Play bingo with the virtual bingo caller
This tutorial explains how to host a bingo game with our virtual bingo caller. It was designed to facilitate the organization of a bingo game, to reduce the necessary equipment and to easily validate the winning cards. You can play with virtual cards, and/or printed cards. The virtual bingo caller is linked to the bingo cards of a game, and thus allows to track when a card is a winner in the “Winners list”.
You can have one active caller at a time per account. You can play as many games as you want by clicking “Restart the game”. Players can have only one virtual card per web browser. When you restart the game, the caller and the players cards will be reset, and they keep playing with the same cards. If you want players to have multiple cards, you’ll need to distribute printed cards.
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– Game Settings
– Number of virtual cards
– Make the game private
– Game name
– Access type
– Display “Current/Previous draws”
– Game type
– Bingo message
– Message to winners
– Winning patterns to get a bingo
– Cost (credits)
– Activate the caller
– Game information
– Control access to your game
– Enable / Disable the voice feature
– Manual or automatic random draws
– Manual selection of the draws
– Open the board
– Playlist and winners list
– Automatic validation of virtual cards
– Manual validation of printed cards
– Send messages to players
– Ways to end the game
– Restart the game (new game)
– Raffle among winners
– Close the game
At this stage, you should already have created a bingo project, and you can see it on the main page in your Project List. Go in the row of your project and click the “Play” icon.
Game Settings
Let’s take a look at the game settings.
Number of virtual cards
This is where you choose if you play a game with printed bingo cards, with virtual bingo cards, or both. By default this option is set for Virtual Cards. To change the ratio of printed cards and virtual cards, modify the number of virtual cards as needed. If you would like to play only with printed bingo cards, click “Set all to print“.
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Make the game private
This option will appear if you have created your bingo page URL. When you have a bingo page this option will be at “Yes” by default and your game will be displayed on your private page. If you want to display your game on the public game page, select “No”.
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Game name
This is the game name that will appear to players on the public game page or on your Bingo Page.
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Access type
If you want all players to use the same password to join your game, select “Unique password” and write the password. If you want players to join the game with access codes, select “Codes list” and select your codes.
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Display “Current/Previous draws” on virtual cards
This option can hide the current and previous draw fields at the top and bottom of the virtual card.
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Game Type
By default the selection is at “Bingo Caller” and the caller will draw random numbers during the game. If you have created a simulation with your project, you can select “Simulation” and select the simulation you want to play. Your simulation will be in the play only for the first game. The caller will make the draws in the same order previously selected in your simulation and will reproduce the outcome for the winners. When you restart a new game the caller will return to the “bingo caller” mode and make random draws as per normal.
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Bingo message
This message will appear on a virtual card when a player gets a bingo. You can use this message in order to explain what happen when a bingo is made. Ex.: Please contact us at info@website.com to receive your prize.
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Message to winners
This message will appear when the host use the feature “Raffle among winners”. The raffle will be among players who had bingo during the game. The winners of the raffle will see “WINNER!” and the other not picked will see “Better luck next time”.
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Winning patterns to get a bingo
Choose from a list of 81 patterns to get bingo(s) during the game. The winning cards will be displayed automatically during the game in the winners list. You can modify the winning patterns every time you restart the game. If you have many cards in the play and you want only one or two winners, avoid to select easy patterns like the lines of 5 consecutive squares (vertical, horizontal, diagonals). You can select more complicated patterns to make it more difficult to get a bingo like the X or any other patterns that require more squares.
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Cost (credits)
Activation time: By default the caller will be active for 3 hours and you can restart as many games as you want. You can extend the activation time for up to 8 days.
Cost: The first caller of a new bingo project is free. The cost depends on how many cards you have in your project for 1 credit per 25 cards. The countdown starts when the caller is activate, and it is shown in the bingo caller interface.
