Blackout Bingo Review by an Expert Player [+Secret Strategies!]

You can’t get rich overnight by playing bingo, but you could bring home a good chunk of money, depending on the amount of time you invest into learning and playing the game.

I’ve been using the game for months, and have put together an in-depth review that details everything there is to know about this popular Skillz app. I’ll tell you how it works and share expert strategies that could help you accelerate your winnings.

I have personally earned more than $4,500 through Blackout Bingo and can vouch that not only is it legitimate, it really does pay.

Blackout Bingo Review Summary and Quick Facts

Blackout Bingo Pros:

• Helpful online support
• Real-world prizes and cash
• Entertaining gameplay that sharpens bingo skills
• Easy download process
• Free initial gameplay
• Worldwide availability (except where cash games are prohibited)
• Amazing promo code program offering free bonus cash

Blackout Bingo Cons:

• Some reported glitches reset players’ progress on levels
• Gamers can be charged a fee for inactivity
• A fee of $1.50 is imposed when withdrawing funds of $9.99 or less (but $10-plus withdrawals are free!)
• Players can lose real money
• Participants must be at least 18 years old to play
• Real money rounds are not available where prohibited by local laws

Blackout Bingo BBB Rating

Blackout Bingo is owned by Skillz Inc., which boasts an A+ rating on the Better Business Bureau’s website. Conversely, the company’s customer review ratings gave it only 2.15 out of five stars.

Common complaints include closure of accounts for unknown reasons, denial of attempts to redeem winnings, and some trouble with gaming glitches.

I had games close unexpectedly on two occasions, causing me to lose the rounds and my wagers. Thankfully, I was able to take advantage of the easily accessible link to request a refund, and the app’s responsive team sent my money back within the hour both times!

What is Blackout Bingo and How Does It Work?

Blackout Bingo can be downloaded to any Google or Apple device. Play for free, or pay real money for even more chances to win.

The real money is in the tournaments. Win the prize, and get the prize, including cash and real-world rewards. Blackout Bingo offers a fun way to travel the world through the eyes of your avatar, while winning along the way. Cash out your earnings via the app’s secure withdrawal options.

1. Download the App

Download Blackout Bingo using the QR code on the official Skillz Inc. website instead of searching for it in the Apple Store or Google Play Store. The many look-alike apps on those platforms don’t actually pay real money.

Play Blackout Bingo

2. Create Your Account

Use your Google or Apple account to create an account on Blackout Bingo so you can track your progress. You must confirm that you are at least 18 years old before you can play.

Once your download is complete, pick a username and choose an avatar – either the default image in the app, or your own photo. You can change your username at any point.

3. Enter Blackout Bingo Promo Code

Enter a Skillz promo code to receive free bonus money before you make your first cash deposit into Blackout Bingo. You can’t withdraw that initial bonus cash, but you can use it to play real money rounds of bingo. Each dollar you win is added to your balance and can then be withdrawn.

Using the Blackout Bingo promo code APget5 with your first deposit will give you the chance to play some extra games for free.

Every new player is assigned a Blackout Bingo referral code, which is also their username. Share this code with others, and each time someone uses your code, you will both receive bonus cash.

4. Make Your First Deposit

You will need to make a deposit of at least $5 to begin playing the cash rounds. As long as you’ve entered a promo code like “APget5” – and you’re depositing cash for the first time – any amount you pay will give you bonus cash.

5. Start Playing

Blackout Bingo will initially prompt you to play a practice game, with a guarantee of winning at least two in-game tokens. Your score will be weighed against your opponent’s at the end of the match.

Continue playing and practicing your skills by dueling against other real players, joining the weekly tournaments, and playing games for real money. Keep the fun going by inviting your friends to climb the ranks with you.

6. Redeem Your Prizes

Prize redemption depends on what you’ve won. Cash out monetary earnings via PayPal, Apple Pay, Visa, American Express, or MasterCard (depending on the method you used to deposit your initial funds). If none of these options are available to you, Skillz will mail you a physical check.

The game host will arrange to have larger, real-world prizes delivered to you.

7. Increase Your Blackout Bingo Earnings

Make the most of your Blackout Bingo earning potential by researching strategies on YouTube, practicing, and playing as often as your time and budget allows.

Boost your earnings by joining in on the weekly tournaments, where larger prizes are up for grabs. Compete with other players for the big payouts.

