Wayne, the brains behind FreeBingo.co.uk who works just across the office from me, has been experimenting with new ideas recently and wanted to get stuck into transforming the podcast by syncronising it to video.

Along with the original bingo podcast, we are unaware of any other bingo site out there currently doing anything like this and I think it’s a great idea. While listening to my little review of the new site design or my interview with Cristie from Wonder Bingo, you now have a graphical walk through. The video gives the words much more meaning when you can actually see what is being described.

What do we call it? Anything from video cast to video blog has been mentioned, either sounds OK to me!

We now have plans to take this even further and have some great ideas on where to go next. Watch this space, WhichBingo is going into the video business!

You can view the shiny new ‘WhichBingo UK Podcast with video’ below:

Therefore, we have used our substantial brain power to work out that an average 5 minute advert break during both shows on Saturday and Sunday will produce up to £3 million in revenue! Along with all things X-Factor,  no doubt a healthy junk of that will find its way into the back pocket of show creator Simon Cowell!

Surely only the biggest organisations can justify spending this amount of money on advertising? Can you imagine one of our favourite bingo sites paying the money to place their ad during the shows?

Last year 19 million viewers watched Joe McElderry win the live final, and there certainly won’t be any shortage of interest this year! The guaranteed large audience will be full of bingo fans, as had been proved by the many X-Factor bingo promos that are doing the rounds this year.

I thought I would take a look at the latest adverts from bingo site and estimate how much it would cost for them to be shown during the live final!

Jackpotjoy‘s ‘Queen of Bingo’ advert featuring Barabara Windsor lasts for 30 seconds, and so would cost £300,000 to screen! Check to ad below so you know what to look out for:

The latest offering from Red Bus Bingo would hit the £320,000 mark!

Or Foxy Bingo, maybe one of few bingo sites who would consider spending so much. Their latest advert would hit the £600,000 mark!

It would really shock me to see any of these ads while I’m eagerly awaiting the results! Though if someone did show they had an advertising budget big enough, would be good for the industry or a sign that current players are missing out?

A firm favourite with bingo players across the UK, Ladbrokes Bingo has enjoyed phenomenal growth since having a makeover in 2008. The site was 18th in 2008’s Site of the Year vote but the site stormed into 2009 with a superb TV advertising campaign and the achievement of winning the 2009 award is testament to the hard work by the whole team at Ladbrokes in making such impressive progress.

Narrowly missing out on the top honour this year was Mecca Bingo, while other runners up included Wink Bingo, Tombola and Bingo Playground. All sites deserve huge credit for their achievements.

The New Site of the Year award is now into its third year and 2009 was a huge year for the launch of new bingo sites. Competition for votes was fierce but there could only be one winner and we are delighted to name Golden Hat Bingo as the WhichBingo UK New Site of the Year, 2009.

The scale of Golden Hat Bingo’s achievement becomes clear when you see the calibre of the competition the site faced in this year’s vote. In second place was the outstanding Giggle Bingo, closely followed by Landmark Bingo in third place.

Cheeky Bingo clinched fourth place after a huge year of growth, while Costa Bingo were fifth. Three re-launched sites made it into the New Site of the Year top 10; BetFred Bingo, Moon Bingo and JackpotCiy Bingo.

Until next year, congratulations to all sites and thank you to everyone who voted – here are the results in full…

Site of the Year 2009

1. Ladbrokes Bingo
2. Mecca Bingo
3. Wink Bingo
4. Tombola
5. Bingo Playground
6. Golden Hat Bingo
7. Giggle Bingo
8. Betfred Bingo
9. Posh Bingo
10. Gone Bingo
11. Totesport Bingo
12. Crown Bingo
13. Harry’s Bingo
14. Jackpotjoy
15. CyberBingo.co.uk
16. Landmark Bingo
17. Foxy Bingo
18. House of Bingo
19. Costa Bingo
20. BingoSKY
21. Gala Bingo Online
22. FreeBingo.co.uk
23. Play2Win Bingo
24. Cheeky Bingo
25. 888ladies
26. Bingo MagiX
27. Bingos.co.uk
28. BingoLiner UK
29. Platinum Play Bingo
30. Snap Bingo

