New online bingo sites provide you with the opportunity to play new games, try out new promotions and features, play with new brands on your favourite network or even try out a new network entirely.
There are more bingo sites released each year than any other online gaming type, so it can be difficult sometimes to know which are worth trying and which are poorly funded white label clones. To help you with this I have complied a shorter list of what I think are the best new bingo brands of the year, from a mix of networks and providers.
Further down you can find a comprehensive guide to all of the major bingo networks in the industry as well as how they function and the differences between each one.
New Bingo Sites For January 2025
Why Do So Many New Bingo Sites Launch?
Online bingo became one of the major growth sectors in the iGaming industry for a number of reasons, and it coincided with the decline of in person bingo. According to the Bingo Association there are now 50 percent fewer bingo halls than there once were, yet online bingo sites are booming.
There is some player crossover, but many online players have never set foot in a bingo hall. They like the online version best. But why?
Well, it has proven to be much quicker for a start, due to the fact that it is automatic. This means if your numbers are drawn, they are registered by the computer so you don’t miss a thing. The computer doesn’t have to give you time to mark your cards either, so can get through the balls in less time.
It is also cheaper on a ticket by ticket basis. With tickets costing literal pennies in many cases, players can get a lot of bingo for a very small financial outlay.
Bearing these things in mind, you might ask why there aren’t even more new bingo sites each year.
The main consideration for online bingo networks is to make sure that they don’t run before they can walk. This factors in their decision making process when it comes to planning and launching new sites.
Every network ensures that they have the ability to deliver at a consistent level before they launch anything new. Because there are now so many online bingo sites (especially in the UK market), they have to narrow down on a particular niche to establish a unique selling point if they want to attract any customers.
It isn’t just about creating a generic bingo site anymore, but building a brand that their target players can identify with. Ultimately, it is all about standing out and being able to differentiate from the rest of the competition.
With a handful of very well established online bingo networks alongside one or two independents, there are in excess of 200 different bingo sites in the UK market alone and more are created every year.
However, the rate at which new sites are opening has slowed since the crazy years between 2015 and 2020. The online bingo market seems to have found a resistance point, so now new sites can only thrive by seriously outclassing the competition. In other words, people are still playing online bingo, but they are less likely to swap an established site for a newer one.
Guide To The Major Online Bingo Networks
Every network provides online bingo games, but they all differ in terms of size, style, format and even region.
Some networks online provide their services to 3rd party brands and websites. Others are part of a much larger organisation, which both licenses online bingo software to 3rd party operators, but also has their own online bingo sites/brands operating on their in house network.
At this site, we work with a number of the major online bingo networks, the biggest in the industry. Knowing them so well, we have provided top level overviews of each one to give you an idea of the background and also help you make a choice of which online bingo site you may wish to try out.
Virtue Fusion
Arguably one of the better known software providers to the bingo industry, Virtue Fusion comprises of more than 25 different bingo sites, though its corporate history is quite convoluted.
Initially being a sub division of Gaming Technology Solutions, they were then taken over by Playtech in 2010. To this day, Virtue Fusion are a notable name in the bingo industry and as a result, can name Mecca, Betfred and William Hill as clients. With in excess of 70 employees, Virtue Fusion packs a punch and from its base in the Channel Island of Alderney is certainly well positioned for the UK market.
One particular trait of Virtue Fusion, is that they like to differ from other software providers in terms of style and aesthetics. Many of their bigger brands have custom platforms with Virtue Fusion’s software plugged into it, but even their white labels look different to one another.
Launched initially in 1999, Virtue Fusion software now is responsible for servicing over 60,000 players on a daily basis. Players love the network for its mix of bingo games, which includes plenty f game variations including some branded content and even bingo rooms connected to Playtech’s most popular slot titles.
Having won multiple accolades in the industry, including the Best Online Bingo Innovation, Best Bingo Software and Bingo Supplier of the Year awards, Virtue Fusion, quite rightly takes its place in the bingo software hall of fame.
Pragmatic Play
Having been founded in 2015, it could be argued that Pragmatic Play were rather late to the party. They didn’t even enter the online bingo market until a few years later, starting out with casino software instead.
