Buzz Bingo is a chain of
bingo
Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers
** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland
** Bi ...
clubs in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
owned by
Caledonia Investments
Caledonia Investments plc is an investment trust company based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Operations
Caledonia is a self-managed investment trust. It takes significan ...
. It has 92 locations. Formerly operating as
Gala Bingo clubs, they were re-branded as Buzz Bingo clubs in September 2018, whilst the Gala brand continues to run its own
online bingo
Online bingo is the game of bingo ( US, UK) played on the Internet and its estimated launch was in 1996. It is estimated that the global gross gaming yield of bingo (excluding the United States) was US$500 million in 2006, and it is forecasted to ...
and
casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
offerings under the ownership of
Entain plc.
History
Buzz Bingo has undergone several changes in ownership and branding including through acquisitions. They were originally
Coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...
branded, a division of
Bass plc
Six Continents was a large British-based hotel and hospitality business which was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
History
The company was formed in June 2000 when the brewing business of Ba ...
. In 1983, there were 22 clubs and 24 located in their
Pontins
Pontins is a British company operating holiday parks in the UK, founded in 1946 by Fred Pontin. Since 2011, it has been owned by Britannia Hotels.
Pontins specialises in offering half-board and self-catering holidays featuring entertainment ...
holiday camps.
The ownership acquisitions included a chain of 80 bingo clubs from
Thorn EMI
Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to:
Botany
* Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants
* ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species
Comics and literature
* Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Comic ...
for £18.2 million in 1983,
followed by another 30 by purchasing
Zetters Leisure
Sportech PLC is an online gambling and entertainment company headquartered in the United Kingdom. The company is traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol SPO.L;
the stock is a component of the Alternative Investment Market. The comp ...
for £23 million in 1988.
Granada plc
Granada plc (previously called Granada Ltd, Granada Group plc, and Granada Media plc) was a British conglomerate best known as the parent from 1954 to 2004 of the Manchester-based Granada Television.
The company merged with Carlton Communica ...
's chain of 74 bingo clubs were added in 1991 for £147 million.
This merger with Granada led to the company rebranding as Gala Clubs later that year. Gala was officially launched on 17 October 1991 when 17 clubs re-branded and launched a new image. There followed a series of further acquisitions under the Gala brand, including 17 clubs from Ritz in July 1998, 10 clubs from Jarglen in March 2000 and 27 Riva Bingo Clubs from First Leisure for £90 million in April 2000.
Towards the end of 2000, Gala then began a series of expansions outside of their bingo operations, with casinos from the
Hilton Group
Ladbrokes Coral is a British gambling company founded in 1886. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The business is split into two divisions, UK and International. UK operations are c ...
in December 2000 and the Jamba Online business in 2001. This was later followed by a series of private equity sales of the company starting in February 2003 to the private equity firms
Candover and
Cinven
Cinven is a global private equity firm founded in 1977, with offices in nine international locations in Guernsey, London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Luxembourg, Madrid, and Hong Kong that acquires Europe and United States based corporat ...
.
Permira
Permira is a global investment firm. Founded in 1985, the firm advises funds with assets under management of €60+ billion. The Permira funds have made approximately 300 private equity investments in four key sectors: Technology, Consumer, Ser ...
bought a stake in the company in August 2005, which valued the business at £1.89 billion. In October 2005, Gala acquired
Coral Eurobet for £2.18 billion and changed its name to Gala Coral Group, creating the United Kingdom's third largest bookmaker and largest bingo operator.
By 2015, Gala Coral was acquired by its rival Ladbrokes,
but the Gala Bingo clubs were not part of the merger, and were subsequently sold to
Caledonia Investments
Caledonia Investments plc is an investment trust company based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Operations
Caledonia is a self-managed investment trust. It takes significan ...
for £241 million in December 2015. This meant that the clubs used the Gala brand under licence from the Ladbrokes-Coral group and decided during 2018 to re-brand as Buzz Bingo.
Operations
Buzz Bingo now operates all the clubs previously on the High Street as Gala Bingo and launched its own
online bingo
Online bingo is the game of bingo ( US, UK) played on the Internet and its estimated launch was in 1996. It is estimated that the global gross gaming yield of bingo (excluding the United States) was US$500 million in 2006, and it is forecasted to ...
, buzzbingo.com offering shortly after the rebrand was completed.
References
{{reflist, 30em
External links
Buzzbingo.com
Bingo
Gambling companies of the United Kingdom
Online gambling companies of the United Kingdom
Gambling companies established in 2018
2018 establishments in the United Kingdom