Jumpman Bingo Sites
Jumpman bingo sites have come a very long way over the last ten years. Back in 2013 when we first started writing about bingo, there were only a few Jumpman powered sites, all on 15 Network and all focusing very much on bingo. Today there are more than 150 Jumpman powered sites and they are all so geared towards slots that not only is the bingo is little more than an afterthought, they’ve actually dumped their proprietary bingo software and outsourced the whole thing! But how did this transformation come about?
- 15 Network 2011 – 2017
- Wheel of Slots 2015 – 2017
- Jumpman Slots 2016 – 2017
- Migration Preparation 2017 – 2018
- New 15 Network & Jumpman Slots 2018 -2020
- Jumpman Bingo Software Retired – 2020
- New Welcome Offers – 2021 – 2023
15 Network 2011 – 2017
The original 15 Network (which comprised a mixture of house owned sites and white labels) was all about the bingo, with a few slot games on the side. The welcome offer was a standard bingo bonus offer plus what would later come to be a Jumpman signature promotion, a spin the wheel game (this version awarded an extra bingo bonus). There were 75 and 90 ball bingo rooms with chat and various jackpot games. Many bingo sites on the network ran exclusive promotions such as depositor prize draws and leaderboard races, and a couple had exclusive bingo rooms.
A big problem on the original 15 Network was the mobile service – or rather lack of it. The first version (launched in 2014) worked OK on tablets (which at the time were going to be the next big thing) but everything was too small to see on phones. The second version did work on phones, but was barely worth bothering with as all it offered was the facility to pre-buy bingo tickets with no access to the bingo rooms themselves or the chat.
The chat itself was also a problem and the lack of mobile access to it certainly didn’t help. In the beginning each bingo room had its own chat but in March 2015 all were merged into one network chat. That wasn’t too bad, but in December 2016 the hosted hours were cut to evenings only and since part of the popularity of the original 15 Network sites was the cosy community feel, this was a body blow.
A further problem was the lack of free and cheap bingo. Tickets were typically priced at 10p or more (some as much as £1) and although there was free bingo it was only for players who had made a very recent deposit.
At 15 Network, Jumpman also did quite a bit of experimentation around wagering requirements. In January 2014 they got rid of their regular wagering requirements and replaced them with the requirement to complete £30 of cash play before any withdrawals could be made. After that, players could withdraw at any time (subject to a minimum withdrawal of £30) but would lose their loyalty points and any remaining bonus if they did. The £30 cash play requirement was quietly upped to a hefty £100 in late 2015. This arrangement would never be allowed today, of course.
In September 2016, 15 Network started to run promotions with slot bonus rewards, and with the introduction of slot bonuses came the return of wagering requirements – 4x for bingo and 40x for slots.
Wheel of Slots 2015 – 2017
Meanwhile Jumpman launched another bingo network, with the first four sites going live in June 2015. Wheel of Slots ran on the same bingo software as 15 Network and was basically another experiment in getting rid of bingo wagering requirements. This was done by not actually offering any bingo bonus and instead having a spin-the-wheel game of chance – the Wheel of Slots – as the only deposit offer (which seemed pretty radical at the time). When you played bingo with cash at these sites, participated in one of their free bingo promotions or played with free bingo tickets won on the Wheel, the winnings came as withdrawable cash.
The other items that could be won on the Wheel of Slots were free spins on various Eyecon slots including Fluffy Favourites. Which slot you got and whether it was 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 or 500 free spins was determined by where the wheel stopped. Free slots spins had to be played immediately after winning them, but spins on the Wheel of Slots itself – which were earned by depositing £10 and by completing quests on site – could be saved and taken later; up to 5 wheel spins could be held in the Spin Bank at any one time and up to 3 could be used in one day. I’m sure you can guess what the snag was – the winnings from the slot spins were paid as a bonus with a rather hefty wagering requirement (recalculated every time the Wheel was spun). Although cash winnings could be taken out any time, doing so would result in the removal not only of any remaining bonus but of any unused wheel spins. There was also a rule that the Wheel could not be spun by a player with more than £100 in their account, meaning that anyone who won big in bingo and wanted to withdraw would lose any unused spins.
Nevertheless, Wheel of Slots sites attracted many players, probably because it was a change from the usual arrangement at bingo sites at that time, where bonuses could only be spent on bingo and slot play had to be in cash. Another attractive thing about the Wheel of Slots was that players were guaranteed to win something on every spin (which is not the case with the current Jumpman welcome offers).
Jumpman Slots 2016 -2017
The original Jumpman Slots sites had a slot bonus and free spins welcome offer and were on the same platform as 15 Network and Wheel of Slots but without the bingo. By this point, the emphasis had already started to move towards slots and many new games had been added.
In September 2017, the slot bonus welcome offer was replaced by the Mega Reel which is still in use today. Plainly building on the success of the Wheel of Slots, it offered the chance to win up to 500 slot spins or a £10 Amazon voucher, but with an important difference; when you spin the Mega Reel, a win is not guaranteed.
