Q&A: Richard Skelhorn, chief executive, Costa Bingo

EGR: Costa sees you make the move across from large affiliate to operator, having launched Casino Choice back in 2001. Why become an operator and why now?

RS: We entered the bingo affiliate space last year, but it quickly became apparent we were sending a lot more traffic than they anticipated, threatening their budgets, and in turn, the cost per acquisition (CPA) rates we were receiving were decreased. We were subsequently offered revenue shares going forward, but having been in the affiliate position since 2001, we felt ready to take on more of the operational side and believed obtaining the traffic was probably the hardest part of running our own room. We looked at how many new depositors the established rooms were generating and knew we had a chance of competing.

EGR: Is Costa’s choice of the free bingo model indicative of your late entry into the space?

RS: To some degree, yes, as the best way to gain the registrations needed to build liquidity is to initially remove barriers to entry. However, we did have the traffic to launch a traditional room instead of a free product, but were confident we could trade players up from a registered account to depositor more easily if we gave them the opportunity to try us first.

EGR: What percentage of your free players become active depositing players?

RS: The conversion rates are lower than that of a traditional room but then we do not ask for credit card details on the registration page. If we did, our registrations would decrease and our conversion would rise. That said, the proportion of funded players online vs non-funded is around 65%, which shows the room is doing well in trading players up from initial registration.

EGR: The bonus-led culture of bingo has generated a notoriously promiscuous player base. How does Costa differentiate itself in order to get players to stick?

RS: We cannot wage a spending war against some of the larger operators, so have focused instead on building the most retention-focused bingo product around, adapting the standard product to open up custom games and jackpots for loyal players. We also have our own custom affiliate platform called IgniteBingo.com, developed to aid marketing partners with dynamic creative feeds, jackpot tickers and so forth, a major advance on the standard affiliate platform provided by the software company.

EGR: Offering free bingo is obviously an effective customer land-grab in the short term, but how sustainable is the model beyond this?

RS: You need to work with and accept you have two player bases as opposed to one. The longer we keep the free players online, the more chance we have at converting them to depositors. Additionally, we have ensured depositing players are not competing with hundreds of non-depositors for the same prize by opening exclusive rooms for depositors and players of a bronze, silver or gold player class. Unlike mainstream operators using free bingo rooms as acquisition tools and offering a cut-down product, we don’t see the need to differentiate between a free and traditional room. Hopefully sustaining a balance between the two will see Costa become one of the top-tier online bingo rooms in the near future.

This article first appeared in the October issue of eGaming Review.

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