Ahead of his speaking engagement at the SBC Summit, where he will be analysing cross-platform engagement and the importance of the User Interface, we caught up with David Evans, Chief Product Officer, Buzz Bingo, as he revealed whether they are planning for further tax rises and the wider outlook for bingo in the UK.
iGaming Expert: How much has the abolition of bingo duty helped support the growth of bingo sector? How has it impacted your business?
The abolition of Bingo Duty was welcomed by the sector. Bingo is a low-risk, social and community-led form of entertainment that has been part of British culture for generations, so it was encouraging to see the Government recognise the unique role of bingo clubs on the high street.
Retail leisure businesses continue to face significant cost pressures, so removing Bingo Duty gives operators greater confidence to invest in their venues, products and customer experience.
For Buzz, it is particularly important because we are an omnichannel business. While the abolition of Bingo Duty doesn’t fully offset the significant increase in Remote Gaming Duty, it does help us continue investing in the overall Buzz experience.
Our ambition is to be the nation’s number one choice for bingo, and this gives us greater opportunity to continue to invest in our clubs so they can remain as community hubs that bring people together of all generations.
What do you make of the state of the wider UK gambling landscape and the current state of play for operators outside of the top tier?
It’s undoubtedly a challenging market. Operators are dealing with increasing taxation alongside broader employment and operating costs, while customer expectations continue to rise.
The danger is that those pressures ultimately reach the customer through reduced investment, lower promotional spend or changes to product economics. What we want is a healthy, sustainable and competitive regulated market, and this will be achieved by a stable and proportionate regulatory and tax backdrop
For operators outside the very largest tier, I think strategic clarity is more important than ever. You can’t necessarily outspend the biggest businesses, so you need to understand what makes you distinctive and be incredibly focused on it.
At Buzz our advantage is bingo, our national retail footprint and our ability to connect physical and digital experiences. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, we want to build from those strengths and create something genuinely differentiated.
Can you tell us about the evolution of the Buzz Bingo product portfolio and venues in order to tap into a wider audience?
For too long, bingo venues have suffered from underinvestment. Over the last two years we’ve been determined to change that at Buzz through our venue development programme, which we affectionately call Project Darwin – survival of the fittest!
We’ve now refurbished more than 17 venues and we’re learning with every iteration. This isn’t simply about making clubs look nicer. It’s about fundamentally improving the customer experience and creating venues that existing customers love, but that also feel relevant, accessible and exciting to a new generation. In particular, Gen Z players are rediscovering bingo and popularity has surged amongst younger players. Therefore, a huge part of our transformation has led us to invest heavily in technology, predominantly with our platform partner Playtech, to ensure new players can reap the community and social aspects of bingo, wherever they are.
We’ve developed a new front end for our retail bingo product, launched an industry-first omnichannel app, introduced a single rewards proposition and continued connecting more of the retail and digital experience. The principle behind all of it is simple: customers don’t think in channels; they think in brands.
Our job is to create great venues, great bingo and one joined-up Buzz experience wherever and however somebody chooses to play.
How much of a role has the modernisation of venues played in the resurgence of Buzz Bingo venues and what can other retail venues learn from this?
Modernising our venues has probably been the single biggest initiative we’ve undertaken during my six years at Buzz.
The competition for leisure has changed dramatically. Customers aren’t comparing a bingo club with another bingo club anymore; they’re comparing the experience with every other way they could spend an evening out. That raises the bar significantly.
This is why we are investing into our clubs as part of our modernisation and refurbishment programme. We’re investing in the environment, technology and overall experience, and we’re seeing really encouraging results.
One of our biggest learnings is that modernisation isn’t just refurbishment. You can build a fantastic-looking venue, but if the experience is difficult to understand, particularly for somebody visiting for the first time, you haven’t solved the whole problem.
That’s why our next major focus is simplification. We want bingo to be intuitive and accessible without losing the theatre, excitement and community that make the game special. If we can combine modern venues with a brilliantly simple experience, I think there’s a significant opportunity to broaden bingo’s appeal.
How detrimental would it be for the government to spike machine games duty?
The economics of retail bingo are interconnected. Machines form an important part of the overall club model and help support venues that provide entertainment, employment and genuine community value.
Bingo clubs are also highly regulated environments where customer protection is embedded into how we operate. At Buzz, player safety is one of the fundamental principles behind our product and technology decisions.
Significant increases in Machine Games Duty would put additional pressure on club economics and could constrain future investment. What makes us well positioned is our omni-channel strategy, this gives the business greater resilience and positions us well to adapt as the regulatory backdrop evolves. We’ve seen a clear increase in omni-channel customer numbers over the past year, giving us confidence that our investment in the strategy is paying off.
The abolition of Bingo Duty was a welcome recognition of the social and cultural value of bingo. A stable and proportionate regulatory backdrop is needed for us to continue investing, support growth and keep our clubs thriving in local communities.
Off the back of Andy Burnham describing bookmakers as dodgy businesses, are you fearful of the attitude the government has towards high street betting?
I wouldn’t say fearful, but I do think characterisations like that risk oversimplifying a much more nuanced industry.
I can speak most confidently about bingo. As part of our refurbishment programme, I spend a lot of time visiting clubs and meeting the colleagues and customers who bring them to life.
We’ve had colleagues who have worked in the same club for 20 or 30 years become genuinely emotional when they see their venue being refurbished. That tells you something about what these places mean to people.
Our clubs provide jobs, social interaction and safe, regulated entertainment in communities across the UK. For many customers they’re an important part of their social lives.
That doesn’t mean the industry shouldn’t be challenged – it absolutely should, particularly around player protection and maintaining high standards. But the debate needs to recognise the positive role that well-run, regulated venues can play in communities.
What do you believe can be done to relay the good of the sector and underpin the positive impact of high street gambling?
I think the industry needs to demonstrate it rather than simply talk about it.
That means continuing to raise standards, protecting customers, investing in colleagues and venues, and being transparent about the role our businesses play in local communities.
We also need to tell those stories better. Behind every bingo club are hundreds of customers, colleagues and relationships that have often existed for decades. That’s a side of the industry that isn’t always visible in the wider debate.
At Buzz, we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. If the industry consistently demonstrates that entertainment, commercial success and strong player protection can coexist, I think we have a much stronger platform from which to communicate the positive contribution the sector makes.
Have you had to shift your offering as the threat of MGD tax hikes looms?
Our strategy remains focused on creating brilliant bingo-led venues, simplifying the customer experience and building a genuinely omni-channel business that connects our clubs and digital offering
That strategy gives the business greater resilience and positions us well as the regulatory backdrop evolves.
We want to keep investing – in our clubs, our technology, our colleagues and the customer experience. A stable and proportionate tax environment gives businesses the confidence to do exactly that.
How important is the SBC Summit in Lisbon and what are you excited to learn from the event?
I’ve always been a huge advocate of events like the SBC Summit. Our industry is evolving incredibly quickly, and bringing operators, suppliers and innovators together to share ideas and challenge each other’s thinking is incredibly valuable.
As a product person at heart, I’m particularly interested in innovation – not technology for technology’s sake, but things that can genuinely make the customer experience simpler, safer or more entertaining.
I’m also interested in what we can learn from outside our immediate corner of the industry. Some of the biggest opportunities often come from taking an idea that works somewhere else and asking how it could be applied differently.
And, of course, there’s huge value in simply spending time with other people facing similar challenges. Some of the best ideas tend to come from those conversations rather than the conference stage.
