Bingo fans based in the UK that play on these sites will benefit from larger pots and have to opportunity to enjoy a large range of mini games. With bingo sites based all over Europe there is a truly international feel to the new network, which will allow players to participate in local games or in linked multi-currency games while chatting to players in other European countries in the English language Euro Room.

The new software includes multi currency and linked games across all bingo sites run by the operator as well as offering players multi-currency free bingo throughout the day where players can play, chat and win cash prizes.

Alison Digges, Group Head of Bingo and Marketing for Gtech G2 said, “this is a fantastic start to 2010. We plan to upgrade our product quarterly and introduce a whole range of new features throughout this year and beyond to provide a better player experience and higher lifetime values.”

The site, which only finished 18th in the awards in 2008, beat off Mecca Bingo, who finished second, and Wink Bingo in third place. Tombola Bingo finished fourth and Bingo Playground finished fifth. What was most suprising was to see Crown Bingo finish 12th and Foxy Bingo finish 17th, suggesting that the company’s management teams did not put the same effort into a high finish as in previous years. Gala Bingo’s 21st place was also suprisingly low for a site that until three years ago was the dominant presence in UK online bingo. The total absensce of William Hill Bingo and Paddy Power Bingo, both of whom have huge bingo sites, is also somewhat suprising.

In the New Bingo Site of the Year award Golden Hat Bingo saw off Giggle Bingo and Landmark Bingo. Cheeky Bingo and Costa Bingo were third and fourth respectively.

Ruairi Boyle, Head of Games & Bingo at Ladbrokes Bingo welcomed the award, saying: “It’s the most prestigious Award in online Bingo and we’re thrilled to win it. We want to share this success with all our roomies who voted for us and helped us to the top of the Bingo pile. We’re already looking to 2010 to retain our title. New players, exciting innovations for existing roomies and more promotions, games and jackpots than anyone else are all in our sights. But right now we’re in the mood to party and 31 January will be a great day for everyone in Bingo.” Ladbrokes Bingo will offer free bingo to all their players on 31 January.

The top 30 finishers in the UK award were:

1 Ladbrokes Bingo
2 Mecca Bingo
3 Wink Bingo
4 Tombola Bingo
5 Bingo Playground
6 Golden Hat Bingo
7 Giggle Bingo
8 Betfred Bingo
9 Posh Bingo
10 Gone Bingo
11 Totesport Bingo
12 Crown Bingo
13 Harry’s Bingo
14 Jackpot Joy
15 CyberBingo.co.uk
16 Landmark Bingo
17 Foxy Bingo
18 House of Bingo
19 Costa Bingo
20 BingoSKY
21 Gala Bingo Online
22 FreeBingo.co.uk
23 Play2Win Bingo
24 Cheeky Bingo
25 888ladies
26 Bingo MagiX
27 Bingos.co.uk
28 BingoLiner UK
29 Platinum Play Bingo
30 Snap Bingo

New Bingo Site of the Year 2010
1 Golden Hat Bingo
2 Giggle Bingo
3 Landmark Bingo
4 Cheeky Bingo
5 Costa Bingo
6 Betfred Bingo
7 Moon Bingo
8 Eat Sleep Bingo
9 JackpotCity Bingo
10 Foxy Zero
11 Totesport Bingo
12 BOGOF Bingo
13 Play2Win Bingo
14 Tea Time Bingo
15 Epic Bingo
16 Kiss My Bingo
17 LiveBingo.co.uk
18 OK! Mag Bingo
19 Bloke Bingo
20 Eyes Down Bingo
21 Bingo Nation
22 3am Bingo
23 BingoG

St Minver’s in-house brand Chit Chat Bingo will start accepting PayPal deposits this week with other St Minver sites such as Love Bingo, Littlewoods Bingo, Yahoo Bingo and Bingo Joy getting the service in August.

The announcement is one of the first major indicatons of the effect of St Minver being bought by GTech, the leading player in lottery operations worldwide.

Online bingo sites in the UK have struggled to add PayPal as a deposit method as the company, owned by eBay, has shunned all but the biggest gaming companies. Clearly GTech’s huge global scale has impressed PayPal enough to put a deal together very rapidly.

GTech has been aggressively growing its position in the online gaming market through its G2 subsidiary, which consists of Boss Media, Finsoft, St Minver and Dynamite Idea.

