I wasn’t particularly familiar with 30-Ball bingo before I began to play the game online, and it turns out that there is a good reason for this! This variant of the game has the smallest ball count of any of the well-known bingo formats, making it the fastest way to play a quick round of your favourite game of chance. A typical game of 30-Ball bingo is usually over in only one or two minutes, making it perfect for those who are short on time or want to get a few games in without having to worry about using up too much time from their day.

Some may ask if there is a need for a game such as 30-Ball; the more widely-known 90-ball and 75-ball variants common to Europe and the United States, respectively, are already quick games, after all. It’s believed that 30-Ball Bingo was first played in physical bingo halls, but it wasn’t until the advent of online bingo that the format began to find its feet. There are numerous similarities between 30-Ball Bingo and 75-Ball, suggesting that it was first created in the United States. The game uses a tiny bingo card or ticket that features just nine numbers arranged in a 3x3 grid, and you’ll sometimes find it dubbed ‘Speed Bingo’ in the lobbies of the major online bingo sites. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the differences between 30-Ball and the other major bingo variants commonly found on the web today. If the quickfire nature of this game doesn’t appeal to you, I’d suggest checking out our 90-Ball and 75-Ball guides instead.

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There might not be a vast amount of branded 30-ball bingo games out there, but the ones that you can play we have reviewed in full and listed for you here. If you'd like to see a complete list of all bingo titles, then head over to our different bingo games page, where you'll find every branded game and reviews of all variants, which include 90-ball, 80-ball, 75-ball, 50-ball, and 40-ball.

The rules of 30-ball bingo are as follows:

• Purchase your bingo tickets/cards – the price of each ticket will vary from game to game, but generally, the prices for this form of bingo tend to be lower than those of other common formats. Some games will require you to purchase a minimum number of tickets – perhaps five or ten – whilst almost every game will limit the number that each player is permitted to purchase.

• When the game begins, the announcer will start calling out numbers between one and thirty, which are randomly selected. Online sites use a random number generator to perform this task, whilst bingo halls tend to use a machine to draw the numbers using physical balls. 

• In the online bingo world, it is common for the computer to mark off any matching numbers that appear on your tickets on your behalf. You can usually disable this functionality if you wish, but I would not recommend it – especially if you have purchased a large number of tickets for the current game!

• Only one prize is awarded in 30-Ball bingo, paid to the player who crosses off all nine numbers on one of their bingo cards in the shortest time. This is known as a full house.

• Some games may include bonus rounds or features that take place after the full house prize has been awarded. If no such features exist in the game you are playing, the current round will end here, and the winning player will receive their prize before a new game begins.

The tickets used in 30-Ball bingo are amongst the simplest of all the major bingo variations, which makes sense considering that the game also uses the smallest set of numbers. Each ticket consists of a 3x3 grid of random numbers, although there is something of a pattern to the way that the numbers are arranged:

• The numbers shown in column one range between 1 and 10.
• The numbers shown in column two range between 11 and 20.
• The numbers shown in column three range between 21 and 30.

This information is only helpful if you choose to view your tickets in the ‘traditional’ configuration; the ‘simplified’ view offered at most bingo rooms will only show the numbers that you have remaining on each ticket in order to hit the ‘full house’.

There aren’t many techniques that you can use to win at a game as simple as 30-Ball Bingo that isn’t immediately obvious after a few casual rounds. Each game has only a single prize – the full house – which is awarded for completing all nine possible numbers on an entire bingo ticket.

It is possible for more than one player to win the full house prize, though, and the odds of this occurring will naturally increase in line with the number of tickets sold for each game and the number of calls made by the announcer before a player completes their card.

Playing during the busier times of the day likely means that the prize for hitting a full will be larger, as more tickets should have been sold for the games taking place during those times. Conversely, though, this also increases the odds of more than one player hitting a full house at the same time. When this occurs, the prize is split equally between all players who have completed a full ticket, meaning that it is more profitable to play when the room is quieter – or perhaps somewhere in between.

One tip that could be useful when playing 30-Ball Bingo is to look out for games with guaranteed prizes and do your best to get involved in those when the player count is low. If a game has a guaranteed prize, but the number of tickets sold does not meet the guarantee, this will result in the RTP percentage for that game being higher than average. The more of these games you can play, the better your chances are of making a profit over the long term.

Progressive jackpots are not as common in 30-Ball Bingo as in other variants of the game. Where these prizes do exist, however, then this is surely the fastest way to give yourself a chance of winning one of them! Because there are only nine numbers to match in each round, the progressive jackpot will often be awarded to a player who fills an entire card in as little as around 13-15 calls. 

The advantages of 30-Ball Bingo are similar to those of 40 and 50-Ball when compared to the more traditional 90/75-Ball variants of the game. That is to say that 30-Ball is a much faster game, ticket prices tend to be lower, and you can probably play two to three times as many rounds per hour.

Whilst fewer players tend to be interested in playing 30-Ball bingo, the fact that there is only a single prize per game means that your hourly winnings from playing a series of rounds are likely to be roughly comparable with what you may get out of a 90/75 ball game. 

When we looked at 40-Ball bingo, I couldn’t help but feel that the variant was a little bit pointless, considering that 50-Ball already existed and was so similar. However, with 30-Ball, I feel a little bit differently – but only because it is the lowest ball count that probably makes sense for a viable game of bingo! 

Having the choice to play a super-fast game such as 30-Ball makes perfect sense to me, no matter how many other bingo variants might exist. If somebody comes up with a workable 25-Ball game next week though, perhaps I could feel differently.

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