Christmas will soon be upon us and that means only one thing in the world of Paddy Power Bingo – his elves have come out to play!

Everyday throughout advent these mischievous Elves will be unveiling a brand new promotion which will guarantee you’ll be full of seasonal cheer.

Paddy Power Bingo have got Escalator Jackpots, some amazing Christmas prize giveaways, free Bingo tickets and lots more. Make sure you go and visit the Paddy Power Bingo elves every day to see their new promotion.

That’s not all though, Paddy Power Bingo’s Elves are a competitive (and resourceful) bunch and have built a leaderboard to keep things interesting throughout the month. It’s really easy to earn points – simply play your favourite bingo rooms and side games and you’ll start earning! Don’t forget to check your position daily, there’s a massive prize pool of over £/€7,000!

For more information, go and visit Paddy Power Bingo now.

Oh….and if all this fun gets too much, we’ll give you the chance to tell Paddy Power Bingo your New Year’s Resolution in our New Year Paddy Room.

Paddy Power Bingo have launched a brand new room and what’s more YOU can help them decide the schedule. They’ve already ran one live lab and their Roomie Subjects came up with some cracking new games…..and they all survived! Are you ready for Paddy Power Bingo’s second experiment?

The Live Lab 2 – 7.00pm – 9.00pm – Wednesday 7th December

Here’s your chance to have a say in how a Bingo Room should really be run. Paddy Power Bingo will be giving all their roomies the chance to create their favourite Bingo game…. and then get free tickets to play it! You can select the speed of play, 1/2TG & BOGxF  options, the pattern and whether it is FFA/Even Stevens. Phew….and breathe*!

If your game gets chosen it will stay in the The Lab’s schedule for the next fortnight and you will be awarded 5 free tickets to each game**. Paddy Power Bingo will also let you nominate 10 friends to get free tickets to your game too (the game display name will include your chat name), that way you’ll get to show them what a Bingo expert you really are! Once the fortnight schedule is complete, Paddy Power Bingo will return to the test schedule…..Until the Live Lab runs again!

• 7pm-8pm           90 Ball Speed Bingo – the hour will get progressively quicker, can you keep up?

• 8pm-9pm            Discount Hour – Buy tickets in bulk and save £££

• 9pm – 10pm       Even Stevens & Fair For All games

• 10pm – 11pm     Strippers Bingo

*Players will not be able to request ticket price or seed as these will be within a pre-determined set of limits.

**Players will not receive free tickets on the evening of the Live Lab. They will receive tickets for their ‘named game’ on the day after the Live Lab. Certain game types do not allow for free tickets – where this happens free tickets will be allocated to other games. Paddy Power Bingo cannot accept responsibility for players nominating ‘friends’ incorrect i.e. if incorrect/incomplete/invalid user details are given.

The Gala Bingo Merry Million will be spread over 24 days, with up to £5,000 up for grabs 3 times a day from 1^st – 5th of December, increasing by a generous £1,000 each day from the 6^th December, culminating in a £50,000 jackpot on 24^th December.  All bingo players need to do is take part in daily jackpot games and get a full house on the number that matches the date e.g. 19 on 19th December wins £19,000.

The promotion, exclusive to Gala Bingo is guaranteed to bring some festive cheer to the bingo community throughout December. Christmas is all about sharing with others so when a lucky winner hits the jackpot on 50% of the prize will go to them and the remaining money will be split between the rest of people playing in the room at that time and spreading the Christmas cheer all round!

There will be three special jackpot games per day at 8pm, 9pm and 10pm, plus Christmas themed graphics and the usual online features. Gala Bingo members can also enjoy 24 days worth of festive side games in a “surprise advent calendar” format.  Promotions will change daily so players are urged to visit Gala Bingo each day to find out what’s in store.

Matt Prevost, Marketing Director of Gala Bingo said: “It is great to be able to help our online community countdown to Christmas with the Gala Bingo Merry Million. We’d like to wish all our players good luck this December and here’s to a very Merry Christmas one and all!”

One lucky grandfather from Weston-Super- Mare is celebrating after scooping a fantastic £391k jackpot on leading bingo website galabingo.com.

