tombola (bingo company)

Tombola was established in 1999 by Phil Cronin.[4] He had previously worked for his family's business Edward Thompson printers, until 1995. Under the Edward Thompson company name, the Cronin family have provided printed paper bingo tickets to bingo halls since the 1960s.[5]

tombola 'soft launched' in December 2005 using the Sun Newspaper as a brand, but retaining control of the business branded as tombola. The main launch went ahead in January 2006 as SunBingo. The Sun newspaper provided marketing and branding while tombola provided the website site, the games, staff and all technical infrastructure. This continued until August 2008 when tombola became independent from the Sun, continuing on as tombola, with all the staff being retained at that time. Sunbingo continued with the Sun using JackpotJoy software as all tombola games had been produced in-house by tombola technicians and continue to do so to this day. The Sun hired their own chat moderating staff as all chat moderation staff working until that time remained with tombola.

Since founding tombola, Phil Cronin has been awarded Durham & Wearside Business Executive of the Year 2011.[6] He has also expanded the tombola business into Europe with tombola receiving gaming licences for Spain and Italy in 2011.[7] In November 2011 tombola was launched in Italy, and in June 2012 also launched in Spain. Portugal was added in February 2018 and Denmark in January 2019. Tombola also added Sweden in March 2019 and The Netherlands in October 2021.

In January 2022, Flutter Entertainment completed the acquisition of tombola[8] and Phil Cronin steps down as CEO and sole owner.

tombola has won twenty-seven awards[9] since re-launching in 2008:[10]

• 2009: Most Online Bingo Prizes Won,[11] Best Chat Host Team award[11]
• 2010: EGR Awards Online Bingo Operator of the Year,[11] Online Bingo Awards Online Bingo Operator of the Year,[12] Most Popular Online Bingo Site,[13] Most Online Bingo Prizes Won,[13] Best Online Game Innovation.[13]
• 2011: Most Popular Online Bingo Site,[14] Best Chat Host Team[14]
• 2012: Best Bingo Chat Hosts of 2012,[15] Bingo Operator of the Year 2012,[16] Best Overall Online Bingo Operator,[17] Best Online Bingo TV Commercial[18]
• 2013: Bingo Operator of the Year 2013,[19] Socially Responsible Operator[19]
• 2014: Bingo Operator of the Year[20]
• 2015: Customer Services Operator,[21] Socially Responsible Operator[22]
• 2016: Bingo Operator of the Year[23]
• 2017: Socially Responsible Operator,[24] Bingo Operator of the Year[25]
• 2018: Bingo Operator of the Year,[26] Marketing Campaign[27]
• 2019: Socially Responsible Operator,[28] Bingo Operator of the Year,[29] In-House Product[30]
• 2021: Safer Gambling Operator[31]

tombola has undertaken a number of sponsorship deals.

In November 2009, the company began sponsoring ITV soap opera Emmerdale[32] in a deal that ran until March 2012.

In April 2010, tombola agreed a deal to sponsor Sunderland AFC for the 2010/11 and 2011/12 English Premier League seasons.[33]

In September 2014 tombola began sponsoring the ITV daytime television show, Loose Women.[34]

In November 2017, tombola arcade began sponsoring I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. The sponsorship was consequently renewed for the 2018 edition of the show and has been renewed each year since then and is ongoing.

In 2012 tombola became the main sponsors of Sunderland AFC Keroche, an African football club supported by Sunderland AFC fans in England. tombola paid for fifteen boxes of football kits to be shipped to Africa for the team.[35]

Tombola also encourage charitable work from its staff and not only can all staff take a 1 day sabbatical to devote time to a charity, but every £1 raised by any member of staff at whatever level, is matched by tombola. In addition they support several food programmes in the city of Sunderland and extensively support a food bank in Hendon in the city.

In July 2014, tombola launched the tombola Academy,[36] a scheme that recruits the most talented young graduates and apprentices from the surrounding area into full-time training at their headquarters in Sunderland.