Johan Berg, Chief Operating Officer of GTech G2, said: “We are very excited about being able to offer our UK bingo partners the comfort, ease and security that comes with using the PayPal service.

“This is a great opportunity for us as our worldwide lottery and gaming industry expertise is now coupled with the world’s leading e-wallet solution in PayPal. We are always looking at ways to serve our bingo licensees better and this latest deal will further enhance our already very high level of core capabilities in this high-growth area.”

PayPal has 23 million customers in the UK and is very popular with online bingo players who use the service largely for their eBay purchases.

G2 now consists of St Minver, poker and casino software company Boss Media, sports betting software provider FinSoft and online games studio Dynamite Idea.

GTech announced the re-branding of G2 at the European Lotteries Congress today in Istanbul, Turkey.

“Igaming and sports betting are areas where we see tremendous growth for lotteries around the world,” said G2 President Atul Bali. “Our worldwide lottery and gaming industry experience, coupled with our recent strategic acquisitions, uniquely position us to lead the industry in these rapidly-growing gaming segments.

“G2 is an integrated market-focused organization that can offer our lottery customers igaming and betting products to facilitate growth in every aspect of the value chain today.”

GTech’s President and CEO, Jaymin B. Patel, said: “GTECH has been working closely with its customers and customizing and delivering world-class interactive solutions for them for more than a decade. Working with lotteries such as Veikkaus Oy, Camelot, New Zealand Lotteries, An Post National Lottery, and Loterie Nationale in Luxembourg, we have built tremendous experience and capabilities in the interactive gaming space.

“We are always investing in the future of our lottery customers, and with the acquisitions of Boss Media, Finsoft, St Minver, and Dynamite Idea, we have further enhanced our core capabilities in this high-growth area through the integration of new products, services, and content. We are fully prepared to assist our customers as regulations allow and opportunities present themselves in digital gaming.”

St Minver runs bingo sites including in-house brand Chit Chat Bingo, Love Bingo and Littlewoods Bingo.

Virgin Bingo said the move was part of a strategic review of their online gambling operations and that it would give them more control over their bingo operation.

Virgin have recently acquired an operating licence in Alderney and are also applying for one in Malta; under the Virtue Fusion deal they will run their own chat moderation, customer service and financial processing, which would not have been possible under St Minver’s full service solution.

The loss of the Virgin Bingo contract for St Minver is understood not to be a major financial issue for the company but is more of a blow to the company’s profile. The largest brands on St Minver’s platform are Littlewoods Bingo, who recently launched a secondary brand called Game On Bingo on the rival Globalcom platform, and Chit Chat Bingo, which is an in-house brand of St Minver.

A spokesman for St Minver said he was “disappointed” at the loss of Virgin Bingo but that the two companies had agreed an amicable handover and that they understood the business reasons for the switch.

In a sign of Virtue Fusion’s continued growth, Paddy Power Bingo switched to Virtue Fusion last week, moving off a Parlay Gaming platform, which also powers the St Minver network.

Registered customers at Littlewoods Bingo grew by 67% to 205,000 and active players grew by 42% to 18,500.

Littlewoods Bingo launched in 2007 with St Minver and is the main site on the company’s network after their own in-house brand, Chit Chat Bingo.

Ian Penrose, chief executive of Sportech, Littlewoods Bingo’s parent company, said: “We have high hopes of creating a fast-growing, highly-profitable bingo operation. Growth is continuing as a result of focused marketing activity, together with high profile television campaigns undertaken in 2008 and continuing in 2009. We will continue to leverage the household name of Littlewoods and its reputation as the trusted name in gaming.”

He said there was no plan to switch bingo software. “We continue to work closely with our bingo, technology and network partner St Minver to drive this forward and we expect to see further benefits in the coming year,” he said.

Sportech also operates Game On Bingo, which runs on 888′s Globalcom platform. Shares in Sportech fell 5.43% to 61 pence in early trading, despite the company producing a strong set of results across their betting and gaming businesses.

UKash take cash payments at over 275,000 outlets worldwide and players can then state where they would like their money to be uploaded to fund their online accounts.

UKash’s list of bingo sites suggests they have signed deals with St Minver, Virtue Fusion and Party Gaming.

