Dragonfish Bingo & Slot Sites

Dragonfish Bingo Sites

1. What is Dragonfish?
2. Dragonfish Bingo Sites – The Pros
3. Dragonfish Bingo Sites – The Cons
4. The Past and Present of Dragonfish
5. The Future of Dragonfish
6. Alternatives to Dragonfish

What Is Dragonfish?

Of course you already know that Dragonfish is the name of some very well known and much loved bingo software!  But what you may not be aware of is that it’s also the name of the underlying platform that Dragonfish bingo sites run on, and they don’t always coincide.  So as well as the Dragonfish bingo sites you know and love, there are

• Dragonfish casinos like Costa Games that run on the Dragonfish platform but don’t have any bingo rooms
• Bingo sites like Glossy Bingo that don’t run on the Dragonfish platform but have Dragonfish bingo rooms alongside Pragmatic Play bingo rooms

You will find them all on this page.

Although the popularity of Dragonfish bingo and the sheer number of Dragonfish sites peaked in the mid 2010s, there are still plenty of Dragonfish sites around today and the software recently had a much needed upgrade, as we shall see.

Dragonfish Bingo Sites – The Pros

• Easy to use lobby – it works well on mobile devices and there’s a recently added pre-buy facility for up to a week ahead
• Bingo promotions – usually special bingo rooms with decent prize money, some at Broadway owned sites only
• Frequency of wins – you’ll probably win more often at Dragonfish than at other bingo sites because (apart from in free bingo rooms and monthly specials) there’s fewer players in most of their bingo rooms. Of course this also means smaller prizes, which you might regard as a minus point.
• Exclusive slot games – games like Aztec Wheel and Chocolicious which were added in 2026 are exclusives from Broadway’s own studio
• Progressive jackpots – as well as jackpot versions of the Fluffy games and other Eyecon classics, Dragonfish sites have jackpot versions of Broadway exclusive slot games like Burger Blitz and Multipler Mine
• Player rewards – Broadway’s own Dragonfish sites have the Bingo Shop and Dragonfish brands previously owned by Rank have a trophies based scheme.
• Player funds protection level – Dragonfish sites all have medium level insolvency protection which is safer for player funds than at many other bingo and slot sites

Dragonfish Bingo Sites – The Cons

• Not much choice of bingo games – the only types of bingo on offer at Dragonfish are 90 ball, 75 ball and 52-5.  There’s no 80 ball, no 50 ball, no 30 ball, no single ticket bingo games and no bonus features, which is kind of boring.
• Lack of chat – at some Dragonfish bingo sites hosted chat runs at peak times only and at others not at all.  When the chat is NOT running, the chat window is removed and it’s not possible to see when or even if it is coming back.
• Room and game restrictions – some of the bingo rooms and some of the slot games are cash only and can’t be played with bonus, but you can’t tell which they are until after you’ve signed up (as you need to be logged in). The slot games are marked real money only in the lobby and with the bingo rooms, you’ll find there are some you cannot enter “due to room restrictions”.  They rarely explain what the room restrictions actually are but it is usually a requirement to have at least 5p cash in your account (which you won’t have if you are playing with bonus, due to play order).
• Bonus expiry – Dragonfish bonuses expire in just 5 days which seems very harsh (it used to be a very reasonable 90 days)
• New games lag – Dragonfish can be very slow to add new slot game releases unless they are by Games Global or Eyecon. For example, new slot games in the Big Bass series turn up at Dragonfish sites months later or not at all.
• Lack of casino games – there are no table games and no live casino games whatsoever at any Dragonfish bingo sites or Dragonfish casinos
• Return To Player of slot games – it’s not the worst, but it’s not the best either; I checked a few games with variable RTP in April 2026 and all were set at around 92% or 93%
• Account limitation – Dragonfish limit players to a total of 20 accounts across their network so there will come a point where you can’t open an account at any new Dragonfish sites.
• Limits on what you can win with a bonus – slot spins offers at Dragonfish sites often have a win cap and this is typically just a couple of pounds.  Even after completing the wagering requirements on a Dragonfish slot bonus, the maximum winnings you can withdraw is £100 + the original bonus amount
• Little choice of payment methods – it’s debit card (either directly or via Apple Pay) or Paypal only.
• Quiet bingo rooms – especially at off peak times, meaning very small prizes.

The Past and Present of Dragonfish

Origins

Dragonfish has been around since 2007. Originally part of 888 Holdings, the Dragonfish B2B (business-to-business) operation supplied the bingo software and underlying platform to 3rd party owned bingo and slots sites, as a white label solution (an arrangement similar to a franchise).  Management, payments (handled by “Cassava”), customer services and a UK Gambling Commission licence were all included.  888 Holdings also operated a number of B2C (business-to-consumer) Dragonfish sites including Wink Bingo and 888ladies.

