Ladbrokes Bingo Online Bingo Site Review
Ladbrokes Bingo
Ladbrokes is the largest betting company in the UK and the largest retail bookmaker in the world so it was only a matter of time before they got a paw in the bingo pie. The bingo games are a relatively recent addition to the site and sit in the existing ladbrokes site which doesn't really feel that bingo friendly but there is plenty to chew on once signed up and logged in. They offer 90 ball, 80 ball, 75 ball, speed bingo and 'special' games... more on that later!
At a Glance
| Bingo |   60% |
Sufficient without being goof. Graphics suffice, sound suffices. |
|---|---|---|
| Chat | 95% |
Lively chat with some nice emotions and a buddy list. |
| Extra Games | 85% |
The saving grace of the site! The special games are great. |
| Your Rating | 72% |
Based on 3 user ratings. |
| Overall Rating | 78% |
Low withdrawl limit and good games in the 'special' section but the standard bingo is not the best we've seen. |
Lobby
The lobby is split into four boxes:
- Starting Soon : A full list of all the games you can join.
- Choose Next Game : essentially a quick pick. You can join the next game starting in anyone of the game types.
- Jackpots : current game jackpots. Only two at a time are displayed, and sometimes none at all (as per the screenshot), so it's not really that useful!
- What's new : there is a small banner advert with the newest game advertised here.
The interface is a bit of a let down. The menu at the top is barely ledgeable for anyone without super-vision (like cats) and a lot of the copy elsewhere on the site is too small. It feels like it was designed to a bigger size and at the last minute it was shrunk! Not good! You can maximise the window to the size of your screen but if your screen isn't square then it stretches it out of aspect so it looks awful. Mr Tiddles thinks this should be thought out a bit more! The Jackpot window in the lobby seems pretty pointless and the overall design just doesn't float Mr Tiddles boat. The site generally is pretty clunky too, running quite slowly on the Tiddles Test Machine.
The Ladbrokes Bingo Experience
Clicking on a quick pick option will send you straight to the purchase screen of the next game of that type (90 ball for example). This takes the hassle of picking a specific game for the beginner player or those who fancy a bit of randomness. You will get to the same game by clicking on a room name in the "Starting Soon" box at the bottom of the screen or by clicking on the "What's New" advert. The jackpot box can't be clicked on which begs the question as to why it's there.
That said, there are some nice customisation options that you don't often see on other sites. You can change the dab colour, the dab style (to lipstick for instance!) and dab shape. The sound volumes can be altered as well and the quality (which will affect the speed of the animations) can be altered as well as a couple of options for the chat room.
 |  |
 |  |
The games screen is again a little cluttered. That said, buying tickets is a straight forward affair. You click + or - to buy more tickets or strips (6 tickets). The total tickets and cost is clearly displayed along with the ticket cost. When it gets close to the game starting a clock starts ticking to tell you to hurry up!
The extra games (slots, scratchcards etc.) are in a small window on the left of the cards, above the chat screen. Why can't they be in a separate window? Mr Tiddles thinks its a mistake to try and cram all these things into the same window. The extra games themselves are OK rather than great, but then they are constrained to the little window so the makers can be forgiven.
 |
 |
In the game one big disappointment is the lack of names with numbers. We get treated to "all the one's eleven" rather than "legs eleven". A shame! When you get a card with three-to-go and two-to-go the card will change colour and will start flashing if you are lucky enough to get to one-to-go.
 |
 |
There are a number of 'special' games which are really the most interesting things on the site. They can be accessed from the lobby and are a variety of games based on things we know and love but with a twist.
Here you can find a decent multiplayer slots game called Marine Mayhem. The idea is you play slots for a set amount of time at the same time as other players. There is a leaderboard of all the people playing that game with the person winning the most in that time frame at the top. When the game ends,the jackpot is decided and split between the top 10 players in the leaderboard. A bit confusing at first but you can watch a few games before playing to get a feel for it.
Another nice game here is JokerJackpot which is basically bingo but with playing cards opposed to numbers. You buy cards or strips like in normal bingo games but rather than numbers the cards are made up of playing cards and rather than numbers being called, cards are dealt. If you have the card dealt on one of your cards then it gets covered. Winning is as per normal bingo.
 |
 |
Finally they have Lucky Loft which looks like an throw back to an 80's game show. It is normal normal bingo but with slightly less interesting graphics.
The sound is not great throughout the site, but it serves it's purpose.
Withdrawl limit for this site is a minimum of £5 which is much better than a lot of other sites which require you to have won or deposited a lot before you can withdraw your winnings.
Other Games
To see the different games on offer there is a tabbed menu, each of which has multiple pages on it where necessary. There are three main categories: Numbers, Slots and Scratchcards.
Numbers
Numbers Games
Numbers comprises of a mini-roulette game (see screen shot above) and a game called ChicKeno, which is a chicken themed game of Keno. If you don't know what Keno is, you choose 20 numbers between 1 and 80, the computer then picks 20 random numbers and depending how many of yours are matched, you may win a cash prize.
Slots
There's a whole host of slot games to choose from. You know the format, pays your money, spins your wheel, takes your chance!
Scratchcards
Scratchcard Games
There's only a few scratchcard games at the moment, but they look really nice and are as good as any you'll see on the web. Hopefully there will be some more added soon!
