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Hindered By Globalcom's Usual Problems - SpectraBingo.com

Spectra BingoVisit: www.spectrabingo.com

Site rating: 4 / 10

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First Impressions & Ease Of Sign up

The site's design is quite classy. They have changed the homepage recently, pretty much between me signing up and starting playing. The older page was a bit dull and old fashioned. The new look page is a lot fresher and better laid out.

As good as it looks, I couldn't help but spot the signs that this was another Globalcom Network site. However, they'd already done something beyond the normal to attract my attention - they had a great sign-up offer that many in the Network could learn from. I was excited to see offer and it made signing up all the more sweeter, but more on that later.

Whilst the older design was a bit more hard edged, the new look has a strong feminine appeal. Many sites are guilty of doing this - trying to appeal to only one sex. I'm still waiting to see a design selector that allowed you to switch between site designs, but that's fantasy. Spectra Bingo are obviously trying to attract the female pounds, but strangely haven't carried the more feminine design over to the other site pages which still carry traces of the older design.

Sign-up was easy, but you need to take care that you use the current offer's landing page to get the full details. At present the old offer is linked in from the homepage, but it's not as good an offer as the new one. All the signing up is as easy as it ever was. You need to activate your account via email.

Sign-Up Bonuses

Spectra Bingo have gone out of their way to offer something different to the average Bingo player and as such, set a great example for other sites in the Globalcom Network. You get 1000 loyalty points, which is equivalent to £1 of free games. You also get a match bonus of 100% on your first deposit.

It's also worth noting that since the last time I reviewed a Globalcom site, they've changed the minimal amount required for your match bonus. Previously you used to have to deposit a minimum of £20, which I thought very unfair. These days you get the deposit bonus on any deposit from the minimum deposit amount of £5.

Up to this point this is the standard deal you'd expect from a Globalcom site. Spectra Bingo get brownie points for introducing a couple of offers over and above this. Previously you could claim a free MP3 player for a deposit and play through of £50. That was a bit much for me, but the new offer was right up my street. On your first deposit of £10 you can claim an Amazon voucher for £10! So, not only do you get £10 of free games, you get the £10 coupon for Amazon as well.

Ease Of Use

As great as the sign up offer is, the fun ends their. Spectra Bingo are guilty of being yet another site that's stuck with the bog-standard and poorly implemented Globalcom software. If you've ever read one of my reviews of a Globalcom site, you'll know I believe their offering is poor and riddled with usability issues and at times downright misleading. This continues to be the case.

I'll roll off my list of problems with the interface here in brief, OK, so here we go. Poor layout, un-intuitive buttons, hard to follow bingo cards, lack of understanding of the mechanics of Bingo, no feedback on purchasing, no auto sort, over-priced games, poor chat layout, misleading pricing and labeling, lack of feedback on stake money and no stops on the lines, two lines full house, etc. There's more, but that's enough to be going on with for now.

Spectra Bingo's offering is no different to the other cookie-cut sites offering the Globalcom version of the game. It's a real shame, because even with the great special offers, they will always be hampered by the playability issues their software suffers from.

Community Spirit

There is a robotic greeting on entering the chat-room, which personally I don't like. There are normally a few people in the chat, depending on which room you're in, and the hosts can be helpful if you need advice. However, they also have the nasty habit of dropping massive 'lucky dust' messages which infuriatingly blast everything off of the chat room screen and make having a conversation with another player a pain.

Prize Money

I have to say I', not impressed with the prize money on offer - it's not a problem specific to Spectra Bingo, it's apparent across the network. Some of the more expensive games don't offer good value. Some games can cost as much as £6 for your standard strip of six tickets, and when the prize money is only £35ish it doesn't encourage participation. The same is true of the 50p a ticket games. On the more standard 10p games in the afternoon, there were around 35 players, and prize money of £9 line, £9 two lines and £20 Full house.

Globalcom could do itself a big favour by working on it's pricing. The balance between the over-priced games and the more standard prices is not good. There seems to be more 25p, 50p and £1 a ticket games, but the prize money doesn't reflect the price of the tickets. With the lack of purchasing feedback, it's very easy to accidentally blow your money on one of the more expensive games.

Security

The security is of a standard you'd expect when playing online. It does concern me that they email both your username and password in the welcome email, it's not an ideal situation. I also find it off putting to jump into the bingo games and see my browser's status bar tell me it's pulling information from a different Bingo site to the one I'm playing at, a different network site. I'm sure it doesn't cause security issues, it's more a mental perception. Otherwise - everything is solid enough to entice me to part with my details - Aquapay is as secure as you'd expect.

Overall Feel At SpectraBingo.co.uk

I really wanted to like Spectra Bingo. Their free Amazon voucher is just the sort of thing to get people like me jumping in. Other sites offer free gifts for joining, but they are mere trinkets compared to the voucher. Unfortunately, wanting to like them is not enough here. Spectra Bingo have a lot of work to do to distance themselves from the competition.

Whilst the site design is catchy enough, the disparate elements could do with unification. Other than the sign-up offer, it's not ground breaking or of note. If you want a simple game of Bingo online, it does the job, but that's about it. Until Globalcom lifts its game, all the sites in the network are going to suffer against the competition. Overall rating - 4 / 10 (May 1st 2007)

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Visit: www.spectrabingo.co.uk

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