Bingo is popular around the world in all forms, including paper and electronic games played in traditional bingo halls, charitable gaming locations, and via the Internet.
There is particularly rapid growth in Mexico and in Latin American markets, where electronic bingo has become the casino game of choice, especially when more traditional casino products are not authorized.
In the United States, charitable bingo is played in 49 states, and estimated wagering exceeds $3 billion annually.
Native American casinos in some 30 states offer high-stakes bingo and Class II bingo video gaming machines.
In Canada, charitable bingo is played in every Canadian province and territory, and electronic linked bingo is providing a model for growth for other countries.
Media Man Australia Profiles
World Gaming Directory
World Casino Directory
Bingo
Bingo News
Global Gaming Directory
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sharon Osbourne Launches Bingo Website - 30th March 2009
Sharon Osbourne, mother in popular 'The Osbournes' reality TV show, will be launching her own online bingo website.
If anyone was curious about how popular and lucrative the online bingo market was this bit of news will answer that.
Media Man Australia Profiles
The Osbournes
Bingo
Online Bingo
Bingo News
If anyone was curious about how popular and lucrative the online bingo market was this bit of news will answer that.
Media Man Australia Profiles
The Osbournes
Bingo
Online Bingo
Bingo News
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Online Bingo Spending in 2008
26th March 2009
Research by one of the leading online bingo directories, Whichbingo.co.uk, has found that online bingo is spending millions on television advertising.
In the report, Whichbingo.co.uk focused on the amount of advertising done by major bingo operators, and the size of the online bingo market.
They found that Foxy Bingo was the biggest spender by far, contributing nearly a third of the industries annual spending at $3.27million. They were followed by new online bingo site Tombola.co.uk, who spent more than $2.5million.
Whichbingo also found that there are now more than 230 online bingo sites in the UK, and the industry as a whole spent more than $10 million on television advertising alone.
Think Bingo, Party Bingo and Crown Bingo also added considerable amounts to the total, spending $1.09 million, $993,000 and $622,000 respectively.
The report suggests that the online bingo industry has a large budget when it comes to advertising, and also implies that sites are holding strong during all the economic doom and gloom.
It was however interesting that two of the largest bingo operators in the UK, Gala Bingo and Mecca Bingo, where not on the list of big spenders, as neither felt the need to advertise on TV last year.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Research by one of the leading online bingo directories, Whichbingo.co.uk, has found that online bingo is spending millions on television advertising.
In the report, Whichbingo.co.uk focused on the amount of advertising done by major bingo operators, and the size of the online bingo market.
They found that Foxy Bingo was the biggest spender by far, contributing nearly a third of the industries annual spending at $3.27million. They were followed by new online bingo site Tombola.co.uk, who spent more than $2.5million.
Whichbingo also found that there are now more than 230 online bingo sites in the UK, and the industry as a whole spent more than $10 million on television advertising alone.
Think Bingo, Party Bingo and Crown Bingo also added considerable amounts to the total, spending $1.09 million, $993,000 and $622,000 respectively.
The report suggests that the online bingo industry has a large budget when it comes to advertising, and also implies that sites are holding strong during all the economic doom and gloom.
It was however interesting that two of the largest bingo operators in the UK, Gala Bingo and Mecca Bingo, where not on the list of big spenders, as neither felt the need to advertise on TV last year.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Friday, March 27, 2009
Fast Mover - Reader's Digest - www.sweepstakes.com.au - Hitwise Australia
May 2008
Reader's Digest - www.sweepstakes.com.au
The Reader's Digest - Sweepstakes.com.au website provides information about lotteries hosted by the magazine, as well as details of recent winners and prize lists. A fast mover in All Categories during the 4 weeks ending 10/05/2008, this website moved up 1835 places to rank 995 and increased its market share of visits by 204%.
Social networking website Bebo (www.bebo.com) drove 44.28% of upstream traffic share to The Reader's Digest - Sweepstakes.com.au in the week ending 10/05/2008, followed by email service Yahoo!7 - Mail (mail.yahoo.com.au) and portal frontpage Yahoo!7 (au.yahoo.com) with 9.69% and 9.38% respectively. Of www.sweepstakes.com.au's total upstream traffic, 74.09% consisted of new visitors.
The Hitwise Lifestyle Demographics tool provides insights into households that have the propensity to visit competitor websites. Based on the 12 week period ending 10/05/2008, of the 11 Mosaic Australia 2008 Groups, 18.93% of traffic to www.sweepstakes.com.au came from 'Community Disconnect' users (older blue-collar workers and retirees in country and coastal locations) and 15.55% of traffic came from 'Family Challenge' users (mixed family forms with stretched budgets in outer suburbs). (Credit: Hitwise)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Hitwise
Hitwise Top 10 Gambling - Poker websites
Bingo
Bingo Australia
Bingo News
Reader's Digest - www.sweepstakes.com.au
The Reader's Digest - Sweepstakes.com.au website provides information about lotteries hosted by the magazine, as well as details of recent winners and prize lists. A fast mover in All Categories during the 4 weeks ending 10/05/2008, this website moved up 1835 places to rank 995 and increased its market share of visits by 204%.
Social networking website Bebo (www.bebo.com) drove 44.28% of upstream traffic share to The Reader's Digest - Sweepstakes.com.au in the week ending 10/05/2008, followed by email service Yahoo!7 - Mail (mail.yahoo.com.au) and portal frontpage Yahoo!7 (au.yahoo.com) with 9.69% and 9.38% respectively. Of www.sweepstakes.com.au's total upstream traffic, 74.09% consisted of new visitors.
The Hitwise Lifestyle Demographics tool provides insights into households that have the propensity to visit competitor websites. Based on the 12 week period ending 10/05/2008, of the 11 Mosaic Australia 2008 Groups, 18.93% of traffic to www.sweepstakes.com.au came from 'Community Disconnect' users (older blue-collar workers and retirees in country and coastal locations) and 15.55% of traffic came from 'Family Challenge' users (mixed family forms with stretched budgets in outer suburbs). (Credit: Hitwise)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Hitwise
Hitwise Top 10 Gambling - Poker websites
Bingo
Bingo Australia
Bingo News
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Online Bingo ad Banned - 26th March 2009
Tombola Bingo is one of the most popular UK gaming sites and recently embarked on a ambitious TV advertising campaign. Their adverts were implemented by the experienced ad agency JDA agency.
The ad's were populated by fair ground rides including roller coaster's and a Ferris wheel portraying the excitement provided by playing on the Tombola site. Bright colours are used in the ad and details of the the sign up bonus are shown.
The voice-over said, "Every day, thousands of people join in the fun at Tombola.co.uk. With over 35 chat rooms to choose from, you can join the ride, make new friends and play your favourite bingo games. Plus join now for more chances to WIN with up to £25 Money Match!"
The commercial was however banned by the ASA, who received a complaint by a member of public who believed it appeal to minors. Tombola claimed that the ad's simply used images and graphics which were used as a metaphor for online bingo.
