How We Find and Review the Best New Bingo Sites
When a new site appears, you might not be rushing to make an account there – it needs to gain your trust first. Luckily, we’ve already done the scouting for you. As passionate bingo players, we visit a lot of websites, try as many bingo games as we can, chat in the rooms, score bonuses, and verify how trustworthy the sites are. Our goal is to create a list of the most reliable sites for all bingo players.
We analyzed plenty of features when reviewing each new online bingo site. Starting with account creation, we follow the process and find good points and wonkiness on the sites we review. That way, we get the whole picture and can then easily rank the websites, highlighting their pros and cons for all bingo players.
Without further ado, here’s how we review bingo sites:
Bingo Site Design and Gaming Experience
Bingo is a pretty straightforward game, so bingo platforms should keep things easy and fun too. Finding your way around without a hitch is imperative. After all, good user experience at online bingo sites goes a long way toward turning newbie players into regulars and fans.
Sites with clearly labelled menus, intuitive navigation, and quick-loading pages are what we’re looking for. A cute colour palette and other design quirks are always a plus, too, so long as they don’t detract from the ease of use. This is especially true if the overall aesthetic creates a consistent tone that helps players immerse themselves in the game. It definitely beats the mishmash of colours and themes many online casinos opt for these days.
Since most players prefer having access to games on their smartphones these days, bingo sites in the UK often offer mobile apps in addition to web-based platforms. The apps should be freely available directly through Google Play and the App Store, so players can quickly install them from a trusted source. On top of that, mobile bingo apps should match their desktop counterparts, and even have exclusive games and bonuses.
Even if there isn’t a native app, most modern sites run great on mobile browsers. If their mobile experience is the same as on desktop, sites will get our approval.
Bingo Bonus Offers
When they’re just arriving at the bingo site, new players should be greeted properly. And by greeted, we mean given some free games and bonus offers. Brand-new bingo sites have a lot of catching up to do, so their promotions need to be lucrative and easy to score.
These promotions vary from match bonuses, requiring you to place a deposit first, over totally deposit-free games, to newbie bingo rooms where you can play for free. We evaluate the wagering requirements for all bonus offers and check how hard it is to meet them. Our review includes a list of various promotions available at each site.
Loyalty clubs are another popular feature. They’ll grant you points for different activities, which you can then either convert into prizes, or use to unlock better activities. New bingo sites with free spins usually allow these freebies to be used on specific games only. We also looked through their wagering requirements, and other potential conditions.
Game Providers and Variety
Since you’re coming to a bingo site to play some games, we’ll obviously need to take a look at what’s on offer. There’s a bare minimum of game variety a site needs to meet – that is, 90-ball and 75-ball bingo.
Often, the game selection includes 80-ball, 85-ball, and even 30-ball bingo (a.k.a. speed bingo). Recently, sites have been experimenting with even more unusual games, like 52-5 bingo, or Slingo, combining bingo and slots. Speaking of slots, bingo sites with a slots section are quite common now. Even though slots aren’t the main attraction, those quick and fun casino games are an excellent way to pass the time between two bingo draws.
While variety is the spice of life, it’s also important to consider who is providing all those games: You’d rather have several games from the same renowned developer, than a hundred shabby ones. In other words, the companies developing games for each bingo site need to be reputable.
The most common bingo game providers are Dragonfish, Playtech (Virtue Fusion), Jumpman Gaming, and Microgaming. However, some sites may have exclusive games developed in-house, although that’s not a common sight. Still, we’ll always praise such initiative!
Deposit and Withdrawal Options
Most new bingo sites for UK players offer a nice variety of banking methods. This usually means you can use your debit cards, bank transfers, PayPal, paysafecard, Skrill, NETELLER, or other e-wallets to load up your account before your next bingo game. All sites with a review here accept payments in GBP, USD, and EUR.
Recently, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have become popular payment methods at online casinos and bingo sites, as they allow for quick and relatively safe deposits. Obviously, we’re looking for sites with no added fees on players’ transactions.
Transaction speed is a key factor for all gambling websites. If you have to wait long to grab the latest bingo bonuses, that’s just bad business. Deposits should be instant or near-instant, while withdrawals shouldn’t take more than a few days to process. Of course, cashing out is always slower and usually depends on the payment method, so some things can’t be helped.
Security and Player Safety
Your privacy matters, especially when you’re giving your information and debit card number to a website. That’s why every bingo site needs to have an SSL certificate, confirming that all information passes through a heavy layer of encryption. Even the newest bingo sites need to match this level of security to pass our check.
Furthermore, sites should take care of their customers and be fully regulated. That means a UK Gambling Commission license if they operate within the UK, or the appropriate licence if they accept players from all around the world. Tools for self-regulation, like daily limits and other optional restrictions players can put on their accounts, are also important.
Customer Support
Even bingo games can sometimes come to a halt. A reliable customer support team that can help with online bingo games, activating a promo code, or solving any other issue is a must. It’s not unusual to find a great site, with amazing games and promotions, only to be let down by subpar customer service.
For us, it’s not just about support quality – availability is crucial, too. While it’s often impossible to have customer support representatives available 24/7, covering daylight and peak evening hours is necessary. We also look at the methods of communication: Besides email and live chat, we prefer sites that offer support over the phone for UK players, and even over social media.
