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Thursday 28th January 2010.
There has been huge hype today about the new Apple iPad, it is without doubt a very sexy device and just like the iPhone will feel that special when you use it you will forget it is missing so many things.
This is the effect a marketing hype can have, it can not only place blinkers on the consumer but almost brainwash them into thinking they have the best thing in the world, even when they do not.
The hype that has built up around online bingo has been similar. There was a huge marketing push on the television in the UK and it became almost impossible to watch an evenings programs without seeing an advert for online bingo.
This was all fine to start with and although the bingo product did not look as profitable as the casino one the operators all jumped onboard and began spending. This culminated with Party Gaming paying close to £100 million for Cashcade and it’s Foxy Bingo brand amongst others.
£100 million, that is a huge figure in anyone's books and at the time seemed a lot. Then we had the introduction of Free Bingo. There was a very good piece written by Phil Fraser published in E Gaming Magazine recently where he explains his views as to why free bingo is not a good thing and he is absolutely right.
One of the points he makes is that it is not quite as free as it sounds, if you do win one of the very small cash prizes that come with free bingo you cannot have the money. You must first make a deposit to be able to withdraw your free winnings.
This may sound strange but forms the whole basis of the free product, to get the player converted to a real cash player and the method of forcing a deposit as Phil Fraser points out does not create a good player experience.
One of the big issues the industry players face is the cost of acquiring a bingo player. When television and print adverts are used this cost is just as high as the cost of acquiring a casino player but the life time value of the bingo player is nowhere near as high. You would not find channel 5 charging less for a TV slot just because the lifetime value of a bingo player is lower.
Once this high acquisition cost is taken into account the operators and their marketing teams have to decide how to recoup this cost from the player, step one is to get them playing for real cash. This sounds obvious but when so much free bonus cash and free bingo is available you have to ask if the players really believe they should?
If you can convert the free players to real money players the expected lifetime value of the real money bingo player is not that high and this leads to all the cross promotion to the operators casino site or poker room.
Once the operator has decided that the main stream of revenue from the bingo player is based on converting them to play at the casino or poker room, or even play the slots which have been embedded in the bingo sites the original bingo product becomes a simple acquisition tool for the casino and poker sites.
This is all well and good and if the numbers stack up it would be a sound business case for the operator to follow, where does it leave the player? Are they not being lured in under an ever so slightly false pretense? That would in the end be for the individual bingo player to decide.
It will after all be the bingo players who vote with their cash or their feet and no amount of slick marketing will alter that.
It does leave companies such as ourselves here at Calida with the hard decision of whether or not to promote the bingo product. We strive to ensure that anything we recommend will ultimately leave our player with a great experience win or lose and the difficulties that are simmering with free bingo and free bingo bonuses would seem to suggest that this might not always be the case.
Just like the Apple products there are many consumers that simply love them and this is the case with online bingo but will at remain?
The launch of free bingo will either turn into the industries savour or it will be the death of it. Only time will tell.
Written by Bingo Sarah |