Unable to sleep the restless shift worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, logged on to have a quick play on the site’s popular five-reel Irish themed Leprechaun’s Luck slot game. Just minutes later the 61-year-old hit the pot of gold – winning a staggering £391,146.

In total disbelief the ecstatic aircraft refueller had to wait until the morning to confirm his eyes weren’t deceiving him and he in fact clearly had the luck of the Irish!

Still in shock, he said: “I keep pinching myself. This kind of thing doesn’t happen to me! I’ve always longed to be my own boss and this win has allowed me to do just that. I’ve just handed in my notice and now plan to set up my own gardening business.”

He added: “I’m also looking forward to spoiling my family. My fifth grandchild is due in the summer and winning on galabingo.com will allow us to treat the whole family.”

Lesley Whyte, consumer PR manager for Gala said: “We give away over £62 million a month and always love hearing how our players plan on spending their winnings. We wish this lucky customer all the best in starting his new gardening business and spoiling his entire family.”

Lesley added: “While our Leprechaun’s Luck jackpot may have just gone, there’s still plenty of opportunity for our players to strike lucky with our other games such as Alice’s Wonderland, which currently has a jackpot of nearly £100k*.”

*Jackpot correct at time of going to press

A lucky mother of two was celebrating today after winning a fantastic holiday and the opportunity of a lifetime to compete in Gala Bingo’s Ultimate Bingo Championships in Gibraltar.

50-year-old Susan Mayhew logged on for a quick game of bingo at leading online bingo site galabingo.com and was soon celebrating after winning a trip to the sunshine isle of Gibraltar and the chance to win a share of the £100k jackpot up for grabs.

The ecstatic retail manager, who plans to whisk her husband Richard away with her spoke of her excitement: “I can’t wait to jet off to Gibraltar, we’ve visited the island once before and thought it was absolutely beautiful. I’m so excited that galabingo.com is giving me the chance to go back and play to win a share of £100k.”

Asked what she would do if she were to be crowned the Gala Ultimate Bingo Champion, Susan said: “I’d share the money with my family, perhaps take them all on a lovely holiday. I would also spoil my daughters and buy them each a new car. My youngest is starting driving lessons next year and it would be lovely to be able to buy her a car for when she passes her test.”

The 2011 Ultimate Bingo Championship is taking place between Monday, 7 and Wednesday, 9 November and will see players whisked off to Gibraltar for a three day stay in a top four star hotel while competing to become the Ultimate Bingo Champion and win a share of £100k prize money.

In order to be in with a chance of winning a place in the final players need to take part in special games marked with the trophy logo running daily at Gala Bingo and on galabingo.com. There are four qualifier games per day on Monday to Saturday, plus three games on a Sunday.

The winners of these games receive the normal game jackpot but also entry into the leading bingo sites’ Big Sunday Playoff game at 9.30pm in the all new Tournament club. The lucky winners of all of these Sunday night playoffs will find themselves heading to Gibraltar to compete in the biggest game of the year. There are still plenty of chances to qualify over the next 11 weeks exclusively at galabingo.com

Lesley Whyte, consumer PR manager for Gala said: “We love giving away large jackpot prizes at galabingo.com, awarding around £62 million a month in prize money and never tire of hearing our winner’s stories. We hope Susan and Richard enjoy their holiday and wish Susan the best of luck in her quest to become the Ultimate Bingo Champion.”

Players can also qualify by playing the dedicated games in Gala Bingo’s 142 clubs.

One request that has always been made from you, their members, has been the ability to play and win solely with players from bingo.ie. At long last Bingo.ie are proud to announce that on Friday 27th May they will be opening their very own Private Bingo Lounge for a few hours wherein the roomies alone are guaranteed to win every prize!

Join Bingo.ie  in the Bingo Lounge from Friday 9pm where they will be playing a selection of roomie favourite bingo games!

One lucky lady from Manchester is ecstatic after managing to scoop a staggering £345k from just a £1 stake on leading bingo website galabingo.com.

Laying in bed with her laptop the sales administrator, who wishes to remain anonymous, thought she would have a quick play on the site’s Alice’s Wonderland slot game before she went to sleep. Just minutes later, the 32-year-old hit the jackpot winning an amazing £345,775.

