Sky Bingo Bonuses

The Sky brand should need no introduction to readers from the British Isles, as the company dominate the satellite broadcasting market, and much of the media. In recent years, they have branched out into the online betting market, with Sky Bet, the Sky Vegas casino, poker and now a bingo site. Anyone signed up to one of these can access all of the different areas using one account, making Sky the only place they need to go to find a whole range of games, sports betting opportunities, bonuses and promotions.

Sky Bingo runs on the massive Virtue Fusion network where there can be thousands of players online at any time with a correspondingly huge number of games running in a packed schedule. As well as bingo, there are plenty of slots and casino tables, while customers can play more for less outlay by claiming new player bonuses, loyalty points, taking part in free bingo, getting cashback deals and more.

The homepage is very neatly designed, if a little sparse, with a bright purple background and links to the promotions page, bingo schedule and the registration page. Everything is logically laid out to make signing up as easy as possible, with customer support contact details to hand if any assistance is needed.

Games

A full range of 90, 80 and 75 ball bingo games are available to play at Sky Bingo in lots of different rooms, some of which are shared with the rest of the Virtue Fusion network and others, like the Sky Pennies, Value and Premium rooms, that are unique to this site. These rooms tend to be quieter, giving players a break from the hectic action of the busy networked rooms.

Choosing where to play is an easy process, with the lobby area letting visitors select the game type where they will then see when the next round starts, how many players are in the room, prizes and ticket prices. Anyone who has played at a Virtue Fusion site before will recognise the layout of the bingo games, with a chat screen to the left, tickets to the right, and the call board and links to casino pages displayed above.

Like other sites in the network, Sky Bingo features a couple of special games including Lucky Numbers, where players choose three random numbers before the game and win jackpot prizes if they are the numbers that create the 1 line, 2 line or Full House wins. Deal or No Deal bingo has a great bonus round at the end of each game, where the full house winner has to decide whether to keep their prize or accept the Banker's offer while the other players from the game get to vote on what they believe the winner should do. There are lots of free bingo games with a minimum of 2 per hour from 9am to 11pm. During any free game, competitors can opt to make their tickets 'Super' by paying a small fee and, should the Super ticket then win, the prize gets tripled in value. Regular prizes range from £5 to around £20 during peak hours.

As well as bingo, Sky host a good selection of slots, casino games, scratchcards and instant win titles. Apart from the classic Roulette and Blackjack, there are lots of top rated slots including X-Factor, A Night Out, Britain's' Got Talent and Zodiac Supernova. Cleopatra's Chest, Pirate Plunder and Lucky Ladies all have progressive jackpots that can exceed £1,000,000, while Mega Jackpots Cleopatra and Monopoly have progressive jackpots that start at £1.5million and go up from there until they are won.

A new bingo app is available to download onto iPhones, iPads and Android devices, with several bingo rooms and the most favoured slots to choose from, and mobile users can even take part in chat games, deposit funds and earn loyalty points when they are out and about.

Bonuses and Promotions

New customers to Sky Bingo will be able to claim a welcome bonus once they have deposited funds into their account. The actual terms of this will be amended occasionally, but it is usually comparable to the offers that other sites have so it's about average. Once registered, there is a Newbies room which offers 5 days worth of free bingo with £500 a day up for grabs.

Regular players earn Loyalty Gems at a starting rate of 5 Gems for every £1 spent on bingo or £5 wagered on slots. All customers start at the Pearl level and the more Gems accumulated, the higher up the loyalty club they rise, with an improved conversion rate at each stage. Points can be redeemed either for cash, or bonuses, although there is a far better conversion rate if the player opts to take a bonus instead of cashing points out. There are further benefits through the loyalty scheme, such as the cashback deal each Wednesday which can be from 10-25% depending on the level, and Triple Gems Thursday where all players get Gems at 3x the normal rate.

Anyone spending £2 during the day gets a free scratchcard to play with a £500 daily jackpot to be won, while other offers include guaranteed jackpots and happy hours with BOGOF deals. The list is constantly updated, but generally Sky Bingo has an excellent selection of promotions for loyal players. It is just missing a re-deposit bonus offer.

Banking

Customers can use credit cards and debit cards to pay funds into their Sky Bingo accounts, but prepaid cards and vouchers are not accepted. The minimum deposit amount is set at £5 and there is a useful banking guide on their site which runs through the process step by step. Withdrawn money is sent back to whichever card the deposits were made from but, before receiving their first cash back, customers will need to verify their identity as part of Sky's security measures. Credit and debit card payments will take 3-5 working days to clear.

Summary

Sky Bingo is a popular site run by a well known and trusted company. Many players here already used their sportsbook, poker and casino, making the bingo site a logical choice, and it is very useful to have just one account for all online wagering. By using a big network, Sky are able to provide their customers with big and busy games, but have wisely decided to run their own unique rooms as well. While the welcome bonus is about average, the Gems loyalty scheme has an excellent range of benefits that keep people wanting to come back time and time again.