Cyber Bingo interview - exclusive!

Cyber Bingo is the oldest online bingo site on the internet. Founded back in 1996, the company is currently celebrating its 14th year in the business, alongside smashing the one billion bingo games landmark. With countless awards in its belt, and more than £350 million in cash jackpots paid out to players over the years, CyberBingo is a force to be reckoned with, now more than ever.

We took this golden opportunity and spoke to Gonzalo Gomez, the Managing Director of this hugely successful online bingo site, to find out more about the 14 year journey and what the future holds for CyberBingo.

Many congratulations on reaching your 14th birthday! Did you ever think, back in 1996 when you first launched, that Cyberbingo would be the huge award-winning success it is today?

Back in the earliest days of online bingo, it was hard to imagine exactly where and how things would go. One thing for sure is that there was always a sense of great potential; that this was an aspiring industry with a whole lot of promise and opportunity. The CyberBingo brand has definitely exceeded expectations as far as longevity and success. It’s been a great ride.

Tell us about the beginning, how did Cyber Bingo come into being, and what were the biggest challenges to overcome when you first launched your product?

The site was originally launched by Dot Com Entertainment Group who were the first to offer online bingo software. When we assumed the operations, the biggest challenge was to develop and launch our own proprietary software product. This took several years and wasn’t until the beginning of 2004 before we successfully re-launched CyberBingo on the new VistaGaming platform.

What do you think are the biggest factors that have contributed to your success over the past 14 years, and how have you seen the online bingo scene change over this period?

Giving our players what they want. An online bingo site is much more than just the bingo game itself, but the entire social and community experience. We were able to help pioneer many of the concepts that are mainstream in any bingo website you see today. Whether it is with chat, bonuses, loyalty programs, guaranteed jackpots and tournaments, etc., all evolved from the ever changing demands of what players wanted to experience when playing bingo online.

Probably the biggest change we’ve seen is how online bingo has emerged as a virtually unknown form of online entertainment to a massive, full-fledged professional industry known to millions. Asides from that it would have to be with the progression of the software technology itself and increasing sophistication in what is offered to players. Back in those early years, we had a 10 cent and 25 cent room and the first deposit bonus was 10%. Today CyberBingo offers a numerous bingo rooms of various themed designs and gameplay, dozens of video poker and slot machines, arcade games, and casino table games including blackjack, roulette, and poker. 

In 2007 CyberBingo.co.uk was launched on the UK bingo market. Did you have to make any major changes to the original Cyber Bingo formula regarding policy, operations or game offerings to cater for the British bingo community?

No major changes. Our formula worked well for us so we didn’t want to tamper with it too much. Having said that, the UK bingo market is very unique. An obvious change was the introduction of 90 ball bingo, which is virtually unknown in North America where the traditional 75 ball bingo using patterns is the norm. The other important formula to get right was the chat room. Any bingo player knows that Chat Hosts are a very important part of the community atmosphere and we never wanted to have anything other than local UK-based chat hosts. Otherwise, we launched in the UK market with the same great first deposit bonuses, loyalty and bingo rewards programs, huge guaranteed jackpots, regular free games, exciting slots and video poker machines, and themed bingo rooms that made us very successful in the past.

If you did have to make changes for the UK bingo scene, what would be the biggest differences between your US bingo site and the UK site?

Beyond what has been mentioned, there aren’t that many differences between our sites in terms of offering and service. One thing we are looking at doing in the very near future is to apply the same variety of themed bingo rooms in our UK sites that are offered on CyberBingo.com

What would you say are the best features and most popular attractions for players at the UK Cyberbingo site?

CyberBingo UK offers a 500% bonus on all first deposits. We offer regular bonus specials of up to 500% as well that players really enjoy and our in-room mini games and video slot machines are quite popular. We also hold regular bingo and casino tournaments and guaranteed jackpot bingo games. It isn’t unusual for us to give away a pre-set jackpot of £10,000 in one game.

Last month you unleashed a massive $25,000 Bingo Freeroll with daily free bingo games for your USA players, do you have any similar plans for us Brits? :)

You will have to visit CyberBingo.co.uk in the near future to find out!

What does the future hold for CyberBingo in general, and also in terms of new games, new online slots or casino games, new bingo rooms, promotions, etc?

We are continuing to develop new in-room mini games and video slots all the time. We have also recently made some upgrades to our existing chat rooms. Our themed bingo rooms are constantly updated with new major promotions offered on a monthly basis. We strive to constantly offer new contests, promotional lineups and game schedules so things never get dull but are consistently refreshed.

Can you tell us a little-known fact about CyberBingo that will surprise our readers?

CyberBingo is our flagship brand however the VistaGaming platform powers a broad network of sites in North America, the UK and Spain. Popular brands such as BingoSKY.com and BingoSKY.co.uk, Juegoslucky and PepeGames in Spain, and other UK facing websites in partnership with the Northern & Shell group that include very well known names like DailyExpressBingo, OKMagBingo, and DailyStarBingo.

Thank you very much for your time, our readers will very much appreciate this look behind the scenes at CyberBingo, and we'd like to take this opportunity to wish you much continued success for the future.

Thank you, it's been a pleasure!

And ladies and gents, here endeth the interview with Gonzalo Gomez, head honcho of the awesome CyberBingo family. It's been a real treat to find out first-hand about all the tremendous hard work and effort that's needed to make a successful online bingo site, and we hope that you've enjoyed these revelations as much as we have.

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Written by Jessica Jameson for Online Keno