Ladbrokes online casino site had an advertisement banned earlier this year when it was claimed to portray casino gaming as brave and risky by one member of public.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
The ad's were populated by fair ground rides including roller coaster's and a Ferris wheel portraying the excitement provided by playing on the Tombola site. Bright colours are used in the ad and details of the the sign up bonus are shown.
The voice-over said, "Every day, thousands of people join in the fun at Tombola.co.uk. With over 35 chat rooms to choose from, you can join the ride, make new friends and play your favourite bingo games. Plus join now for more chances to WIN with up to £25 Money Match!"
The commercial was however banned by the ASA, who received a complaint by a member of public who believed it appeal to minors. Tombola claimed that the ad's simply used images and graphics which were used as a metaphor for online bingo.
Ladbrokes online casino site had an advertisement banned earlier this year when it was claimed to portray casino gaming as brave and risky by one member of public.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Win £5000 At Virgin Bingo
If you fancy partying like Paris then make sure you join Virgin Bingo every Wednesday throughout March at 9 pm, when they’ll be giving you the chance to win £5.000. Remember, tickets for this big bingo game are only 25p each!
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo News
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo News
Bingo.com finally gets Malta licence
Bingo.com has finally received a Maltese gaming licence and will now be able to advertise their online bingo site in the UK.
Under UK laws only companies operating from a ‘white listed' territory - anywhere in the UK or Gibraltar, Alderney, Isle of Man or Antigua - can advertise an online gambling website within the UK.
“Launching Bingo.com from Malta is a significant step forward for our organization”, said Tarrnie Williams, the Company's CEO. “We are now free to begin marketing in the United Kingdom and are able to expand the reach of our affiliate program to new and popular websites.”
The company said it was also about to launch its own affiliate program through Income Access, who specialises in online gambling affiliate deals. “We chose Income Access to manage our affiliate program because they have extensive experience in the gaming sector and provide fantastic affiliate software. Bingo.com is well positioned to grow its business in the UK through its extensive affiliate network,” said Mr Williams.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Under UK laws only companies operating from a ‘white listed' territory - anywhere in the UK or Gibraltar, Alderney, Isle of Man or Antigua - can advertise an online gambling website within the UK.
“Launching Bingo.com from Malta is a significant step forward for our organization”, said Tarrnie Williams, the Company's CEO. “We are now free to begin marketing in the United Kingdom and are able to expand the reach of our affiliate program to new and popular websites.”
The company said it was also about to launch its own affiliate program through Income Access, who specialises in online gambling affiliate deals. “We chose Income Access to manage our affiliate program because they have extensive experience in the gaming sector and provide fantastic affiliate software. Bingo.com is well positioned to grow its business in the UK through its extensive affiliate network,” said Mr Williams.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Virtue Fusion Alderney Launches Multi-Currency Bing
Multi-currency bingo is the solution for multi-currency sites
March 23, 2009 (London, UK) -- Virtue Fusion Alderney (www.virtuefusion.com) launches its ultimate solution for multi-currency sites and is liquidizing its overseas player base. Players from all over Europe (and beyond) will now all link into the same prize pools generating larger and more attractive prize funds for players. Players will not only see game names in their selected language site but they will also see the converted prizes in their base currency.
This is seen as a great achievement by Virtue Fusion Alderney as it now means that operators who wish to share their liquidity across their various currency offerings can do so without having to tap into the Virtue Fusion Alderney networked liquidity. If operators wish to link into the larger prize draws e.g. the BingoLinx games that occur at 6pm and 10.30pm (GMT), they can do so thus creating a "Euromillions" style scenario where players across Europe play for the same prize jackpots.
CEO Bob McCulloch stated, “This puts Virtue Fusion Alderney’s client base in good stead to compete with established Bingo Sites in countries like Spain, Sweden and Denmark etc. We don’t need to build a customer base from scratch as we are able to show large player numbers and prize pools from launch also eliminating the need to expose ourselves to large marketing liabilities."
The system is already set up to include other currencies other than GBP, Euro, Swedish Krona and Danish Krona so when an operator ventures into other territories they are safe in the knowledge that Virtue Fusion can support them in establishing a strong presence abroad with higher prize pools.
About Virtue Fusion Alderney Limited
Virtue Fusion develops Bingo and networked gaming solutions for the online gambling industry, primarily targeting existing online gaming operators, bookmakers, land-based operators and media companies. Virtue Fusion continues to be the world's leading developer and licensor of Internet bingo products in the UK. The Virtue Fusion gaming network offers some of the largest bingo prizes to be found with peak traffic of over 6,000 concurrent players. The Group specializes in providing Bingo, networked games such as slots and scratch cards. Some of the world's best-known brands use Virtue Fusion Bingo solutions, including Mecca, Ladbrokes, William Hill, Sky, Bet365 and Crown Bingo. Virtue Fusion continues to focus on the UK as its core market whilst launching products into Scandinavia and Europe during 2009. Virtue Fusion operates out of Alderney and is currently applying for a Maltese License.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
March 23, 2009 (London, UK) -- Virtue Fusion Alderney (www.virtuefusion.com) launches its ultimate solution for multi-currency sites and is liquidizing its overseas player base. Players from all over Europe (and beyond) will now all link into the same prize pools generating larger and more attractive prize funds for players. Players will not only see game names in their selected language site but they will also see the converted prizes in their base currency.
This is seen as a great achievement by Virtue Fusion Alderney as it now means that operators who wish to share their liquidity across their various currency offerings can do so without having to tap into the Virtue Fusion Alderney networked liquidity. If operators wish to link into the larger prize draws e.g. the BingoLinx games that occur at 6pm and 10.30pm (GMT), they can do so thus creating a "Euromillions" style scenario where players across Europe play for the same prize jackpots.
CEO Bob McCulloch stated, “This puts Virtue Fusion Alderney’s client base in good stead to compete with established Bingo Sites in countries like Spain, Sweden and Denmark etc. We don’t need to build a customer base from scratch as we are able to show large player numbers and prize pools from launch also eliminating the need to expose ourselves to large marketing liabilities."
The system is already set up to include other currencies other than GBP, Euro, Swedish Krona and Danish Krona so when an operator ventures into other territories they are safe in the knowledge that Virtue Fusion can support them in establishing a strong presence abroad with higher prize pools.
About Virtue Fusion Alderney Limited
Virtue Fusion develops Bingo and networked gaming solutions for the online gambling industry, primarily targeting existing online gaming operators, bookmakers, land-based operators and media companies. Virtue Fusion continues to be the world's leading developer and licensor of Internet bingo products in the UK. The Virtue Fusion gaming network offers some of the largest bingo prizes to be found with peak traffic of over 6,000 concurrent players. The Group specializes in providing Bingo, networked games such as slots and scratch cards. Some of the world's best-known brands use Virtue Fusion Bingo solutions, including Mecca, Ladbrokes, William Hill, Sky, Bet365 and Crown Bingo. Virtue Fusion continues to focus on the UK as its core market whilst launching products into Scandinavia and Europe during 2009. Virtue Fusion operates out of Alderney and is currently applying for a Maltese License.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Sunday, March 22, 2009
TV Bingo sets sights on prime time - 16th April 2008
The new wave of TV Bingo shows sweeping the nation has – much like online bingo - helped bring the UK’s favourite game into people’s living rooms, but bingo on television is by no means a new phenomenon.
