The Bandits played their first season in 1992. They played home games at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium sharing with the Buffalo Sabres until its closure in 1996.

The Bandits became the first expansion franchise in MILL/NLL history to win a championship in its first season. The Bandits repeated as champions in their second season (compiling the league's only perfect season to date that year), lost the Championship game their third season and captured their third Championship in 1996, their fifth season. It was not until 1999, their eighth season, that the Bandits did not make the playoffs.

Since their 1996 Championship-winning season, the Bandits returned to the NLL Championship game on three separate occasions (1997, 2004, 2006) only to lose each time (including twice at home). It wouldn't be until 2008 that the Bandits would win their elusive fourth Championship, a 14-13 triumph over Portland.

As of 2016, Buffalo is the longest tenured team in the NLL, in terms of continuous years in their home city, at 25 seasons. (They are not the longest tenured franchise; the New England Black Wolves operate on the franchise of the Philadelphia Wings and the Colorado Mammoth were originally the Baltimore Thunder with previous stops as the Pittsburgh Crossefire in 2000 and Washington Power in 2001 & 2002.)