How to Profit with Blackout Bingo

Unlike the traditional game of bingo that leaves rounds up to chance, Blackout Bingo serves each player the same cards and call numbers. Gamers can outsmart their opponents by using different Boosts throughout the game, plus utilizing daub speed and strategy.

The number of games you will need to win in order to come out ahead with extra money in your pocket (versus a loss) depends on which paid matches you play.

$1 Blackout Bingo Rounds

During the $1 matches, two players each wager 60 cents, with the winner earning $1. The app will pocket 20 cents. The winner will ultimately increase his or her account balance by 40 cents in each won round.

An hour spent playing 25 back-to-back games of Blackout Bingo would earn you $10, provided you won every single round.

Even if you have great skills and accuracy, you will still lose some games – especially as a beginner – so keep an eye on your personal rate of loss (how many games you win on average, versus how many you lose). As you level up your account, you will compete against more experienced players.

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$10 Blackout Bingo Rounds

If you win 25 $10 games in a row, you could pad your account by $100 in just an hour. You must win every three out of five games, on average, to avoid losing money in Blackout Bingo.

While it’s not impossible to make money in Blackout Bingo, it can be difficult to get to the point where you’re actually earning a significant sum. Even the best players lose games. Get ahead of your opponents by learning important strategies you can use to help boost your points in each round.

How to Play Blackout Bingo (Strategies, Hacks, and Cheats)

A YouTube search for Blackout Bingo will turn up many videos, but very few pro players truly show their hand, so to speak. They are hesitant to share their winning secrets, because this would create more competition for them.

I’ve personally played Blackout Bingo, analyzed YouTube videos, and scoured the internet to locate strategies that can help you win.

The best of the best bingo players sometimes lose games, even if they don’t share their losses publicly. Don’t enter this game thinking you will always win. Blackout Bingo serves each player the same card, numbers, and Boosts, so using specific strategies could increase your chances of winning.

Below is a list of my favorite strategies that continue to help me take home the prize.

Strategy 1: Know Your Boosts (and When to Use Them)

The paid rounds of Blackout Bingo offer four main Boosts: bonus ball, free square, bonus time, and score multiplier. You may even sometimes see the freeze Boost.

You can only hold up to three Boosts at a time during a round, so it’s important to know when to use a Boost and when to hold it. I never allow my Boost meter to remain full, because doing so would mean losing the chance to earn an additional Boost.

Free Square

The free square can be used at any point in the game. Activate this Boost to activate the ability to daub any number on the card. Reserving your free squares to play later on in the game will help you work toward more bingos – which earn you more points.

The daub you make using the free square Boost does not earn you points, so select that space wisely; its number could be called later in the game. There’s no way of predicting which numbers will and will not be called, and it’s helpful to hold onto this Boost for as long as possible and use it toward the end of the game to complete more lines.

Bonus Ball

The bonus ball can also be used at any point in the game, but there is little benefit to holding on to this Boost. The bonus ball pauses the game for 8 seconds and allows you to pick amongst four numbers that are still open on the game board.

Before activating a bonus ball, try to memorize three or four numbers on the board that could bring you the closest to an additional bingo (a sequence of five daubs in a row). I like to study my corner numbers, since they can assist in more bingos than any other spaces on the board. Strategy and memorization skills are critical elements of the bonus ball Boost.

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Bonus Time

The bonus time Boost should be activated immediately. This simple but powerful power-up adds 10 seconds to the 90-second time limit and gives you additional time to earn points.

Score Multiplier

The X2 score multiplier Boost multiplies each point earned during a 10-second window by two. This tool can quickly bump a score from 20,000 to 40,000.

I like to save a score multiplier Boost to use during the last 10 seconds of a game, because it could double the points earned by hitting the bingo button. The more bingos you get in a row, the more points you will earn.

Freeze

The freeze Boost pauses the timer for 10 seconds. This is helpful to use when a game is going quickly and you need time to regroup and check some called numbers to make sure you daubed each one correctly.

This Boost doesn’t normally pop up during the normal head-to-head matches between two players. When it does, activate it at any point during the game, especially when you feel like you’re falling behind.

Strategy 2: Know When to Hit BINGO!

When I first started playing Blackout Bingo, I naturally assumed that the quicker you make a bingo, the more points you would earn. In actuality, you earn more points for saving your bingos until the end of the game.

Receive bonus points for making multiple bingos in a row, instead of hitting bingo sporadically throughout the game as you fill each sequence of five daubs. Hitting bingo at the end while a score multiplier Boost is activated doubles your points earned during that 10-second window, compounding your final score and leading to a better chance of winning.