Throughout television history, broadcasters have tried to harness bingo’s popularity, with varying degrees of success. Some colourful celebrities and TV personalities have done their best to engage audiences and deliver the atmosphere of the bingo hall to homes around the world.
As early as 1958, bingo first became a hit on the small screen in the U.S. when American presenter Monty Hall fronted Bingo At Home on the DuMont Television Network. Station manager Steve Krantz came up with the idea for the show, which was so successful that switchboards at Channel 5 burned out when a deluge of calls came in from viewers first bombarded the show’s hotline.
Various European countries took up the idea and aired bingo shows, with a loyal audience emerging in Scandinavian countries. However, bingo failed to attract primetime audiences in the UK, where land-based bingo halls remained the choice of bingo fans.
The struggles faced by land-based bingo in the new millennium and the emergence of online bingo have prompted a string of fresh TV bingo productions, both in the UK and abroad.
Gala Bingo, part of the Gala Coral Group and the UK’s number one bingo operator, launched Gala TV, the first live interactive bingo television channel, in late 2006.
Gala Bingo teamed-up with Endemol UK to produce Gala TV, which is available on the Sky Digital platform, Channel 841. This interactive live bingo and gaming channel is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and includes 8 hours of live, presenter-led bingo between 5pm – 1am daily. These live bingo sessions combine experienced bingo callers, who have been selected from Gala Bingo’s clubs across the UK, with experienced TV presenters.
In the U.S., ABC’s National Bingo Night hit screens nationwide in May 2007. Ed Sanders, host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, presented the show, which pitted a solo contestant against a studio audience in a game of bingo.
Despite much hype surrounding the show’s launch, National Bingo Night achieved disappointing viewing figures on its first night and ABC eventually shipped it to rival network GSN.
In the UK, the success of Gala TV prompted competitor productions to emerge, such as BigBoxBingo.
Fronted by Greg Scott and originally broadcast out of Lithuania, each programme features six games of bingo, with cards costing £1.50 each. The show has proved popular and recently moved to studios in London.
Less successful was Bingo Lotto, which aired for six weeks in 2008 on the Virgin 1 and Challenge channels.
Popular comic Joe Pasquali and former Hear’say popstar Suzanne Shaw teamed up to present the interactive show, which invited viewers to pre-buy their tickets in shops and play along with the action.
However, poor ticket sales cut the show’s run short and a second series is rumoured to be in doubt, despite initial plans to air the programme continuously.
The latest TV bingo production promises to marry online bingo and TV simultaneously, and is bringing back some British TV favourites to help present the show. Celebrity TV Bingo will star former Bullseye presenter Jim Bowen, along with comedy duo Cannon & Ball and host Greg Scott.
Should the show achieve the kind of success that Bullseye enjoyed in the 1980s and 90s, bingo on television could finally find a permanent place in the hearts of a nation.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Throughout television history, broadcasters have tried to harness bingo’s popularity, with varying degrees of success. Some colourful celebrities and TV personalities have done their best to engage audiences and deliver the atmosphere of the bingo hall to homes around the world.
As early as 1958, bingo first became a hit on the small screen in the U.S. when American presenter Monty Hall fronted Bingo At Home on the DuMont Television Network. Station manager Steve Krantz came up with the idea for the show, which was so successful that switchboards at Channel 5 burned out when a deluge of calls came in from viewers first bombarded the show’s hotline.
Various European countries took up the idea and aired bingo shows, with a loyal audience emerging in Scandinavian countries. However, bingo failed to attract primetime audiences in the UK, where land-based bingo halls remained the choice of bingo fans.
The struggles faced by land-based bingo in the new millennium and the emergence of online bingo have prompted a string of fresh TV bingo productions, both in the UK and abroad.
Gala Bingo, part of the Gala Coral Group and the UK’s number one bingo operator, launched Gala TV, the first live interactive bingo television channel, in late 2006.
Gala Bingo teamed-up with Endemol UK to produce Gala TV, which is available on the Sky Digital platform, Channel 841. This interactive live bingo and gaming channel is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and includes 8 hours of live, presenter-led bingo between 5pm – 1am daily. These live bingo sessions combine experienced bingo callers, who have been selected from Gala Bingo’s clubs across the UK, with experienced TV presenters.
In the U.S., ABC’s National Bingo Night hit screens nationwide in May 2007. Ed Sanders, host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, presented the show, which pitted a solo contestant against a studio audience in a game of bingo.
Despite much hype surrounding the show’s launch, National Bingo Night achieved disappointing viewing figures on its first night and ABC eventually shipped it to rival network GSN.
In the UK, the success of Gala TV prompted competitor productions to emerge, such as BigBoxBingo.
Fronted by Greg Scott and originally broadcast out of Lithuania, each programme features six games of bingo, with cards costing £1.50 each. The show has proved popular and recently moved to studios in London.
Less successful was Bingo Lotto, which aired for six weeks in 2008 on the Virgin 1 and Challenge channels.
Popular comic Joe Pasquali and former Hear’say popstar Suzanne Shaw teamed up to present the interactive show, which invited viewers to pre-buy their tickets in shops and play along with the action.
However, poor ticket sales cut the show’s run short and a second series is rumoured to be in doubt, despite initial plans to air the programme continuously.
The latest TV bingo production promises to marry online bingo and TV simultaneously, and is bringing back some British TV favourites to help present the show. Celebrity TV Bingo will star former Bullseye presenter Jim Bowen, along with comedy duo Cannon & Ball and host Greg Scott.
Should the show achieve the kind of success that Bullseye enjoyed in the 1980s and 90s, bingo on television could finally find a permanent place in the hearts of a nation.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Gaming to win is the name of the game. Try to tip the scales in your favor if at all possible.
Gaming to win is the name of the game
Try to tip the scales in your favor if at all possible
Party signs white label deal - 17th March 2009
Party Bingo owner PartyGaming is set to create a bingo and casino service for DM plc after signing a 'white-label' agreement.
DM is a marketing firm specialising in customer recruitment and database management for clients in the UK.
“As the UK market leader in our sector, DM welcomes this exciting opportunity to make our assets work harder by offering customers exciting and entertaining online bingo and casino games,” DM Chairman Adrian Williams told iGaming Business.
”We are delighted to be working with PartyGaming and look forward with confidence to developing a highly successful business-to-business relationship.”
The new gaming service will be DM-branded and is PartyGaming’s second ‘white-label’ agreement this year.
“We are pleased to announce that DM has joined our ‘white-label’ portfolio just a few weeks after we signed an agreement with Cirsa to explore and develop online gaming opportunities in Spanish-speaking countries,” said Jim Ryan, Chief Executive Officer for PartyGaming.
“We look forward to the development and launch of the DM-branded casino and bingo gaming service, which conforms to our strategy to build a strong business-to-business operation by leveraging our assets and those owned by other companies.”
