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Costa Bingo and other bingo sites on the Ignite network used to be well known for their free bingo rooms, where players could win small amounts of bingo bonus regardless of how long ago their last deposit was – but there has been a massive change in what’s on offer. The free for all rooms have gone and the rest of the free bingo has been reorganised as follows:
- Bingo Academy – this 90 ball room is just for new players and can only be accessed for 24 hours following registration. A game plays every 15 minutes and the prizes are small amounts (£2 is typical) of real cash.
- It’s Free Baby – this 90 ball room can be accessed for 14 days after making a deposit. The games play every 30 minutes and have a prize fund of up to £15.
- Reload Freebie – this 90 ball room can be accessed by any player who has made a deposit that day. The games play every hour, on the hour, from 11am to midnight and have a prize fund of £25 or £50.
All three of these rooms are networked across Ignite bingo sites but apart from Bingo Academy they have different names at each site in keeping with the theme.
The Ignite sites also used to have two sliding jackpot games that were free to players who had made a deposit during the week and these have been changed too. A deposit in the last 6 days is now needed to get into the two rooms in question.
On Fridays, there used to be a sliding jackpot game with a £10,000 jackpot for bingo in 46 or fewer calls, a £1000 bingo bonus split for 1TG and a £2000 bingo bonus split for 2TG. This has now been replaced with 5 separate games each of which has a guaranteed prize pot of £1000 cash (so probably equivalent to what they were paying out before, on average). Each game has a split for 1TG and for 2TG but these are now cash, not bonus. Because all 5 games take place in the same bingo room players need to visit the room between games to claim their 6 free cards for the next game.
| Time | FH Prize | 1TG Split | 2TG Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7pm | £500 | £300 | £200 |
| 8pm | £550 | £275 | £175 |
| 9pm | £600 | £250 | £150 |
| 10pm | £650 | £225 | £125 |
| 11pm | £750 | £150 | £100 |
This sounds like a bit of a poor replacement for a £10K game but the chances of winning the whole £10K were minute and only one player in that game won any cash at all (the rest won bingo bonus with a wagering requirement). The new games mean that many more players will win cash prizes.
On Sundays there was a sliding jackpot game with a £5000 headline prize for bingo in 29 or fewer calls (stupendously unlikely) and in this case, they have retained the baseline prize of £500 but given £250 to the winner and the rest to 1TG (£150) and 2TG (£100). Again, this is the same amount as was given away before but spread across a greater number of winners.
Essentially, these changes benefit regular depositors by giving a greater opportunity to win cash prizes in free bingo games, and disadvantage players who have not deposited recently. It’s all part and parcel of Ignite shifting focus towards keeping existing players happy rather than constantly opening new bingo sites.
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