Heyday and Multiple Networks

Dragonfish was in its heyday in the early to mid 2010s, with hundreds of sites online and new ones opening every couple of months.  At that time, there were several different networks of Dragonfish bingo sites with no bingo rooms in common.  Globalcom, Joy Of Bingo, Ignite, United Bingo and Real Bingo network were some of the different networks available.

• The advantage of having these separate networks was that it gave Dragonfish bingo sites lots of freedom over their bingo rooms and promotions and ensured they were not all the same as each other.
• The disadvantage of having these separate networks was lack of liquidity. Liquidity is the amount of money in the system from ticket sales; it’s very important as it determines the size of the prizes.  As long as Dragonfish bingo sites remained super popular with lots of players, it wasn’t an issue.

In the late 2010s, the interest in online bingo in general and Dragonfish bingo in particular started to decline and liquidity started to be a problem.  Many changes were taking place in the industry that disproportionally affected Dragonfish

• Changes in taxation on welcome bonuses – resulting in no deposit bonuses vanishing and deposit bonuses getting smaller
• Tightening of advertising rules – resulting in the theming being eviscerated at sites such as Farmyard Bingo and Candy Shop Bingo that made heavy use of cartoon imagery
• Tightening of rules on player promotions and social responsibility – resulting in some promotions being retired
• Large numbers of users moving to mobile devices – where the bingo lobby was very clunky and the lack of pre-buy at Dragonfish became much more annoying than it had been on a computer screen.

The bingo rooms at Dragonfish sites were getting quieter and quieter and the prizes smaller and smaller and clearly something needed to be done.

Consolidation

The solution to the Dragonfish liquidity problem was to merge all of these different networks into one big network, a gradual process that took seven years to complete from the first widely networked Dragonfish bingo room in 2015 (a jackpot game with a 6 figure prize pool) until the final lobby reconfiguration in 2022 after which all of the main bingo rooms were shared.  A few Dragonfish bingo sites (mostly those previously owned by Rank) do still have a few exclusive bingo rooms,but they tend to be very quiet.

You can’t always tell that Dragonfish bingo rooms are widely networked as they often have different names at different bingo sites.  For example, the main 90 ball network bingo room which was opened in 2016 under the name 90s Extreme is now called Top of the Shop at some Dragonfish bingo sites and Linked & Loaded 90 at others.

Sale

At the end of 2021, 888’s entire bingo business was sold to Broadway Gaming, who are bingo specialists with many years of experience running bingo sites such as Butlers Bingo and Bingo Diamond. As well as the B2B operation, the B2C sites were all transferred to Broadway and in 2026 most Dragonfish sites are both owned and operated by Broadway.

The most immediate effect of the sale was on the range of slot games at Dragonfish sites.  If you played at one before the transfer, you’ll probably remember games like Millionaire Genie and Treasure Fair; they were 888 exclusives so didn’t hang around, while – thanks to Broadway’s good relationship with Games Global – in came Microgaming back catalogue classics like Thunderstruck II and more recent releases like 9 Masks of Fire.

More Consolidation

Ever since Broadway took over, new Dragonfish bingo sites have been very few and far between. While 888 were in charge it was relatively easy for iGaming wannabees to open an off the shelf Dragonfish bingo site as the financial outlay to get started was relatively modest and all the licensing, payment processing, account verification and other admin was handled centrally.  Broadway seem to be much fussier about who they will work with and instead of opening new sites they have been doing the exact opposite – taking white label sites back in house.

As soon as the transfer of ownership was complete Broadway paused player acquisition on most of the 45 or so Dragonfish sites that they owned directly and began a process of consolidation resulting in fewer, better brands.  Rank Digital also pruned some of the many Dragonfish sites they owned and in late 2024, they transferred their remaining brands to Broadway.  As for other multi brand operators, Broadway have pretty much completed their program of terminating agreements with all of their white label partners and either bringing those sites back in house (which may result in further closures down the line) or closing them immediately.

What Next?

Exclusive bingo rooms and promotions have been a casualty of this process. For example, the “Silverspin” Dragonfish brands including Candy Shop Bingo, Spinzilla and Woolly Bingo had a distinctive weekly rewards scheme and the “Maxi” brands including Chit Chat Bingo and Pink Ribbon Bingo had an exclusive bingo room called the Royal Room with exclusive chat games and promotions.  Broadway have terminated the white label agreements with Silverspin and Maxi (perhaps because they were based outside the UK) so all of these Dragonfish sites have now closed, moved to other platforms or been brought in house minus the exclusive content.

