Eyes down: Why bingo could be poised for big things in New Jersey

Words by Julian Rogers

Bingo has never been what you would call the ‘sexiest’ of gaming verticals, especially with the likes of casino and poker tending to hog the limelight. Nevertheless, this social, peer-to-peer game has historically proven to be a reliable earner and key acquisition tool for European online operators, making bingo a familiar fixture in their product portfolios across the Atlantic. So with New Jersey now a somewhat congested space – and soon even more so with brick-and-mortar giant MGM poised to launch online poker and casino – adding bingo is an alternative way for online operators to differentiate, increase brand awareness and acquire new players.

Tropicana was the first operator to flick the switch on a 90-ball bingo product built by its online gaming partner, Gamesys, back in 2015. London-based operator and supplier Gamesys also added bingo to its VirginCasino.com brand in the Garden State. Then, roughly a year later, Pala Interactive threw its hat into the ring with a 90-ball product powered by Gaming Realms. Interestingly, though, Pala – a subsidiary of the Pala Band of Mission Indians that operates using Borgata’s online license – unleashed a standalone bingo site with PalaBingoUSA.com rather than stationing a bingo tab at PalaCasino.com.

It is two years this month since Tropicana’s foray into 90-ball bingo in New Jersey and Luisa Woods, VP of online and internet marketing at Tropicana Entertainment, says bingo has gone onto become “a top performing game” at TropicanaCasino.com. “We are heavily focused on creating an integrated brand experience – removing the barriers that technology creates between igaming and land-based gaming,” she says. “Because bingo is such a social product, it is a critical part of our product suite and our integration strategy.”

Tropicana has also aimed to stand out with its marketing efforts in order to appeal to new and existing players, as well as its land-based clientele at Tropicana Atlantic City. “Because igaming is a new product, and the process for registering an account can be long, lowering the barriers to trial is critical. Our marketing team has put together special live promos in which radio personalities jump into the chat room, and play alongside our guests, announcing winners live on air, and sending out messages and congratulations to players in real time. This kind of ‘out-of-the-box’ marketing initiative can serve to break through the kind of ‘ad fatigue’ that we all suffer from.”

Lady luck

When Tropicana’s bingo first launched, president and CEO Tony Rodio described it as a way to introduce a “whole new audience to Tropicana Atlantic City.” What he was ostensibly hinting at was acquiring a far greater female player base. Of course, bingo is unique in that it tends to attract far more women than men. Pala, for instance, hired Kathy Wakile, a cast member of popular reality TV show The Real Housewives of New Jersey, as a brand ambassador. This illustrates the target demographic Pala was looking to reach out to.

Yet, much to Tropicana’s surprise, 90-ball bingo hasn’t skewed as heavily towards female players as management first envisaged. In fact, Woods suggests that in some ways bingo’s game mechanics are closer to sports wagering than slots. “There is the purchase of a bet at the outset of a round of play, participants cheer for specific outcomes over a period of time, and there are ‘in game events’ that are rewarded at intervals,” she explains. “Players get a pared down version of the ‘extended play’ excitement of riding out a ‘skin-in-the-game’ wager on a sporting event – and for a certain segment of our player base, this is more entertaining and satisfying than the rapid-fire format of slots or even blackjack.”

One issue with bingo is that it tends to generate low margins, while users often play for noticeably lower stakes than casino players. For most participants, bingo is a relaxed form of entertainment rather than a more intense gambling game like blackjack or poker. It’s also a fairly passive gaming experience; once players have purchased their tickets, the games begin and the auto marking takes over. Besides checking their progress and engaging in chat, there isn’t much else to do. So this is where cross selling of higher-margin house games like slots and casino or providing players with side games during rounds of bingo can pay off handsomely. Indeed, cross-selling was probably the main motivation behind launching bingo in the first place.

“Bingo is actually a fantastic acquisition tool for online casinos,” says Adam Small, co-founder of NJOnlineGambling.com and online poker ranking site PocketFives.com. “[And] I’ve been told cross-sales are the main reason Tropicana, Virgin and Pala are running the 90-ball bingo games at all.”

Furthermore, bingo is a less expensive means of snagging new players and coaxing them into trying other games.

“It’s a more cost-effective way to acquire customers and then move them into a higher margin product,” says Melissa Blau, founder and director of iGaming Capital. “I think the crossover is around 80%, if not higher. So this is a really critical part of profitability. When you factor in the mini games, I don’t think bingo is a low-margin business.”

