The UK bingo hall scene has changed dramatically over the last decade, with club closures dominating the bingo news. However, Buzz Bingo and Mecca Bingo remain the two biggest names in UK retail bingo. Their latest financial results, released recently, provide interesting reading and show two very different approaches to the same changing market.
Whilst it is tempting to turn the figures into a simple Buzz versus Mecca story, that misses the bigger picture. They clearly both follow different strategies which we shall delve into soon, both the top UK bingo operators are trying to modernize bingo, improve their venues, and attract customers in a market where rising wages and operating costs present a major challenge.
From Gala to Buzz, and Mecca’s long history
Buzz Bingo may be the newer name, but its estate has a long history in British towns and cities.
The business was previously Gala Bingo and was acquired by Caledonia Investments in 2015 for £241m before being rebranded as Buzz Bingo in 2018. ICG subsequently became the majority owner in 2021.
For decades, Gala and Mecca were two of the most recognisable names in British bingo. The Gala name has now disappeared from the clubs, but many of the venues remain part of Buzz’s estate.
Mecca’s history stretches back much further. The company began putting bingo into its entertainment venues in the early 1960s and became one of Britain’s best-known bingo operators. Rank acquired Mecca Leisure in 1990, and the brand remains part of Rank Group today.
So while the two businesses have taken very different routes, both are now asking essentially the same question: what does a successful bingo club look like in 2026?
The headline comparison
| Buzz Bingo | Mecca Bingo | |
|---|---|---|
| Clubs | 76 | 41 |
| Latest retail/venue figure | £192.3m retail revenue | £143.1m NGR |
| Underlying profit measure | £39.2m EBITDA | £8.9m operating profit |
| Statutory result | £65m pre-tax loss | £7.8m operating profit |
| Employees | 2,229 | c.1,358 |
| Estate change | 79 → 76 | 50 → 41 |
| Investment | £25m modernisation programme | £5.5m strategic investment |
It is important to note, that, the figures need some qualification. Buzz’s £192.3m is retail revenue, while Mecca’s £143.1m is NGR (Net Gaming Revenue represents the total revenue generated by a gaming business after all costs and expenses have been deducted), so they are not directly comparable. Buzz’s £39.2m is also EBITDA: a measure of underlying operating performance before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, rather than bottom-line profit.
Nevertheless, the numbers give a useful picture of the two businesses. Buzz is considerably larger, while Mecca has been concentrating on making a much smaller estate more profitable.
Buzz still has the bigger footprint
The UK’s largest retail bingo operator, Buzz Bingo, currently operates 76 clubs compared with Mecca’s 41, giving it almost twice the physical estate.
That scale gives Buzz a significant presence across the UK. However, it also means the company has a much larger estate to maintain and modernise.
Buzz’s latest results showed retail revenue increasing 11% to £192.3m, while admissions rose 2.5% during the year and jumped to 5% growth in the second half.
The company attracted around 190,000 new club customers during the year. Importantly, roughly half aged under 35. Buzz also reported a 16% increase in customers under 25 during the second half.
CEO Dominic Mansour said: “The appeal of bingo to younger demographics has been a long-term trend, and our decision to invest in our clubs and online has started to pay off.”
He also argued that bringing in a new generation of players was essential to the business’s future, pointing to how younger customers increasingly view bingo as an affordable social night out.
“More Gen Zs and millennials are embracing bingo as a fun, affordable night out without the costs that often come with an expensive night out drinking,” Mansour said.
That customer growth is encouraging, although it has to be set against the financial results. Buzz’s underlying EBITDA fell from £41.8m to £39.2m despite higher revenue.
The company also reported a pre-tax loss of around £65m, including an £18.5m goodwill impairment.
Mecca is taking the opposite approach
Mecca has gone much further in reducing its estate.
Nine clubs closed during the latest financial year, including eight this summer, taking the number of venues from 50 to 41. Those nine clubs generated £12.6m of revenue before they closed.
Rank is unapologetic about the strategy, describing its aim as “maximising medium-term cash generation from a smaller, higher quality Mecca estate.”
The company says there had historically been an “oversupply of bingo venues in the UK”, and that clubs unlikely to be viable over the medium term have been closed.
The results suggest the strategy is beginning to work financially.
Mecca’s NGR increased 2% to £143.1m, while like-for-like NGR increased 4%. More significantly, underlying like-for-like operating profit jumped from £4.3m to £8.9m.
Statutory operating profit was £7.8m, compared with a £900,000 loss the previous year.
Rank says it is now “well on track” to deliver double-digit operating profit in 2026/27.
That makes Mecca’s latest results particularly interesting. The business is considerably smaller than it was a few years ago, but the remaining clubs are producing much stronger financial returns.
The customer is still at the centre
Both operators also clearly recognise that simply keeping traditional bingo clubs open isn’t enough.
Mecca says its remaining venues need to offer a compelling proposition, with Rank stating that “a compelling bingo proposition, with attractive price and prize boards, is vital.”
