Many balls in the air – 75 or 90 ball bingo

An American player who would visit a land bingo hall in the UK or Australia would most likely be surprised to receive a card with a rectangular bingo chart and may wonder if it is stil the same game. What is the difference between the 75 and 90 bingo?

While land bingo halls often offer only one variant of this game, playing online you will often get a choice between a 75 and a 90 ball bingo versions. But what exactly are we choosing between? The two versions of bingo developed independently.

90 Ball Bingo

The 90 ball bingo is a variant popular mainly in the UK, Australia, as well as some European and South American countries. As the name implies, it is played with 90 balls numbered from 1 to 90.

Bingo cards the players purchase before each game contain a 3x9 table with five numbers in each line. As the numbers are called, the players look for them and mark them on their bingo cards. Each game can be divided into three phases.

First the bingo players aim to mark the numbers in one of the three horizontal lines, known as the Line. Once the winner of this phase is found, the game continues until one of the bingo players managed to fill in any Two Lines on the bingo card.

The ultimate goal of the game, awarded with the highest prize is the Full House, which is achieved by the player who covers all the numbers on the bingo card.

75 Ball Bingo

Compared to that 75 ball bingo version, popular mainly in the USA, has a little faster pace. At the beginning of the game the players buy bingo cards with a 5x5 chart with numbers and one blank space in the centre.

As the numbers are called out, the players mark them on their bingo cards with the goal to match a winning pattern chosen for a given game. The patterns can vary from single lines to letters of alphabet and sophisticated symbols.

Traditionally the game ends once one of the players covers the winning pattern and shouts ‘bingo’, so in each game there is typically one prize, which can be divided if more that one player gets a bingo at the same time.

Because of that the game is faster and you can play more games in the same time. The 90 balls bingo on the other hand gives you more chances of winning and is a good option for those who like to enjoy a single bingo game a little longer.