Guide
One number a day: bingo that lasts for weeks
A bingo game does not have to fit inside an evening. Draw one number a day and it becomes a chat ritual: thirty seconds every morning, for weeks.
What it is, in one line
It is an ordinary game in which nobody presses the button: a number comes out on its own every morning at 9:00 Italian time, and each player finds it when they pick up their phone. Same cards, same prizes — only the timescale changes, from an hour to a few weeks.
How long it actually runs
It depends on how many cards are in play. With ten to fifteen people holding two cards each, a full row usually lands in the first half of the board, while the full card keeps you waiting: think sixty to eighty draws, which is two or three months at one a day. That is a lot. Which is why you can raise it to two or three numbers a day: the same game closes in three to five weeks, which is about the right length before people tire of it.
Two rules of thumb: the more cards in play, the sooner prizes land; and if you have a date you want to finish on, start from the number of days available and set the daily count from there.
Setting it up
- Create the game and switch on one number a day, choosing how many numbers to draw each morning (one to three).
- Send the link to the group. Whoever joins gets their cards and then has nothing to do: no turn to take, no notifications to configure.
- Leave joining open for the first few days so latecomers can still get in. Anyone joining late starts competing from the draw they joined on.
- You do not need to open the page at all: numbers come out while you sleep and prizes are awarded regardless.
Why the slow version suits a work group better
A live game needs something that is expensive in a distributed team: half an hour when everybody is free at the same time. The slow version never needs it. People look at the number when they want — on the train, at lunch, at eleven at night — and the game carries on.
There is a side effect that is the real reason to try it: it creates a recurring conversation that is not about work. Somebody two numbers from a full row says so in the chat, somebody answers, and this happens every day for weeks without anyone having to organise anything.
When to use it
- In the run-up to an event: the three weeks before a conference or an all-hands, with the game finishing on the day.
- To introduce new people: in a group that has just formed, seeing the same names win something every day shortens the distance faster than an introductions round.
- Across time zones: this is the format that ignores them best, because nobody has to be awake at a particular hour.
- In a scattered family: it works exactly the same way, with the bonus that grandparents and grandchildren share one game without scheduling a call.
Keeping it alive
- One channel. A dedicated chat where people comment now and then. If the game has nowhere to live, it disappears after five days.
- Visible prizes. Announce them at the start and mention them again whenever one is won: here are the ideas, and in the slow format time prizes work particularly well, because the winner can use them at leisure.
- One shared moment a week. A Friday message with the state of play: who won what, and which prize is still open. Thirty seconds of work that holds the rest together.
- The board on a screen. If you have a monitor in a shared area, the board view is a permanent reminder that the game exists.
The questions that always come up
What if somebody ignores it for a week? They lose nothing. Prizes are computed by the server across every card: when they open the page again they find the numbers drawn, the full history and any prizes already theirs.
Can it be sped up near the end? Yes: raise the daily count mid-game, or finish live by drawing the last numbers by hand in one go — a good ending if you have an event to do it at.
Does it need an app or notifications? No. It is a web page, and the link stays valid for the whole game: the sensible move is for everyone to bookmark it on day one.
If this is your first game with a work group, start from the organiser's guide; and when somebody asks how the prizes work, the long answer is in the rules explained.