Launched in 2015, Relax Bingo was the latest string to the Relax Gaming group’s bow. Relax Gaming were founded in 2010 in Estonia by Patrik Österåker and Jani Tekoniemi, with the vision of “pushing the boundaries of gambling by modern and innovative technology”.
Although they were founded in Estonia , it is Malta which is the main hub of their operations, but they also have outposts in Finland, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Sweden. This makes them a European facing company with exposure to many different markets.
This was an attractive proposition, and in 2021, Relax Gaming were acquired by the Kindred Group. One of the reasons for the acquisitoon is that Kindred wanted to take the Relax bingo network in house. Kindred are the guys that run Unibet, 32Red and bingo brands such as bingo.com, so these brands all now run exclusively on the Relax network.
New Bingo Sites on the Relax Gaming Network
A Little Bit About Relax Gaming
When Relax Gaming launched in 2010, it was actually as an online poker developer.
They have added bingo and casino product verticals since then of course, and if anything, their poker arm has taken a step back, but that is how they started.
Unibet was one of their first big clients, which is how the relationship initially began. Unibet migrated from another poker provider to Unibet in 2014, then, when Relax’s bingo network launched a year later, they got on board with that too.
Unibet rebranded as The Kindred Group in 2016 to better reflect their new multi-brand approach, and the other brands they had acquired, such as bingo.com, 32Red, and Maria Casino, began using Relax software too.
Kindred weren’t Relax Gaming’s only clients, but they were the biggest, and since Relax were solely a B2B company this income stream was vital to them, so they wanted to keep Kindred happy.
Kindred Acquire Relax Gaming
After reading the history between Relax Gaming and Kindred, it is probably not much of a surprise that Kindred went on to acquire Relax Gaming in 2021, effectively bringing the poker and bingo networks in house.
It made sense since they worked so well together.
Henrik Tjärnström, CEO at Kindred Group, said at the time:
“Through this acquisition we add a rapidly growing and profitable B2B business with a world-class product portfolio, giving us greater control over our casino, poker and bingo offering, putting Kindred in a significantly better position to achieve our long-term strategy to increase our focus on product differentiation and customer experience”
The benefits are obvious. They could control their bingo product centrally, save money paying a 3rd party provider, as well as make their bingo offering unique to their brands. The same was true of the poker product.
However, there was more money to be made from the casino game vertical by keeping it as a B2B model, so Kindred now had a B2B business on the casino side too, and thus another stream of income.
Content Streams
Although the Relax bingo network is now exclusively in house, they still use Relax Gaming as a B2B casino game service.
To do this, they have 3 different content streams:
- Relax Own Games
- Powered by Relax
- Relax Silver Bullet
The first is obviously for games that have been designed by Relax Gaming themselves. These games can be licensed to other online casinos either directly or via other aggregation platforms that have done a deal with Relax.
Powered by Relax is for game studios who have their own platforms and tech, but need access to Relax’s distribution network in order to get their games seen by more players.
The Silver Bullet is for smaller studios who have the talent to create great games, but want to build them on Relax’s platform, and even take a collaborative approach with Relax themselves in terms of design.
Relax Bingo Software: What Their Games Are Like
Given that Relax Gaming’s bingo network serves an intimate yet high quality network of bingo sites, it’s fitting that their bingo lobby could be described in the same way.
There are only seven different bingo rooms, but they are extremely well put together and smoothly run. The bingo available is all either:
- 75 ball
- 90 ball
It might not have the most variety in terms of bingo variations, but this will suit the majority of players just fine, and actually, it differentiates them from other networks who overload their players with options.
The majority of the rooms aren’t cheap to play in, with most costing 20p per ticket and upwards, but there is a penny room which is good for beginners, and another with 5p tickets.
Games start every 5 minutes, and they all have a prize pool, a jackpot, and a progressive jackpot. The only real difference between the rooms is the cost of tickets and the size of the prize. The progressive jackpots can get to the hundreds of thousands but the prize pools per game are usually under £100.
So to sum up, Relax Gaming’s bingo network provides traditional bingo games in a more relaxed environment, with a smaller player pool competing to win smaller, but more achievable prizes.
Overall Summary
As a Bingo network, Relax Gaming is at the forefront of innovation and is continually striving to push boundaries. While its bingo offering is small in comparison to some others, it really is a case of bigger isn’t always better.
They appeal to the type of bingo player who doesn’t go for the cartoony style, or the cutesy bingo rooms names. This is a network for players who want their bingo more traditional, for stakes worth playing for, and at sites that are very well known.
With a talented team who have considerable pedigree in the gaming industry, the Kindred Group have an enviable asset in their armoury with Relax Gaming.