However, they have certainly made up for it. Pragmatic are now easily one of the most recognisable names in the industry, thanks largely to their deals with other networks. Unusually, you can play on Pragmatic Play’s bingo rooms on a few other networks, like Jumpman, for example.
This is part of their operating strategy. Unlike most other networks, they don’t run any sites of their own. Their whole business is about licensing out their software to third parties. Many bigger brands like PlayOJO and Bet365 choose Pragmatic because of their reputation for creating exclusive rooms which help set one brand apart from another.
Their rooms can be incredibly innovative too, with games like Animingo being a good example of how they take bingo a play with it so it appeals to new audiences. Although of course, they provide plenty of more classic rooms too.
The company is owned by IBID Group (Internet Business Investment and Development), who run their operations from the World Trade Center in Gibraltar, while Pragmatic Play themselves have offices in Gibraltar, UK, Malta, Ukraine, India and also the Philippines.
Jumpman Gaming
This software is responsible for powering the 15 Bingo Network, although everyone calls it Jumpman. The two are effectively synonymous. While Jumpman Gaming was established in 2009 to enter the online casino industry, it soon led to the creation of the 15 Bingo Network which launched in 2011.
The company has gone from strength to strength since then, with momentum leading to them running in excess of 260 brands over the years. They haven’t all survived, but the bingo sites Jumpman own themselves such as Dove Bingo and Showreel Bingo all do well thanks to the company’s aggressive marketing style.
Jumpman are huge for white label brands. They have around 40 dedicated bingo white labels operating under their license, but twice as many slot sites on top, some of whom also make use of the bingo network, so it’s huge. There are always lots of players in Jumpman’s bingo rooms.
They are a cheap option for new bingo brands which is why they are the ‘go to’ choice for so many, and this shows in their cookie cutter site design. The quality of the bingo games themselves though is fantastic, and players love the range of promotions and bonuses they offer, including the famous trophy reward system.
The company is based in Alderney.
Dragonfish
Dragonfish have had quite a journey. They began life in 2007 as the software and B2B (business to business) arm of the titan online gambling brand that is 888 Holdings Ltd. Now, Dragonfish is owned by Broadway Gaming and is one of the most notable bingo networks in the industry.
In their new form, Dragonfish can take credit for powering well over 100 bingo sites, many of which are established brands in their own right. Broadway Gaming own a large number themselves but Dragonfish remain a very popular choice for white labels too.
There are a lot of progressive jackpots and free bingo rooms on the Dragonfish network, which is always a draw for players. For new white label brands this is great, because attracting new players is their sole focus early on, so being able to offer large jackpots and free rooms is incredibly useful. They can offer exclusives too.
In many ways Dragonfish are a full service provider, also taking care of the legal, compliance, licensing, administration, payment technology, account services, marketing and customer support functions for their clients if required. Brand owners can be more or less involved in each area as they wish, but the options are there.
Electraworks (Cozy)
Founded in 2005, Cozy Games became such a well known bingo network that many people still refer to it as such today. However, after buying Cozy in 2017, Entain changed the name to Electraworks in 2019.
At its height, Cozy was responsible for around 50 different online bingo sites, but Entain’s plan was to use it as their in house bingo network.
Since Entain own a number of huge online gambling brands, they didn’t want to pay a 3rd part bingo provider for network access. After creating Electraworks, they gradually moved all their own brands onto the network and stopped renewing white label contracts. This means it is now the exclusive network for Entain brands and no one else.
It’s therefore not very big in terms of the number of sites using it, but in terms of player numbers it is a giant. Brands like Ladbrokes, Coral, Gala, Foxy and more are owned by Entain, and each has player bases millions strong.
Their rooms are straight forward but often come with extra winning chances, and being so well resourced promotions can be attractive too. They sell ticket ‘packages’, which is novel for online bingo, and have licenses allowing them to host Coronation Street Bingo, Emmerdale Bingo, Deal or No Deal Bingo and others.
Bingo Brands Often Change Ownership & Network
The online gambling industry is rife with takeovers, mergers and acquisitions (whether full or partial) and the online bingo niche is no different.
