The Dragonfish network was born out of 888 Holdings, and is one of the best known bingo networks in the industry.
It’s journey has become incredibly confusing over the years, with acquisitions, ownership rebrands, and platform redevelopments muddying the waters.
However, as of today, it’s safe to say that Dragonfish is once again a contender for the top bingo network in operation. It’s certainly a go to choice for those needing white label solutions.
There are more than 100 sites running Dragonfish software, with many of them either being bingo sites or casino sites with a bingo vertical, and more than 120,000 players access their rooms and games every single month.
The company has been owned by Broadway Gaming since July 2022, who breathed new life into the bingo network and shed a lot of the extra weight. I will bring you up to speed on how they got to this point below.
The Very Confusing History of Dragonfish
For many years, Dragonfish served as 888’s in-house bingo network and software studio, but they were also a massive B2B brand. This means Dragonfish ran their own bingo sites belonging to 888, but also ran white label sites belonging to third parties.
Their client base expanded rapidly to the point where there were several hundred white label brands and other operators using their services. Dragonfish was everywhere, so much so that even players began to recognise the name, which is rare for a B2B organisation.
As time went on, 888 Holdings made the strategic decision to move away from bingo. The company bought William Hill and entered the high street betting arena, so their focus went elsewhere. Dragonfish had become bloated, fragmented, and somewhat outdated, so 888 simply sold it off including all of the deals and white label arrangements it held. One of these brands was 888Ladies, which therefore no longer has anything whatsoever to do with 888 – a perfect example of how convoluted the Dragonfish situation has become.
The buyer was Broadway Gaming.
New Life Under Broadway
Broadway Gaming set up a subsidiary called Grand Battery Holdings to manage their newly acquired assets. At that point, the group effectively consisted of Broadway Gaming and Grand Battery Holdings operating side by side, and known collectively as the Broadway Gaming Group. To add another layer of confusion, Grand Battery Holdings was rebranded a few years later to Broadway Gaming Ireland DF Limited. This is now the name on the gambling license for all Broadway Gaming sites and Dragonfish white labels.
Except…
Broadway Gaming had existed since 2010, and had their own portfolio of bingo sites which had initially been running on the Microgaming network. That network shut down in 2020 though, so Broadway Gaming migrated those brands to Pragmatic Play’s bingo platform.
When they acquired Dragonfish two years later, they didn’t want to move networks again, because it might confuse or upset their customers, so a handful of Broadway Gaming’s original bingo brands run under a separate license still using Pragmatic Play’s network.
Confused? Try this:
- The Broadway Gaming Group – The organisation that runs everything. Like the box every other associated company lives in.
- Broadway Gaming Limited – The original company, now part of the Broadway Gaming Group. They hold their own gambling license (number 39075)and operate the company’s original bingo sites using Pragmatic Play’s bingo network.
- Broadway Gaming Ireland DF Limited – Originally called Grand Battery Holdings. Set up in 2022 to be a distinct legal entity from Broadway Gaming Limited in order to manage Dragonfish and the sites and white label deals acquired from 888. Holds its own gambling license (number 58267) and operates as a B2B white label provider as well as running its ‘own’ brands (those originally owned by 888).
- Dragonfish – A software developer and bingo network. Owned by Broadway Gaming Ireland DF Limited (and therefore by the Broadway Gaming Group). Originally set up by 888 Holdings but sold off in 2022.
- Pragmatic Play – Another software developer and bingo network. Broadway Gaming Limited are a customer of theirs, but there is no other connection.
So you have a situation where people are beginning to refer to the Dragonfish network as the Broadway Gaming network.
But that gets confusing when looking at a site such as Butler’s Bingo (named after Broadway Gaming’s CEO, incidentally), because as one of the company’s original brands, Butler’s doesn’t run on Dragonfish at all, it uses Pragmatic Play.
In other words, just because you see “Broadway Gaming” at the bottom of a bingo site, that doesn’t mean it is using the Dragonfish Network. However, if you see “Broadway Gaming Ireland DF Limited”, it will be.
List Of Dragonfish Bingo Sites
| Bingo Site | Launch Date | Bonus (T&Cs Apply) | Visit |
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Characteristics of the Network
The Dragonfish network is robust, scalable, dynamic and slick, and it provides the perfect platform for gaming brands big and small.
White label brands are attracted to Dragonfish because they can offer expert advice and knowledge alongside supplying a premium product. This helps small brands provide a customer experience that matches expectations.