Media Man Australia Profiles
PartyBingo.com
Bingo
Bingo News
DM is a marketing firm specialising in customer recruitment and database management for clients in the UK.
“As the UK market leader in our sector, DM welcomes this exciting opportunity to make our assets work harder by offering customers exciting and entertaining online bingo and casino games,” DM Chairman Adrian Williams told iGaming Business.
”We are delighted to be working with PartyGaming and look forward with confidence to developing a highly successful business-to-business relationship.”
The new gaming service will be DM-branded and is PartyGaming’s second ‘white-label’ agreement this year.
“We are pleased to announce that DM has joined our ‘white-label’ portfolio just a few weeks after we signed an agreement with Cirsa to explore and develop online gaming opportunities in Spanish-speaking countries,” said Jim Ryan, Chief Executive Officer for PartyGaming.
“We look forward to the development and launch of the DM-branded casino and bingo gaming service, which conforms to our strategy to build a strong business-to-business operation by leveraging our assets and those owned by other companies.”
Media Man Australia Profiles
PartyBingo.com
Bingo
Bingo News
Online Bingo TV
Online bingo websites spent over £7million on TV advertising in 2008 according to Nielsen Media Research.
With more than 230 different online bingo sites in the UK, the competition for players’ hearts and minds has become more intense and this trend is borne out by more than £7m spent during 2008.
Leading the spending in 2008 was Foxy Bingo with more than £2.25m spent on TV advertising. The second largest spend was on the new launch of Tombola during 2008, with a spend of £1.75m. Only these two sites spent more than £1m on TV advertising.
Two other sites spent more than £500k; Think Bingo spent more than £750k and Party Bingo spent in excess of £640k. In the £400k+ bracket were Crown Bingo (£427k) and Jackpot Joy (£414k), while the Daily Mail’s 2008 launch of Coffee Break Bingo was backed by a £330k TV campaign. One other bingo site (Littlewoods Bingo) spent more than £100k on TV advertising, spending £193k.
The full list of TV advertisers is completed by seven more online bingo sites which between them spent a further £300,000.
The exact spends according to Nielsen Media Research are as follows;
Foxy Bingo - £2,255,128
Tombola - £1,746,989
Think Bingo - £786,311
Party Bingo - £641,053
Crown Bingo - £427,275
Jackpot Joy - £414,217
Mail Online - £336,786
Littlewoods - £193,925
Bingos - £98,947
Bingo Scotland - £63,370
Love Bingo - £52,070
32 Red Bingo - £39,663
Bingo Palace - £37,435
ScotBingo - £8,390
Mikes Bingo - £4,725
Total £7,106,284
Media Man Australia Profiles
Advertising
Television
Bingo
Online Bingo
Bingo News
With more than 230 different online bingo sites in the UK, the competition for players’ hearts and minds has become more intense and this trend is borne out by more than £7m spent during 2008.
Leading the spending in 2008 was Foxy Bingo with more than £2.25m spent on TV advertising. The second largest spend was on the new launch of Tombola during 2008, with a spend of £1.75m. Only these two sites spent more than £1m on TV advertising.
Two other sites spent more than £500k; Think Bingo spent more than £750k and Party Bingo spent in excess of £640k. In the £400k+ bracket were Crown Bingo (£427k) and Jackpot Joy (£414k), while the Daily Mail’s 2008 launch of Coffee Break Bingo was backed by a £330k TV campaign. One other bingo site (Littlewoods Bingo) spent more than £100k on TV advertising, spending £193k.
The full list of TV advertisers is completed by seven more online bingo sites which between them spent a further £300,000.
The exact spends according to Nielsen Media Research are as follows;
Foxy Bingo - £2,255,128
Tombola - £1,746,989
Think Bingo - £786,311
Party Bingo - £641,053
Crown Bingo - £427,275
Jackpot Joy - £414,217
Mail Online - £336,786
Littlewoods - £193,925
Bingos - £98,947
Bingo Scotland - £63,370
Love Bingo - £52,070
32 Red Bingo - £39,663
Bingo Palace - £37,435
ScotBingo - £8,390
Mikes Bingo - £4,725
Total £7,106,284
Media Man Australia Profiles
Advertising
Television
Bingo
Online Bingo
Bingo News
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Is 3D Online Bingo the Future?
18th March 2009
3D casino's are the latest innovation in the UK online gambling industry, with sites such as Le Croupier and Buzz Luck offering their players new realistic game play.
However is online bingo likely to take the same route? Could we soon be taking a trip to a virtual online bingo hall where you can walk around, play mini games whilst playing bingo? Well the technology is certainly available.
Powerful new software products have allowed online poker operator, PKR, to offer the best in 3D gaming. Features such as emotional actions allow players to behave in a certain way to try and fool their opponents. They can also buy clothing items from the PKR shop.
There's yet to be a bingo hall which provides this sort of game play, but the question is, would it really work with online bingo? Currently hundreds of sites are still packed with players who take part in 2D format games.
Some operators like Bet 365 Bingo offer live callers, shown on a video stream for users to watch. This way they can be assured that the balls called are completely random.
So, 3D software products could be the long term future for the UK bingo industry, but for the time, operators are performing well using platforms provided by the likes of Virtual Fusion and and Parlay.
Media Man Australia Profiles
3D Games
3D Casino
UK Casinos
UK Gaming
Bingo
Bingo News
3D casino's are the latest innovation in the UK online gambling industry, with sites such as Le Croupier and Buzz Luck offering their players new realistic game play.
However is online bingo likely to take the same route? Could we soon be taking a trip to a virtual online bingo hall where you can walk around, play mini games whilst playing bingo? Well the technology is certainly available.
Powerful new software products have allowed online poker operator, PKR, to offer the best in 3D gaming. Features such as emotional actions allow players to behave in a certain way to try and fool their opponents. They can also buy clothing items from the PKR shop.
There's yet to be a bingo hall which provides this sort of game play, but the question is, would it really work with online bingo? Currently hundreds of sites are still packed with players who take part in 2D format games.
Some operators like Bet 365 Bingo offer live callers, shown on a video stream for users to watch. This way they can be assured that the balls called are completely random.
So, 3D software products could be the long term future for the UK bingo industry, but for the time, operators are performing well using platforms provided by the likes of Virtual Fusion and and Parlay.
Media Man Australia Profiles
3D Games
3D Casino
UK Casinos
UK Gaming
Bingo
Bingo News
Obama Bingo Raises money for Sue Ryder Charity
19th March 2009
Kezia Obama is a self confessed bingo fan. As a regular player at her local Gala hall, Kezia became a celebrity overnight when her son in law Barack Obama won the US Presidential election late last year.
Obama who was the first African American President in the U.S won by a huge majority and was sworn in earlier this year. Meanwhile his stepmother Kezia, who lives in the UK, was busy raising money for charity with popular gaming brand, Gala Bingo.
Kezia held her own online game during the inauguration which raised £10,000 for the Sue Ryder charity. Gala Bingo therefore decided to match however much Kezia's game raised, bringing the total to an impressive £20,000.
