At one minute past 3pm on Saturday, our biggest ever, record breaking Jackpot was won by Mathew G from Bristol who scooped a total of £1,963,088.83 (which works out as one million nine hundred and sixty three thousand and eighty eight pounds eighty-three pence.) Phew.

Another Deal or No Deal Millionnaire

We’ve only managed to speak very briefly to the lucky winner, who won playing our Deal or No Deal game, and had this to say:

“I joined the site in 2009 and hadn’t played for a while when my mate suggested we have a go while we were round mine on Saturday. I joked that if I won I would give him £250,000 never thinking for one moment I would!

“My head still feels numb, I’m just so shocked! I kept refreshing my balance to check the money’s still there. I couldn’t believe it had actually happened. The support team were great over the Bank Holiday weekend assuring me it was all real!

“I’m still living in a day dream and really can’t believe this has happened to me.

“I am definitely fulfilling my promise to my friend who will be getting £250,000, but apart from that I have no idea how I will spend it.”

There’s no rush Mathew, though we’re all very impressed that you’re fulfilling your promise to your friend. Top bloke!

We’ll keep you updated with more on the story as we find it out…

Regular blog reader may remember Jackpotjoy becoming the Nation’s Favourite Bingo site back in April, according to Experian Hitwise – who do the same thing as the TV ratings people, but for the internet.

Experian Hitwise

Since then, as you may have noticed, we’ve completely re-launched our site, offering a brand new Bingo product in the process. Like any new launch, we knew it was going to take a little while for people to get used to it and, to be honest, we wondered whether in the short term the launch would cost us our number one position.

In fact, the truth was quite the opposite, and Experian confirmed last week that we’ve maintained a number one ranking for the entire period between January to June 2010! Which means that even during one of the most changeable periods in the site’s history, we’ve beaten Foxy, Gala and Tombola to the top spot.

At this point, it’d be easy to give ourselves a hearty slap on the back, make like it was a job well done, but the truth is that you don’t get into this position by sitting back.

You’ve probably seen how much of the old site we’ve managed to bring back, as well as launching brand new games like Tiki Temple, Zuma and completely new concepts like Bejeweled Bingo. Plus, all the games – new and old – are now being run on a more stable, more developmental platform than ever, and the best is very definitely still to come.

I’ve got to remain tight lipped about that for now, but let’s just say that in a few weeks, Jackpotjoy is going to become the name on everyone’s lips…

I love the summer. I love sitting in the park on my lunch break, I love late sunsets, beer gardens and holidays. I love getting in the car and driving somewhere, miles from anywhere, and getting out a blanket and sitting on a hillside for hours doing nothing but watching clouds. I love clouds, when there’s only a few of them, and they’re surrounded by blue sky.

Summertime in England

The trouble with the summertime in England is, ironically, the weather. And it’s not even the fact that it rains sometimes, because it’s the mixture of sun and rain that makes us a green country, and I love the green.

The problem with the English weather is that it’s the only thing in the country that’s less reliable than British Rail.

Billy Connolly once said that there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes and that’s about right. I don’t mind the rain. I love the sun. I can handle wind, hail, snow and frost but I don’t like the fact that I don’t know what to wear because I don’t know what to expect.

Or I say that and I do know what to expect really: I can expect it to be hot if I’ve brought my coat, and it’ll rain if I didn’t. In fact, the only time the weather is reliable is when you’ve arranged to have a BBQ on Saturday because it’s been sunny all week and there’s no way it’ll rain this weekend!

But I shouldn’t grumble really, I just like things that are a little bit reliable. Like a Guarantee. Like a GUARANTEED CASH OFFER!!! Haha, bet you didn’t see that coming!!

It’s true though, we’ve got a Guaranteed Cash offer at Jackpotjoy tomorrow – Thursday Aug 19th – and this one’s Bingo themed and it’s a proper stonker.

Simply register onsite, and pick a lucky Beach Ball – if you hovver your mouse over the balls you can make them bounce, it’s great fun – and then spend at least £10 playing Bingo tomorrow. Come back on Friday and we’ll reveal the cash prize hidden behind each ball. It’s easy – and there’s a Guaranteed win for everyone!

So there we go, that’s my pitch over with for the day. And, in case you hadn’t guessed, the answer is: Yes. I did get rained on this morning.

