by Emma
5. January 2009 05:10
Gala the company behind the famous Gala Bingo has teamed up with Virtue Fusion and launched an all new online bingo site - Minxy Bingo.
The site, which displays the Minxy Mascot - a white Siamese cat, claims to provide its players with some unique online features via its ultra-modern bingo software.
Surprisingly, the Gala brand name isn't evident on the homepage at Minxy Bingo and this new site operates using completely separate software to the Gala Bingo site.
Minxy Bingo was launched without any publicity and to date has not been the subject of any form of media campaign which seems unusual for Gala.
There are many subsidiaries within the Gala Coral Group but this is the first subsidiary which could be considered in direct competition with one of its existing divisions.
One leading online gaming analyst recently commented:
“There is a major question of why they would spend £5 million a year on their bingo technology when they can outsource the contract to a software provider for a small percentage of their gaming profit.
When they launched they had an outstanding product but now they are pretty much on a level with their rivals and without substantial expenditure they could slip behind.
Gala Coral has an absolute debt mountain to overcome and the last thing they need is a big capital expenditure project on bingo.
I’d say that Minxy Bingo was a test for them to see how the numbers stack up with a rival operator and, if they look good, they will be onto Virtue Fusion software within six to nine months.”
Sadly throughout the course of 2008, Gala Bingo was forced to close down 13 of its land based bingo halls in addition to four high street casinos.
With the UK slipping into recession, the future of the land based UK bingo hall remains uncertain and it is possible that the Gala Coral Group have realised that online bingo is the way forward for their business.
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