New Site of the Year 2009

1. Golden Hat Bingo
2. Giggle Bingo
3. Landmark Bingo
4. Cheeky Bingo
5. Costa Bingo
6. Betfred Bingo
7. Moon Bingo
8. Eat Sleep Bingo
9. JackpotCity Bingo
10. Foxy Zero
11. Totesport Bingo
12. BOGOF Bingo
13. Play2Win Bingo
14. Tea Time Bingo
15. Epic Bingo
16. Kiss My Bingo
17. LiveBingo.co.uk
18. OK! Mag Bingo
19. Bloke Bingo
20. Eyes Down Bingo
21. Bingo Nation
22. 3am Bingo
23. BingoG

Here at WhichBingo UK we’ve been checking out Jacks Live Bingo, which claims to be “the only Live Interactive Bingo in the World”.

At the site you can enjoy the top class presenting skills from various inhouse presenters and win lots of cash for as little as 1 pence a ticket.

The novelty of having a live presenter certainly makes an interesting change from standard bingo rooms. But whether or not it will make Jacks Live Bingo a big hit in online bingo remains to be seen.

BingoBoy

With many predicting a long difficult summer for the Prime Minister, online bingo game site Poshbingo.com gave Mr Brown a little light relief by taking a Gordon Brown lookalike around Westminster to show how bingo may yet be the best way for the PM to get his luck to change.

Posh’s PM certainly looked the part and put a smile on our faces, but whether he’ll be of any help to Gordon, we very much doubt it!

BingoBoy

KMB has proved popular since the original site arrived on the scene and now it has been given a brand new look and some great features.

You can go there now to play bingo for free in the ‘Seriously Free’ bingo room from 10am to 10pm.

There’s a tasty signup offer as well – deposit £10 and pick up an extra 30 big ones to play bingo with.

BingoBoy

Very soon we’ll have a brand new bingo video for your enjoyment and it features some cuddly critters! Keep your eyes peeled…

Some news from the bingosphere today that caught my eye was 888ladies.com announcing the launch of 888Safe, a site which sets the industry standard for information about online safety and safe gaming.

It gives online users the opportunity to access behind the scenes at 888, one of the world’s most popular online gaming sites, as the company lays its cards on the table and explains what it is doing to help players feel, and be, safe online.

It’s really good to see a bingo site promoting responsible play – perhaps others will follow 888′s lead.

BingoBoy

The summit was a great event, bringing the industry together for two days of discussion and networking at London’s Millenium Gloucester hotel.

We’d like to thank everyone who voted for us in the awards and also offer our congratulations to the other award winners. With so many excellent portals, operators and software teams out there, it is a huge honour to win an award at the summit.

More on the summit (hopefully including photos) next week!

BingoBoy

In the autumn, the very first (to our knowledge) feature-length movie all about bingo is set to hit the big screen!

‘Bingo Confidential’ tells the story of a group of bingo players chasing a huge jackpot, and the film’s director roped in some real bingo players to fill out the cast!

“It all started with The Bingo Bugle [a US bingo newspaper]. It sparked my curiosity, so when I drove a friend’s mom to bingo, I took a peek inside. It was packed!” says film-maker Susan Noel Benfatto “It’s a comedy, so we stretched the personalities, but everyone was in on the jokes…No bingo players were harmed during the filming of the movie!”

The movie goes on DVD release in the US this autumn and you can visit the movie’s official website here. Can’t wait til it arrives in the UK!

BingoBoy

Sacha Baron Cohen as 'Bruno'

Now it has emerged that Bruno caused controversy at a bingo hall in 2007, leaving one woman so badly hurt she is sueing the Ali G star.

The TMZ website reported that Richelle Olsen has been wheelchair bound since her tussle with Cohen at a charity bingo game she was calling at in California.

Could Bruno be set to bring bingo to the big screen when the film is released in July? Let’s hope he doesn’t hurt anyone in the process…

BingoBoy