Win Guaranteed Cash with Bingo Pick a Number

With another raft of Bingo changes hitting the site today, we know quite a few of you have been wondering why so many changes onsite? Why are we now re-introducing features and re-opening rooms that were shut down back in March?

I thought I’d take this opportunity to explain the background…

Regular blog readers will know I’m a bit of a sports fan, and the best example for what’s happened at Jackpotjoy comes from the rip-roaring world of motor racing.

Whether you’re a fan of Formula One or not, I’m sure you’ll have heard the term Pit Stop. For those of you who’ve heard it but wondered what it was, a Pit Stop happens when someone has to take their car out of the race for essential maintenance – like when they need refuelling, new tires, things like that.

Everyone needs a Pit Stop - but getting back on the road fast is essential!

The trouble with a Pit Stop is that because it takes you out of the race, you inevitably fall behind. It’s very frustrating when you’re driving well and leading the pack but you can see your fuel running out and you know you’re going to have to pull in soon and give up the lead.

And back in February we were leading the pack with our Bingo product. We’d just won the iGB Award for Best Bingo Software, as well as overtaking Foxy, Gala and Tombola to become the most visited online Bingo site in the country according to Experian Hitwise – who are a bit like the TV ratings company for the internet.

But, behind the scenes, we had a problem. We knew that the operating system our Bingo games were using simply wasn’t up to the challenges we wanted to set it. There were limits to how many players could be onsite at the same time, there were limits to the number of rooms it could cope with, there were limits to the number of features we could develop, limits to the type of chat games we could offer – limits, limits, limits!

And if there’s one thing we don’t like here, it’s limits. The only limit should be our imaginations, and they can get pretty wild after a full packet of Haribo and a pot of decent coffee!!

Sweets - the launchpad of great ideas!

So we knew we needed a new operating system, sometimes called a Platform, for our Bingo, which meant coming in for a Bingo Pit Stop. It was inevitable, but since we were preparing to re-launch the rest of the site the timing seemed good. We could relaunch it all and make it easy on everyone.

But, for Bingo certainly, this was more than just a Pit Stop, it was like coming into the pit lane and leaving with a brand new car.

The frustrating thing was that the new car didn’t offer everything that the old one did. The changes were so significant that we were going to lose some great features and some of our favourite rooms because they wouldn’t be immediately available on the new system. But the decision was taken to do it. To take a deep breath, hold our nerve and think of the future.

As it happened the future was bright! The new look site went down a storm, and we’re already bringing back some core features like scheduled buy, as well as three of our top 75 Ball Bingo Rooms – and this is now all being done on a platform that can offer more features, to more players than ever before.

Although you may not notice it straight away, the new platform has definitely been worth it. It’s easier for us to work with, it can handle thousands of players between as many rooms as you like! It is, to use an industry term, future proof.

Over the next few months we’ll continue to bring back old favourites and introduce new features that’ll help our Bingo return to its rightful place at the front of the pack. Make sure you post a comment and let us know what you’re looking for from Jackpotjoy Bingo.

But, for now, we’d all like to thank you for your patience over the last six months and to reassure you that everything we’ve done has been done to ensure that you can continue to enjoy the best Bingo on the market at Jackpotjoy!

Tom

The New Features will just keep on coming!

It’s also worth mentioning that since this blog was originally posted, Hitwise (the ratings people for the internet) have announced that Jackpotjoy has come in at Number 1 Bingo Site for the entire period from January to June 2010. So well done everyone, and thanks to everyone in our big Bingo loving family for your continued support!

Here at Jackpotjoy we love a bit of innovation.

I remember sitting down to discuss ways we could make winning with online Bingo a more social experience. We talked about pooled Jackpots, how we could encourage playing as a team and how we could incorporate people’s faces into the mix. From those meetings we created Family Fortunes Team Bingo, our unique mix of the classic Bingo formula and the iconic TV gameshow.

I think one of my favourite recent developments was Monopoly Snap! There were two big asks with that game: we wanted to bring all the excitement that comes from collecting the legendary Monopoly sets, but we also wanted to offer more ways to win than ever before.

Monopoly Snap is one of my favourite games on the site. As the catchline says: There are just so many ways to win! The Token Bonus, calling SNAP!, collecting sets and the legendary Community Chest. Not long ago one Lukasz K won £9,290, and everyone in the room left with £1,114! There are very few other games in world that could see a result like that…

And now we’ve got a new innovation – and this one’s an absolute classic!

Bejeweled 90 Ball Bingo!