She said in a statement, “It is great that I have been able to use my good fortune to help Sue Ryder Care, thanks to galabingo.com."
Bridget Auger spokeswoman for the charity, said: “We’re thrilled that galabingo.com’s recent initiative raised such a fantastic amount of money for Sue Ryder Care.
"On behalf of the charity I’d like to extend a sincere thanks to everybody who got involved and to galabingo.com for its ongoing support."
Gala Bingo hold numerous Charity games throughout the year, and Foxy Bingo also helped raise an massive £150,000 for Comic Relief last week.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Kezia Obama is a self confessed bingo fan. As a regular player at her local Gala hall, Kezia became a celebrity overnight when her son in law Barack Obama won the US Presidential election late last year.
Obama who was the first African American President in the U.S won by a huge majority and was sworn in earlier this year. Meanwhile his stepmother Kezia, who lives in the UK, was busy raising money for charity with popular gaming brand, Gala Bingo.
Kezia held her own online game during the inauguration which raised £10,000 for the Sue Ryder charity. Gala Bingo therefore decided to match however much Kezia's game raised, bringing the total to an impressive £20,000.
She said in a statement, “It is great that I have been able to use my good fortune to help Sue Ryder Care, thanks to galabingo.com."
Bridget Auger spokeswoman for the charity, said: “We’re thrilled that galabingo.com’s recent initiative raised such a fantastic amount of money for Sue Ryder Care.
"On behalf of the charity I’d like to extend a sincere thanks to everybody who got involved and to galabingo.com for its ongoing support."
Gala Bingo hold numerous Charity games throughout the year, and Foxy Bingo also helped raise an massive £150,000 for Comic Relief last week.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Online Bingo Market
The online bingo industry has been growing for several years now, but many believe the market has become saturated with increasing numbers of operators.
Sites such as Foxy and Gala Bingo have dominated the online industry, however sports bookie's, casino and poker sites have also opened their own branded bingo sites.
This has created packed out online market full of new bingo products, resulting in increased competition. Gala and Foxy have dominated for so long, many industry experts believe that most players have already signed up and played at the sites.
Instead they are now trying their luck at other less known operators. Affiliate sites have made the market place easier to navigate, pointing customers to the sites which best suit them, whether its deposit bonuses, excellent customer service or special prize draws.
Several sites have now been setup which specialize in certain types of games, like chat or guaranteed jackpots.
New products are being introduced every year and it's only a matter of time before 3D halls are introduced with chat functions.
So it seems the future is still very bright for internet bingo.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo Portal
Online Bingo
Bingo Hall
Bingo News
Sites such as Foxy and Gala Bingo have dominated the online industry, however sports bookie's, casino and poker sites have also opened their own branded bingo sites.
This has created packed out online market full of new bingo products, resulting in increased competition. Gala and Foxy have dominated for so long, many industry experts believe that most players have already signed up and played at the sites.
Instead they are now trying their luck at other less known operators. Affiliate sites have made the market place easier to navigate, pointing customers to the sites which best suit them, whether its deposit bonuses, excellent customer service or special prize draws.
Several sites have now been setup which specialize in certain types of games, like chat or guaranteed jackpots.
New products are being introduced every year and it's only a matter of time before 3D halls are introduced with chat functions.
So it seems the future is still very bright for internet bingo.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo Portal
Online Bingo
Bingo Hall
Bingo News
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Casino Rewards Launches Major Online Lottery
Entertaining and eye-catching money-spinner set to take Internet by storm
BONDI JUNCTION, AUSTRALIA, February 28, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- 2009 looks set to be a huge year for CasinoRewards.com, currently one of the largest Microgaming online casino operators. With no less than 18 prestigious online casinos under its belt and number 19 rumoured to be on its way, and the popular casino loyalty program RewardsAffiliates.com coming away with yet another award at the recent Casino Affiliate Programs award ceremony in London, the online casino behemoth is going from strength to strength.
Now, stepping into new waters, Casino Rewards is introducing a clean-cut, visually striking and highly entertaining online lottery game to its line up of successful online casinos.
RewardsRiches.com features a daily, weekly and monthly draw, offering new ways to win and the enormous jackpots for which Casino Rewards is famous. Players pick their numbers and wait for the draw to reveal whether the rolling balls have fallen in their favour.
Years ahead of archaic and ugly online lottery sites, Rewards Riches is presented in an attractive and modern interface, with intuitive game-play and entertaining graphics and animation. The site is also available in French with multilingual support as standard thanks to the Casino Rewards help team, on hand 24/7.
Online casino forums are alight with rumours of thousands of lucky players who are taking advantage of a special 5 free ticket launch promotion, with draw jackpots currently sitting at $250,000, $500,000 and an incredible $1,000,000! Anyone can join in the fun for free by signing up at a Casino Rewards partner casino (www.casinorewards.com/main/partners.asp).
With almost $2 million in prize funds and tickets available from only a dollar, Rewards Riches provides an attractive alternative to online slots and card games, premiered by Casino Rewards, respected and trusted name in online gambling entertainment.
Casino Rewards/Rewards Affiliates
Established in 2000, Casino Rewards has positioned itself as a respected industry leader, operating 18 multilingual online casinos alongside an award winning affiliate program Rewards Affiliates. Each online casino features free play and sign up bonuses, over 300 video slots, table and card games and 24/7 multilingual support.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Casino Rewards
Rewards Affiliates
Microgaming
Bingo News
BONDI JUNCTION, AUSTRALIA, February 28, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- 2009 looks set to be a huge year for CasinoRewards.com, currently one of the largest Microgaming online casino operators. With no less than 18 prestigious online casinos under its belt and number 19 rumoured to be on its way, and the popular casino loyalty program RewardsAffiliates.com coming away with yet another award at the recent Casino Affiliate Programs award ceremony in London, the online casino behemoth is going from strength to strength.
Now, stepping into new waters, Casino Rewards is introducing a clean-cut, visually striking and highly entertaining online lottery game to its line up of successful online casinos.
RewardsRiches.com features a daily, weekly and monthly draw, offering new ways to win and the enormous jackpots for which Casino Rewards is famous. Players pick their numbers and wait for the draw to reveal whether the rolling balls have fallen in their favour.
Years ahead of archaic and ugly online lottery sites, Rewards Riches is presented in an attractive and modern interface, with intuitive game-play and entertaining graphics and animation. The site is also available in French with multilingual support as standard thanks to the Casino Rewards help team, on hand 24/7.
Online casino forums are alight with rumours of thousands of lucky players who are taking advantage of a special 5 free ticket launch promotion, with draw jackpots currently sitting at $250,000, $500,000 and an incredible $1,000,000! Anyone can join in the fun for free by signing up at a Casino Rewards partner casino (www.casinorewards.com/main/partners.asp).
With almost $2 million in prize funds and tickets available from only a dollar, Rewards Riches provides an attractive alternative to online slots and card games, premiered by Casino Rewards, respected and trusted name in online gambling entertainment.
