the lack of action on VAT and the slow movement surrounding the lifeline of the extra class B3 slot machines.

Europe - Italy, Spain And Sweden

The Legal Europe Panel As the next big market for online Bingo (excepting UK blokes of course...) Europe was in focus again, with some very similar presentations on the legal requirements for going into the Spanish and Italian markets. There is still little clarity on the when the governments of the two countries will finalise the legal framework for online Bingo to be provided, but it is on their agenda. There's information on the legal situations in those countries in last year's coverage, so rather than duplicate it I'll once again send you back to last year's articles. I personally find it quite confusing and as I'm not focusing on those regions I won't go into it beyond the overview I gave last year.

The other big European market to be looked at in detail was Sweden, David Nordberg gave a presentation on what's happening there. The market place in the Scandinavian country has blossomed and now reached maturity. Alongside the government owned and run Svenska Spel (where David works) there are 30+ online Swedish online Bingo sites. He mentioned that there has already been some consolidation in the Swedish market place with a couple of big sportsbook sites buying smaller properties. The game has become very popular in that marketplace and they play the 75 ball variant.

David Norberg talks about online Bingo in Scandnavia In Sweden Bingo has a high percentage of problem gamblers, and as Svenska Spel is government run they do a lot of work around trying to help and stop problem gamblers. In the last article I mentioned the voluntary software they offer to players to monitor their spending, and it's a good indication of how much effort they are putting in to reducing the number of problem gamblers. They estimate around 10% of their players are problem gamblers - as a result Bingo in Sweden is classified as dangerous game. Their is speculation of legislation being put together around licensing, and it could prove a problem if Bingo is classified in this manner, as the state government would monopolise the dangerous games whilst opening up the softer games. As of yet there is no firm information on if this legislation will take place.

All 3rd Online Bingo Summit Articles

Introduction
The Bingo Landscape Today
Television - The Next New Bingo Thing
Understanding And Misunderstanding The Audience
Miscellaneous - Bingo Awards, Legal, Affiliates And The Network Debate

Author: David Lloyd - July 2008

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