The Bingo Spot, A New Live Game

What is The Bingo Spot?

The Bingo Spot is a new live casino gameshow from Pragmatic Play.

Bingo style live casino gameshows are not a new idea. Not only is The Bingo Spot not the first game of its type (that would be Mega Ball, which has been around for more than 5 years now), it’s not even Pragmatic Play’s first game of its type (that would be Vegas Ball Bonanza, which came out at the end of 2023 but is no longer available in the UK).

It is, however, arguably the most authentic game of its type yet, very much capturing the atmosphere of a live bingo game.  It’s a simple and easy to understand game based on 30 ball bingo; the balls are drawn from a lottery style machine and there’s a live host.

How To Play The Bingo Spot

To play a game of The Bingo Spot, the first step is to buy tickets.  You only have about 10 seconds between games to do this but it’s really quick and easy; just press the button for the number of tickets you want to buy.  They default to being priced at 10p each and there’s buttons for 1, 5, 25 and 100 tickets.  If you want a different number of tickets you can use the same button multiple times.  You can also change the ticket price by using the plus and minus buttons on “Ticket value”. Depending on the table limit the operator has set, you may find that the higher ticket values are unavailable and that the buttons for 25 and/or 100 tickets have been greyed out.

Although it looks like a regular 30 ball bingo game, The Bingo Spot is actually a form of video bingo, where you’re playing against the house rather than against other players.

In a traditional bingo game, you play against other players; balls are drawn until someone wins full house and the prizes are based on ticket sales. The variance of the game also depends on ticket sales; the more tickets that are sold, the bigger the prizes are and the lower the chance an individual ticket has of winning.

The Bingo Spot does not work like that (none of the bingo style live gameshows do).  Instead of drawing balls until someone daubs every number on their card, a set number of balls are drawn in each game.  After the draw, each player scores for the horizontal and/or vertical lines completed on their own cards, regardless of the other players. (This means you’ll win something more often if you play The Bingo Spot rather than regular 30 ball bingo).

I said a “set number of balls” because one of the features of The Bingo Spot is that it’s not always the same number.  The standard number of balls is 9, but if a Wild Ball comes out in the draw, a wheel is spun to determine how many extra balls are to be added (1-4 is the possible range).  The Wild Ball itself does not count as one of the initial 9 calls.

The other special game feature in The Bingo Spot is that before the draw starts, random multipliers of 2x, 3x or 5x are applied to 5 numbers.  When a completed line includes one of those numbers, the multiplier is applied to the win. Multipliers can stack, making the theoretical maximum win 20,000x ticket value.

If you’re familiar with other live bingo styled game shows and think this all sounds a bit familiar – you’re right!  The Bingo Spot is very similar to Pragmatic Play’s earlier game Vegas Ball Bonanza which was also based on 30 ball bingo with Wild Balls and multipliers.  The main difference is that it’s MUCH less frenetic.  The multipliers in the Bingo Spot are lower and only apply to the lines they are on, not the whole ticket as they did in the previous game, and there’s no Star Ball to send the multipliers crazy.  And of course there’s no autoplay, as that is no longer allowed in the UK.

Another way in which it’s less frenetic is that the balls come out quite a bit more slowly in The Bingo Spot than they do in other bingo style game shows.  This has probably been done to comply with UKGC game design requirements, but it actually really adds to the atmosphere of the game.  It feels like a very social experience, with the game host continuing to chat as the balls come out; in one game I joined the host was talking about her cat, much to the delight of many players!

The theoretical Return To Player of The Bingo Spot is 96.44%. That’s quite a lot better than regular bingo.

All in all, there’s a great deal to like about The Bingo Spot and if you are a bingo lover you will certainly want to check it out.

Where To Play The Bingo Spot

The Bingo Spot is not yet widely available at UK bingo sites and casinos.  Heart Bingo (where there’s a £2 table limit) and bet365 are the highest profile brands where it’s easy to find in the lobby.  It’s also available at Mecca Bingo and at other Rank Interactive brands including Regal Wins, but as many of these don’t have a dedicated live casino area in the lobby, you may need to use the search box to find it.

Sue Dawson

Creating iGaming content since 2013 - bingo and slots specialist

Sue Dawson has been writing about (and playing) online bingo and slots since 2013, putting her unique spin on everything.  She has…

Sue Dawson has been writing about (and playing) online bingo and slots since 2013, putting her unique spin on everything.  She has written pieces for iGaming industry news sites, appeared on and moderated panels at industry events and on podcasts, helped to judge industry awards and is a member of iGB Executive, a high level industry think tank.  In her spare time she enjoys gaming, hiking, dancing, watching motorsport and reading science fiction.

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