This makes the few Dragonfish bingo sites that are actually trying to attract new players even less appealing.

A small number of non Broadway owned sites remain and some of them do have exclusive rooms and promotions.  You can identify them by looking at the About Us page, where the details of the owner are shown if it’s not Broadway; at Majestic Bingo, for example, the owner is given as Majestic Bingo Online Limited.

Consolidation and reorganisation alone were clearly not going to be enough to breathe new life into Dragonfish as the bingo software itself was looking pretty old and stale and the bingo rooms were still getting quieter and quieter.  It was very much in need of a major update.

The Future of Dragonfish

Broadway Gaming have taken what feels like a long time to do anything constructive with their acquisition but in 2026, things are finally starting to happen.

The first bit of innovation came all the way back in February 2022 when they experimented with streaming live video with an interactive bonus game into the Nutty Ninety bingo room at 888Ladies.  To get into the room and play the game, you needed to be funded (i.e. have at least 5p cash in your account).  We said “more of this sort of content could really revitalise the ageing software and bring in more players which in turn would make the prize money more attractive, especially if coupled with more investment in the chat and an overhaul of the product to add the proper pre-buy facility it currently lacks”. Fast forward four years and (as we shall see) that overhaul has finally happened but far from investing in the chat, they’ve got rid of most of it. In 2026, most non Dragonfish bingo sites have also dumped the chat so maybe they were wise not to pursue that.

The first real progress came in summer 2024; although the bingo rooms themselves were unchanged (and still full of tumbleweed) the lobby had a design upgrade making it easier to navigate, and an Express Buy option was added which let you buy tickets for upcoming games without actually going into the individual bingo rooms.  This did make it a bit easier to buy tickets, but what was really needed was a schedule buy.

A further update arrived in Spring 2025 – Dragonfish bingo rooms can apparently now be supplied as a plugin to sites that don’t run on the Dragonfish platform (just like Pragmatic Play Bingo and the latest version of Playtech Bingo).  Two bingo rooms (90 ball Top of the Shop and 75 ball Mystery Jackpots) were added alongside the Pragmatic Play bingo rooms at Butlers Bingo and several other sites that Broadway own but are not on the Dragonfish platform. A few months later, the Bingo Deal 52-5 bingo room was also added.

After this successful test of the technology, we could see Dragonfish bingo rooms being rolled out elsewhere in the future.  Mystery Jackpots in particular, with its gimmick of the prize not being revealed until after tickets sales have closed, could be very appealing to a wider audience.

In 2026, nearly two years after the addition of Express Buy, we learned that it was just a stepping stone; it was replaced by the pre-buy feature Dragonfish has needed for all these years and other UX improvements came with it as well as a suite of slot games that are exclusive to Broadway’s own sites (Dragonfish and otherwise).

The addition of pre-buy has made it much easier and much less tedious to play through the wagering requirement on a Dragonfish bingo bonus making these offers attractive to players again.

It’s not all good news for Dragonfish in 2026. Changes to UKGC rules surrounding promotions have put a stop to all Dragonfish welcome offers and promotions that mixed bingo and slots and this isn’t great for all of those Dragonfish brands that had welcome offers combining a bingo bonus and slot spins.  Many sites have chosen to go with a new welcome offer that’s a simple bingo bonus as with slots offers, the wagering requirements also need to change from the previous 35x to 10x.

On the whole though, the addition of pre-buy and exclusive slot games is a brilliant turnaround and we hope to see Dragonfish regaining some of its earlier popularity.

Alternatives to Dragonfish

But what if you’re finally fed up with Dragonfish and want a change?  In 2026, you don’t have many options…

• Virtue Fusion by Playtech is an industry leading bingo platform that powers household names including Paddy Power Bingo as well as supplying bingo to Progress Play casinos. It’s known for its busy bingo rooms, big prize money and lively communities.
• tombola‘s bingo software only powers their own site, but what a site!
• Pragmatic Play bingo powers all Grace Media and Jumpman bingo sites and several others (as well as Broadway’s non Dragonfish sites if you want the best of both worlds.  It’s a great product with a fully featured pre-buy and lots of different types of bingo to choose from, but most sites have no chat in the bingo rooms.
• Entain’s own bingo platform which powers Foxy Bingo, Coral Bingo and a couple of others is an evolution of the old Cozy bingo software.  It’s got hosted chat, several unique bingo games, a brilliant player rewards scheme and is generally going from strength to strength.
• Gamesys bingo sites have busy bingo rooms with great chat hosts.
• Relax Gaming bingo is only available at two UK sites but has a number of busy bingo rooms with substantial prizes and exclusive minigames.  There’s no chat though.
• There are a few other independents around including MrQ, BingoPlus and Happy Tiger.