It also says the smaller estate should provide competitive prize boards and better value for money, creating a cycle where more customers generate bigger prizes and bigger prizes attract more customers.
The same basic principle applies to Buzz, although its strategy focuses more on growing the customer base across a larger network of clubs.
The company has invested in technology, upgraded Wi-Fi and introduced more than 10,000 new electronic bingo touchpads. Electronic play increased 5.6% during the year.
Evolution not revolution
Technology isn’t necessarily replacing traditional bingo. People still want paper bingo. That came through particularly clearly in our recent interview with Bingo Association CEO Nicole Garrett. When she takes friends to bingo, she says they don’t necessarily want the latest technology.
“They don’t tend to play the tablets. They want to play paper.”
This serves as a useful reminder that modernising bingo doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning all the things that made the game popular in the first place.
Electronic bingo is becoming increasingly important to both operators, with Mecca reporting that 60% of customer visits involved tablet play during the latest year. But for many players, the physical act of sitting down with a bingo book and a dabber remains an important part of the experience.
The challenge isn’t necessarily to reinvent UK bingo, but to make the existing experience relevant to a wider audience. That is where both Buzz and Mecca are putting much of their investment.
Buzz has committed £25m to a modernisation programme, with seven refurbished clubs reportedly recording admissions around 20% higher than the rest of the estate.
Its newer high-street, more Boutique Bingo approach, also suggests the company is experimenting with smaller, more social venues rather than simply maintaining the traditional large-format bingo hall.
Mecca is doing something similar within its remaining estate.
As BingoDaily reported following the £1.6m Mecca Stockton refurbishment, the club has added the 1825 Lounge, interactive darts, a new bar, Sky Sports and a DJ booth, alongside 168 additional seats, taking capacity above 1,500.
Rank itself describes Mecca venues as “much loved community assets across the UK”, adding: “Bingo is part of the Group’s DNA and Mecca customers value what our clubs represent.”
That is significant. Despite the closures, Mecca, who do really know about closures, is not suggesting that physical bingo clubs are becoming irrelevant. Its argument is that there should be fewer of them, but that the ones which remain need to be stronger and more attractive.
The cost of running bingo is still rising
Both operators are also dealing with the same problem that affects almost every bricks-and-mortar leisure business: rising costs.
Mecca says employment costs remain its “most significant headwind”, with the annualised impact of the National Living Wage estimated at £1.3m and the additional employer National Insurance cost at £600,000.
Buzz has faced similar pressures, with staff costs rising 17% to around £61.4m. It employed 2,229 people during the latest year.
This helps explain why Buzz’s revenue growth hasn’t translated into higher EBITDA. The business is bringing in more money and attracting more customers, but a significant amount is being absorbed by operating costs across the estate.
Bingo duty changes the equation
Both businesses now have an opportunity that didn’t exist when many recent closure decisions were made.
Bingo duty was abolished from April 2026, providing a direct financial benefit to the operators.
Rank said Mecca received a £1.6m benefit during the latest financial year, with the annualised benefit expected to be around £6.4m in 2026/27.
The question now is what operators do with that additional money. It could help strengthen balance sheets and offset rising costs, but it also creates an opportunity to invest in clubs, customer acquisition and the overall bingo experience.
That is exactly what Garrett hopes to see.
“We can start to invest rather than simply survive,” she told BingoDaily. “It’s a matter of thriving now, provided things continue as they are.”
Club 3000 offers another perspective
Another operator is worth watching, although it is not directly comparable with Buzz and Mecca at this scale…yet.
Club 3000 has continued to expand while the two largest chains have been rationalising their estates. The independent operator now has 24 clubs and has continued to invest in existing and new bingo venues.
Its new purpose-built Leeds club followed a £5.5m investment, while more than £3m is being spent on its Coatbridge venue. Plans have also been approved for a new purpose-built club in Bristol.
That provides an interesting third perspective on the market.
While Mecca is deliberately shrinking and Buzz is investing in a large existing estate, Club 3000 shows there are still opportunities to open or develop bingo clubs where operators believe the local market can support them.
Different strategies, same challenge
The latest figures don’t really point to a winner between Buzz and Mecca. This is because the businesses are pursuing fundamentally different strategies.
Buzz is betting on scale, investment and customer growth. Its 76-club estate remains by far the larger of the two, and the increase in younger customers suggests that there is still potential to grow the traditional bingo audience.
Mecca is betting on a smaller, more profitable estate. Its 41 clubs are producing much stronger operating profit. Rank believes further improvement is possible as the business concentrates investment on its best venues.
Neither approach is without risk. Buzz needs to turn its customer and revenue growth into stronger profitability. Meanwhile, Mecca needs to make sure that continually reducing the number of clubs doesn’t eventually weaken its ability to attract and retain customers.
But both businesses are moving toward the same destination: sustainable bingo clubs that are more social, more modern, and better suited to how people want to spend their leisure time today. Time will tell which route proves more effective, but let’s just hope that bingo is the winner.
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