We Didn't Invent Music Bingo, We Just Changed the Rules

I didn't invent music bingo. Hell, I didn't even think it was a good idea to begin with. Like most things, the concept and structure were borrowed from what I'd seen work elsewhere. I hadn't really taken the time to dive in to understand why, or if, it was the right way to do it.

Picture a sheet of paper, landscape orientation, with two bingo cards on it. Across the bottom is a set of bingo shapes from left to right, 1-Line, 2-Lines, 4-Corners, the Letter T, Letter X, the Outline of a Diamond, the Outside Edges (Box), one Full Card, and Two Full Cards. That seemed good enough, why fix what isn't broken?

Bingo is just bingo, right?

When people start to play a bingo game one of the first questions is always, "What shape are we going for?"

Obviously, the answer is the first one. "We're going for 1-Line everybody!" Then move across the shapes in order, it's familiar, it makes sense. Cool.

What happens when two people "tie" for a prize? In regular bingo, you split the pot. How do you split a pint glass or a free app with a stranger?

I had a sneaky feeling that this game wasn't "just bingo".

Rule change #1

After just a couple of weeks the first hiccup happened. 1-line winner was on schedule. 2-Line winner just a few minutes later. Then I announced the next shape was 4-corners, before I even finished saying it there was a loud "BINGO!" from the crowd. Someone already had that shape, they were just waiting for a chance to win it. It was no fun, everyone groaned... this was not going to happen again.

See, unlike regular bingo, you can't just throw all the balls back in the hopper and start on a new card for a new shape. You just need to keep going through the song list until the final prize because hearing the same songs over an over is no fun unless you're a toddler.

So the first RSMB rule change was born, all shapes are up for grabs from the start, they can be won in any order. Once a shape is won, it can't be won again, everybody marks it off and just keeps going. This way, 4-Corners can be won before 1-Line.

Guessing the song

The previous music bingos that I'd played before were pretty strict about needing to know the song. No phones allowed, no helping your neighbours or friends, like it was some kind of super competitive high-stakes bingo tournament at a pub. God help you if you called bingo and went to claim your prize but one of the songs you thought had played hadn't yet. The roasting from the host was brutal and the walk of shame back to your seat was truly pitiful.

I'm not a huge fan of making people feel bad, especially not in public. I didn't allow phone for the first while either, but I kept it pretty quiet if they messed up their bingo card.

It took a little longer than the first rule change, but eventually there was a tipping point.

Rule change #2

Not only is the night supposed to be about good vibes and not about embarrassing people in public, it's also super important to us to run a game that's fair. Imagine playing regular bingo and not knowing what B11 meant, you can't, that's ridiculous. Now, apply that logic to Music Bingo, see? Using an app to help absolutely make sense. There are no secrets in bingo.

Turns out that rule change to allow people to get help in identifying the songs also resulted in a pretty big drop in the number of ties we saw. Interesting...

The luck of the card

Our newest host, Karen, came to me with a problem after a bingo night. "Jeff, two weeks in a row now the person that won the second-last prize also win the final prize! People are starting to get upset."

My first reaction was that it was just the luck of the cards and they just didn't understand the odds or randomness, and two weeks in a row didn't mean anything. However, something nagged at me, I wanted to know for sure if my take was right. Was there a way we could improve the prize distribution, and from that, the players' perception.

So I wrote a little script to test out whether or not it was true that someone winning one full card had a significantly better chance than everyone else to win two full cards. Turns out it wasn't just a little more likely. 65% of the time, the same person won both final prizes. That was unacceptable.

But how was this possible? Why hadn't we noticed in the years leading up to the complaint? It was simple... WE the hosts had been intervening in fate from the beginning. We would check the full card to make sure it was a winner. We also took a peek at what songs were left on the other card, we knew a double winner at the end would look bad. That wasn't fair at all. Karen just hadn't picked up our trick yet. Something needed to change, and quickly.

Luckily, it was coming into the Christmas Holiday season and we had some time to figure out how to fix the problem.

The Bingo Laboratory was born in December, 2025.