Activate the virtual bingo caller
We tried to simplify the bingo caller in order to make sure anybody can use it. The bingo caller was designed to make the draws, keep track of the game and validate the winners. The host can follow the game call out the winning cards. Current and previous draws are displayed at the top of the board and are automatically updated after each draw. You can display the flashboard on an extended desktop screen within the caller, or use the Virtual Flashboard and display the board on other devices like a giant screen like in a professional bingo hall.
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Game information
This section indicates the details about your game such as how players can join your game, the game name, game number and the password. The trophy icon displays the patterns you selected for this game. The timer indicates how many time left before the caller is over. You can see in real time how many players are in your game, so you can start the draws when most players have joined.
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Control access to your game
You can block/unblock access to your game. We have noticed that a player who joins late in the game can get a bingo with the draws already made, which can add winners. When you start the draws, block access. When you restart the game, unlock access and let other players enter the game at that time.
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Enable / Disable the voice feature
The bingo caller has a voice function to announce the draws. The same button can be found in the upper right corner on virtual cards. We have four professionals who will call columns, numbers or emojis during the game in English, Spanish, French and Hindi. We will eventually add other languages.
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Make manual or automatic random draws
To start the game, manually click on “Make Draw“. To use the automatic draw, select the number of seconds between draws and click “Enable”. To disable the function, click “Disable“. When the option “Stop the draw when a card is winning” is set to “Yes“, the bingo caller will be deactivated when there is at least one winning card. If the option is set to “No“, the bingo caller will continue without taking into account to the winners. Draws will stop when all bingo values are drawn or when all the values of a simulation are drawn.
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Manual selection of the draws
Make the draws of numbered balls with your own bingo cage and bring the numbers in the virtual bingo caller so players can click on their virtual cards. To activate the selection feature click “Manual selection of the draws” and click the numbers in the bingo board.
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Open the board
This function opens the board in another window. Drag the window into the other screen (TV or projector) and display the board so that the players follow the draws as in professional bingo centers. You can also display the external flashboard from any location if needed.
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Playlist and Winners list
The Playlist shows all the draws of the game. The Winners List shows the card numbers, the winning patterns and the player names.
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Automatic validation of virtual cards
Only the virtual cards that are played on a device will appear in the winners list. When a player has the possibility of having a bingo in his virtual card, the card number with pattern and the player name will appear in the winners list (not crossed out). Once the player clicks all the squares and get the winning pattern, a pop-up message will appear on the screen “Bingo”. At that moment, the card will be crossed out in the winners list to indicate that it has been validated.
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Manual validation of printed cards
The bingo caller cannot validate if a player has correctly played the squares on a printed card. To validate a printed card, check each of the squares with your board and playlist. Once the squares have been confirmed, click on the card in the Winners list and click “Validate“. The card will be crossed out to indicate that it has been validated. If you end the game with the “Raffle among winners” feature, only the validated cards (crossed out) will be part of the final draw.
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Send messages to players
This feature allows the host to send messages to all players or a specific player. When sending a message, the caller will remain in pause until the host click “Continue the game”. By default the message will be sent to all players unless you limit the message to certain cards. It can be useful if you want to display general game information to players or contact the winners.
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Ways to end the game
Restart the game (new game)
This function enables you to reset all the bingo caller tables and to start another game. You can play as many games as you want until there is no time left on the active bingo caller. You can use this moment to select new patterns for the next game. When you restart the game, players stay connected to your game, their cards are reseted, and they keep playing with the same card again. A message will indicate the game number and the new patterns for this game.
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Raffle among winners
This function allows a raffle among players who have won winning lines during the game. Making the draw finishes the game and displays the desired number of winners. Only validated cards will be part of the final draw among winners. This way of ending the game can be accomplished with printed cards by playing with the 4 corners method, read more at: How to play bingo?.
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Close the game
When you close the game, the caller is deactivated. Players will be ask to leave the game and then redirected to the initial game page (the public Games List page or your own Bingo Page). The remaining time of the countdown is lost.
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