At first, she didn’t believe it was happening and had to phone her partner who was out for the evening to return home and check that she had actually won the money.

Still in shock from the win, she said: “Things like this just don’t happen to me. It’s fantastic, I’m completely overwhelmed! The most I have ever won is £300. All my girlfriends are now logging onto galabingo.com to see if they can also win big.”

The delighted lady, who plans to stay in the Manchester area, is still not sure what she is going to do with the money, but she is planning a quick weekend away with her partner to have a think about it.

She added: “We have wanted to move for a while and this win means we can now start to put this plan into action. I don’t really want a lot – maybe a holiday and some spare cash to help my family and friends.”

Lesley Whyte, consumer PR manager for Gala said: “We love giving away prizes at galabingo.com and are thrilled that we’ve had another jackpot winner on our popular progressive jackpot game Alice’s Wonderland. On average we give away around £62 million a month so we never tire of hearing how even a quick game at bed time can deliver a jackpot win.”

Gala Bingo, the UK’s number one bingo operator, is embracing the social revolution by launching a fantastic new blog, MyGala.co.uk, as well as dedicated Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages.

The great new MyGala.co.uk site contains all the latest entertainment reviews and showbiz gossip, bingo news and Gala Bingo promotions – making it a ‘must go’ destination for any bingo fan!

Running across the top of the blog are a number of tabs where the dedicated team of writers are ensuring that bingo fans can immediately access information on the nation’s favourite past-time, side games, Roulette, Lotto, Gala TV and discover all the in-club Gala Bingo news.

And, to keep the bingo community buzzing 24/7, from the top right-hand corner of MyGala.co.uk, players can also access the dedicated Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages as well as subscribe to the RSS feed.

In just a few short weeks the Facebook group has attracted nearly 3,000 fans and is already proving a real place for fans to chat, comment and engage with the company as well as post their own photographs of their bingo playing antics.

For up to the minute information Gala Bingo customers can also keep up to date with the big wins and bingo promotions via its official Twitter found at @galabingo. Already nearly 2,000 people are following Gala Bingo’s every move!

Lesley Whyte, consumer PR manager for Gala said: “We’re really delighted with the initial response that we’ve had from our new social sites. It’s already really clear that our customers want to engage with us this way as the feedback we’ve been receiving across both our online and club customers had has been extremely positive. Customers also seem to really like the mix of showbiz and entertainment news along with all of the latest winning bingo tales and promotional offer updates.”

Rank had been expecting the refund but management estimated on 25 February that they would receive £65 million plus interest so they will have been delighted to get almost £10 million more than they had expected.

Shares in Rank shot up 16.5 pence to 146 pence on the news, a rise of 12.7 per cent.

HM Revenue and Customs are appealing against the VAT ruling, which was on interval bingo games, and Rank will have to pay back all the money if the case is reversed in the European courts.

The sale adds two extra sites – Bucky Bingo and BOGOF Bingo – to Betfred’s exisiting Betfred Bingo site. The sites all run on Playtech’s Virtue Fusion platform.

Betfred, whose online operations are run from Gibraltar, announced the deal today, telling affiliates:  “Betfred.com, one of the world’s largest independent sports betting brands, has acquired the online bingo brand BuckyBingo.co.uk and sister brand BOGOFBingo.co.uk. The acquisition will be highly beneficial to the operation and marketing of the BuckyBingo brand, building on their current experience and strengths.

Betfred’s Managing Director John Haddock said, “This is a great acquisition for Betfred.com of a leading brand in the Bingo market. Our intention is to continue with the Bucky brand and it will be business as usual.

“What I can say is that there will be plenty of investment that will give our customers a fantastic experience in the future.”

KPMG Corporate Finance partner Neil Meredith, who helped advise on the sale, said, ‘’BuckyBingo and BOGOFBingo provide an established and highly regarded online bingo offering, that is well positioned to enter its next phase of growth under the new ownership of Betfred.’’

It will be interesting to see how Betfred will use the Bucky Bingo brand, given that it played off and acquired players from the now defunct Buckingham Bingo brand. It is rumoured to have been a successful online bingo brand for a few months after launch but numbers dropped sharply after the initial marketing push.