Some key features of the Dragonfish Bingo network are:
- Highly customisable and user friendly interfaces, with simple navigation and easy to use sites. This provides brand differentiation.
- Shared network infrastructure allowing rooms on all sites to be full with all sites sharing the player pool.
- Unique game creation for clients via the bingo variant factory.
- Extensive library of over 800 slot and casino games to compliment the bingo rooms.
- Excellent variety of bonuses, promotions and jackpots available across all bingo, casino, side games and slots.
Essentially, whether a client is looking for a full turnkey solution, specific software elements, or simply want to plug into the network, Dragonfish can supply it.
Dragonfish Online Bingo Games
One of the downsides with large bingo networks is that you essentially get the same games at lots of different sites. This can make the experience a bit ‘samey’ if there isn’t enough variety within the games on offer.
Dragonfish does not have this problem.
Not only do they have a wide range of rooms and bingo variations to choose from, but they regularly update what’s on offer. So the network might offer the same games across all sites, but they change over time.
The software provides a huge variety of the more classic style of online bingo games, consisting of:
- 90-ball bingo
- 75-ball bingo
- 52-ball bingo
That said, the way these games are presented is always different, so while they may be based on the same variant (such as 75 ball bingo) there will be differences within each room.
Some of the features they have come up with include yoyo prizes, whereby the prize pot changes with every call that is made, or the mystery jackpot, which only reveals the prize after the game has started (although players know the range it will be between). There is an even stevens feature too, which makes sure all players in the room have the same number of tickets so no one can buy more chances of winning than somebody else.
They do all sorts.
One slightly disappointing aspect is their decision to do away with chat rooms. That means there is no social aspect to the bingo found on the Dragonfish network anymore, and no chat games either. A lot of players didn’t use these anyway, but for those that did Dragonfish sites might feel a little more clinical.
Online Casino Games
Drawing on decades worth experience, Dragonfish have excellent knowledge in this particular area of the online gaming industry. They are able to deliver a huge array of casino and slots products to their online bingo sites, with more than 800 titles from a number of top game developers included.
These are made up of video slots, Slingo, table games and even access to a live casino.
Jackpots and Promotions
Dragonfish have integrated bonuses, promotions and jackpots systems throughout the software, enabling registration bonuses, loyalty wheels and progressive jackpot games too.
These progressive jackpots can rise to over £1 million pounds each time, and they are shared throughout the whole network.
This means everyone is playing for the same huge pots across the whole network of sites.
Individual brands have some input as to what sort of offers and bonuses are available, but many are uniform.
Security
As the Dragonfish network is so well established, you can rest assured that their safety and security standards are robust and well tested.
They use the highest levels of encryption to keep your data safe, and the other security processes are akin to those used in online banking.
There is a huge focus on responsible gaming throughout the company as I touched on earlier, and a lot of measures are in place to keep players safe across all sites.
There are mandatory entry level training and weekly refresher courses for all customer support staff, to assist in identifying compulsive or underage gambling. There are also separate services in play to prevent anti-money laundering and fraudulent behaviour too.
Contact Details
Should you ever want to contact the team at Dragonfish for any reason, you can find an extensive information on most things on their company website at www.dragonfishtech.com.
If you would prefer to speak to a member of the customer service team however, then you can do so via the following options:
- Email – Online contact form or sales@dragonfishtech.com
- Post – Write to the team at : Hospitality House, 16-20 Cumberland Street South Dublin, Ireland, D02Y 097
Conclusion
As the Dragonfish company started out as a subsidiary of 888 Holdings, they had a decent head start over stand alone software developers.
Nevertheless, it was one of these stand alone developers that ultimately wound up owning Dragonfish thanks to 888’s disinterest and borderline neglect.
Since taking the reigns, Broadway Gaming have shed underperforming white label brands, increased the overall quality of the network and ensured only top brands are allowed to come on board as white labels. Dragonfish has been streamlined and modernised for today’s online bingo player.
The sites are fun and bright with brilliant games on offer, and the impressive technology allows bingo and casino games across mobile apps, tablets, laptops and more for on the go gaming. Dragonfish are constantly updating their software and features too, so the sites are kept fresh and maintained to an excellent standard.
With the Dragonfish name being so well established, and their reputation saved, players and potential customers can all feel safe in the knowledge that they are dealing with one of the elites of the bingo industry.