Online Backgammon Play Sites
Here you find a list of places where you can play real
backgammon online, with other players from all over the world. This
list shows the most popular places to play, but is not completed.
If you can not find your favourite backgammon room here, let me know and I might add
a review for this room.
Depending on your motivation (make money, pass time, socialize
or just practice) the commission (also called rake) is an important
factor. You should know that the rake affects your cube
handling and your overall performance quite a bit. The
commission varies from server to server. Some backgammon rooms
charge a higher rake, if you play people that are rated much
different than you (either higher or lower). You will find the
details about that in the detailed descriptions of the sites.
Most sites offer playing for real money, while playing for money
can be fun, be careful. You should play only for amounts you can
afford, especially against people you don't know and never have
played before. As you can imagine, whenever money is involved,
there are people who want to take your money away. I suggest
analyzing every game you play using software like eXtremegammon,
Snowie or GNU. This gives you valuable information about your level
and your opponents as well. You should absolutely be suspicious if
a low rated player plays an almost perfect game.
Most sites have some kind of loyalty program, for every raked
game you play you receive points (some sites call it stars or
frequent player points), depending on the site, that can be
exchanged for tournament buy-ins or cash.
For a serious online backgammon player, in my opinion it is
vital to have a look at the various backgammon rooms. Most sites
use a FIBS / ELO like ratings system, as a new player you start
normally with 1500 (some sites 1600) rating points.
Dicearena
DiceArena is a nice and professional online backgammon room.
Dice Arena offers real money play and play money games. Even the
overall design of the lobby and the board is somewhat childish; the
colours of the board and checkers are okay. Dice Arena seems like a
hip and professional backgammon room. Besides backgammon, you will
find Arcade and Casino games.
[Go to website]
or
[read more]
Ladbrokes
Ladbrokes Backgammon is operated and owned by veteran British
gambling empire, which insures you are in good hands. No software
installation is required (flash player must be installed). The rake
is very low compared to other rooms. Sadly their Backgammon tables
haven't become very busy, despite Ladbrokes' reputation for other
games (sports betting and poker). Normally only a couple of dozen
players are online and all of them can be found in the "Cash Games"
section, even though they have a "Free Play" section. As the
conditions are really good for the players, I hope that the traffic
will rise.
[Go to website]
or
[read more]
PlayWSOB
PlayWSOB runs several exclusive tournamnets, where you can
qualify for the World Backgammon Championships and other WSOB
stops. There is also the WSOB Online Tour running throughout this
year which has €5,000 added in the WSOB Race.
PlayWSOB is part of the excellent Melita Gaming Network (also
used by Truemoneygames, McPoker and Checkraiser) which offers you
both poker games and backgammon room all in one place, either just
for fun or for money. Under the Backgammon area, which is of course
what we're all most interested in, the software does clearly create
a division into single games, matches, and then there's also a
separate tournament section, that is where you will find all the
qualifications for the World Backgammon
Championships in Monte Carlo.
After downloading and while creating an account you can use the
sign up code: CHECKERPLAY that gives you a
200% bonus up to 500 €. The bonus will be released
in steps of 10 €, by earning frequent player points.
[Go to website]
or
[read more]
Gameaccount
Casino Rip backgammon, that is powered by gameaccount, is a web
site that doesn't focus exclusively on backgammon games, but on
skill and chance games in general. So besides backgammon, there are
games like multi-player-blackjack, poker dice domino and many
more.
[Go to website]
or
[read more]
Partygammon
PartyGammon is a part of Party gambling group which operates one
of the largest online poker sites: Party Poker, which has
established quite the reputation for itself as one of the most
popular Poker sites globally, at least until they were outlawed
from capturing the US market. PartyGammon was making history with
the first backgammon tournament ever, that had a guaranteed prize
pool of $1 million, that tournament was held at the Bahamas in
2007!
[Go to website]
or
[read more]
Play65
If you're a backgammon player or you are at least a little bit
interested in online backgammon, you have probably heard about
Play65 (or GammonEmpire). This backgammon room is one of the online
backgammon sites that has dominated the market for years, and
together with GammonEmpire it's quite probably the most successful
one.
Established in 2004, GammonEmpire and Play65 (which is basically
the same site) account for the biggest number of online backgammon
players today, but other sites are catching up quickly.
[Go to website]
or
[read more]
GammonEmpire
GammonEmpire and Play65 use the same platform / software and
share the same player pool, it is just another brand. As a player
you are allowed to have accounts at both sites, this can be useful
to maximize bonuses or to play under a new nickname.
[Go to website]
or
[read more]
Bgroom
Launched in 2006, BGRoom is a relatively new backgammon room,
which is already quite successful. BGRoom offers backgammon games,
either for real money or for play money.
[Go to website]
or
[read more]