The purchase follows the decision in March to join Unibet’s bingo network, shortly after Bingo.com had announced it was switching software providers from Parlay Entertainment to Cozy Games.

Tarrnie Williams, chief executive of Bingo.com, said: “Bingo.com is pleased to have secured a private placement from Unibet. With one of the World’s leading gaming operators as both an investor and operational partner, Bingo.com will now have the resources to support its brand in a number of emerging online bingo markets. We very much look forward to taking on a leading role in the expansion of online bingo worldwide.”

Petter Nylander, chief executive of Unibet, said: “Investing in Bingo.com, one of the strongest bingo brand names in the industry, is exciting for us. We believe in the power of the Bingo.com URL and believe that Bingo.com will be a leader in online bingo for years to come. We look forward to growing our businesses together in existing and new markets.”

One rival bingo operator said: “It’s a very interesting deal, not least because it was widely thought that Bingo.com does not actually own its domain name but in fact leases it from a third party. It would be fascinating to see if Unibet has now made certain that the url is actually owned by the corporation because without that the company is worth sharply less than you might otherwise think.”

Unibet already owns one of the strongest bingo operators in Scandinavia, Maria Bingo, and it will be interesting to see how Bingo.com is positioned by the company post Unibet’s investment. Maria Bingo was bought in December 2007. Unibet has been on a trail of acquisitions, including Travnet, a Scandinavian trotting community, in April 2008.

Party Gaming, parent company of Party Gaming and the new owner of Cashcade, who run Foxy Bingo, Cheeky Bingo, Little Big Bingo, Think Bingo and Bingo Scotland, was highest on the list at no 2.

Six of the top ten placed companies get significant revenue contributions from online bingo. Bet 365, who run Bet365 Bingo, came in at fourth, followed by William Hill and Ladbrokes at fifth and sixth. Paddy Power was placed eight with Unibet, who own Maria Bingo, placed at ninth.

Of the companies that are more closely associated with bingo rather than a portfolio of online gambling interests, Gamesys was placed highest at no 32, down from no 28 last year. Gamesys run Sun Bingo on behalf of News International as well Jackpot Joy, one of the most successful bingo, slots and scratchcards businesses in the UK.

Nerxt in the list were Gala Coral, parent company of Gala Bingo, who have slid rapidly down the Power 50 from a position of 11th last year.

NetPlay, who own the bingos.com brand and aim to bring interactive gambling to our TV screens, was placed at no 37, up six places from last year. While NetPlay seem great at doing deals, not everyone in the online gambling industry is convinced that they will generate the revenues that their share price seems to suggest they might.

At no 38 is a new entry in the shape of Tombola, who used to run Sun Bingo and now operate one of the biggest online bingo sites in the UK. Under the quiet but confident direction of owner Phil Cronin they have shown incredible growth and impressive player numbers.

Rank Group, the owner of Mecca Bingo, was placed at 40th, down from 26th last year. Like Gala Bingo they have struggled to convert their strong position in bingo halls into the online world and they have had difficulties making their middle managers cross-sell the bingo product to their real world customers.

Last on the list at no 50 was another new entry, Crown Bingo. Crown was praised for its management team and for punching above its weight in a crowded online gaming space.

All brands operating on both St Minver’s International Bingo Network and Boss Media’s bingo network will switch to the new software by February 2010.

The announcement, which was made at the European iGaming conference (EiG) in Copenhagen this morning, is a huge blow to Parlay Entertainment as St Minver was probably their largest customer. Bingo News has previously suggested that St Minver was likely to switch to new software but today’s announcement is the first official confirmation of the move.

G2 has spent millions of euros on developing Boss Media’s bingo platform, which they acquired as part of a deal to put together a full online gaming solution. As well as acquiring Boss Media and St Minver they bought sports betting software company FinSoft and games development house Dynamite Idea.

“GTECH G2 has made a multi-million Euro investment in its Bingo product,” said Atul Bali, President of GTECH G2. “With the combined resources of Boss Media and St Minver, two of the companies acquired last year to form our interactive gaming division and with ongoing investment in key products like our bingo network, we will continue to lead the way in terms of product innovation and services.”

Alison Digges, Group Head of Bingo for GTECH G2, said: “In early 2010, we plan to merge Boss Media’s bingo partners with St Minver’s International Bingo Network to create one large combined network using G2 Bingo software and operated from our Bingo hub in Gibraltar. Pooling the liquidity of over 80 bingo partners will make the GTECH G2 Bingo network one of the leading networks in 2010″.

The new software, referred to internally as Bingo 2.2, will initially be tested on the Scandinavian online bingo site Hem Bingo and will launch this week.

G2 said that the software would give them multi currency, multi language functionality and hugely improve their bingo offering: “”Bingo 2.2 allows clients to pool liquidity and maximizes the jackpots in the bingo rooms through its linked games and multi currency functionality. In addition, it offers a fantastic suite of multi lingual mini games launching from the game window including mini progressive slots, table games, video poker and scratch cards. The Bingo software and mini games portfolio will be updated quarterly with innovative new feature functionality, to ensure that G2 Bingo remains at the cutting edge of bingo front and back end development, catering to the needs of both the Bingo player and licensee.”

