Our friend Phil Fraser wrote an intriguing article that appears in iGaming Business magazine this month. He speculates that online bingo has sped past the "next big thing" moniker, through its ugly duckling phase and is now "all grown up." While that's certainly true in the UK, it's not necessarily so in the rest of Europe and other parts of the world. There are big things ahead for online bingo when we start thinking globally.

Bingo is probably the world's most popular game. It's easy to learn and play and, although stakes are wagered, most people don't consider bingo to be hard gambling. Indeed, bingo has a degree of domestic warmth that is unmatched by any other game online.

And bingo is known and played worldwide. It's sometimes called Lotto, Housie or Tombola, but it's the same game through and through. So it will be interesting to see how online bingo grows in the rest of the world. In the UK, the number of bingo sites has more than trebled in the past two years. As markets begin to open up, will we see similar trends in other countries?

It's become clear that the world needs an online bingo software solution that can be easily modified to suit a variety of languages, currencies and variations in game play. Luckily, we here at Parlay are preparing to release Parlay 5: Bingo Without Borders. We're ready for the global growth of online bingo, and we plan to connect players with each other – not just in the UK – but around the world. So, people who speak different languages and use different currencies can play together in a common bingo game.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, Phil Fraser predicts that it will be the ability to differentiate that will set one bingo site apart from the rest. And at Parlay, we're developing some exciting advancements that, more than ever before, will let our customers differentiate themselves from each other.

Want to find out more? You'll have to join us at the Online Bingo Summit, June 17-18 in London. Contact us to arrange an exclusive preview of Parlay 5: Bingo without Borders. More info at: www.parlaygroup.com/bingosummit