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Strategy 3: Watch the Replays

Most paid rounds are recorded, provided each player has a good internet connection. Learn from your past mistakes by taking the time to watch the replays.

Watching the way others play also allows me to figure out how they beat me, and how I can improve my own gameplay.

Strategy 4: Understand the Algorithm

The Blackout Bingo algorithm matches two similarly skilled players. It seems to base its choice on a player’s most recent matches, so if you dominate multiple games in a row, Skillz will start pairing you with more experienced players.

When this starts to happen to me, I switch to picking up games with lower wagers. That way, if I lose, I’m out only 60 cents or $3, depending on which match I choose.

It gets increasingly harder to maintain winning streaks for long periods of time. I don’t think the game intentionally slows down players’ progress, but its goal is to match you with a similarly experienced gamer in order to give lower-ranked gamers a fair chance of winning.

Strategy 5: Learn Which Spaces Can Earn You The Most Bingos

Not every daub is created equal. Some spaces on the board can be a part of more than one possible bingo. For example, each corner space could be utilized in four possible bingo sequences. This is why it’s important to fill the corner spaces using bonus ball and free square Boosts. Note that in the following image, B5 can be associated with four different bingos.

The following graphic demonstrates the number of bingos each space could assist:

Commit to memory which spaces on the board help make the most bingos. The outside four corners and the inside diagonals can especially increase your score. I check those spaces when the game is coming to an end and I have a free square or bonus ball, to see how many bingos I can make by filling them in.

Strategy 6: Know Exactly What Actions Earn You Points

Although you might be tempted to dive into real money bingo matches with confidence in your existing bingo knowledge, remember that pretty much everyone else also knows how to play bingo. The best way to increase your winning percentage on Blackout Bingo is to learn the points system inside and out.

I couldn’t find information on the Blackout Bingo site explaining how the points are calculated after each round, so I analyzed dozens of games to determine how the scoring system works. There are six different ways to earn points in each round.

How the Points are Categorized and Calculated:

Correct daubs – You will earn 100 points for every accurate daub you place on the board. The typical game includes between 15 and 25 daubs, making a total of 1,500 to 2,500 points in this category.

Speed bonus – Each quick daub is labeled “perfect,” “fast,” or “nice.” A perfect daub gives you between 50 and 75 bonus points, based on how quickly you acted. A fast daub awards 25 to 49 bonus points, and a nice or normal daub gives you between 0 and 24 bonus points. All of these bonuses are calculated into the speed bonus total and do not include the default 100 points you receive for simply making a correct daub.

Bingos – You can get up to 12 bingos in one game without blacking out the board; each one earns you 1,000 points. A blackout will award even more points, leaving this category blank.

Bingo bonus – Earn bonus points for completing multiple bingos in a row. Accomplish this by playing the game as you would with any normal bingo match, but wait until the final seconds of the game to hit “bingo.” Each bingo you add to the total puts progressively more points onto your score.

Blackout bonus – Earn 9,100 points (instead of the bingo bonus) when you daub all 25 numbers on a single board.

Boost bonus – Points in this category are earned during the 10 seconds in which the X2 score multiplier Boost is activated. Using this Boost within 10 seconds of hitting “bingo” at the end of a round will lead to the highest possible point count, because it doubles everything you earn while it’s activated.

Time bonus – Rack up 100 points per second left on the clock after you’ve blacked out the board.

Penalty – Lose 25 points for each incorrect daub, and 100 points for hitting the bingo button when no bingos are found on the board. Either of these inaccuracies will kill any progress you’ve made on the Boost meter.

How the Points are Weighted

The majority of points in a single bingo match are earned by getting multiple bingos and using a score multiplier Boost to double your points during the final 10 seconds of the game. Here’s a screenshot of a typical score after a round of Blackout Bingo:

I also created a graph that demonstrates the most important areas on which to focus, based on how many points they award:

While many players primarily concentrate on speed (Speed Bonus) and accuracy (Correct Daubs), you can clearly see that those are only a small piece of the puzzle. When you find yourself in a close match, being faster than your opponent could help you win. It all ultimately boils down to your strategy: when you choose to use a score multiplier Boost (Boost Bonus), how many bingos you complete (Bingos), and when you hit the bingo button (Bingo Bonus).

Conversely, daubing quickly and accurately does help fill your Boost meter at a quicker rate. For example, a “perfect” daub will fill the meter higher than a “fast” daub, and an inaccurate daub will empty the meter.