Casino Rewards/Rewards Affiliates
Established in 2000, Casino Rewards has positioned itself as a respected industry leader, operating 18 multilingual online casinos alongside an award winning affiliate program Rewards Affiliates. Each online casino features free play and sign up bonuses, over 300 video slots, table and card games and 24/7 multilingual support.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Casino Rewards
Rewards Affiliates
Microgaming
Bingo News
Lotto loss hits agents, by James Campbell - Herald Sun - 1st March 2009
Documents leaked to the Sunday Herald Sun reveal the dire plight of Intralot's lotto agents.
Hundreds of documents show that between the end of September last and January, 204 of the company's 769 agents - who each paid between $8000 and $10,000 for their licences - lost money each week selling the company's products.
Another 196 agents each made less than $22 a week from selling Intralot's Keno, Lucky Lines, Bingo and scratchies.
The worst performing product was Lucky Lines, which averaged only $44 a week across all the agencies. Sales of Bingo have also been a disaster for the company, with agents averaging only $53 in sales each week.
The best performer was the company's scratchies, which averaged $1287 in sales.
The documents show many agencies went weeks without selling a single Lucky Lines, Bingo or Keno ticket.
The revelations come as a group of lotto agents is considering taking legal action against the Greek gambling giant.
"We've spoken to lawyers and are working out our next step," an agent said yesterday.
Intralot's Australian chief John Katakis said on Thursday that two-thirds of the company's agents were now making money.
But Lotto Agents Association of Victoria chief Peter Judkins rejected the claim, saying the Sunday Herald Sun's figures were consistent with what his members had been telling him.
"They appear to be in line with the anecdotes we've been hearing," he said.
"There are approximately 300 to 400 retailers who are nowhere near covering their costs."
Rebecca Harrison, a spokeswoman for Gaming Minister Tony Robinson, said he met regularly with stakeholders.
"In a meeting with LAAV this week, the minister noted agents' concerns about Intralot's performance," she said. (Credit: Herald Sun)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Lottery
Bingo News
Hundreds of documents show that between the end of September last and January, 204 of the company's 769 agents - who each paid between $8000 and $10,000 for their licences - lost money each week selling the company's products.
Another 196 agents each made less than $22 a week from selling Intralot's Keno, Lucky Lines, Bingo and scratchies.
The worst performing product was Lucky Lines, which averaged only $44 a week across all the agencies. Sales of Bingo have also been a disaster for the company, with agents averaging only $53 in sales each week.
The best performer was the company's scratchies, which averaged $1287 in sales.
The documents show many agencies went weeks without selling a single Lucky Lines, Bingo or Keno ticket.
The revelations come as a group of lotto agents is considering taking legal action against the Greek gambling giant.
"We've spoken to lawyers and are working out our next step," an agent said yesterday.
Intralot's Australian chief John Katakis said on Thursday that two-thirds of the company's agents were now making money.
But Lotto Agents Association of Victoria chief Peter Judkins rejected the claim, saying the Sunday Herald Sun's figures were consistent with what his members had been telling him.
"They appear to be in line with the anecdotes we've been hearing," he said.
"There are approximately 300 to 400 retailers who are nowhere near covering their costs."
Rebecca Harrison, a spokeswoman for Gaming Minister Tony Robinson, said he met regularly with stakeholders.
"In a meeting with LAAV this week, the minister noted agents' concerns about Intralot's performance," she said. (Credit: Herald Sun)
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Lottery
Bingo News
Bingo beyond the Fringe, by Ashleigh Wilson - The Australian - 2nd March 2009
There was a bingo theme at the launch of the Adelaide Fringe program in January. The singer Kamahl was there, pulling out numbers that referred to a particular page of the program. They were calling it Fringe Bingo, and earlier that day, an oversized bingo ball, with an artist inside, was rolled down Rundle Mall.
The ever-smiling Fringe director, Christie Anthoney, thinks the lottery metaphor is appropriate, saying "everyone's a winner". But it can just as easily describe the lucky-dip nature of the festival, a melange of performing and visual arts where you never really know what you're going to get. More than any other arts festival in Australia, there are no guarantees about what will happen.
The formula is risky. But it's also part of the appeal of the Adelaide Fringe, which opened in an array of colour on Friday night, when thousands of people ignored soaring heat to pack the streets of the city, trying to grab a glimpse of the parade or of artists performing extracts from their work. The event runs for 23 days and is set to take over every corner of the city. Everyone involved, from artists to administrators to promoters, has a stake in itssuccess.
"It's the festival of the new," Anthoney says. "I like to say it's the freshest festival in Australia. The largest, and the freshest."
Anthoney lists some of the "crazy statistics" of the festival, which is modelled on the Edinburgh Fringe. Indeed, it prides itself on being the second-biggest arts festival in the world behind Edinburgh. Those involved in Adelaide are quick to rattle off the numbers: 517 shows, 4977 performances, 259 venues, 293 premieres. The challenge is how to bring all those different elements together into some kind of coherent whole and then to determine what acts to see, and what to miss.
Size alone is not what makes the Adelaide Fringe unique among the nation's summer arts festivals.
Having only two years ago become annual, it no longer finds itself tied to the biennial Adelaide Festival of the Arts. That separation underlines how the fringe has forged its own identity in the crowded festival circuit, where its irreverent, all-inclusive spirit has been embraced by the city and artists alike. And it comes at a busy time for Adelaide, which is also making room for the city's film festival and WOMADelaide this month.
This year is Anthoney's third as Fringe director. She has travelled to Edinburgh annually for the past 17 years, working at the festival and looking for ideas. One of the differences between the Adelaide and Edinburgh fringe festivals, she says, is that only Adelaide includes curated events, such as the opening night show on Friday. Otherwise, the controlled chaos of the formula is the same: artists of varying backgrounds and abilities register with the festival to perform. It's usually their responsibility to find a venue, and they also take all the risks. No one is excluded, as long as they pay their own way and get their applications in on time.
"There is no selection process for the Adelaide Fringe," Anthoney says. "It is an absolutely open festival. The only way in which somebody would be rejected as such is if they missed the deadline."
This, of course, brings the real possibility of a festival of duds, although the opposite is also true. By all accounts, the quality remains high,with little-known acts attracting exposure and giving audiences an insight into some of the work being developed beyond thenation's mainstream arts companies.
The festival stage, Anthoney says, is also a testing ground for new shows: she mentions how the Adelaide Fringe was the first in Australia to experience La Clique, the burlesque show that has built an enthusiastic following at other arts festivals.
"It's a democratic festival really," Anthoney says. "Once you analyse the results you see what artists believe people want, and then you analyse the ticket sales and it tells you again what people want."
While it doesn't help with travel costs, the Fringe gives advice to artists about how to best present, market and publicise their event, and it takes only a small administration fee from the box office. It also runs a program called Honeypot, where promoters and venue directors from across the country and the region are invited to travel to Adelaide.