Parlay Entertainment recently issued a profits warning as the company admitted that licensing revenues had fallen and that had led to a massive decline in revenues and a loss making first half of 2009.

The site is powered by Virtue Fusion software and is the first time the popular UK online bingo software has been used to power a Swedish language bingo site. For Swedish players it will make a big difference as almost all Swedish-facing bingo websites use Parlay bingo software.

All new players to Svenska Bingo will receive a 50 SEK free money bonus and a cash match bonus of up to 1500 SEK on their first deposit.

Philippa Hellberg, Manager of Svenska Bingo said of the launch: “Our goal is to create a safe, trustworthy yet highly entertaining environment for all our players. We are passionate about bingo and aim to make Svenska Bingo one of Sweden’s most popular bingo sites”

The main room of Svenska Bingo is called Bingo Stugan and will aim to create an exciting Swedish bingo community for players.

Ms Hellburg also urged affiliates interested in making money from the Swedish bingo market to get in touch with her: “We have an excellent and very generous affiliate programme and our affiliate software is excellent and built specially for the Virtue Fusion platform. We are confident we can beat any deal in the Swedish market.”

Unibet used a €100m corporate bond to purchase Maria Holdings, the parent company of Maria Bingo. The loss generated by the weakness of sterling since the purchase meant Unibet slid to a £900,000 loss for the quarter and a net profit for the year of £8.8 million, down from £18.7 million in 2007.

The company said that apart from the losses from the bond, trading remained strong and growth prospects were good.

Boss, which was acquired last year by gaming giant GTech, has previously been better known for their casino and poker software.

The software offers 75 ball and 90 ball bingo at present and 80 ball bingo will be released at the end of the second quarter 2009, according to company sources.

There are currently only two mini games on the site but a rollout of up to three games a month is planned with the aim of having a total of 19 mini games by the end of 2009.

Only one site, HemBingo, is currently operating on the Boss software; HemBingo is operated by a large Swedish media company, United Media, and the site targets the Swedish market.

Boss Media claim that the new software is highly easy for an operator to change the design and to update with promotions and that a new site can be launched in a matter of days. Anyone who has ever worked with Boss Media will raise an eyebrow about this as speed has now always been a hallmark of the company’s production team.

The new software was unveiled at the International Gaming Expo (IGE) at London’s Earls Court, which opened yesterday.

The release of high quality Boss bingo software will raise questions about St Minver’s long term commitment to the Parlay software they currently licence. St Minver were bought by GTech at the same time as Boss, along with sport software supplier FinSoft, and it would seem likely that GTech’s management will push to use in-house software rather than support a rival platform.

The Swedish version of bingos.com joins offerings in the UK, Spain, Poland and Italy. Bingos.com was acquired by NetPlay TV, a gaming company listed on London’s AIM market, in April 2008 for 7,375,000 euros.

The company said they had targetted Sweden because it has more than 100 land based bingo halls, 575 non-profit bingo licenses in issue and one of the highest propensities to gamble in Europe with more than 85% of the population participating in gambling. “This, aligned with one of the highest levels of internet penetration throughout Europe, makes Sweden a very attractive market,” the company said in a financial statement.

Dominic Mansour, chief executive of Eurobingo.com, said: “We are really excited about the Swedish online bingo launch. This further establishes us as the strongest pan-European online bingo brand. The high internet penetration and propensity to play bingo makes Sweden a key market for us. We are fortunate to be in a position to be able to quickly launch into any new market throughout Europe by building upon our existing liquidity.”

NetPlay TV has a UK gaming licence and offers live gaming on Sky Channel 866, including live roulette, live blackjack and ‘Autowheel’ under the supercasino.com name. They also broadcast on Nuts TV’s channel late at night. They are currently in the process of integrating their online, mobile and television gambling offerings so customers can play them from a single wallet.

The company recently announced they would be closing their Mallorca office, where bingos.com had been based since launch, and moving personnel back to the company’s offices in Battersea, London and Lancaster, Lancashire.

On 23 October NetPlay TV appointed new brokers, Panmure Gordon, to replace Teathers, formerly known as Landsbanki Securities (UK) Limited .

Shares in Netplay TV stand at 21p, down from a high of 29p but well above the 52 week low of 14.5p.

“The roll-out of bingo across Europe has continued,” said chief executive Petter Nylander.

Unibet Bingo offers bingo  in the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal,
Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Romania and Estonia. They have both 75 ball and 90 ball bingo, including the traditional Swedish multi-part variant bingo patterns.

Unibet also own Maria Bingo, one of the largest internet bingo operators in the Nordic market.
The multi currency site is also available in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Estonia and Romania.

Total third quarter revenues were £29.3 million, producing £4.5 million in profit and Unibet had 264,015 active customers.