Listen to this article:Tipton has been named the most bingo-mad town in Britain after a new study looked at bingo-related internet search interest across the country.
The Black Country town came out on top after Google Trends data was analysed for the term “bingo” and five other popular bingo-related search terms. Each location was given a score based on search volume relative to population size, and the scores were then added together to create a Combined Google Trend Score.
It is well-known that the UK is mad about bingo. Tipton in the West Midlands finished with a score of 330, putting it ahead of every other location in the UK. It also had the country’s second-highest relative search volume for the word “bingo” alone, so it wasn’t just a case of Tipton doing well on one search term.
Tipton’s first-place finish means the West Midlands has once again shown itself to be one of the areas in the country where the game is most popular.
The town finished just ahead of Burton upon Stather in North Lincolnshire, which came second with a score of 324. South Shields in Tyne and Wear completed the top three with 314, while Hartlepool in County Durham and Blyth in Northumberland took fourth and fifth place.
It is an interesting top five, not least because towns rather than major cities dominate it. That is partly because the study looked at search volume in relation to population size, which gives smaller places a better chance of ranking highly.
Therefore, the results do not necessarily show where the largest number of bingo searches are taking place. Instead, they show where the game appears to have the most local search interest compared with the size of the population.
The study used Google Trends data from the past year and looked at six bingo-related search terms.
Google Trends gives locations a relative score between 0 and 100, based on how popular a search term is in that area compared with other locations. In this case, the scores for the six search terms were added together to create the final ranking.
That gave Tipton its winning score of 330. Burton upon Stather was not far behind on 324, which is impressive for a village with fewer than 3,000 residents. South Shields also performed well across the terms studied.
The results are not a measure of how many people actually play bingo in each town. Search data cannot show who attends clubs, who plays online, or how often people play. However, it does give an idea of where interest in the game is especially high.
One of the clearest findings from the study is that bingo interest remains especially high across the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland.
According to the ranking, most of the top 20 locations are in those areas. County Durham and Tyne and Wear both had three locations in the top 20, while Lancashire, Northumberland, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire each had two. The first location that could be considered part of the South of England was Mistley in Essex, which ranked 25th.
The results will probably not surprise regular players. Many towns in the Midlands and the North have long histories of club bingo, working men’s clubs and social game nights, which have left a lasting legacy.
The study that named Tipton the most bingo-mad town in Britain also found that there are around 42,000 searches for “bingo” in the UK every month, which shows that the game is still extremely popular.
Some of those searches will be from people looking for local halls, while others will be from players searching for online games and offers. Either way, it suggests that bingo remains very much part of the UK’s gambling and entertainment landscape, and fans of the game should have no problem enjoying top-quality bingo, whether online or in a club, for years to come.
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