If you've never tried your hand at online bingo before, you might be unsure about the different types of bingo games available. You'll usually find a range of bingo games, from the most common 90-ball bingo, 80-ball bingo, 75-ball bingo, 50-ball bingo and 30-ball bingo to other variations of this too. Bingo games differ in how a player can win, but usually involve formats that include lines, patterns, rows and columns.
The best way to find out which bingo game is for you is to simply…play a lot of them! Going on a big bingo website with lots of choice can be a great way to start because it gives you lots of chances to explore and try out different games. For example, you might find that you really like being part of a community of bingo players and want to spend time chatting and interacting with others, so a game that takes longer and has a slower pace could be good for you e.g 90- ball bingo games.
Or if you want to find a bingo game to play quickly while you're travelling or on your lunch break then you could look for a game that doesn't take long to play and is fun and easy, such as 30-ball bingo games.
You might be looking for the bingo games with the biggest prizes, in which case it's all about looking for the busiest and biggest bingo rooms that have the largest prize pots up for grabs.
Whatever you're looking for, online bingo will have the bingo game for you, it's about trying out games and finding what you enjoy!
When you're new to bingo, free bingo rooms can act as the perfect way to dip your toe into bingo playing and work out how to play. Sometimes a bingo site will ask you to make a deposit before you can access a free bingo room, but there are also bingo sites with some networks that give you 2 or 3 days of free bingo rooms before asking you to make a deposit.
You won't have to make any deposits to play and the prizes on offer will likely be cash or bonuses, but you can still play the bingo games in the way that you would if it wasn't free.
Free bingo is also sometimes offered and activated, after you've made a deposit or a specific amount of deposit, as a reward. Depending on how much you've deposited or if you're part of a loyalty scheme, you can get invited to a free bingo room with different prizes available. Bingo websites use free bingo rooms to incentivise players to become loyal to the site, whether that's at the start of their player journey or to maintain their loyalty.
90-ball bingo games are one of the most popular types of online bingo games. You'll find it on almost every bingo website you visit, with many having dedicated bingo rooms and the most players and biggest prizes attributed to 90-ball bingo. This type of game is just like the bingo game that you would play in a physical bingo hall.
The format of a 90-ball bingo game is a grid of 9 columns and 3 lines, traditionally comprising of 6 tickets, with each ticket containing 15 numbers between 1 - 90. In the strips of 6 tickets, a number will occur once and automatically flag up on your ticket. Think of it like what would happen in an actual bingo hall where the number would get called out and you'd have to mark the number on your card yourself, in an online game it's happens instantly for you!
Each line on your bingo card will have 5 numbers, so 15 numbers on one ticket. You'll have 6 tickets which means 90 numbers overall. The columns are made up of the numbers: 1-9, 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-90.
In each game that you play, there are 3 opportunities to win and the first person to achieve 1 line, 2 lines or a full-house wins. A random number generator announces the numbers in each game.
75-Ball Bingo Games:75-ball bingo games are also known as Pattern Bingo and they are much more popular in the US than the UK, but growing in popularity in the UK too. Usually, a pattern will be announced at the start of each game and players must complete the specific pattern to win the game. The pattern will be made up of squares from the ticket that are called out by the random number generator.
There are 25 squares and 24 numbers on each ticket because the central square is always kept free, so there are 5 rows and 5 columns, with columns numbered 1 -15, 16 - 30, 31 - 45, 46 - 60 and 61 - 75. The pattern can be anything and is whatever is decided at the start of the game - it keeps things fun and different.
Swedish BingoSwedish Bingo is another form of 75-ball bingo, also known as five-line bingo. There are lots of different opportunities to win with this type of game. It's slightly different to Pattern Bingo, it has the 5 row and 5 column layout, but instead of missing the centre square, there is a central square in Swedish Bingo, which is needed to win the line.
Winning the first line requires a horizontal or vertical line, but most of the wins after this tend to be a horizontal line.
80-Ball Bingo Games80-ball bingo is more familiar to players that have played bingo in physical amusement arcades etc. It's also known as prize bingo. There are 16 numbers altogether with 4 rows and 4 columns, which are sometimes colour co-ordinated, numbered 1 -20, 21-40, 41- 60 and 61 - 80. Corner numbers, diagonal lines, full column or a full line and the full house all give players lots of different chances to win.
50-Ball Bingo50-ball bingo is still relatively new in the online bingo world and there are different ways to play it, depending on the bingo website that you play it on.
The format is usually a strip of 5 tickets and 10 numbers from 1 - 50 and 2 lines with the columns 1 - 10, 11 - 20, 21 - 30, 31- 40 and 41 - 50. The numbers that occur will only pop up once.
You will win a prize if you achieve one line or a full house of numbers.
30-Ball BingoIf you're looking for a quick game of bingo to pass the time then look no further than 30-ball bingo. It's a small game with a small format of 9 numbers in 3 x 3 square, with numbered columns 1 - 10, 11- 20 and 21 - 30. To win, the player must achieve a full-house.
Some of the bingo rooms that you'll play in on certain bingo sites will have Progressive Bingo Jackpots, which means that the rewards will be much bigger when you win a full house, two lines, and one line in a bingo game.
Progressive Bingo Jackpots aren't won in every game, like the fixed and guaranteed jackpots that are awarded in most bingo games - this means that the Progressive Bingo Jackpots are usually bigger and better because they've been accumulated over a series of games and aren't won every game.
The great thing about Progressive Bingo Jackpots is that they literally do ‘progress' and get bigger. So, there might be an initial £250 that the jackpot starts at and then everyday the jackpot is increased by a percentage amount of the previous day's ticket sales.
A Progressive Bingo Jackpot can just be limited to one bingo website and depend on the ticket sales from that specific website, or if they're part of a larger bingo network then the jackpot can increase by a percentage that's accumulated from all across that bingo network. However, a jackpot might not be as big on a bingo site specific website but there are more players competing for a Progressive Bingo Jackpot on a site that is part of a bigger network, so it might be more difficult to win.
The jackpot amount obviously varies depending on the site and size of the site, but a jackpot will usually range from £10 to £1,000 - bigger, more popular websites will have bigger jackpots because they'll sell more tickets to players.
When you join a bingo room with a Progressive Bingo Jackpot, the way to win is to call a full house within a fixed number of calls. You need to find out how many calls are required before you start, it should be easy to find and helps you to play the game properly.
Sometimes there are community jackpot features within a jackpot, which means that a winner wins some of the prize money and then the rest of it is divided between everybody else that bought a ticket for that bingo game with a Progressive Bingo Jackpot.
It's natural to wonder what time, when and where all of these bingo games on different sites are played. Getting to grips with schedules is necessary if you want to play your favourite games, practice and win the best jackpots.
Each bingo website should have its own schedule list, where you'll be able to check the times of certain bingo games, the stakes, the prizes and jackpots available. You'll usually be able to pre-buy tickets through a schedule aswell, so it'll be quick and easy to start games when you want to.
Big games with big jackpots will usually have a prominent visual position on a bingo site to drum up interest and encourage people to buy tickets and play.
Keep an eye out for big jackpots and it's always worth pre-buying tickets for progressive jackpots, so you can be part of a bigger game.