The arrival of Mecca Bingo's BOB rooms made us wonder about the odds when it comes to playing bingo. BOB - or Best Odds Bingo - limits the number of players to a room and gives all players the same number of tickets. In other words your chances of winning are 1/x where x is the number of players in that room.
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- Prizes in bingo are fixed. Your odds are inversely proportional to the number of competing cards in the room. Of course you won't know exactly how many cards you are up against, but the more you play the better you will be at estimating the competition. Here are some ways to estimate the number the competing cards in the room.
- The odds of winning Bingo are based on two factors: The number of cards in play; The number of balls drawn; In Bingo, the more cards in play, the lower the odds of winning.
This formula doesn't apply to many other bingo rooms as players may hold differing number of tickets. The only brand that can really guarantee 1/x games in all their rooms is Tombola. However, their rooms can be quite busy.
To give you the best chance of winning bingo you should look for games where everyone has the same number of tickets. If that's not possible then purchasing more tickets for a particular game should give you an advantage. If you hold 96 tickets for a game and other players hold just 1 each then the odds are in your favour - but a win is never guaranteed.
Odds Of Calling A Full House
A lot of bingo games offer progressive or community jackpots that can be won in a fixed number of calls. But what are the odds of winning within a certain number of calls? Our table below gives you the odds.
About The Odds
As a 90 ball bingo card traditionally has 15 numbers the chances of calling a full house with less than 15 calls is impossible. Therefore we've omitted the data from our table. Although the probability table shows 0 for calls 15 to 24 the odds to 1 table shows that there is a chance - albeit incredibly remote - that you can call a full house.
We have blocked off the calls 49 to 64 (indicated by the yellow zone) as in a Loquax study we discovered that on average 75% of games were won by the 64th call. In our study of over 170,000 games only 2% were won with 48 calls or less. Almost all games were won when the number of calls required reached 75.
Progressive Jackpots
This information is especially useful because in order to win a progressive 90 ball jackpot on a site such as Foxy Bingo you need to call house in 38 calls or less for their games. Gala Bingo require house being called in 32 calls or less to win big with some of their games. After 65 calls and beyond then a full house call is more than likely.
What all this means is that the odds are stacked against you if you're aiming to hit the jackpot. However, it is still possible to win and it's those slim margins which keep us hoping that our luck will be in on the next game.
Online bingo is a game of chance but this does not mean that online bingo strategies don’t work. They can and will help you to increase your chances of winning. If you have played live bingo before – the kind you will play in your local church or hall, then you may be familiar with some of the strategies used by the more experienced players. There are hundreds of players winning every second with so many online bingo halls and progressive jackpots can reach into the millions. Keno and slots are games loved by bingo fans and are often played as side games.
How To Play 75 & 90 Ball Bingo
As with any form of bingo, online bingo is a game of chance, pure and simple.
You can maximize your chances of winning by buying more tickets, but that means you have to increase your outlay and therefore your risk.
Online bingo tends to come in 2 formats, 90 ball, and 75 ball. With 90 ball, you get tickets with 15 number, spaced out from 1 to 90, with no more than 3 in any block of 10’s.
There are normally 3 prizes in a game, a small one for the first player to mark of a horizontal line of 5 numbers, a slightly bigger one for the first player to mark of 2 horizontal lines, and then the main prize, the full house prize, that goes to the first player to mark off all 15 of their numbers.
If 2 or more people win a prize on the same number, the prize is split equally between them all.
Unlike land-based bingo, you do not have to check your numbers off, this is done automatically for you. It does take away some of the excitement of land-based bingo where you would need to shout loudly if you win, but because of this online bingo is more social.
Bingo Bet It All Beaver
75 ball bingo is the same basis, but there is normally just one prize. You receive a ticket with a 5 by 5 grid of numbers, the middle square is normally free for all players, giving you 24 numbers to mark off, more than the 15 for 90 ball despite there being fewer numbers in play.
In some games you need to mark off all of your numbers in order to win, some games you just need a line or four corners, and others have a specific pattern such as a cross. Check with the lobby before you start so you know what the aim of each game is, although as mentioned previously you don’t have to do anything yourself as the computer takes care of this when playing online.
Bingo Strategy
Bingo Strategy #1:
Here is one of the decisions you have to make when you come to choosing a strategy – if you are there to have fun and enjoy yourself, you may be better looking at 90 ball as the 3 prizes mean you are more likely to win something to prolong your gaming experience.
If you are there to try and win as much money as possible, 75 ball bingo may well be better for you as there is only 1 prize meaning this tends to be bigger if the same number of players register.
