Bargain basement bingo

Over recent months we have seen one of the best known online bingo sites, Foxy Bingo, offer more bargain basement bingo than previously but the feedback from their members seems to be that they want more of the ‘meaty’ bingo games with bigger prize pots on offer. Although Foxy is home to the biggest guaranteed jackpot online to date, the players are talking about the regular bingo games and asking that the more expensive bingo games are more readily available at Foxy Bingo.

Bargain basement bingo is the term we have used to describe the penny, tuppeny and 5p bingo games that seem to have been available in abundance at many sites, not just Foxy Bingo, of late. It would appear however that many discerning online bingo player prefers the games with bingo cards priced at 25p and above. These games, with increased ticket prices, offer slightly inflated prize pools than those found in bargain basement bingo games although it’s all relative.

Prices for bingo cards vary from site to site but in any game of online bingo, with the exception of guaranteed bingo jackpots, the prize pot offered is determined by three things; the ticket prices, the number of players in the game and the amount of bingo cards purchased.

Bingo players, on the whole, will buy maximum tickets for bargain basement bingo games but when the price increases, less tickets are sold per game. You may find that a pot prize for a penny bingo game would be similar to that of a 25p bingo game simply because more players have bought maximum tickets for the penny game than have for the 25p game.

We did a comparison at one online bingo site that boasts a mixture of both bargain basement bingo and the slightly more expensive tickets:

90 ball bingo game – ticket price 50p – players in the game 14 – prize pot of £36.04 split as follows:

• 1 line - £9.01
• 2 lines  - £9.01
• Full house - £18.02

Bingo called in 64 numbers

90 ball bingo game – ticket prize 5p – players in the game 51 – prize pot of £25.92 split as follows:

• 1 line - £6.88
• 2 lines - £6.88
• Full house - £12.96

Bingo called in 59 numbers

For the game that cost 50p per ticket we bought maximum tickets at a cost of £12 and won £18.02, a profit of £6.02 whilst we played ten 5p bingo games, maximum bingo cards per game at a total cost of £12.00 with no return at all.

The math makes the choice obvious, bargain basement bingo sees you play more bingo for your cash but the chances of winning are reduced simply because of the number of players in the room. The more expensive bingo cards see less players in a room increasing your chances of winning but with more to lose if lady luck isn’t on your side.

Written by Freya Barber

7th November 2009