Most people know how to play bingo, or at least have a familiarity with how the odds of winning bingo works. After all, it is one of the most popular games played not only as a gambling game, but also as a social game among friends, family, and people from all walks of life.
With the rise of online casinos and online gambling, online bingo is also gaining bigger and bigger popularity among online gamblers. Bingo has been offering great payouts, especially with modern progressive jackpots.
Calculating Online Bingo Odds
How do odds work in a game of online bingo? There are usually two ways to determine your odds in a bingo game, depending on how you look at things on the game. Here are things you need to know about how bingo odds work.
Bingo Cards
Playing online bingo is like buying a raffle ticket. When you get one ticket, your odds of winning are one out of X number of tickets in the draw. When you buy ten, you get ten chances - the more tickets you have, the better your chances of winning are. The same goes for a game of line bingo.
Usually, an online bingo game would let you know how many players are playing in one round. Each card bought is one chance of winning. So, for a group of ten players, if everyone bought one card, everyone has an odds of 1/10. If you buy 10 cards and the rest only bought one each, you now have 10 out of 20 chances of winning.
Bingo Players
In the same way that you can assess your odds in a game of online bingo through the number of cards at play, you can also determine your odds of winning based on the number of players in the game.
If there are more players in the game room, it also means that there are more cards at play. For 20 players, you get at least 20 cards on the table, considering that there is a ratio of 1:1. If you wish to have better odds of winning, you only need to purchase more cards than most players.
In reverse, fewer players in the game room mean that you have better odds of winning, especially if you have more cards than other players. On the other hand, more players also mean a bigger jackpot, and a smaller team means a smaller prize pool.
Bingo Variants
Your odds would also differ according to the variant of bingo you are playing. A 90-ball bingo game would have 90 draws and a 75-ball game would have 75 calls. IN a simple way of explaining it, your chances of winning increase as there are fewer balls left to draw, thus fewer balls in the game actually give you better odds. Therefore, your odds in the 10th draw are lower than your odds of winning in the 40th or even 50th draw.
Strategies to Improve Your Online Bingo Odds
Now that you have a fair idea of how online bingo odds work from different perspectives, how would you be able to increase your odds of winning the game?
Tippett's Bingo Method
This method of playing bingo is named for the famed English statistician Leonard Henry Caleb Tippett, known professionally as L.H C. Tippett. Basically, that the longer a bingo game goes on, the higher the likelihood that the balls that would be called are closer to the median number. In 75-ball bingo, this is the number 38 and for 90-ball bingo, this is the number 45. In contrast, the shorter the game is, the higher the likelihood of the numbers on either end of the spectrum getting called.
This theory is centric on what numbers you should aim for, depending on how long you think the game would be. While this makes sense for a lot of people, this theory is often criticized over one point: how, then, would you be able to correctly or even just strategically predict the length of a bingo game?
Granville's Bingo Method
This was invented by Joseph E. Granville, a mathematician known for his predictions in the world of investment. While the Tippet System is mostly about the duration of the game, Granville's method is focused more on achieving systematic and asymmetric numbers on the card.
This means that there should be a balance between the presence of odd and even numbers, a balance in high and low numbers, and a balance between numbers ending in 1, 2, 3, and 4, etc. The point is that Granville argues that with the concept of probability, it is only given that in the long run, you will get an equal amount of odd and even numbers, highs and lows, and other factors. Thus, this strategy is focused more on making sure that you have evenly spread numbers in your card to have a higher chance of making the winning combination.
Profitable Tips to Boost Your Online Bingo Odds
Aside from following popular bingo systems, here are more tips that can increase your chances of winning an online bingo game.
Do Not Chase Losses
Not every day is a good day. If you are on a losing streak, take a rest and stop chasing your losses. The problem with some players is that they believe that a "due" would come in, and all of their losses would be recovered in just one big win. While that is theoretically possible, the chances of that happening are very unlikely.
Max Out Your Bingo Cards
As mentioned, the basic idea of playing bingo is that the more cards you have in your possession, the better your odds of winning are. Thus, do not settle for one or two cards and expect to hit the jackpot. While that is possible, if you really want to win big, you should max out your bingo cards as much as you can.
Play When There are Fewer People
There are a lot of advantages when there are a few people in a game of online bingo. With fewer people, your odds of winning with a single card is significantly higher. Imagine a group of 10 - your odds if everyone had one card is only 1/10. What if you only have five people, and you bought ten cards? That's an odds of 10/15!
Look for Bingo Promotions
This is almost a given for every online gambling game and not just bingo. Most online casinos apps or gambling sites offer promotions aimed at enticing new players or keeping old players on their platform. Take advantage of these bonuses by using them to their fullest extent.
Bingo is a fun game and when played with friends, it can be a good game for socializing, too! Utilize the tips and strategies given in this guide to make playing bingo not only more enjoyable but more profitable, too!
This article was published on February 28, 2022, and last updated on July 1, 2022.