Over the years we have seen countless small companies swallowed up by giants like Entain and Flutter. These huge conglomerates have acquired some of the biggest operators in the world, as well as all of the brands that go with them.
This has led to interesting shifts and changes in the online bingo landscape.
For example, 888 Holdings, once one of the biggest white label bingo operators there was via their subsidiary, Dragonfish, no longer works in bingo at all. They offloaded their entire bingo vertical to Broadway Gaming in 2021. This led to an interesting situation where brands like Costa, Posh and even 888Bingo and 888Ladies ended up owned by someone else.
Posh had been acquired by 888 from Daub (a long gone network) years before, so they are now on their 3rd owner. The two 888 brands are no longer anything to do with the company they are named after. This is just one example of how brands move around.
It is easy to see why bingo sites get acquired. Online bingo is still a booming market, but it’s not an easy one to master. Especially as a smaller company. We are seeing a smaller number of bigger networks dominating rather than lots of smaller networks sharing the pie.
When a new entry does join the market, the quickest way for them to grow is to buy brands that are already known, and there is usually a deal to be done somewhere.
What Are White Label Bingo Sites?
It is common in the gambling industry, but especially in bingo, to come across what’s known as ‘white label’ sites.
This is where a software developer will create everything in terms of the product, coding, performance, design, layout, license, payments, support etc., then let an external brand use it for a fee. They can even handle all of the marketing and customer acquisition if required.
Brands can usually tailor the packages to be as hands on or hands off as they like. It’s a similar idea to having a kitchen fitted. You can hire a single company to handle everything while you just pick colours and styles, or you can project manage some of it yourself, maybe hire a tiler you know and do the painting yourself, but let a kitchen fitter do the rest.
So white label sites are created as a template with all of the inner workings fine tuned, but the final design features such as colours and branding and perhaps some of the offers left to the discretion of the brand. Most of the time the brand takes care of all of their marketing and customer acquisition too, as this is usually where their main strengths will lie. Not always though.
The reason is that marketing and operational staff tend to be a lot cheaper than technical staff. It only takes a handful of marketers to promote a brand but it takes a lot of people a lot of time to design and maintain something as complex as a bingo network.
Plus, all new companies want to launch quickly so they can start earning money. With a white label they can launch in days rather than the 6 months it would take to start from scratch. Overall, they prove to be much better value for money over employing a team of developers. In fact, the existence of white label providers is often the only reason new brands can afford to launch in the first place.
How Are Bingo Sites Created?
It is very rare these days for new bingo sites to start from scratch, particularly with the widespread availability of white label solutions.
However, on some occasions, new bingo sites are developed by companies who are established major brands in the industry and as a result can leverage the expertise that they already have.
They may decide to do this because they have identified another niche within the sector that they think has potential, or they might be aiming to create a genuinely unique brand in order to get attention, and they can’t do it using a template.
Where new sites are created from scratch, a whole team of developers will be used to create it from the ground up. They will create a sitemap plan, create wireframes of the pages (like a blueprint), have meetings about style and function, and the code wizards will set about making it happen by writing unique code for the site.
Then it goes through user testing to find any issues and fix them, before the visual side is perfected, content is added and again thoroughly tested. All of the backend stuff such as payments, security checks and more will need to be built into the site and tested too – it’s a lot of work.
The paying public won’t be using the site until it has gone through several robust testing stages.
Conclusion
There is no doubt about how big the online bingo market is and industry trends indicate that this is set to continue. Over the coming years, especially across regions outside the UK, online bingo is expected to grow significantly, and this will impact the number of sites which are available.
Based on the amount of merger and acquisition activity which has occurred since the mid 2000s, it should be expected that the sector will continue in this vein. New sites and software companies will be started, and probably quickly swallowed up by existing ones, or perhaps merged to create a bigger one. Some bingo sites will cease to exist, but they will be replaced by others.
What is certain, is that there are still plenty of opportunities in this sector and even the most established bingo networks should not get complacent. Regulatory bodies have sharper eyes than ever, just look at InTouch Games who had their license suspended by the UKGC, so anyone can be knocked off their perch.