Funding is modest: $1.1 million from the South Australian Government, plus sponsorships and other income sources. As a result, there are none of the big-ticket blockbuster shows you would expect at big arts festivals; their absence, however, seems appropriate. One of the artists this year says audiences need to work a little harder to find the gems in the program, without relying on organisers to point them in the right direction. Word of mouth is crucial, and it's often not clear what the highlights are until the final week. For the artists involved, the risks - and the rewards - are clear.
"It's one of those festivals where you've got to find out for yourself what's on," says Adelaide choreographer Aidan Munn, whose two-person dance show Virus, at the Fringe later this month, is inspired by Japanese anime and set in a post-apocalyptic city.
Nine years ago, Munn, a former dancer with Australian Dance Theatre, took part in another Adelaide Fringe project, a street theatre piece called Buzz. On the back of the support it received in Adelaide, he took the show to several festivals in Europe, including Edinburgh.
"There's a circuit out there with festivals similar to the Adelaide Fringe, so once you're on that as an artist, it's a good way to get your work seen."
Another artist to take advantage of the circuit is Matthew Zajac, a Scottish actor whose first attempt at playwriting, The Tailor of Inverness, has its Australian premiere at the Fringe. The story centres on Zajac's father, a tailor from Poland who settled in Scotland after World War II before changing his identity and life story. It was first presented by Scotland's Dogstar Theatre Company at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, and one of the prizes it won paid for it to travel to Adelaide. Zajac still finds it hard to believe the reception his work has received. "It's been quite overwhelming," he says.
The Fringe takes place in a range of venues, from formal theatre spaces to makeshift performance areas, including a disused prison and abandoned shopfronts.
One of the most popular is the Garden of Unearthly Delights. Set in Adelaide's East End, the garden is a collection of stages and performance spaces that attracts huge crowds every night. Performers range from Tim Freedman, David Bridie and Frente to one of this year's must-see acts, the musical cabaret show A Company of Strangers in the Spiegeltent. Fringe staff forbid themselves from endorsing any one act, but there have been some excited whispers about this performance in the past few weeks.
Perhaps the most popular part of the Fringe, though, is the comedy program. With the Melbourne International Comedy Festival starting next month, the Fringe, once again, serves as a warm-up gig. Many well-known comedians are making an appearance, including Tom Gleeson, Wil Anderson and Dave Hughes.
It's not exclusively top-heavy, with several lesser-known comedians using the Fringe to perfect their craft. Among them is 26-year-old comic Mujahid Ahmed, who describes himself as the nation's only Sudanese-Australian comedian. "I've got total control of the market," he says.
Ahmed is based in Adelaide, where he arrived in 2001 after leaving his home in the United Arab Emirates (he says he chose Adelaide after seeing figures showing it had Australia's lowest cost of living). Before the UAE, his family lived in Sudan, but left when he was a small child after his father's job as a journalist made life in the troubled African country difficult. He last visited Sudan in 2002, when he says he was forcibly conscripted into the army at the airport.
"I think (comedy) comes across as a natural gift of people from Africa," he says. "As a defence mechanism they can make humour out of something that is quite bleak." Ahmed, who commutes to other Australian cities for work in comedy, has performed with others at previous fringe festivals. This year is his first as a solo act on the program. He has been doing comedy for less than four years and he uses his act to make fun of stereotypes about Africa, and Sudan in particular. "Most (Australians') interactions with anything from Africa are a combination of Tarzan and (1980 film) The Gods Must Be Crazy," he says. "So it gives you a bit of an angle to play on."
Since there is no curator at the Fringe, any themes that may appear in the program emerge organically, with no single guiding influence. This year, there's a lightness in tone among many of the acts and a reluctance to take themselves too seriously.
But there's still a long way to go. Yesterday, among the half-filled bars and cafes, and performers handing out flyers for their shows, was a sign reminding passers-by that three weeks remain: "Pace yourself," itsays.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
The ever-smiling Fringe director, Christie Anthoney, thinks the lottery metaphor is appropriate, saying "everyone's a winner". But it can just as easily describe the lucky-dip nature of the festival, a melange of performing and visual arts where you never really know what you're going to get. More than any other arts festival in Australia, there are no guarantees about what will happen.
The formula is risky. But it's also part of the appeal of the Adelaide Fringe, which opened in an array of colour on Friday night, when thousands of people ignored soaring heat to pack the streets of the city, trying to grab a glimpse of the parade or of artists performing extracts from their work. The event runs for 23 days and is set to take over every corner of the city. Everyone involved, from artists to administrators to promoters, has a stake in itssuccess.
"It's the festival of the new," Anthoney says. "I like to say it's the freshest festival in Australia. The largest, and the freshest."
Anthoney lists some of the "crazy statistics" of the festival, which is modelled on the Edinburgh Fringe. Indeed, it prides itself on being the second-biggest arts festival in the world behind Edinburgh. Those involved in Adelaide are quick to rattle off the numbers: 517 shows, 4977 performances, 259 venues, 293 premieres. The challenge is how to bring all those different elements together into some kind of coherent whole and then to determine what acts to see, and what to miss.
Size alone is not what makes the Adelaide Fringe unique among the nation's summer arts festivals.
Having only two years ago become annual, it no longer finds itself tied to the biennial Adelaide Festival of the Arts. That separation underlines how the fringe has forged its own identity in the crowded festival circuit, where its irreverent, all-inclusive spirit has been embraced by the city and artists alike. And it comes at a busy time for Adelaide, which is also making room for the city's film festival and WOMADelaide this month.
This year is Anthoney's third as Fringe director. She has travelled to Edinburgh annually for the past 17 years, working at the festival and looking for ideas. One of the differences between the Adelaide and Edinburgh fringe festivals, she says, is that only Adelaide includes curated events, such as the opening night show on Friday. Otherwise, the controlled chaos of the formula is the same: artists of varying backgrounds and abilities register with the festival to perform. It's usually their responsibility to find a venue, and they also take all the risks. No one is excluded, as long as they pay their own way and get their applications in on time.
"There is no selection process for the Adelaide Fringe," Anthoney says. "It is an absolutely open festival. The only way in which somebody would be rejected as such is if they missed the deadline."
This, of course, brings the real possibility of a festival of duds, although the opposite is also true. By all accounts, the quality remains high,with little-known acts attracting exposure and giving audiences an insight into some of the work being developed beyond thenation's mainstream arts companies.
The festival stage, Anthoney says, is also a testing ground for new shows: she mentions how the Adelaide Fringe was the first in Australia to experience La Clique, the burlesque show that has built an enthusiastic following at other arts festivals.
"It's a democratic festival really," Anthoney says. "Once you analyse the results you see what artists believe people want, and then you analyse the ticket sales and it tells you again what people want."
While it doesn't help with travel costs, the Fringe gives advice to artists about how to best present, market and publicise their event, and it takes only a small administration fee from the box office. It also runs a program called Honeypot, where promoters and venue directors from across the country and the region are invited to travel to Adelaide.
Funding is modest: $1.1 million from the South Australian Government, plus sponsorships and other income sources. As a result, there are none of the big-ticket blockbuster shows you would expect at big arts festivals; their absence, however, seems appropriate. One of the artists this year says audiences need to work a little harder to find the gems in the program, without relying on organisers to point them in the right direction. Word of mouth is crucial, and it's often not clear what the highlights are until the final week. For the artists involved, the risks - and the rewards - are clear.
