Betfred Bingo

The Betfred betting empire is undoubtedly one of the biggest in the world, with the Betfred brand recognised as the world's biggest book makers - with over 750 betting shops in the UK alone. Betfred Bingo, however, is a completely on-line service and part of their well-established on-line betting and gaming wing, with their bingo games first launched in 2006. This carries many perks you wouldn't get with just a bingo site, as members can use the same username and password to play games and place bets on a variety of different games and activities all over the Betfred site - not only in bingo! However, it is the bingo specifically that we are looking at today and how the Betfred Bingo service matches up to its bingo rivals.

Visually, the Betfred Bingo site follows the same theme as the Betfred site - it is crisp and clear to navigate with handy tabs. It has a plush purple colour scheme, but since the bingo is provided via a download client, the site itself is far sparser than many other bingo sites and lacks all the flashing bells and whistles to browse and extra games. These games, however, are available - as mentioned earlier the whole Betfred site is quite literally your oyster when it comes to gaming and the download bingo client also offers a great range of extra games to play.

Bingo games run day and night at Betfred Bingo and they offer both 75 ball and 90 ball bingo in a variety of interesting rooms. Chat is also available and their friendly chat moderators keep the conversations flowing and an eye on any misbehaviour, as well as offering loads of chat games for players to play. Betfred Bingo is known for its chat game specials - not only offering extra bingo credit to winners, but also regularly changing extra prizes and rewards to players.

There are games to suit any budget and although they do not offer free bingo games, they come close enough with their current 'No Strings Bingo' promotion, where every Friday for an hour players can play 90 ball bingo for a penny, with up to £1.20 of the amount spent on penny tickets in this time reimbursed back to the player on the following Saturday.

If you are a bingo pro, or have played bingo online before, then you'll find Betfred Bingo an excellent place to play and meet new bingo friends. However, bingo newbies may find the site more challenging - they do not offer extensive help features for new players or a step-by-step guide to playing on the site. There is the basic FAQ (frequently asked questions), which will suit the savvy, but it lacks the personal touch that many bingo sites use to make new players confident and feel more at home.

Because Betfred offers bingo and games to a large audience, they are able to offer very competitive prizes and jackpots to their bingo players. Depending on the room and price of cards, Betfred Bingo offers guaranteed jackpots that can range from a few pounds right up to the hundreds or even thousands. The progressive jackpots on offer are very tempting too - the "Gold Rally" jackpot game often reaches hundreds of thousands of pounds!

Although the community atmosphere is arguably not as keen and warm as you would find on a more bingo-centric site, the Betfred Bingo community section offers plenty in terms of getting to know their chat team, moderators and even other players in their "Buddy Profiles" section. Members who complete a profile with a photo are even credited with bingo credit! A handy "chat lingo" section is also available, handy for those finding all the chatter in the chat rooms a little confusing, too.

The bonuses available to players on the Betfred Bingo site are up to the standard you would expect for any competitive bingo site. They offer a good welcome bonus to new players of 150% up to the value of £100, as well as a £10 sign-up bonus.

All subsequent deposits are then treated with a 25% bingo bonus, but this is hardly generous when compared with some of the big bonuses on offer across bingo sites for loyal repeat players.

One of the biggest bonuses of choosing Betfred Bingo as your bingo site of choice must be the customer service available, though. Because Betfred is such a huge company, they can offer 24 hour support for all their customers across a wide range of methods. Their help centre is very handy, their email-based customer service team is always on hand and members can ring a UK 0800 number 24 hours a day for phone support.