When it comes to playing bingo us Brits have always been fans of the 90 ball game, the traditional game in the UK. However with the introduction of bingo online we have been offered a wider selection of games to play and the face of British Bingo is changing all the time at the brands who bring the game alive on the internet. The traditional American game is 75 ball and winning in the halls in the USA is usually achieved by winning a line horizontally or vertically on the board, different to the three lines required in British bingo.
However coverall games are also popular on a 75 ball board as well as four corners marked to achieve a win. Things are changing in British bingo thanks to the move from offline to online and the variety of games available is now quite extensive. Here we take a look at the variants available online for the brits who play bingo.
75 Ball British Bingo
When you play bingo on the internet you will find four different varieties of the 75 ball bingo game. Pattern, multi-line, multi-part and coverall yet all versions are played on the same 5 x 5 grid. 25 squares in all with one free square in the centre.
Pattern
The patterns played on British Bingo sites across the internet vary and for each different pattern a different number of calls are required to win. See the two examples below:
Multi-Part
Multi-part 75 ball bingo works in a similar fashion to the pattern bingo games but usually it is standard to have three chances to win on one ticket at the online British Bingo sites.
As you can see from the example above you can win the first part of the game by calling bingo on the line pattern, second part by marking off all the numbers on the dollar pattern and the final part by covering all numbers.
Multi-Line
This is the best of the 75 ball games because it is a hybrid of the traditional British Bingo game and the American 75 ball game. There are more chances to win that any other bingo game available to play online with 5 opportunities to be a winner. Like 90 ball bingo you win by marking off your numbers to win lines with 24 the minimum number required to complete the coverall.
80 Ball British Bingo
British Bingo players who have frequented halls will probably know 80 ball bingo as “shutterboard” or “cash line” and it is not too dissimilar to 75 ball bingo except that the card is on a 4×4 grid meaning only 16 numbers required for a “coverall”. There aren’t many software platforms that offer this version of the game although it can be found at Tombola Bingo, Sun Bingo and many of the sites powered by the Virtue Fusion bingo software.
90 Ball British Bingo
This is the game that you will find in most British bingo halls played as the main game. The cards (both online and offline) are grids of 3 rows with 9 columns. On each row there will be 5 numbers randomly placed and 4 blanks. The 90 ball British bingo game offers three chances to win on each card – one line, two lines and three lines meaning you could win the big jackpot on these games in just 15 numbers although highly unlikely.
British bingo changes all the time and as more brands launch onto the Internet it is likely that we are going to see more innovation and more creative offerings when it comes to our favourite game online!