Furthermore, Tropicana reports that the “vast majority” of its real-money 90-ball players play slots and other casino games. “90-ball bingo has proven to be extremely valuable in terms of cross-sell,” Woods reveals.

Tropicana’s bingo site

Three’s a crowd?

Despite the cross-selling opportunities, most of the state’s heavyweights are conspicuous by their absence in the bingo space. It’s certainly not a full house, to borrow bingo terminology. And the fact that only Pala has joined Tropicana and Virgin in two years has left Blau “a little shocked.” So could this mean many brands have serious reservations about 90-ball bingo becoming a profitable egaming vertical in New Jersey? Or perhaps they can’t justify the time, money and resources it takes to launch, manage and market bingo. “I’m actually pretty surprised online bingo hasn’t become a bigger thing in NJ when historically it has been a very substantial chunk of worldwide online gambling revenue,” Small remarks.

So what do some of those on the sidelines have to say? In a statement provided to EGR NA, Caesar Interactive Entertainment’s Seth Palansky said: “Our analysis told us it [online bingo] wasn’t a business with enough of a growth opportunity to warrant the investment in – it appears we weren’t alone in that assessment.” He added: “We never say never, though, and will continue to evaluate other verticals, and not be shy about investing in them if we believe the investment has the potential to pay off.” Golden Nugget harbors similar concerns. “Online bingo is something we’ve looked at, but at that time we decided to focus on other product differentiators, such as live dealer [casino],” says Thomas Winter, SVP of online.

He adds: “Also, there weren’t, and there still isn’t, any good products readily available on the market.” With regards to bingo attracting new audiences, he says: “Bingo certainly helps acquiring female slot players and, like any new vertical in igaming, would generate incremental revenues. That being said, it’s a rather high maintenance product with the need for chat moderation and is a low ARPU [average revenue per user] product. Last but not least, liquidity helps, and at the time we looked at it we were not sure the market size was big enough to allow for enough concurrent players to offer sizeable prizes.”

In terms of market size, New Jersey is home to around 8.6 million people, of which 7.4 million are 21 years old and above (Tropicana’s players range in age from 21 up to octogenarians). Yet Tropicana’s games don’t run around the clock and, unsurprisingly, player volumes drop off dramatically in the early hours. However, the product created by Gamesys is a multi-stake offering whereby those playing for free or $5 per-ticket players can compete side by side, with potential payouts scaled to the winner’s stake.

Tropicana says this arrangement creates stronger liquidity pools in a “geographically restricted market like New Jersey”. However, you could argue that liquidity isn’t so vital with bingo. “Unlike poker, you don’t need as many people to get a critical mass with bingo to make it an enjoyable player experience,” Blau says. “While the big jackpots help drive the players to come back and spend, having thousands of players playing in one room can become unwieldy. It’s a more social game, so it isn’t the only driving factor like poker.”

A numbers game

One possible thing stunting bingo’s growth could be the fact that sites only provide 90-ball bingo when 75-ball bingo is the offline format most familiar to the public and the one found in most bingo halls. 90-ball, which is the most popular version in the UK, is played across strips of six tickets with numbers between one and 90. Players are awarded prizes for one line, two lines or a full house. With 75-ball bingo – otherwise known as pattern bingo – cards consist of 25 squares arranged in 5×5 grids with 24 numbers (the center square is blank). The object of the game is to cover the card with a pre-determined pattern using the numbers called.

Part of the reason the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) only permitted the larger-numbered version online was to avoid antagonizing the Church in the event that the standard variant cannibalized 75-ball bingo games in places of worship. However, EGR NA understands that the DGE has now quietly approved 75-ball bingo, though it is thought no operator has yet filed a 75-ball application. “It would help if the operators’ venture out to adopt a more American-friendly variant of the game,” Blau asserts. “I truly believe a 75-ball game is a more entertaining product and it’s more familiar to people across the United States. I think it would do much better than 90-ball games.”

This could be the shot in the arm bingo needs, as well as mobile in order to appeal to mobile-first millennials and those who prefer the convenience and immediacy of mobile play (Tropicana says mobile is in the pipeline). The operator is also “racing” to deliver new game content, usability improvements and rewards. “We are focused on continuing to evolve in response to market demands,” Woods says. For now, though, she sees a bright future for bingo while reaffirming the vertical’s importance to Tropicana’s online ambitions: “Online bingo is not separate from online casino, nor existing in its shadow. It’s all a part of a cohesive and integrated brand experience.” So perhaps bingo really is sexy after all.