Online bingo sites that accept UKash deposits:

Gone Bingo

Crown Bingo

Astro Bingo

JackpotCityBingo

Bingo Palace

Cyberbingo

Bingos.com

Bingozest

Baraka Bingo

Bucky Bingo

Take a Break Bingo

Bingo Day

Bingo Liner

Bingo Mania

Blackpool Bingo

Daily Express Bingo

Desperate Wives Bingo

Digital Bingo

Elgranbingo

Emmerdale Bingo

Ibingo

ITV Bingo

Magic FM Bingo

Mecca Bingo

Party Bingo

Purely Bingo

Rehabbingo

Ruby Bingo

BingoJoy

Bingo Loopy

Bingonanza

Butlins Bingo

Carlton Bingo

ChitChatBingo

Littlewoods Bingo

Yahoo Bingo

Winbonanza

321 Bingo

Capitol Bingo

Castle Bingo

Cheggers Bingo

Crazy Bingo

Game On Bingo runs on Globalcom software provided by 888.com and is a break away from Littlewoods’ relationship with St Minver. It will raise questions about whether Littlewoods Bingo is considering breaking away from the St Minver platform in the long run.

Sportech, the parent company of Littlewoods Bingo, announced the launch of Game On Bingo in a quarterly trading statement released to the stock market this morning.

The move echoes Gala Bingo’s decision to launch a secondary brand called Minxy Bingo. While Gala Bingo runs on Gala Coral’s own propietary software, Minxy Bingo runs on Virtue Fusion software.

Bingo News have reviewed the new Game On Bingo site, which can be found here.

A single complaint had been made to the ASA that an advertisement for Littlewoods Bingo encouraged irresponsible gambling because it implied players could win large sums on multiple occassions.

The complaint was made against St Minver Ltd, who runs Littlewoods Bingo on behalf of Littlewoods.

The ASA ruling said: “A TV ad promoted Littlewoods online Bingo. The ad showed animated bingo balls moving against a green background intercut with shots of two women at computer screens chatting to each other via the Littlewoods bingo chat room. The voice-over stated “Littlewoods football pools has brought billions to millions, now we bring you bingo. Come and join the fun … Littlewoods Bingo is the name you can trust to pay out big style, with hundreds of winners and tens of thousands in prizes every single day. You can even chat and gossip in our big mates chat room … “. The shot cut to a woman in front of a computer screen. Text on the computer screen stated “Leanne: What did you just win??? Kate: £500 … again X”.”

In the ruling, the ASA dismissed the complaint, saying: “Clearcast said they did not consider the ad misleading because St Minver Ltd (St Minver) had supported the claims made for the number and amount of the payouts. They said the aim of the ad was to set out how much could be won each day, and they did not consider the brief inclusion of the text “Leanne: What did you just win??? Kate: £500 … again X” on the computer screen would mislead viewers about the frequency of winnings.”

Littlewoods Bingo can continue to run their TV advertising. But the fact that a single complaint against a TV ad can potentially have it taken off air shows how careful online bingo companies need to be about the content of their advertising.

The ad was made by Equinox Film and TV Production.

Players on St Minver sites between 10.00am and 10.35am on St Minver’s UK facing bingo sites got paid out up to £11,000 for hitting a single line. The game they were playing was low stakes and had a correct full house payoff of around £25.

St Minver’s technical team discovered the error almost immediately and all bingo play was suspended at 11am. Players who had ‘won’ had their accounts suspended and were emailed to explain that the payment had been a technical error.

Sites affected included Love Bingo, Virgin Bingo, Littlewoods Bingo, Mail Bingo, Yahoo Bingo and St Minver’s in-house site Chit Chat Bingo.

One player who contacted Bingo News said: “It seemed a bit good to be true but I was just hoping it was a New Year’s bonus. I got an email within the hour explaining it has been a technical error and saying they would put £50 in my account as compensation. I guess that’s better than nothing but I was suprised such a major error could happen.”

Bingo News contacted various St Minver licensees, many of whom had not been told about the jackpot error nearly a week after it occurred. One site manager said: “I’m not exactly thrilled that I am hearing about this from you rather than St Minver. It doesn’t look good and it has a negative effect on our brand. It is something we will be taking up with them at our next client meeting.”

