Listen to this article:There is good news for those concerned about the future of the UK’s bingo halls as the company behind Buzz Bingo has announced that it has reduced its pre-tax losses and its sales passed the £200 million mark in the last financial year.
New figures published by the company reveal a pre-tax loss of £30.8 million for the 12 months to January 13, 2024, which is a significant improvement on the loss of £53.6 million in the prior year. Things are clearly moving in the right direction for the company. In the year to January 2022, Buzz made a pre-tax loss of £51.8 million and in the year to January 2021, the company suffered a pre-tax loss of £130.6 million.
The latest figures also show that Buzz Bingo’s revenue has grown 23.6% from £195.1 million to £206.9 million. The last time that the company reported revenue of more than £200 million was for the year to January 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic, when it reported £279.8 million.
While profits fell by 0.7% to £136.2 million, in further good news, the group’s underlying EBITDA grew by 14%, leading to the company describing the last financial year as a “reset”. Buzz Bingo highlighted that its net gaming revenues (NGR) increased by 6% to £207 million and that revenue from its online bingo and casino operation grew by 31%.
In 2023, Buzz Bingo closed ten of its venues, meaning that it now operates 81 locations. It said that it “took difficult but decisive action in the year” due to the cost-of-living crisis and inflation. Due to these closures, the average number of employees that Buzz had in 2023 dropped from 2,590 to 2,184.
However, in May, the company revealed that it was in advanced discussions to purchase two of the UK’s largest bingo clubs. Buzz acquired MERKUR sites located in Cricklewood and Northampton in June. This is not only good news for bingo players living near the clubs but also good news for the industry as a whole. It is a sure sign that things are improving for the UK’s bingo clubs and that Buzz Bingo is working hard to restore operations to pre-pandemic levels.
Speaking after the acquisitions, Buzz Bingo’s chief executive, Dominic Mansour, said:
“There is a huge and growing number of people playing bingo for the first time, and through our fun and digitally enabled retail sites we are building a new fanbase of Buzz Bingo customers. The completion of this acquisition alongside the trial of our new streaming concept is clear evidence of the positive momentum within Buzz and the successful delivery of our turn-around plan. Our omnichannel strategy uniquely positions us to leverage the best of both retail and online Bingo for our customers, as we continue our journey to become the nation’s number-one choice for Bingo.”
Buzz’s chief executive, Dominic Mansour, expressed his pleasure with the results and his optimism for the company’s future.
“We delivered a solid performance in 2023, with strong online growth ahead of the market, and underlying profitability up 14 per cent. 2023 was a year in which we focused on resetting the business’s foundations, and putting in place our omnichannel strategy to deliver sustainable growth. With our strategy now firmly in place, we are continuing to maintain the momentum into the current year, and are pleased that EBITDA for the first half is up nearly a quarter, in clear evidence that our turn-around plan is delivering.”
He went on to say that the company has an “extremely loyal, high frequency” retail customer base and attributed much of Buzz Bingo’s online growth to its ability to convert retail players to play online. Mansour added that he is “confident in the future” and the company’s ability to deliver sustainable profitable growth.
His claims are backed up by the latest figures, which show that in the year to date, underlying EBITDA is up 22%, and like-for-like revenue is 5% up on last year. As such, the company claims that with its growth in retail and online revenues, it is set to “deliver another record year.”
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