A review of the best online bingo techniques

Due in no small part to its immense popularity, online bingo has become quite the competitive hobby. Many bingo games UK lobbies are at capacity and while that does equal bigger jackpots, it also means you need to pit your cards and your wits against an increased number of opponents, plenty of which could be veterans of the game.

There are several techniques, hints and tricks that could help beginners and advanced players alike enhance their knowledge and ultimately win more rounds. We investigate some of those methods and assess just how useful they are.

Know your game

Bingo comes in several shapes and sizes and knowing the differences between them – or at the very least knowing the rules of your current game – is imperative if you want to be in the running for a win. 90 ball bingo, popular in the UK, uses a 9×3 grid and winners, usually, are the first to achieve a line, two lines and then a full house.

75 ball bingo is more popular across the Atlantic and game cards are represented by 5×5 squares. To complicate things slightly, winners in 75 ball bingo can be the first to successfully complete any number of shapes on the game card, from squares to crosses to hearts and even smiley faces.

Very few tips rank as highly as understanding the rules of your game since without this knowledge you may find yourself overwhelmed. Each online provider will present the game in a slightly different way so do your homework and familiarise yourself with the game.

It’s important to acquaint yourself with your chosen providers interface which you can usually customise to your preference. An effective way of doing this is by taking advantage of the free to play lobbies that many bingo sites offer before placing any real money down as a bet. 

Manage your bankroll

Bingo requires real monetary investments therefore it is wise to stick to a sensible budget. 

Bingo is well loved for its light-heartedness and fun. In order to keep the fun in your bingo sessions, it’s crucial to set appropriate limits and stick to them.

Understand that regardless of which techniques you employ, a large element of the game is luck, and the numbers will never consistently go your way. We’d also rank managing your bankroll as integral to a successful bingo session and should not be underestimated.

Know your odds

Since most games of bingo are played until a winner is found at the outset of the game each card in play has the same probability of winning. Therefore, the more cards you purchase, the higher your chances of winning are.

Before bingo technology became what it is today, trying to navigate around dozens of bingo cards was impossible but bingo sites now offer autofill functions so you can have as many cards in play as you like. Bear in mind that more cards is the equivalent to placing a larger bet so ensure you are aware of the risk against the potential rewards before getting carried away.

Being aware of your odds is certainly interesting to know but since you increase your chances of winning by spending more money (unless you have access to a no deposit card bonus) its usefulness is somewhat limited. If winning is your primary objective, more cards will help you realise that goal.

Avoid peak times

We understand that your chance of winning can be represented by how many cards you have as a percentage of the total number of cards in play, so the other way to improve your chances is to look for games with fewer numbers of cards in play.

Fewer players usually mean fewer total card quantities so look for the lobbies that are not at capacity or play at times of the day when fewer people are likely to be playing. Peak hours generally coincide with evenings and weekends.

Something to bear in mind is that lower traffic times of the day mean decreased jackpots too, so even though your chance of winning the round is increased, you’re likely to come away with less money than a win during peak hours. For this reason, we would rank this technique as quite useful, since we all like that winning feeling even if it’s for a few pounds less.

Bingo number theory

This one comes up a lot in maths circles and that is the question of whether some numbers are more likely to appear than others. While the bingo paradox is real which states that when a large number of people are playing a horizontal line is more likely to be completed than a vertical line, the chance of individual numbers being drawn is completely equal.

So no matter what someone might tell you, there is no advantage of having higher numbers or consecutive numbers or numbers divisible by three, all numbers are random and have an equal chance of being drawn at any time. Because bingo number theory is completely unreliable and yet increasingly pervasive, we are going to rate this technique at zero, keep on walking!

Regardless of how you play bingo and what techniques you employ, as long as you’re having fun while playing and sticking to your limits, we would always count that as a win. And if you maintain that goal, you can benefit from a long and enjoyable bingo career for many years to come.