In the new site of the year award Bingo Playground took top spot, followed by Tombola Bingo and Wink Bingo.

The votes were something of a surprise as Platinum Play Bingo was a new site in 2008 and they must have worked very hard to get all their players and friends voting for them. By contrast Jackpot Joy is a huge site and has thousands of players every day. Crown Bingo, who finished third last year as well, continues to build on its reputation as being the friendliest online bingo site in the UK.

Top 98 bingo sites in the UK, according to Which Bingo:

1 Jackpot Joy
2 Platinum Play Bingo
3 Crown Bingo
4 Bingo Liner (UK)
5 Sun Bingo
6 Tombola Bingo
7 Bingo Playground
8 House Of Bingo
9 Gone Bingo UK
10 Foxy Bingo
11 Bingo MagiX
12 Free Bingo.co.uk
13 Rehab Bingo
14 Wink Bingo
15 Gala Bingo
16 Harry’s Bingo
17 All Bingo Club
18 Ladbrokes Bingo
19 Mecca Bingo
20 888Ladies
21 King Jackpot UK
22 Bingo.com
23 BingoSKY.co.uk
24 Paddy Power Bingo
25 Game Village
26 Think Bingo
27 Blackpool Club Bingo
28 Cyber Bingo
29 Bingo Cafe
30 Wow Bingo
31 Daily Express Bingo
32 Butlins Bingo
33 Bet365 Bingo
34 32Red Bingo
35 Betfred Bingo
36 Mirror Bingo
37 Bingo Zest
38 King.com
39 Jackpot City Bingo
40 Bingo Palace
41 Carlton Bingo
42 Bingo Scotland
43 Virgin Bingo
44 Sky Bingo
45 Best Bingo
46 Blackpool Bingo
47 321Bingo
48 Chit Chat Bingo
49 Moon Bingo
50 Think Bingo Cosy
51 Bingo Joy
52 William Hill Bingo
53 Daily Record Bingo
54 Dream Bingo
55 Astro Bingo UK
56 Bucky Bingo
57 Bingo Wags
58 Betsson
59 Love Bingo
60 Desperate Housewives Bingo
61 Bingo On The Box
62 Simply Bingo
63 ITV Bingo
64 Bingo Britain
65 We Luv Bingo
66 Bingos UK
67 Love it! Bingo
68 Winzingo
69 Kingsway Bingo
70 The Palaces Bingo
71 Yahoo Bingo
72 STV Bingo
73 BingoBallroom
74 UK-Bingo.net
75 Premier Bingo
76 Riva Bingo
77 BingoRooms
78 Loquax Bingo
79 Bingolore
80 BingoFriends
81 Jackpot Bingo
82 Bingo Jetset
83 Kiss My Bingo
84 News of the World Bingo
85 Yours Bingo
86 Fruit Bingo
87 BingoDay UK
88 BingoFun
89 Party Bingo
90 Riverbelle Bingo
91 BingoMania UK
92 Palace Bingo
93 abcBingo
94 Take A Break Bingo
95 BellaBingo
96 Bingo Chest
97 Closer Bingo
98 Purely Bingo

Which Bingo UK Site of the Year website

St Minver is a bingo network operator who use Parlay Entertainment’s bingo software. They power some of the UK and Europe’s best known bingo brands.

St Minver was bought by US gaming group GTech in April 2008 for an initial consideration of €28 million plus up to €13.6 million extra, depending on the performance of the business in 2008 and 2009. St Minver is being incorporated into GTech’s Lottomatica business alongside sports betting software company Finsoft and poker and casino software specialists Boss Media. The deal was negotiated by Jim Ryan who has subsequently left St Minver to become chief executive of Party Gaming, operators of Party Bingo.

St Minver have a Gibraltar gaming licence and have offices in Gibraltar and London.

St Minver effectively own and operate Chit Chat Bingo. While technically they have it set up as a white label operation, the vast majority of the revenues accrue to St Minver and there is an in-house employee, Matt Sunderland, who runs the site for them on a day-to-day basis. Chit Chat Bingo is also responsible for a large percentage of St Minver’s profits.

In the UK, St Minver is run by Leigh Nissim, a well known figure in the online bingo industry and famed for his relentless promotion of St Minver. Nissim has been known to make some of the more outrageous claims about St Minver’s market share in the online bingo market, including at the fourth Annual Bingo Summit when he claimed they had more than one-third of the UK market. Most people would agree that figure was inaccurate.