It is thought Betfred will have paid in the region of £500,000 for the Bucky Bingo brand. Andy Cunningham, chief executive of Buckingham Bingo, is likely to have known the purchasers well because of his close links to the Manchester region, where Betfred founder Fred Done lives.

Fraser Capital Management, the parent company of Club 3000, has bought three bingo clubs in Manchester and one in Bradford, Liverpool, Peterlee and Preston.

The funds to acquire the business have been lent by Clydesdale Bank and ends another chapter in the long and turbulent history of the Buckingham Bingo chain.

Club 3000 currently runs three bingo clubs in Coatbridge, Glenrothes and Cardiff and expects turnover to quadruple from £5 million to £20 million on the back of the acquisition. The company will grow from 120 employees to 480 employees.

Brian Fraser, managing director of Fraser Capital Management, Brian Fraser, said: “We’re delighted to complete this acquisition which will allow us to progress our plans for expansion of the Club 3000 brand.

“Our outlets in Scotland and Wales have been extremely successful and our aim is to replicate that success in our new North of England locations with a full relaunch under the Club 3000 brand in August.

“The industry has had a tough few years due to the general state of the economy as well as factors such as the smoking ban and an increasing tax burden. Despite these challenges, our commitment to providing customers with good service and value for money has paid off and we’ll be carrying those values forward into our expanded operation as we bring our new outlets on stream.

“This is very much a niche industry and Clydesdale Bank have seen how we’ve operated down the years and have developed a real knowledge and understanding of our business.

“We’re long-term customers of the Bank and their support has been vital in helping us to build our existing clubs from scratch into a major success story.”

Brian Fraser has been involved in the bingo industry for more than 30 years. In 1997, he founded the Riva Bingo chain before selling it to private equity investors in 2004.

Ken Smith, managing partner at Clydesdale Bank’s Lanarkshire Financial Solutions Centre (FSC), said: “Brian is recognised throughout the industry for his track record of success and for the shrewd approach he has taken to building the Club 3000 brand.

“We’ve worked with Brian and his team at Fraser Capital for 11 years and the close relationship we’ve been able to develop meant we were fully aware of the potential which extending the brand across the UK had for the business.”

Gala Coral Group’s highly successful partnership with Sue Ryder Care was celebrated at a House of Lords reception on Thursday evening (January 27) after it smashed its £1.5million target for the charity.

Sue Ryder Care, which provides expert and compassionate care to people living with conditions including Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Stroke and Huntington’s disease, was selected as Gala Coral Group’s chosen charity after taking 50 per cent of the votes in an employee ballot in early 2008.

Over the last two years the Group has pulled together to deliver some truly record-breaking fundraising activities including the Highest Game of Bingo ever played – where a team of 25 Gala Coral Group employees accompanied by a Sue Ryder Care employee trekked to Everest Base Camp to play bingo, raising over £110,000. They even got Gala Coral Group’s directors to go ‘Back to the Floor’ in 2009 and 2010 to host a night at Gala Bingo Woking to raise money for the charity.

Other fundraising initiatives over the last two years that have enabled Sue Ryder Care to continue to liberate lives in its 14 care centres and community-based services across the UK, include Barack Obama’s step-mother Kezia helping the cause during the President’s Inauguration by having a dedicated game on galabingo.com, which raised £20,000.

The fundraising target was initially set at £1million to be reached by the end of 2009. However, due to the fantastic support demonstrated by employees, the Group smashed the target and increased it to £1.5million by December 2010. Each area of the business was set individual targets to hit including galabingo.com who, in addition to ‘Mrs Obama’s Bingo’ set bespoke Sue Ryder Care games where a percentage of the proceeds went to the charity, raising over £75,000.

A weekly fundraising table was also set up within the Group to create friendly rivalry and to guide each club and team’s performance to ensure the target was met.

Gala Bingo Coventry Walsgrave become the highest ever fundraising club in the Group’s history after raising £50k thanks to general manager Gary Colledge and his team’s determination. They organised and carried out numerous activities including bungee jumps, skydives, mammoth cycle rides as well as completing the 3 Peaks Challenge in July 2010.

