90-ball bingo tickets (UK)

How 90-ball bingo works

A 90-ball ticket is a grid of 3 rows and 9 columns. Every row holds exactly 5 numbers and 4 blank squares, so a ticket carries 15 numbers. Each column owns a block of numbers: the first column is 1-9, the second 10-19, and so on up to the last, which is 80-90 (eleven numbers, because 90 joins it). A column holds one, two or three numbers, always smallest at the top, so when the caller says "forty-seven" players look down the fifth column only.

There are three prizes in one game, played in order. One line: the first player to mark all five numbers in any one row. Two lines: any two rows on the same ticket. Full house: all 15 numbers on one ticket. After each win the caller checks the ticket and carries on calling from where they stopped; nothing is reset until the full house.

Why the tickets come in strips of six

Six tickets have 6 x 15 = 90 squares with numbers, which is exactly one of each number from 1 to 90. This page builds every strip that way, so a player holding a whole strip marks a number on every single call, and someone holding one ticket from a strip never shares a number with the other five tickets of that strip. Clubs hand out whole strips for that reason: nobody sits through ten calls without a dab. That is also why the ticket count is rounded up: ask for 10 and you get 12, two full strips, and the unused tickets can go to late arrivals. The ticket number and strip number are printed under each ticket, and the set number rebuilds exactly the same tickets later.

How long a game takes

We ran 2,000 simulated games per setting with tickets from this page, one ticket per player. With 12 tickets in play the first line came after a median of 42 calls, two lines after 63 and the full house after 76 of the 90 numbers. With 30 tickets those drop to 35, 58 and 72. Calling one number every 10 seconds, a full game for a room of 30 lasts about twelve minutes. Ninety-ball games run longer than 75-ball ones because each ticket holds only a sixth of the numbers.

Calling with the caller board

Press Caller board (or Download PDF, where it follows the tickets). The board lists 1 to 90 in nine rows of ten. The next page is all 90 numbers in a shuffled order, each with a tick box. Read the order from the top, say each number twice ("seven and four, seventy-four"), tick it, then cross it off on the board. Many callers add the traditional rhymes: "Kelly's eye, number one", "legs eleven", "two little ducks, twenty-two", "two fat ladies, eighty-eight", "top of the shop, ninety". When someone shouts, ask them to read their numbers back and check each against the board.

Printing

Print tickets puts one strip of six on each page, A4 or Letter, portrait. In the PDF each ticket spans the page width with squares about 21 mm wide and numbers in bold 17 to 19 point, big enough for most players at a table; blank squares are shaded grey so the five numbers in a row stand out. Cut along the gaps to hand out single tickets, or keep strips whole. This page makes tickets for fun games in clubs, care homes, classrooms and family evenings.