Arguably one of the biggest growing bingo sites in the UK over the last few years has been the Sunderland-based brand Tombola, which has captured the hearts of the online bingo community.
It has been so successful that it was also recently acquired by online gambling giant Flutter Entertainment. This owns brands such as PaddyPower, Betfair and FanDuel, with plans in place to challenge its biggest competitors.
Having first appeared on the online bingo scene in 2006, it took a while for the brand to become established. After successful television marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships, it has quickly acquired a significant, like-minded user base.
Tombola, compared to other bingo sites, is different in the fact that it has completely unique games that are only available at its site. As a result, enables them to stand out from the competition.
One of these is their 60 ball bingo game, which is attractive to players because it is great value and there are five chances to win a substantial share of the overall prize pool.
However, it got us thinking about whether there are any bingo sites that are similar to Tombola, due to their uniqueness, so read on to find out what these might be!
Bingo sites similar to Tombola
Below you will find an assortment of bingo sites that are similar to Tombola Bingo, all of which are available at BingoSites and approved by our expert panel.
Mecca Bingo
Somewhat of an industry heavyweight in the online bingo scene, Mecca Bingo is perhaps considered the ‘Godfather’ due to the fact that it has been around since the 1950s, starting in traditional bingo halls.
As online bingo emerged in the late nineties, Mecca moved online as well and has gradually released its own unique bingo games. In addition to the standard 90 ball, 80 ball, 75 ball and 30 ball (Speed) bingo formats.
Players will find an assortment of differently branded bingo games including Gold Rush Bingo which has bigger jackpots than usual to Penny Lane Bingo. Players can even enter for just 1p – there is definitely differentiation.
Wink Bingo
One of 888 Holding’s premier bingo sites, players can enjoy a varied amount of bingo games at Wink Bingo.
This is certainly a favourite of seasoned bingo players, especially for the selection of 90 ball, 80 ball, 75 ball and 30 ball bingo games. It is also possible to find such games as XFactor Bingo and an assortment of games that only require a 1p entry fee.
By having their own in-house software developer, Dragonfish (the B2B division of 888), means that there is always the possibility that more unique games are developed exclusively for the site.
888 Ladies
Another site from 888, also has additional bingo games that put it essentially in the same category as Tombola bingo for this reason.
In addition to the usual industry-standard game formats, players can find exciting variants that include the vibrant Flash Fives and Bingo Roulette games.
These provide players with the chance to win varying jackpot prizes on a regular basis.
Sun Bingo
An intriguing asset of the national newspaper tabloid, Sun Bingo also has a variety of different bingo games, in addition to the usual selection.
Players are able to find interesting titles such as Cash Cubes Bingo and Mystic Meg Bingo that make for an altogether quirky online bingo experience. These vary considerably in graphics and branding.
How did Tombola Bingo become so popular?
Perhaps one of the reasons why Tombola Bingo is so popular with players is because they were one of the first major bingo brands in the UK. Though they were also headed by an expert of the industry – Phil Cronin who recognised what players wanted from their online experience, having started in the paper ticket bingo industry.
Over the years, via a series of clever marketing campaigns, aligning the brand with popular television soap Emmerdale, which hit the majority of their target market.
This helped to considerably raise the awareness of the brand, while the attractive sign up offers further helped Tombola Bingo to appeal to their target market.
By developing more unique games, such as Bingo60, provided even more differentiation for players. Many were seasoned bingo players, but perhaps wanted to feel as though they were visiting a site that had something others didn’t.
The highly mobile-friendly nature of the site, in addition to its simplicity effectively set a precedent for all those that followed.
How important is it for bingo sites to offer different bingo games?
More and more online bingo brands are beginning to realise now that in order to stay competitive, they need to offer players something different in addition to their traditional bingo games.
While most now offer a small range of slots to give players a change from playing bingo all the time, more emphasis has switched back to creating different bingo games that either have a particular theme or indeed have fewer balls.
Over the next few years, as technology takes a further leap forward, we may see some bingo sites merge online bingo with things like VR (Virtual Reality) or AR (Augmented Reality), in order to increase customer acquisition and retention. It could even see these sites appeal to a completely new sector of the market.
Ultimately though, it is fair to say that Tombola Bingo has helped the industry move forward significantly and certainly, this differentiation appealed to its new owners who have clearly seen something of value.