Did You Have That One On Your Bingo Card?

What started as an offhand comment- “I bet you didn’t have that on your bingo card”- took on a life of its own.

When the Two Johns (Best and Janclaes), Anne Legg and I convened for our annual fintech/credit unions predictions episode of the BIGcast, the landscape seemed more unsettled than usual. Some of our takes, such as the number of CU mergers and our annual bitcoin price prognostication, can easily be measured. Others, like the launch of co-housing mortgages, are a longer term play and their accuracy something of a judgment call.

Nonetheless the bingo card seemed a clever metaphor for a graphic to promote the podcast. Problem was, our foursome hadn’t made enough predictions to populate a standard 5×5 card. So we went back to the whiteboard and brainstormed several more- some whimsical (a “Merger Tinder” app), others serious (more states laws limiting interchange, further consolidation of state CU leagues).

Soon enough we had more than the requisite twenty-five predictions… so we put out a crowdsourcing call for even more. Our marketing maven Jackie found an app that generates customized bingo cards (or as we call it, BIGgo) and we now have an actual game.

A mere four weeks into 2025, we had already checked four items off our list, for those lucky enough to find them on their cards:
·      Nvidia stock drops 10% (although we certainly didn’t predict DeepSeek!)
·      Trump attacks Fed
·      CU tax exemption battle erupts
·      A new CFPB Director appointed (this one’s already happened twice!)

We also now know the outcome of a pair of Super Bowl themed predictions. No crypto firms elected to re-enter the advertising fray. Artificial intelligence did make a big showing, with four commercial spots airing (Open AI, Meta, Google and GoDaddy). Google ran two separate commercials for its Gemini AI assistant, so we decided to mark this a YES.

HERE’S HOW TO PLAY
We welcome you to play along with us- the game is open to everyone who requests an invitation to our CU Town Hall sessions, which are free to attend, but require advance registration. You’ll then receive a link to create your own BIGGo card. There will be prizes for the winners (details to follow), and we’ll briefly update the ongoing results at the start of each Town Hall.

Our next two CU Town Halls will be held Wednesday February 12 and 26 at 3pm ET/ Noon PT. We hope to see you there for a live and lively interactive discussion on the key issues facing credit unions… and to check off some bingo squares.