Buzz Bingo
Ranked as the UK’s biggest bingo operator, Buzz Bingo has earned its reputation by offering players a diverse omnichannel experience across offline and online touchpoints. This means customers can seamlessly engage with the brand whether they’re playing in a physical club, on a mobile app or through the website, ensuring a consistent and connected experience across all platforms.
Overview
Following rapid acquisitional growth, Buzz Bingo currently comprises 80 physical clubs across England and Scotland and over one million members, with 200,000 new visitors welcomed in the last year alone.
Alongside its physical bingo clubs, Buzz Bingo’s award-winning website, buzzbingo.com, brings the thrill of bingo online, with users able to play via any internet connecting device, whether that be a mobile, desktop, touchpad or a specialised Electronic Bingo Tablet (EBT), available across club locations.
To support the continued digital diversification of the organisation and the influx of new customers accessing online games within the clubs, along with a desire to increase revenues through at-table food and beverage sales, a secure, reliable network infrastructure was required to optimise the customer experience.
Increase Wi-Fi Coverage Across Multiple Sites
For Buzz Bingo to increase Wi-Fi coverage across its multiple sites, the firm had to eliminate the presence of legacy equipment. It was acknowledged that the incumbent infrastructure would struggle to handle the increased volume of users and devices that would be simultaneously connecting to play online games across its club venues. Without intervention, there would be an increased risk of temporary service dropouts and the presence of dead zones - areas where the wireless internet signal would be incapable of reaching. Not only would this compromise the customer experience, but it would also represent a huge financial cost for Buzz Bingo in the form of lost revenues due to player inactivity.
Buzz Bingo’s internal IT team also faced mounting pressure to manage an increasingly complex threat landscape. Staying ahead of evolving cyber risks demanded significant time and resources, diverting focus from strategic digital transformation initiatives. The team was spending countless hours manually managing devices to maintain network security, creating operational strain and limiting innovation.
To support Buzz Bingo’s omnichannel growth across its online and offline operations, it was necessary to upgrade the network with a robust Wi-Fi solution capable of supporting the company’s increased membership base. Buzz Bingo wanted to offer its customers the option of playing games online in the clubs alongside physical bingo games, both on their own devices and on the in-house EBTs with at-table food ordering available to enhance customer experience and maximise revenue streams. The firm also wanted to diversify its target audience by appealing to larger groups such as hen parties and corporate events, with reliable, high-speed internet connectivity central to those plans.
The concept of bingo has evolved. Today, customers have a wide range of choices of how they want to play and our omnichannel approach is unique, with technology sitting at its heart.
Architecture-led Transformation
Principle Networks partnered with Buzz Bingo to upgrade the Wi-Fi networks across the firm’s estate. It was important that a straightforward like-for-like upgrade was not carried out to avoid the risk of replicating existing issues. Full site surveys and Wi-Fi investigations were completed, which translated to the design of Wi-Fi networks. From the initial designs, Principle Networks’ engineers could determine the number and position of access points that would provide the Wi-Fi coverage capable of supporting increased customer demand.
Within the first 12 months of the five-year project, Principle Networks rolled out and deployed 1000 Cisco Meraki wireless access points across Buzz Bingo’s 80 sites, offering post-deployment support for the access points and licences over the remaining course of the contract. The enterprise-grade cloud-managed access points were designed to not only connect customer devices and EBTs, but also IoT devices and security solutions, elevating customer experience and operational efficiency simultaneously.
Comprising remote listed buildings and city centre locations, the varied nature of the Buzz Bingo estate meant that Principle Networks’ engineers could not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach when implementing the solution due to the bespoke needs of the various physical sites. Furthermore, the opening and closing times varied from site to site, with some venues open 24 hours a day, meaning that Principle Networks’ engineers often had to install the access points at unsociable hours of the day to prevent operational disruption.
For the remaining tenure of the five-year agreement, Principle Networks will work with Buzz Bingo’s IT team to support its long-term digital strategy, offering a post-sales, reactive support service for the installed devices in the event of any issues.
A key part of our growth will be driven by enhancing customer experience through investments in our clubs and the latest technologies. We are continually looking for innovative ways to enhance our offering and needed an IT partner that could help us achieve this. Principle Networks demonstrated a deep understanding of our objectives and possessed the expertise to fulfil them.
The Wi-Fi network deployed by Principle Networks is enabling Buzz Bingo to increase and improve its service offering, exceeding customer expectations and fuelling growth. This puts us in a strong position for future acquisition-based growth and we are looking forward to continuing our relationship with Principle Networks as our expansion proceeds.
A Future-ready Global Foundation
The project has significantly enhanced Wi-Fi coverage across Buzz Bingo’s entire estate, transforming the in-club experience for existing members while effortlessly accommodating a growing customer base. The upgraded network infrastructure now supports a higher volume of connected devices without compromising speed or reliability. This ensures that members can enjoy a seamless gaming experience, whether on their personal devices or the club’s EBTs, mirroring the convenience of playing from home. With this robust digital foundation, Buzz Bingo is well-positioned to welcome more members, elevate in-club engagement and drive increased spend per visit through enhanced gameplay and streamlined at-table food and beverage ordering.
A secure and reliable network infrastructure is central to delivering the best possible customer experience, whether online or in a club. As the UK’s biggest bingo operator, Buzz Bingo is continually looking for innovative ways to enhance its offering, and we’re very proud to have been chosen as its IT partner for the next five years.
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