"It's one of those festivals where you've got to find out for yourself what's on," says Adelaide choreographer Aidan Munn, whose two-person dance show Virus, at the Fringe later this month, is inspired by Japanese anime and set in a post-apocalyptic city.
Nine years ago, Munn, a former dancer with Australian Dance Theatre, took part in another Adelaide Fringe project, a street theatre piece called Buzz. On the back of the support it received in Adelaide, he took the show to several festivals in Europe, including Edinburgh.
"There's a circuit out there with festivals similar to the Adelaide Fringe, so once you're on that as an artist, it's a good way to get your work seen."
Another artist to take advantage of the circuit is Matthew Zajac, a Scottish actor whose first attempt at playwriting, The Tailor of Inverness, has its Australian premiere at the Fringe. The story centres on Zajac's father, a tailor from Poland who settled in Scotland after World War II before changing his identity and life story. It was first presented by Scotland's Dogstar Theatre Company at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, and one of the prizes it won paid for it to travel to Adelaide. Zajac still finds it hard to believe the reception his work has received. "It's been quite overwhelming," he says.
The Fringe takes place in a range of venues, from formal theatre spaces to makeshift performance areas, including a disused prison and abandoned shopfronts.
One of the most popular is the Garden of Unearthly Delights. Set in Adelaide's East End, the garden is a collection of stages and performance spaces that attracts huge crowds every night. Performers range from Tim Freedman, David Bridie and Frente to one of this year's must-see acts, the musical cabaret show A Company of Strangers in the Spiegeltent. Fringe staff forbid themselves from endorsing any one act, but there have been some excited whispers about this performance in the past few weeks.
Perhaps the most popular part of the Fringe, though, is the comedy program. With the Melbourne International Comedy Festival starting next month, the Fringe, once again, serves as a warm-up gig. Many well-known comedians are making an appearance, including Tom Gleeson, Wil Anderson and Dave Hughes.
It's not exclusively top-heavy, with several lesser-known comedians using the Fringe to perfect their craft. Among them is 26-year-old comic Mujahid Ahmed, who describes himself as the nation's only Sudanese-Australian comedian. "I've got total control of the market," he says.
Ahmed is based in Adelaide, where he arrived in 2001 after leaving his home in the United Arab Emirates (he says he chose Adelaide after seeing figures showing it had Australia's lowest cost of living). Before the UAE, his family lived in Sudan, but left when he was a small child after his father's job as a journalist made life in the troubled African country difficult. He last visited Sudan in 2002, when he says he was forcibly conscripted into the army at the airport.
"I think (comedy) comes across as a natural gift of people from Africa," he says. "As a defence mechanism they can make humour out of something that is quite bleak." Ahmed, who commutes to other Australian cities for work in comedy, has performed with others at previous fringe festivals. This year is his first as a solo act on the program. He has been doing comedy for less than four years and he uses his act to make fun of stereotypes about Africa, and Sudan in particular. "Most (Australians') interactions with anything from Africa are a combination of Tarzan and (1980 film) The Gods Must Be Crazy," he says. "So it gives you a bit of an angle to play on."
Since there is no curator at the Fringe, any themes that may appear in the program emerge organically, with no single guiding influence. This year, there's a lightness in tone among many of the acts and a reluctance to take themselves too seriously.
But there's still a long way to go. Yesterday, among the half-filled bars and cafes, and performers handing out flyers for their shows, was a sign reminding passers-by that three weeks remain: "Pace yourself," itsays.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Youth Enjoying Bingo in America
Sexy calls, exotic drinks and a mod ambiance are attracting a younger demographic
March 10, 2009 (InfoPowa News) -- The trend toward hip young players gravitating to bingo in Europe is also being experienced in the United States, aided by a cool ambiance, amusingly sexy calls, exotic booze and in-your-face advertising on the theme "Not Your Grandma's Bingo," reports the Miami Herald this week. And the 20- to 30-somethings are responding in droves, attending bingo sessions at places with names like "Cosmic Bingo," from the Midwest to Miami.
Organizers have replaced tradition with modern calls and fun action, for example where multiple players achieve bingo simultaneously and instead of a tie being called a dance-off is the cry, which sees impromptu shake-your-booty competitions with the prize going to the dancer who gets the most applause. Elsewhere, the younger set have a ball waving glosticks and there's plenty of noise and laughter.
The new-look bingo has triggered interest in the game from a younger demographic that previously may have had the perception that it was a rather staid pastime favoured by an older generation.
The Miami Herald illustrates the point by reporting on Minnesota's Mystic Lake Casino. In 2007, after a decade of declining bingo attendance, the casino opened a new bingo hall and launched ''Cosmic Bingo'' -- a youth-oriented Friday and Saturday night bingo party that includes dance music, humor with plenty of sexual undertones, and lots of neon lights. When Cosmic Bingo crowds began to exceed 200 people, the casino was ''thrilled,'' Director of Gaming Operations Don Damond told the newspaper.
More recently, attendance has topped 500. ''There's a huge draw of 18-to 20-year-olds who can't go to bars yet, so they're looking for entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights," Damond said.
The Cosmic Bingo concept has since spread to Arizona, Maryland and Oregon, among other places.
''I wish we could have patented it,'' Damond said.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
March 10, 2009 (InfoPowa News) -- The trend toward hip young players gravitating to bingo in Europe is also being experienced in the United States, aided by a cool ambiance, amusingly sexy calls, exotic booze and in-your-face advertising on the theme "Not Your Grandma's Bingo," reports the Miami Herald this week. And the 20- to 30-somethings are responding in droves, attending bingo sessions at places with names like "Cosmic Bingo," from the Midwest to Miami.
Organizers have replaced tradition with modern calls and fun action, for example where multiple players achieve bingo simultaneously and instead of a tie being called a dance-off is the cry, which sees impromptu shake-your-booty competitions with the prize going to the dancer who gets the most applause. Elsewhere, the younger set have a ball waving glosticks and there's plenty of noise and laughter.
The new-look bingo has triggered interest in the game from a younger demographic that previously may have had the perception that it was a rather staid pastime favoured by an older generation.
The Miami Herald illustrates the point by reporting on Minnesota's Mystic Lake Casino. In 2007, after a decade of declining bingo attendance, the casino opened a new bingo hall and launched ''Cosmic Bingo'' -- a youth-oriented Friday and Saturday night bingo party that includes dance music, humor with plenty of sexual undertones, and lots of neon lights. When Cosmic Bingo crowds began to exceed 200 people, the casino was ''thrilled,'' Director of Gaming Operations Don Damond told the newspaper.
More recently, attendance has topped 500. ''There's a huge draw of 18-to 20-year-olds who can't go to bars yet, so they're looking for entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights," Damond said.
The Cosmic Bingo concept has since spread to Arizona, Maryland and Oregon, among other places.
''I wish we could have patented it,'' Damond said.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Bingo
Bingo News
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
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