Mysterious Licensing Change at Cozy Bingo Sites

Since November 2014 all Cozy bingo sites and casino sites have been covered by the licence issued to Cozy Games Management Limited by the UK Gambling Commission – reference 38719.  A visit to the Gambling Commission public register, however, reveals that not only is this no longer the case, but the licence apparently doesn’t exist!

So who now holds the licence for all the Cozy sites?  We visited Igloo Bingo to find out:

“Igloo Bingo is operated by ElectraWorks Limited (“ElectraWorks”) in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Cozy Games Management Limited in all other territories.  ElectraWorks is licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission…. for players in Great Britain. Cozy Games Management Limited is registered in Isle of Man… and is licensed and regulated by the Isle of Man Gambling Commission…. for all other customers.”

ElectraWorks Limited are based in Gibraltar and as well as a long list of Cozy bingo and casino sites, their entry on the Gambling Commission register includes sites such as bwin.com and partypoker.com – brands associated with bwin party who are owned by the iGaming multinational GVC Holdings.   GVC also own Foxy Bingo.

It has been rumoured for some time that GVC were interested in buying Cozy so this could indicate an acquisition by GVC either of the entire business or of the UK part of it – but no formal announcement has been made by either side as yet and apparently Cozy have not even mentioned the change to their bingo site owners (even in response to a direct question about it) as well as still having a link to the non-existent previous licence on the Live Bingo Network home page!   The timing is interesting as it comes hot on the heels of the announcement that the award winning casino Mr Green would be launching a Cozy powered bingo product.

As for what it means for players, and for new bingo sites launching on the Cozy platform, who knows?  No doubt more information will emerge soon.