Whether you are planning a celebration with the girls or a charity fundraiser, a bingo night is a great way to spend some quality time with friends. It’s a fun, inclusive game that everyone can get to grips with in a matter of seconds. Although hosting your very own ladies’ bingo night might not sound like a tricky event to organise, there’s plenty to consider to ensure your evening goes off with a bang.
It’s important as a bingo host that you make sure your games are slick and that everyone has fun. Having fun and socialising is what this wonderful game is about, after all.
If you need a little inspiration, be sure to check out our step-by-step plan for the perfect ladies’ bingo night.
Step 1: Invite your friends and loved ones
First and foremost, you’ll need to decide how you want to stage your bingo night. If you want to host it at your home, give your friends and loved ones plenty of warning with your invites. A good way to keep your guests up to date with your bingo night is to create a Facebook event, inviting all guests to join the event group. They will be prompted with all your updates ahead of the evening, and help amp up the anticipation with their comments.
Of course, sometimes it may not be possible to get your pals together under one roof. However, there are ways and means around this. You can always host the games virtually using peer-to-peer platforms like Skype, Zoom or even Houseparty, which is a mobile app that’s taken the nation by storm with its ability to host up to eight users together in one private video call.
Step 2: Prepare your bingo night game equipment
There are a few ways to play your bingo games, regardless of whether you are having a physical or virtual ladies’ bingo night. The first way would be to purchase your own bingo machine, balls, tickets and dabbers. A budget-friendlier alternative would be to use ping pong balls and mark on the numbers with a pen and drawing the balls out of a bag or cage.
Of course, there is an even easier way to play bingo – our readymade online bingo games that we’ve prepared for you right here at 888ladies.com. This is an option for both physical and virtual ladies’ bingo nights. Even if you are in the same room, there is nothing stopping you all buying tickets for the same game on our bingo website or app. The games will unfold with no delay or fuss, with all the bingo numbers called out clearly by our automated software.
Step 3: Get creative with your bingo night game prizes
If you are having a light-hearted night with friends and using bingo as a mechanism for your catch-up, you don’t need to go overboard with the prizes. We’re not talking about flights to Las Vegas or a long weekend in the Cotswolds, but perhaps a bottle of bubbly or a gift voucher would suffice!
You could even ask your friends to each write a prize that they would be willing to gift to feature it as a bingo prize. Winners could then pick one of the prizes out of a hat. These prizes could be capped at a budget for £20-£30 – enough to give someone a nice treat but not too demanding of anyone’s resources. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a valeted car, a three-course meal or a bottle of vino, just go for something to put a smile on faces.
Step 4: Snacks and drinks for bingo night
One of the best ways to keep your guests entertained during a bingo night is snacks – and plenty of them. If you are hosting a physical bingo night in your home, think about preparing several bite-sized nibbles that your friends can enjoy with a drink even in the middle of a bingo game. Consider making some cocktails and mocktails as welcome drinks, to really set the tone of your evening.
If you are staging a virtual ladies’ bingo night, encourage all players to start the virtual chat with a glass of their favourite drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic, we’re not fussy). You can even plan to have the same snacks in everyone’s house, in order to simulate a fully shared experience. If you enjoy cooking, why not make something and send it to your friends’ houses?
Step 5: Consider raising funds for charity
If you and your friends don’t feel the need to pay for prizes, why not make charitable donations at the start of your games to an organisation of your choice? Your friends could take it in turns to host charity bingo nights, raising money for causes that are closest to their hearts. You might not get the satisfaction of winning a jackpot prize for yourself at the end of the game, but you will spend your evening knowing that your entertainment and socialising will make a difference to others.
