The 10 Best Accents for Bingo Calling, According to a New Survey

Researchers at Buzz Bingo ran a survey to find out the UK’s favourite bingo calling accents as well as the most outdated bingo phrases. The study found that respondents voted the friendly Yorkshire accent as their favourite, with a 28% majority. Close behind, Received Pronunciation (Queen’s English) took second place with 26%. The top 10 ranking is below:

Scots, Geordies, and Yorkshire residents feel very proud of their accents and voted for their own as the best for bingo calling, with 66% of Scottish respondents, 58% of Geordies, and 56% of those from Yorkshire backing their own regional accent over any other. It would seem that this level of regional pride is more the exception than the rule, as more people left out their own accents as one of their favourites than not. Generally, the survey has found that Brits prefer other accents for bingo calling to their own.

Interestingly, certain bingo calls were thought to be best heard in particular regional accents: “Clickety click, sixty-six” was voted best in a Scouse accent, while “Buckle my shoe, number thirty-two” was considered best in a Northern Irish accent.

Despite the growing visibility of the Brummie accent in popular culture, with shows like Peaky Blinders bringing it to a wider audience, regional patriotism hasn’t quite translated into bingo-calling appeal. In fact, a bigger proportion (18%) of Brummies than any other accent group seems not to favour their own accent for bingo calling.

Below is a table demonstrating the most popular bingo calls along with the accents that have been voted as the best for reading them out by the British public:

Despite Northern Irish not coming out in the top 10 accent ranking, this accent appears twice for the best accent for reading out specific bingo calls. “Buckle my shoe, number twenty-two” and “Garden gate, number eight” have been voted by the public as best said in the Northern Irish accent.

Interestingly, despite the Yorkshire accent being voted as the overall best accent for bingo calling, it doesn’t appear to be the favourite for reading out some of the more specific popular bingo calls. The Geordie and Mancunian accents take the lead here, tied with three votes each as the most popular accents for reading out certain bingo calls.

The survey found that the public has voted for the Mancunian accent as the best for reading out “Cup of tea, number three” along with arguably one of the most popular bingo calls there is, “Two little ducks, twenty two”. The Geordie accent is the favourite for reading out crowd favourites such as “legs eleven, number eleven” and “top of the shop, number ninety”.

Respondents also voted on the most outdated bingo calls, after all, some of these calls date back many decades. Amongst some of the most outdated bingo calls as voted for by the public were “The lord is my shepherd, twenty-three” and “Doctor’s orders, number nine”, with this particular call referring to a laxative pill once issued in the British Army.

Methodology: A nationwide survey of 1009 bingo players aged 20 and over was conducted via the survey platform, Prolific. Participants were required to answer four separate questions. The data was then analysed for standout trends, and key statistics were drawn from the overall dataset.