High Flyer Launches Mobile-First Bingo & Casino in Ontario

iGO Welcomes First Private-Licensed Ontario Online Bingo Operator

Since April 4, 2022, the historic launch day of commercial-licensed iGaming in Ontario, the market has been flooded with gambling operators. The majority of them deal in sports betting and online casino games. A few have taken the extra step to offer online poker. But it wasn’t until late last week that the first online bingo site was launched in Ontario.

I’m talking about iGaming Ontario’s latest licensee, High Flyer Casino. After receiving a license from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) in late November, the operator went live on December 8. And while the casino games aren’t really anything to write home about, we think its production of live bingo games is of notable mention.

iGO Welcome First Ontario Online Bingo Site

The announcement went out via Tweet on Thursday afternoon. “Congrats,” iGO applauds the operator, noting the ownership of High Flyer by Ellipse Entertainment Ltd.

Congrats! 🏆 Ellipse Entertainment Limited has joined the Ontario market as a legal and regulated Operator. Their High Flyer Casino brand offers its customers exciting casino games!

URL: https://t.co/kj7uRCZecz
#playwithconfidence #onlinegambling #gamblingonline pic.twitter.com/s9N18HKtgG

— iGaming Ontario (@iGamingOntario) December 8, 2022

What the message was missing – what every missive announcing the launch passes over – is the uniqueness of the brand. Those that do make mention of its game variety either laud the provision of exclusive online slots from Ready Play Gaming – slots that cannot be found at any other Ontario gambling sites to date – or scoff at the low number of games on the menu (currently around 80).

Yet, no one seems to notice the online bingo side of the business. Having been an active member of the iGaming community since the mid-2000s, I believe many players will appreciate this rare line of gaming.

Internet Bingo – Lost but Never Forgotten

In the early days of iGaming, online bingo was the hottest thing going. Over in the UK, bingo was more popular than live sporting events! In North America, it was the favorite way to spend a Friday night for countless fans. Admittedly, its fandom has declined over the last 15 years, but that’s been the historic fate of this game since Edwin Lowe boxed and marketed it in 1929.

Bingo is a trendy game. It comes and goes. Twenty years might go by without much interest, and then suddenly it’s all the rage again. Like flannel shirts or pink hair, bingo will rise once more. Now that it’s available to Ontario in a legally regulated market, we’ll find out soon enough if that time is now.

The term “soon enough” will likely come about when High Flyer Casino issues its next fiscal report. If its Ontario online bingo rooms are raking in profits, you can expect every other operator on the market to launch bingo games as well. If not, well – maybe it’s just not time yet.

Bingo Chat Games

One thing High Flyer has going for it is they’ve upheld the traditional online bingo fanfare. There’s a charismatic game host, or CM, that runs the games in real time. The CMs also host special chat games in between rounds of bingo. These games are quick and award all kinds of cool prizes.

We cannot mention what these prizes are, due to strict iGO regulations. What we can tell you is that these are the same chat games and rewards schemes online bingo sites have been using since the dawn of iGaming in the late 1990s. They were a hit back then, and if High Flyer can get these games off the ground, there’s potential for them to pop up at Ontario’s 60+ gambling operations in the not-too-distant future.