Rank Change Their Lucky Pants

Lucky Pants Bingo, which just over a year ago became part of The Rank Group, has this week made the move to the Playtech bingo network.

Software moves are nothing out of the ordinary for a bingo site, but what is interesting here is that Rank are famously the owners of Mecca Bingo, and I’ve noticed that in making this move they have decided to allow a couple of Mecca’s exclusive bingo games to be available to Lucky Pants Bingo players:

I guess ‘Mecca Originals’ now just means they were ‘originally’ found on Mecca.

Judging by some of the marketing copy for the new Lucky Pants site, it sounds like more Mecca Originals games will be on the way in due course.

I find it all a bit strange, as really there is no major reason for anyone to play at Lucky Pants as you may as well just go to Mecca and get all the exclusive games, not just these two. There appear to be a couple of exclusive rooms at Lucky Pants, but nothing to get too excited about.

Goodbye Daub Software?

Another thing I find interesting about this move is that it follows on from Bingo Extra and Give Back Bingo (also newly acquired by Rank) making the switch to Dragonfish back in August, leaving only Kitty Bingo standing as the last site on the Daub bingo network (again, owned by Rank).

I imagine Kitty Bingo will be next, at which point Daub Bingo will be no more.

When Rank acquired Daub last year I did wonder whether or not their long term goal was to improve the Daub software and eventually move all their brands onto it, just like GVC did when they acquired Cozy Games software and moved Foxy, Coral and Ladbrokes Bingo to the platform.

However, it appears Rank are not going down this route.

Why Does Rank Own All These Sites?

Back in 2019, Rank bought a company called Stride Gaming, who were the parent company of Daub Alderney. Daub Alderney had their own bingo software and a network of four sites that sat on it:

Lucky Pants Bingo
Kitty Bingo
Bingo Extra
Give Back Bingo

Stride also owned a company called United Commissions, who in turn own a dozen or so Dragonfish bingo sites such as Ted Bingo, Moon Bingo and Robin Hood Bingo, which explains why Bingo Extra and Give Back went to that platform.

So now Rank now owns Stride, Daub, United Commissions and all the different bingo brands those companies used to run.

My Thoughts

I think if you’re an existing Lucky Pants Bingo player, you’ll probably welcome the new move. You’re getting loads of new games, not only the two Mecca originals but also the likes of Deal or No Deal Bingo and Rainbow Riches Bingo that are super-popular on the Playtech network.

However, for new players, I’m not sure how you differentiate this site from it’s now sister-site Mecca Bingo. It almost seems a kind of Mecca-lite, in that it has a few of the exclusive games but not all. If you’re already a Mecca player (and lets face it, most people are) you may rightly ask what this site is giving you that you can’t get at Mecca? A ‘Stranger Thongs’ daily mini-game. That’s about it.

I think overall it is disappointing that they haven’t been brave enough to develop the Daub software and build a Rank Bingo Network, bringing all their sites under their own roof. Sure it would have been hard work, but if GVC can do it, why not someone else?

2020 has already seen the closure of the Jumpman bingo software and soon the Microgaming network too. It’s a real shame that when Daub closes it simply means there is less variety in the market, which was not nearly varied enough as it was.