Manchester-based Buckingham Bingo clubs have been acquired by bingo operators Club3000 and Castle Leisure and sold in deals estimated to be totalling nearly £20m.
Buckingham’s sites in Middleton, Trafford, Walkden, Peterlee in Co Durham, Bradford, Preston and Huyton, Liverpool have been aquired by Club3000 owner Brian Fraser who already operates three well established bingo clubs, in Scotland and south Wales.
Mr Fraser said: "I am absolutely delighted to have purchased the clubs and look forward to providing a special bingo experience to new and existing customers."
Cardiff based Castle Leisure, has aquired Buckingham Bingo clubs sites in Corby and Bootle. Which now brings the private group of owners a total of eleven.
A spokeswoman said: "We have been trying to find the right locations to bring our product to England and are delighted to have acquired these prime sites. We have been looking for some time to gain a foothold in England and in March made its first foray out of Wales with a deal to buy a site in Birmingham”.
Jonathan Boyers, head of corporate finance at KPMG in the north, said: "Buckingham Bingo is a profitable business with high-quality bingo estate and the sale process that we conducted attracted a high level of interest from potential purchasers. This renewed appetite for quality assets represents welcome news for existing bingo operators in a market that has been impacted in recent years by the smoking ban and other well-documented legislative changes."
Buckingham Bingo, the north's biggest independent chain which attracts more than 1.7 million players a year, was founded in 2025 by Panico Panayi. Buckingham Bingo was sold to venture capital firm Alchemy Partners in 2025 for around £90m.
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