St Minver recently axed many of their smaller white labels for financial underperformance.

UK Facing Online Bingo Sites

Littlewoods Bingo

Virgin Bingo

Love Bingo

Chit Chat Bingo

Mail Bingo (also known as Coffee Break Bingo)

Castle Bingo

Ann Summers Bingo

Yahoo Bingo

European Facing Online Bingo Sites

Bingo Suerte

Bingo Genial

Hygge Bingo

Svea Bingo

Caliber Bingo

Juego Bingo Ya

Hispavista

Best Bingo

The deal, which was announced this morning, will mean that leading bingo sites like Love Bingo, Virgin Bingo, Yahoo Bingo and Littlewoods Bingo will get a whole load of new casino and slot games, including Wheel of Fortune Hollywood Edition, Cleopatra, Cluedo and Monopoly Pass Go Bonus.

Oliver Lofthouse, Director and General Manager of IGT-UK Gaming and WagerWorks, said, “The provision of these premium branded titles to St Minver enables WagerWorks games to be enjoyed by even more online players. Developing a business relationship with such a high profile client reiterates the quality of WagerWorks branded games and their appeal to all levels of player.”

Leigh Nissim, Commercial Director of St Minver, said the deal was an exciting one for his company: “This is an exciting opportunity for both our players and partners alike. We have significantly enhanced our bingo and casino games over the last 12 months and expect the introduction of branded content to further improve player entertainment value whilst differentiating our gaming solutions for partners in the European market.”

St Minver was recently bought by American gaming giant GTech and is currently being integrated into an online division with sports betting platform FinSoft and casino and poker software company Boss Media.

Bingo industry rumours suggest that Virgin Bingo are considering leaving the St Minver platform and have held talks with several rival bingo software providers.

One analyst who spoke to Bingo News said: “This was a much needed deal for St Minver as the performance of their own slot and casino games was pretty shocking by industry standards. The lifetime values of their bingo players was relatively low because they were unable to get decent casino and side game revenues out of their active player base. The WagerWorks games should address this problem and should increase their profitability markedly, even with the increased revenue shares they will be paying for the premium content. What no one in the industry understands is why they didn’t do this sort of deal 12 to 18 months ago.”

Profits grew thanks to new product offerings and signing new customers, as well as the strength of the US dollar, the company said.

Earnings for the first nine months of 2008 totalled $1,050,524 on revenues of $7,158,118.

Parlay provides bingo and interactive television software to the St Minver Network and to Unibet, Stan James and Irish boomakers Paddy Power. They also claim to own the patent for multi player online bingo in Canada and the United States, although their competitors in the online bingo industry would argue about how sustainable that patent is.

Chief executive officer Scott White said: “We remain committed to increasing our cash reserves through revenue growth from existing and new customers as well as from new product and service offerings and software licensing fees. We have a number of new customers who are in various stages of advancing their Internet bingo offerings and we anticipate these new customer launches to contribute to revenue commencing in Q1 2009. Our quarter just passed also included significant foreign exchange expense reflecting the remarkable strength of our reporting currency against each of sterling, the Euro and the Canadian dollar.”

“We are also beginning to see,” continued Mr. White, “the results of various restructuring initiatives which we commenced in Q2 2008 and which we have expanded. We anticipate that the full benefit of these adjustments will fully impact our cost structure in Q1 2009.”

Parlay’s share price stands at 40 cents, valuing the company at just over $5 million. The company was the subject of a bid by PEIC Aquisition Corp, a vehicle led by online gambling pioneer Mark Blandford. PEIC pulled out of the bidding in March 2008 after two more parties became involved in the potential sale, only for the remaining bidders to also pull out.

In June 2008 Parlay sold all their US facing assets for $2.8 million but any future buyer would potentially risk taking on the past liability of the company accepting bets from US citizens.

Doubts also surround the company in terms of how long they are likely to hold on to the St Minver contract. St Minver was sold to American gaming giant GTech this summer and they already own their own bingo software through Boss Media. The loss of the St Minver contract, which includes brands such as Littlewoods Bingo, Virgin Bingo and Love Bingo, would be a major concern for Parlay.

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