Dr Colin Morgan, Head of Corporate Responsibility & Internal Communications at Gala Coral Group said: “Raising £1.5m during a recession is a performance in itself. We have never raised so much before for one charity and it is a testament to everyone in the business who got behind such a worthwhile cause. It has been fantastic to work so closely with Sue Ryder Care who do some truly amazing things for those who need extra care and we know they appreciate every single penny.”

Paul Woodward, Chief Executive at Sue Ryder, said: “We have been so impressed with Gala Coral’s continued commitment and enthusiasm in raising vital funds for Sue Ryder over the past two years. £1.5million is a fantastic achievement and will go a long way to helping us grow and develop our services to reach more people that need end of life and long-term health and social care.

He continued: “In these uncertain economic times all voluntary income is much needed in order to help us continue to provide care that makes a real difference to people’s lives. On behalf of Sue Ryder, my sincere thanks go out to everybody at the Gala Coral Group.”

Members at Gala Bingo Stratford saw the New Year in style after local father Joao Trindade hit the leading bingo operator’s unique High 5 jackpot, the week before Christmas.

Originally from Portugal, Joao moved to London six years ago and has been a regular at the Stratford club ever since. The father-of-one went to the club to play bingo on Wednesday, December 22 and won the full house prize of £2,000, but was thrilled to discover he’d also hit the High 5 jackpot, taking his winnings up to £127,000.

However Stratford’s lucky streak didn’t stop there. Due to the groundbreaking nature of the High 5 game, half of the overall £250,000 jackpot was shared between the 56 players in the club at the time, meaning they each took away a fantastic £2,233, kicking off 2011 with a bang!

The win came at just the right time for 30-year-old Joao who was recently made redundant.

The excited winner said: “I still can’t believe that I won! This has been the perfect start to 2011. It means I can now spend some quality time with my beautiful three-year-old daughter before returning to work, while still being able to put some money aside for her future.”

Joao added: “I’m so glad to be able to share my win with everyone at the club. It’s come just at the right time of year. Everyone at Gala Bingo Stratford was so lovely and congratulated me straight away!”

Club operations manager of Gala Bingo Stratford, Craig White, said: “It was a brilliant evening. The atmosphere in the club was fantastic and the place erupted as soon as Joao called house. It’s always exciting to see our members win big prizes and it was a fantastic start to the New Year for everyone here.”

Over 51 million Gala Bingo members have played the High 5 game since its launch in 2007. The club leading the way by awarding the most prize money is Gala Bingo Fenton, having paid out an astonishing £1.38 million. At odds of some one in 1,145 million, Gala Bingo in Warrington saw two £250,000 wins in the space of just six days in the week before Christmas 2009. The High 5 Jackpot has paid out a total £18,921,890.09 since it began, and it’s easy to see why the game has been one of Gala Bingo’s most successful to date.

The High 5 game offers a unique chance for customers to play for a jackpot. With better prize money and even more chances to win, the linked High 5 game is Britain’s biggest bingo jackpot.

Sun Bingo has been online since 2006 and has become the number one place for bingo players to play after years of hard work, excellent offers and fantastic promotions.

The highlight of Sun Bingo’s offers last year has to be when they gave away 30 cars in 30 days in a promotion that could not be found anywhere else on the web.

Mecca Bingo repeated their second placed finish of 2009 and will be delighted to have finished first in the CM of the Year as well as runner-up in Site of the Year.

Moon Bingo, a rejuvinated site in 2010, managed an incredible third placed finish after a relaunch and their first ever TV advertisement propelled them to the forefront of online bingo in the UK.

Along with the Site of the Year award, Which Bingo also ran their fourth successive New Site of the Year vote, which this year goes to Bingo Hollywood.

Bingo Hollywood was launched in April 2010 and has become popular amongst players for its glamorous site and excellent deposit bonus.

Bingo Giving, a new site that donates a percentage of every jackpot to charity came second, while Moon Bingo came third in this vote as well.

The votes this year was very close, with Bingo Hollywood coming just behind the Mecca team in second place, while Crown Bingo and the Better Bingo Network came in a well deserved third place.