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Blackout Bingo Q&A

I didn’t find many posted answers to frequently asked questions about Blackout Bingo, so I played hundreds of rounds (and won money in the process).

Check out this Q&A section before diving in and potentially losing money.

How do you win Blackout Bingo every time?

Beat the clock, watch for opportunities to daub, and spot the bonus balls.

The faster you tap a square called on your card, the more points and Boosts you will receive. You have to be quick in order to clear your card and win.

There’s no way to win every game, especially if you’re just getting started. Play the practice rounds and start with low wagers until you feel confident in your abilities.

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Is Blackout Bingo legit?

While Blackout Bingo is a legit app that has been proven to pay users (myself included), some gamers have left negative reviews about potential glitches in the game. Those users reported that these bugs kept them from continuing on in their progress.

If you lose a match due to the app’s closing unexpectedly during a game, report the crash to get a refund, no questions asked.

Should you invest in Blackout Bingo for real money?

Investing real cash into a game like Blackout Bingo is a personal decision you’ll have to make for yourself. You can still win money and real-world prizes in the free version, but the rate at which you can earn is extremely limited.

Paying to play comes with advantages like increasing your Boosts or entering into paid tournaments that have larger payouts. Consider all of the pros and cons before deciding if you want to spend real money on the app.

What is the golden ball in Blackout Bingo?

The golden ball (or bonus ball Boost) is a special power-up that you can earn for daubing quickly during Blackout Bingo matches. As soon as you tap the golden ball, the game timer will pause and give you 10 seconds to choose from four numbers that are still free on the board.

The goal is to choose the option that will give you an extra bingo. Try to memorize the corner numbers at the beginning of the round, to help you remember which number will give you a bingo. Filling in all four corners can lead to more bingos at the end of the game (successful bingos include diagonal, up/down, right/left, and all four corners).

How do I get the boost bonus in Blackout Bingo?

Each final score breakdown shows a line labeled “Boost Bonus.” That score is determined by the points you earned during the X2 multiplier’s 10-second window. The more points you earn during those crucial 10 seconds, the higher your “Boost Bonus” will be.

How do I withdraw money from Blackout Bingo?

Select the three lines at the top right of the screen to open the menu options, choose “Account,” and then “Withdraw.” From there, simply type in a dollar amount and follow the prompts to request your money.

What is bonus cash in Blackout Bingo?

Bonus cash works the same as real cash, allowing you to play real, head-to-head bingo matches. The only difference is, you can’t withdraw bonus cash. You must first play rounds with the bonus money, and then any amount that you win will be added to your balance for withdrawal.

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Are there any Blackout Bingo promo codes for existing players?

Existing players cannot use a promo code to receive bonus cash, but Blackout Bingo does run occasional promotions that automatically tack extra bonus cash onto your deposits.

What’s the trick to Blackout Bingo?

There is no single trick to winning more in Blackout Bingo, but multiple strategies can help you one-up your opponents. Focus on learning how the point system works, when to use Boosts, and how to improve your accuracy and speed.

What are Z used for in Blackout Bingo?

Z coin is a virtual currency used to play practice matches in Blackout Bingo. They also allow players who have spent their budgeted cash to continue to enjoy the game indefinitely.

Can you really win money on the Blackout Bingo app?

While you can win money during just a few moments of gameplay, you could lose money just as quickly. You can’t win every game you play, but with enough practice and strategy, you could learn to win more games than you lose and come out with some extra cash at the end.

What are the rules for Blackout Bingo?

There are very few rules in Blackout Bingo. The goal is to simply earn more points than your opponent.

Daub quickly and accurately, get bingos, and use Boosts to one-up your opponent.

What are the different Blackout Bingo patterns?

There are a total of 13 possible bingo patterns per board, but when you black out your board (daub all 25 numbers), the points breakdown shows 14 bingos as a special bonus (the game could be counting the blacked-out board as the 14th bingo). The following graphic shows each possible bingo you can complete on a single board:

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Blackout Bingo Review: Is It Legit?

Many users have reported winning real money from Blackout Bingo.

Blackout Bingo might not make you rich overnight, but it does offer some very large, cool prizes.

Only you can determine if it’s worth your time to play Blackout Bingo. If you ultimately don’t care for it, you don’t have to continue playing. In the end, you won’t know what you think until you give it a shot. Check out Blackout Bingo to form your opinion and try making some extra cash while having fun.

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