Bingo Strategy #2:
Play progressive jackpots. These games at times can reach the millions, but make sure to play at only accredited online bingo sites. The more players a site has the larger the jackpot grows. Networked games can also be really exciting and are going on all the time. You can also find buy 3 get 3 free tickets etc to these games which increase your odds of winning.
Bingo Strategy #3:
Play More Cards By playing more cards per game you’ll be increasing your chances of winning. With more cards available you stand a better chance of getting bingo and therefore you will immediately begin to win more.
Bingo Strategy #4:
Fewer players- When you play bingo, you’ll be competing against other players for the jackpot. Therefore it’s wise to play when there are fewer people logged into the site. If there are 50 players logged in, your chances of winning are much smaller than if there are online 20 other people logged in.
The only downside of this is that the prize pools will be much smaller and of course the chat room will be a lot quieter. When you consider that the interaction between bingo players is a large part of playing online bingo games, it’s not always the best idea to play when there are fewer players.
Bingo Strategy #5:
Play at established bingo sites to ensure that you improve your winnings. They normally offer 1tg and 2tg games as well as bogof tickets, which increase your odds dramatically. Another way is to aim at playing at websites that offer the biggest jackpots. By playing at the more established websites you stand a greater chance of making a bigger profit if you win.
Bingo Strategy #6:
Chat Room Games- An easy way to win some bonus bucks and even prizes is to play in the chat games. These are played while the normal game is running.
Bingo Strategy #7:
Play side games that you’re lucky at. Most of us have a game that we tend to be more lucky at. Mine is roulette, for some, it can be slots. Just make sure to always play within your budget and always be prepared just in case you lose that money.
How to Win at Bingo Tips
Bingo Tip #1:
If a bit of fun is your aim, keep an eye out for the chat games that come with most games. These are run by a chat moderator, and normally involve choosing 1 or 2 numbers before a game starts. If your numbers come out, you will have to claim a prize in the chat. This is normally a fairly small amount, but regular little wins from these kinds of games can soon add up and if it means you can buy an extra ticket or two in the next game, you can increase your chances of winning a bigger prize.
Bingo Tip of #2:
Many sites these days also offer a progressive jackpot. This is triggered if you call bingo on a 90 ball game in a set number of calls or less, usually between 38 and 45. This very rarely happens, most games will go to 60 or more numbers before anyone marks all 15 numbers off, but these jackpots can get into the hundreds of thousands of pounds so no one is likely to turn down the chance to win it!
Bingo Tip #3:
The evenings and weekends tend to be the busiest times at online bingo sites as more people generally have free time. Whilst this means your chances of winning are reduced as more players will mean more cards in play, it also means higher prize money.
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Bingo Tip is #4:
Many sites run high guaranteed games of several thousand pounds in prize money at least once or twice a week, a win in one of these is often worth more than 20 or 30 wins in smaller games. Some of these also offer ‘runner-up’ prizes of a % of the prize pool for any players that only have 1 number left (referred to by sites as 1TG – 1 to go). Whilst not as high as the main full house prize, it can nonetheless give you a bit of extra money to play with.
Bingo Tip #5:
Another thing to think about is how many tickets you buy. Each game will have a maximum with each ticket costing a set amount, some games have tickets for 1p whilst some cost £1. As you would expect, the more you pay for a ticket, the more money there is likely to be in the prize pool.
Although each ticket has an equal amount of chances of winning, clearly the more tickets you buy the more chance you have of holding the winning ticket.
Bingo Tip #6:
You will also see side games on most online bingo sites. These are normally the most popular casino games such as a small range of slots, blackjack and/or roulette. These can be addictive to play in between games or whilst you are watching the numbers being drawn, but they can also quickly mean your balance reduces quite quickly. Ensure you play within your means and don’t overspend on slots or other games if your main enjoyment is bingo.
Conclusion
To sum up, there are really 2 types of bingo players, those who come onto enjoy themselves and relax whilst making friends, and those who are trying to win money over and above all else.
If you are the former and just out for a bit of fun, your strategy should involve mainly 90 ball bingo to maximise your chances of winning a prize, taking part in as many chat games as possible to socialise and top up your balance and play in the day if you want a better chance of winning a smaller prize.
If you are out to win as much as possible, 75 ball bingo is probably better as there is only 1 prize most of the time, play the larger guaranteed games in the evenings and weekends and maximize your tickets where possible, and try to play only 90 ball games that count towards the progressive jackpot. Whilst the odds are winning are split between hundreds of players, someone has to, and as the saying goes – It could be you!
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