Migration Preparation 2017 – 2018
After the introduction of the Mega Reel, everything changed for Jumpman bingo sites.
The new slots offer was sufficiently popular with players for Jumpman to take the radical step of replacing the bingo bonus offer at 15 Network bingo sites with the completely slot focused Mega Wheel (almost identical to the Mega Reel). Not long after that, the Wheel of Slots was also changed to feature different slot games. The bingo tickets segment was removed and – as with the Mega Reel and Mega Wheel – a win was no longer guaranteed.
At much the same time, it was rumoured that the Jumpman Bingo software would soon be getting a major upgrade and there would be no new launches of Jumpman Bingo sites until it was ready.
The result of all this was that with no bingo bonuses and no influx of new players from new sites, the bingo rooms at the original 15 Network became deathly quiet and games very often had to be cancelled because not enough players bought tickets. The slots, on the other hand, were clearly in the ascendant and many new games from new providers were added.
New 15 Network & Jumpman Slots 2018 – 2020
The first bingo site to launch on the new version of the 15 Network was Barbados Bingo in April 2018, but a sneak preview was available earlier for those who were paying attention! The Jumpman Slots sites were upgraded first and as well as a much bigger and better selection of slot games than before, the new sites all had a tab for bingo. Although the rooms had the same names as rooms on the old 15 Network, they weren’t connected to them – and when Barbados Bingo launched it was with these new bingo rooms.
As expected, the sites on the old 15 Network started to migrate across to the new one, with house owned sites first in line. Existing players had to sign up again and some sites disappeared altogether rather than migrating. It soon became apparent that the Wheel of Slots sites were also migrating to the new 15 Network, so that in future there would be just one bingo network accessible from all Jumpman sites and that the only genuine difference between Jumpman bingo sites and Jumpman slot sites would be the word bingo in the name.
Eventually all Jumpman sites had either moved to the new software or closed. The post migration Jumpman sites were a very cry from the original 15 Network and it was a moot point whether they should even be considered to be bingo sites at all as despite the wide networking and the mobile service, the bingo was quite frankly a bit of a joke and there was rarely anyone in the bingo rooms.
The new Jumpman platform also provides entertainment value via another idea first trialled at Wheel of Slots, that of gamification. At Wheel of Slots, players could collect extra spins of the Wheel by completing quests. New Jumpman sites have the Trophies page which is an all-singing, all-dancing version of this; there are hundreds of trophies to collect through play (some easy, some insanely difficult and/or expensive) and every time you collect a set of 5 you get to spin the Mega Reel/Wheel again (be careful about timing though as to qualify, you’ll need to have made a deposit in the last 2 days). This is now the only form of loyalty scheme Jumpman sites have (the VIP scheme was retired in September 2020).
Jumpman Bingo Software Retired – 2020
In 2019 Jumpman found an alternative way to cater to players who like a side order of bingo with their slots, in the form of the Bingo Millions game by Mutuel Play. The prizes in Bingo Millions do not depend on ticket sales and the chances of winning a prize are the same whether there is one other player or ten thousand. Despite not really being a bingo game at all (it’s more like a lottery) it offers a player experience (complete with chat) that is very similar to bingo. By March 2020, this was really all that was on offer to bingo players at Jumpman sites as the state of the regular bingo rooms was so poor.
It came as no real surprise, then, to see the Jumpman bingo software retired in March 2020. Jumpman didn’t just stick with Bingo Millions though, they introduced some widely networked bingo rooms by Pragmatic Play offering much improved liquidity and prizes. This greatly improved the bingo offering and they even had a Jumpman only room. If you like to chat while you play you’ll be disappointed though, as there isn’t any (the chat rooms haven’t been enabled).
New Welcome Offers – 2021 – 2023
In 2021, many Jumpman sites added a no deposit spins offer to the regular welcome offer, and some replaced the regular welcome offer with the Matchup Bonus Wheel. Instead of slot spins, it awards up to 1000% slot bonus on the deposit the player made just prior to the wheel spin, but just like the Mega Wheel it is a game of chance with the possibility of getting nothing.
A further departure from form took place in 2022 when some Jumpman sites switched to a straightforward 100% slot bonus offer in an attempt to appeal to players who like to know what they are going to get.
The bingo, on the other hand, took a turn for the worse with the removal of the Bingo Millions games at the end of 2021 and the removal of Jumpman’s exclusive bingo room in autumn 2022.
Jumpman bingo sites are very definitely not to everyone’s taste and if you are bothered about wagering requirements and limits on what can be won from bonus play, you won’t like them at all; there’s a massive 65x wagering requirement and a maximum bonus conversion that is equal to lifetime deposits up to £250 (yes, if you only deposit £10 your maximum bonus conversion will be just £10).
Nor are they suitable for anyone who mostly wants to play bingo as it really is all about the slots. If you’re after gamification, a really good selection of slots and the occasional bit of bingo though, a Jumpman site could be just the thing.
We expect to see even more sites joining the Jumpman family in 2023, whether they be branded as bingo sites or as Jumpman Slots.
