Mecca Bingo campaigning to make bingo an Olympic sport

The familiar cry of "on your marks" could soon become "eyes down" at the world's biggest sporting events, as Mecca Bingo leads the campaign for the game to be recognized as an official sport by the International Olympic Committee.

Mecca Bingo, one of the largest bingo operators in the U.K., has today launched a call for the Olympics to declare the number based entertainment a sport by the 2020 summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. To launch its campaign, Mecca Bingo has written on behalf of its fans to the games' committee in order to formally begin the application process for Olympic accreditation.

Within its letter, Mecca Bingo argues that the alertness, dexterity, observational skills and good sportsmanship required to play the game make it the perfect candidate to be recognized as a sport.

What's more, bingo fulfills many of the other criteria laid out by the Olympic Committee when considering new games for inclusion, including popularity in a large number of regions across the world, affordability in terms of practicing and playing the game, as well as having a set of easy to understand rules.