A Beginner’s Guide to play bingo online
Playing bingo online has emerged in recent years to take the torch from traditional bingo and carry it into the future. The very development of bingo online has helped to bring the game to players that would never before considered playing. With this being one of its major positives. As a new player to play bingo online it’s easy to get swept up by registering with a site and not quite understand what is going on. New players to online bingo have a number of different things to grapple with when they start playing.
Playing the Game
Bingo Games
New Player Bonuses
Online Bingo Terms
These are just some of the areas new players will introduced for. We will try to explain each area as good as we can.
Playing the Game
When playing bingo online you will initially note how different it is from the traditional format played in halls. During the games all of the numbers on your bingo card will be marked off automatically. You don’t need to do a thing, except wait to see if you hit the jackpot. The biggest decisions that you will have to make are what games to enter and how many cards to pay for. Additionally, you will also come across bingo promotions that require you to undertake challenges over a number of games. These also represent a major portion of the online experience.
Bingo Games
The industry works on the basis that there are several software providers that lease out the use of their platforms. They lease to more than 150 online bingo sites. Basically, the site that you play at will determine the different types of game you will have to choose from. Before you register with a site you should look at the types of game that it offers. It is inadvisable to settle for sites that offer just one type of game. These may become tiresome. The common types of games are as follows:
90-ball The traditional UK format; numbers are laid out over three lines of card and 90 balls can be called.
75-ball Emerged from the US and plays on a 5 x 5 grid.
80-ball Played on a 4 x 4 grid with 80 balls.
Five-line The first five lines created horizontally, vertically or diagonally will win.
Another thing to bear in mind is that the majority of online bingo sites are part of a network and all of the sites on the network join in some (or all) of the games and special promotions. In the case of a networked site you won’t just be playing against other players at that bingo site, you’ll be playing against other players at other sites too. This can cause games to have an extremely large number of players and therefore a very low chance of a win.
New Player Bonuses
Beginners to online bingo will notice the prevalence of bonuses available for joining. The way the bonuses primarily work is that you will receive a bonus rate (usually from 100% to 400%) for your first deposit. So, for example, let’s say you deposit £10 and are awarded a 200% welcome bonus. The way it works is that you will receive an additional £20 of bonus funds on top of your initial £10, combining to give £30 overall. Do bear in mind though that the biggest bonus is NOT necessarily the best, as wagering requirements (AKA the small print) can make it difficult to withdraw winnings.
Online Bingo Terms
Traditional bingo primarily centres on what the various calls mean, but when playing online there are other terms that you will come across if playing for the first time. The most common terms that you need to know as a beginner include:
Cards/tickets: Your numbers for each game are arranged and presented on these.
Coverall Basically a game of bingo (usually 75 ball) where you need to cover all of the numbers on your card to win the jackpot.
CM or CH These letters stand for chat moderators, also known as chat hosts. CMs appear at bingo sites to oversee the operation of chat games (basically bingo and chatting) and award prizes.
Full house The term used for when all of the numbers on your card have been marked off.
Lines Refers to how many lines of the bingo ticket a player can win on and most commonly used in connection with the 3 lines on a 90 ball bingo card. you may also come across 5 line games and these are 75 ball.
Informations
Patterns 75-ball games often require players to cover all the squares in a pattern such as a cross rather than the whole card.
Progressive jackpot This is a special prize pot that increases every time a game of bingo is played (either in a specific room or sitewide), and won when bingo is called in a certain number of balls or fewer. They take time to be won and climb to be worth thousands.
Escalator jackpot This is a progressive jackpot that runs for a limited time, with the minimum number of calls needed incrementing every day or every hour until it is won.
Sliding jackpot This is similar to a progressive jackpot but is for one game only. There is a base prize for bingo in any number of calls, and larger amounts that are only won if bingo is made in a certain number of calls or fewer.