WooHoo Bingo has carved out an excellent reputation for friendly Chat Moderators and an excellent bingo community and is the most popular free bingo site in the UK. It’s CM’s managed to come fourth in 2010′s poll.

FreeBingo.co.uk came fifth, while sixth place went to the team at BingoPort. Costa Bingo, Cyber Bingo and Bingo Playground came seventh, eighth and ninth respectively, with 888 Ladies rounding off the top ten.

If any BingoNews reader would like to vote on CM of the Month for January they can do so here.

This amazing win came courtesy of bet365’s Clover Rollover – a magical Slot Game in which players can enjoy the luck of the Irish while spinning the colourful reels. This is exactly what happened to taaloo1, who was lucky enough to spin five shamrock symbols and trigger his fantastic jackpot win.

On realising he’d hit the Progressive Jackpot, taaloo1 was understandably shocked and excited. The sheer scale of his win has not yet fully sunk in, so he’s not made any immediate plans for what he will do with the money. One thing he says he is looking forward to, though, is celebrating in style with a cracking party!

Clover Rollover is just one of an extensive range of Slot Games available to Bingo players at bet365. Games such as Big Top Tombola, Pirate Plunder and Snow Queen’s Magic also offer massive Progressive Jackpots – where the prize money continues to grow every single day.

About Bingo at bet365

You will find 90 Ball, 80 Ball and 75 Ball Bingo games at bet365, along with great promotional offers and a wide variety of side games to enjoy, including Slots, Roulette and Scratch Cards.

Bet365 is one of the world’s largest online gambling groups with over five million customers worldwide. bet365 offer games for every bankroll and a bingo experience that’s unrivalled. The Group employs over 1,400 people and is the UK’s seventh largest private company.

In the 2010 eGaming Review Awards, bet365 was named Operator of the Year and Casino Operator of the Year, as well as receiving the Best Website Performance award. The company also came top in eGaming Review’s Annual Power 50.

50% Cashback Celebration

Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd January

As mentioned Christmas Eve saw a colossal jackpot win of £3,922,736 go to one lucky bet365 player/Bingohead, courtesy of the Clover Rollover Slot Game.

To celebrate this incredible win bet365 are offering all players the chance to get 50% Cashback on whatever the House takes on all Slot Games in both Bingo and Games products.

With no deposit required, and a vast range of games to choose from, you can really make the most of your Slots play at bet365.

According to the ASA website the email sent out by Profitable Play Limited on behalf of Jackpot Joy was headlined “Find out why we’re Britain’s best value night in!” Text below stated “Hi [recipient's name], [recipient's friend's name] wants you to join in the fun at Jackpot Joy and we do too! We’ve got loads of hot slots, bubbly bingo and casino classics for you to enjoy from just a penny! But don’t take our word for it, ask [friend's name]. And if you click here to Join Now, you’ll get our 100% Cash Match Welcome Bonus. So deposit £10 and you’ll get £20 to play with. Plus we’ll give you and [friend's name] an EXTRA £10 EACH once you’ve played with your first deposit! Join now and get two big bonuses!” A clickable button below the text was labelled “Register Now”.

The complainant thought that the offer to give an extra £10 to each player after playing with their first deposit was misleading as it could be interpreted by people that to mean that when they played with their first deposit they would immediately receive an additional £10, at no additional cost, with which to bet on the games on the website.

Profitable Play argued that the email, sent out when an existing player at Jackpot Joy referred a friend to join, clearly stated that the £10 award was a bonus and that the bonus had wagering conditions. Also, they claimed that an error in the email meant that a link to the specific terms and conditions of the refer a friend promotion sent people to the generic t’s and c’s instead.

The ASA stated that the email breached advertising CAP code on three counts, under clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1, 7.2 (Truthfulness) and 34.1a (Significant conditions for promotions).

Each player in a Knock-Out Bingo game will receive six tickets, meaning they have six chances to last until the end of the game.

Once the final player is left, the game continues to give the last person a chance to win the jackpot as they have to last for 45 calls to win.

With jackpots up to £2,000, the new Knock-Out Bingo games at Tombola Bingo are sure to be popular with new and existing players alike.