The brief this time was to try to find a way to bring Bejeweled and Bingo together into one great cacophony of gaming brilliance! Sounds easy, eh? Surely you can’t go wrong putting two legends together into one terrific team.

Well, in theory that’s true, but then you remember the Gerard and Lampard effect and we knew that it was time to put our thinking caps on…

In the end the solution was clear. We wouldn’t just stick Stevie and Frank into midfield and leave them to it, we’d work it so that one complemented the other – so Bejeweled was playing off Bingo’s strengths and the Bingo was given the space to work its magic.

The basic rules are this: Play a game of Bingo, like normal, then play a one minute game of Bejeweled to win cards for the next Bingo game … How simple is that!

Think: Lennon & McCartney, Fish & Chips, Coffee and a biscuit. This is a perfect double act

And the thinking behind it, going back to the football analogy, is that Bejeweled’s got pace. It’s a quick thinking, quick witted game that’s a real moment of excitement between Bingo rounds. It’s a frantic scrabble to score as much as possible in a minute that flies by!

If you can beat the individual score, or if everyone playing beats the group score, you’ll win Free Cards for the next game of Bingo. It’s a bit like Bejeweled’s a little pacey winger who’s sending Free Tickets into the area, for the Bingo game to convert into big money wins.

(In case you haven’t already guess it, yes, I am quite missing the World Cup.)

Anyway, you win the cards and then get taken straight back to the Bingo, where you can decide whether to just play your Free Cards or buy six tickets for the next game and qualify for another round of Bejeweled as well.

We always test the games out around the office and the response to Bejeweled Bingo has been great.

We all hang out in chat and enjoy the Bingo while it’s there, then everyone stops talking and if you look around for the moment of the Bejeweled game it’s wonderful to see a whole row of faces staring at their screens with these hilarious looks of deep concentration on. It’s like the office has suddenly become some kind Tibetan monastery for a minute.

For the duration of the Bejeweled, you could hear a penny drop, which is doubly impressive because we’ve got carpet, and then the game finishes and the tension melts like an ice cream on the BBQ. Everyone compares how many cards we won and then the chat returns the Bingo kicks off and someone wins the cash. But there’s no time to mope if you didn’t win because a new game is starting up and we’re off again …

Bejeweled Bingo is a great game, I’m really pleased with it – and we’ve got so much faith in it that we’re offering £2,500 in Guaranteed Jackpots every day!

So make sure you visit the site and have a go then come back and post your comments if you like – I’m always listening…

Win Free Cards with Bejeweled Bingo

I love Guaranteed Cash offers – they’re a chance for everyone to get a share of the winning feeling, and this week’s offer is bingo themed which means, fittingly, it’s got BALLS!

Guaranteed Cash with Bingo Pick a Number

To celebrate the summer we’re asking you to pick a lucky numbered beach ball and then spend at least £10 playing any Bingo games TODAY (Thur 5th August 2010) to qualify.

Then come back tomorrow when we’ll reveal the cash prize hidden inside each ball – and it could be as much as £5!

And remember, you can spend £10 on any Bingo game to qualify. You could put it towards tickets for both of today’s daily Star Jackpots. The one o’clock Afternoon Star, which offers £100 prizes whether you land the 1 line, 2 line or the Full House Prize; and the 8pm Evening Star with the £1,000 Full House Prize.

You can pre-book your Star Jackpot tickets now and it will all go towards your play so don’t miss out, get ready to play today for your Guaranteed Cash!

(One thing that’s worth noting though is that only games that are played today will qualify so pre-bought tickets to tomorrow’s Super Star Jackpot won’t count!) GLA

If Summer Winnin’ is having you a blast then get ready for fun, fun, fun and join Jackpotjoy for a chance to win a share of £5,000 this weekend with Jackpotjoy’s Summer Winnin’!

It’s easy to take part in Summer Winnin’. Simply register onsite and then play any of your favourite games between Saturday 31st July and Monday 2nd August.

You’ll receive 1 Summer Winnin’ Prize Draw ticket every time you earn a Joy Point during that period – which means spending £5 on Bingo or betting £20 on any Casino or Slots game.

The Prize Draw takes place on Tuesday 3rd August and we’ve got £5,000 that must be won!

There’s £1,000 available for a single lucky winner, as well as hundreds of other cash prizes so don’t miss out – visit Jackpotjoy.com and Register Now…

Summer Winnin' Cash Prize Draw