90 Ball Bingo Guide

90 ball bingo is one of the most famous bingo games in the world. This is the type of bingo that is most often played in the UK, while US players tend to favour 75 ball bingo.

The game of 90 ball bingo can be found at all online bingo sites, so you will always be able to enjoy this classic game, wherever you choose to play!

The 90 ball bingo card layout

As the name of the game suggests, 90 ball bingo games are played with 90 numbered balls in total. The bingo tickets in this type of game consist of a grid of 15 numbers from 1 to 90.

Each line has 9 spaces with 5 numbers and the rest of the spaces are left blank. The goal in 90 ball bingo is to fill in as many numbers on the card as possible and hopefully complete all 3 lines.

The grid

The first column in a 90 ball card always contains numbers from 1 to 9, the second column on the card has the numbers through the teens, the third column contains the numbers in the 20s, the fourth column has all the 30s, and so on.

In-person bingo vs. online bingo

Knowing how the numbers are laid out on the card helps you to find them quickly as the balls are called – otherwise it can be hard to keep up!

Although this can be an issue for newbies in the in-person game, when playing online, there is no need to worry if you miss a call because your card will be marked automatically for you.

How to win in 90 ball bingo

There are 3 main ways to win in a 90 ball bingo game. If you manage to fill in 1 line of numbers you have won ‘1 line’, while 2 lines of numbers gives you ‘2’ lines’. The best win is when you manage to fill in all 3 lines on your bingo card and this is called having a ‘Full House’.

Claiming your win

In the bingo halls, this is where you would jump up and shout ‘Bingo!’ or ‘House’! In the online world, you will find lots of congratulations messages in the chat box, but there is no need to actually notify the site or the chat host because the system will recognise your win automatically and award your winnings.

Cash in your earnings

When you strike a lucky win while playing 90 ball bingo, your cash will always be credited automatically, whether you have managed to complete 1 line, 2 lines or win the Full House.

You will often see other roomies congratulate you in the chat box with ‘WTG’ (Way to go!) which adds to the sense of camaraderie.

Jackpots in 90 ball bingo games

In most 90 ball bingo games, the jackpot begins at a set minimum and increases as more players buy tickets to the game. You will often need to win a bingo game in a certain number of calls or less to scoop the jackpot.

Multiple winners

In 90 ball bingo, the total jackpot will normally be split between the different winners of the game, but the Full House winner will always take away the largest portion of the prize.

As this is a 3 stage game, there are also smaller prizes for the 2 line winner and a smaller prize for the 1 line winner. This is in contrast with 75 ball bingo, which tends to only have one jackpot prize.

Pocket prizes without winning

Sometimes you will also see 90 ball bingo games offering prizes for 2TG and 1TG winners. This means that if a player still has 2 numbers (2TG) or 1 number (1TG) left to fill in on their bingo card, they will also pocket a smaller prize!

Sharing the jackpot

Of course, when there are more prizes to give away, this means your jackpot prize will become smaller as it has to be divided more ways. However, if the jackpot is large to begin with, most players don’t mind sharing it with their fellow winning roomies!

If you prefer to play for the whole jackpot, then you might prefer 75 ball bingo, where this is the norm. On the other hand, because there are more prizes to give away, the chances of you winning in 90 ball bingo can be higher than in 75 ball games.

Community jackpots

There are also other types of jackpots in 90 ball games. One exciting type of jackpot is the community jackpot, which shares out the jackpot prize between even more players.

A percentage of the jackpot is paid to the player who triggers the jackpot with the rest of the jackpot being split between all the other players who have bought tickets to the bingo game.

Sometimes these jackpots can be played as part of a ‘network’ of bingo games, so many more players are involved across multiple games.

Tips and strategies for 90 ball bingo

When playing 90 ball bingo online, the numbers and wins are tracked for you, so there is no need to worry that you could miss a call or not notice you have won!

The system will recognise your numbers and they will be ‘auto-daubed’ for you. You can choose to daub the numbers yourself with a virtual highlighter, but the system will still track your progress.

It will also recognise your wins and award your money accordingly.

Although all the technicalities of the game are automatic, there are still a number of approaches that can improve your chances of winning.

Buy lots of cards

The more bingo cards you buy to a 90 ball bingo game, the greater your chances of winning.

Play at the right time

As 90 ball games share the jackpot between winners, you could also time your game to play in a less popular time slot so you have less competition. With fewer players to play against you have better chances of hitting a lucky win!

Find the freebies

Look out for the BOGOF cards as another way to boost your chances, as you will get one free card for every purchased card, which is a great way to boost your chance of winning for free.

Check the price

Another consideration is the price of bingo tickets. Although it seems natural to play in the cheaper games to reduce your costs, it actually makes more sense to look for more expensive games because these tend to have the bigger jackpots.

Look for offers

You can also look out for special promotions on certain games and remember to play in the fun bingo ‘chat games’, as these give you some great extra ways to pick up more freebies, including free bingo cards.