The game also features boxing ring graphics and sound effects such as the ring of the bell and cheers from the crowd.

There are four different priced bingo rings for players at Tombola Bingo to choose from. The Frazer/Haggler ring has tickets costing 25p and a jackpot of £250, while the Tyson/Sugar Ray ring has 50p tickets and a £500 jackpot. The Lewis/Duran ring features £1 tickets and a £1,000 jackpot and finally the Foreman/Herns ring will cost you £2 per ticket but the jackpot up for grabs is worth £2,000.

The fact that each Bingo ‘ring’ has the name of a boxer and the addition of new graphics and sounds shows Tombola Bingo’s attention to detail and desire to give their customers the best gaming experience possibly.

It was a good night for the bingo industry with operators across the bingo spectrum putting up a surprisingly strong show in the keenly contested awards.

WooHoo Bingo, a fast-growing entrant to the free bingo market who only launched in October 2009, won Social Networking Operator of the Year for their integration of WooHoo Bingo into Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. QuickThink Media won the award for Innovative Gaming Site of the Year for their Free Bingo Hunter website.

In the Bingo Operator of the Year category Tombola Bingo beat off 888 Bingo, Crown Bingo, Jackpot Joy, Costa Bingo, Mecca Bingo, Party Bingo and William Hill Bingo.

Phil Cronin, owner of Tombola, last night told Bingo News: “I am delighted to have won the award and it really is a reflection on all the hard work our whole team has put in.”

Ian Erskine, director of WooHoo Bingo, said: “Given we are such a young company we are delighted to have been named Social Networking Operator of the Year. It is a very competitive area to operate in and we want to thank all our users for making WooHoo Bingo such a successful site.”

Tarrnie Williams, CEO of Bingo.com said of the recent results, “”The third quarter of 2010 was one of transition for Bingo.com. The first phase of our revised business plan is now underway. Our costs have declined, our net loss has been reduced, and the purchase of the remaining 4% domain name payments for the Bingo.com URL has been completed. The second phase of our plan has also begun as we are preparing a new Bingo.com marketing campaign and working with Unibet to perfect the online bingo offering. The third and final phase of our plan will start in the first quarter of 2011 when we launch our media plan in markets targeted to provide Bingo.com with the best return on investment and the highest likelihood of helping the Company return to profitability.”

Total revenue for Bingo.com in the thirs quarter of 2010 was down 93 per cent on the same period last year and totalled just $97,500, compared to $1.44 million. This revenue was also a fall of 72 per cent compared to 2010 second quarter revenues, which totalled $353,000.

Bingo.com has struggled to keep players on its site as they had to migrate from the old software to the Unibet system during the quarter ending June 30th 2010.

Sales and marketing expenses have fallen sharply by nearly 91 per cent to $39,900 in the third quarter 2010, compared to $427,000 of marketing spending in the same period in 2009.

“The decrease in marketing expenses for the quarter ended September 30, 2010, compared to the third quarter of 2009, is primarily due to migration to the Unibet partner program where significantly lower marketing bonus are granted to players”,  stated the company.

Unibet acquired a total stake of 25.9 per cent in Bingo.com in May 2010. Bingo.com also announced that it has reduced general and administrative costs as well as making the remaining four per cent domain name payments for the Bingo.com URL.

Interim CEO Neil Goulden recently announced he would be stepping down from the board after over ten years at the company. Gala Coral moved quickly to hire Carl Leaver as new Chief Executive, while they also hired Debenhams boss Rob Templeman in the role of non-executive chairman. Goulden will remain active in the running of Gala Coral until January 2011 to ensure a smooth handover period to the new bosses.

Commenting on his departure and the new chiefs, Neil Goulden said, “I would like to warmly welcome Carl and Rob to the Gala Coral Group. They both have huge reputations built upon a successful track record in the retail and leisure sectors. I have no doubt that they will have a significant positive impact on the Group.

I feel the time is now right to step down from the group. Having successfully led the group through its recent financial restructuring, and helped to recruit a top-notch chairman and CEO to work alongside our CFO, Gary Hughes, I know that I am leaving the company in good shape and in very capable hands.”

Goulden will continue to do work for Gala Coral in a consultant capacity for three years after he leaves in January. The company also rewarded his incredible contribution to the development of Gala Coral from “number two bingo operator in the UK to the leading gambling company in Britain” by inviting him to become chairman Emeritus of the group.

Gala Coral has over 3.5 million active customers in the UK and has around ten per cent of the UK gambling market from online bingo to land-based casinos. The Gala Coral Group is the only gambling company in the UK with significant businesses in the bookmaking, bingo and casino markets, both on the high street and online.

The original advert sees the famous fox from Foxy Bingo in a supermarket re-enacting the famous scene from Grease, “You’re the one that I want”, with a woman working at the tills in the store. The opening line in the song from Fox is “I’ve got balls, they’re multiplying”, giving the classic musical moment a bingo twist, which is continued throughout.

The latest version, made by Youtuber sangloupmonz05 sees the ad edited to fit “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence. All of the original commercial is used and although it has only been viewed fifty times it is sure to amuse avid bingo players and fans of the song. The difference between this version and the original show the imagination of the person that made it, although the quality of the recording could be better.

Foxy Bingo is one of the biggest bingo sites in Britain and it is famous for its television commercials and their originality makes them some of the most effective in the online bingo industry. Foxy Bingo also sponsors the Jeremy Kyle show on ITV.

The video of the Foxy Bingo advertisement mixed with Evanescence is shown below:

Party Gaming’s figures for quarter three of this year are generally positive even though they struggled after the closure of many of the French parts of the business. Only poker revenues took at hit, with revenue falling by around 5 per cent to €29.6 million (from €31.3 in the same period of 2009). Sports betting was the best performing wing of the Party business as it generated 86 per cent more revenue than in quarter three of 2009 (from €2.9 million to $5.4 million).

The increase in revenue for Party Bingo as compared to the same period of last year means that average daily revenue currently totals €142,300, which is actually two per cent down from quarter two of this year.

Jim Ryan, CEO of Party Gaming said, “Total revenue was up by 9 per cent year-on-year with growth in all products except poker, despite the impact of having closed our French casino business at the end of June 2010. Excluding French casino, total revenue would have been up by 12 per cent year-on-year, driven by casino growth in other markets, acquisitions and a strong performance in sports betting.”

In total, William Hill group revenue rose 22 per cent compared to the previous period but the company still has net debts for covenant purposes of over £500 million.

Over the thirteen weeks up to 28th September 2010 online revenues were up 35 per cent as a whole even though the company had to close down the French arm of its online casino business thanks to recent changes in gambling legislation in France. The Sportsbook arm of the online business grew an incredible 287 per cent compared to quarter three in 2009, while bingo revenues grew an impressive 58 per cent compared to the same period.

In total the online part of William Hill’s business, including the well performing bingo, contributed £26.3 million of profits to the balance sheet; up nearly 80 per cent on 2009 figures.

Playtech, who run the William Hill Bingo site, had a non-controlling interest in the online business worth£7.5 million.

Ladbrokes Bingo only saw a one per cent rise in their active player numbers in the three months from July to September 2010 but their player base increased losses by 11 per cent.

Ladbrokes Bingo operate on Virtue Fusion software and Ladbrokes have been pushing their bingo hard in recent weeks, with their Free Bingo product now having its own tab on the navigation of Ladbrokes’ home page. It is thought that the record £3.5 million progressive jackpot on the Clover Rollover slot will have also contributed to increased revenue as players chase a life changing payday for just a £1 stake.

Across Labrokes as a whole, the online part of the business saw a 17% growth in revenue and across the entire company net revenue was up 12 per cent and operating profit, excluding high rollers, was up 128%.

However the company acknowledged that the like-for-like comparisons were not difficult to out perform, given how dismal previous trading had been.

Richard Glynn, the recently appointed Ladbrokes chief executive, said: “Although bolstered by successful latter stages of the World Cup and an easy comparative period, the growth rates achieved in the third quarter give the Board confidence that the Group is on track to meet its full year expectations.

“Ladbrokes has a great brand and a strengthened management team determined to drive operational improvements going forward. Though much remains to be done, I am encouraged by the progress we are making across the Group and I look forward to updating the market in February 2011.”