As long as the World Cup 2010 goes on, Play65 continues to give away the special backgammon bonus – 40% on up to $150 deposit, using the bonus code "wc2010" - we will keep on trying to find connections between backgammon and soccer (or football).

A recent finding is the fact that soccer, like backgammon, has bots. Watch them play:

While backgammon bots constantly beat world-class players (and a primitive one even defeated the just crowned world champion Luigi Villa in 1979), in fact, no backgammon champ can do without them, the soccer playing robots still cannot fill the real players shoes, literally. Their developers, however, set their hopes high for winning the 2050 World Cup, reports the Guardian from the ongoing RoboCup in Singapore.

So gamblers, which has bigger odds: humanoids winning the World Cup or backgammon played at the Olympic Games?

Bob Wachtel Interview

Backgammon giant and Play65 bots buster Robert (Bob) Wachtel has been interviewed on Phil Simborg site, and shared additional information on top of those shared in his 2009 Play65 interview; his dream backgammon tournament (one match a day, a simple consolation tournament, both single-elimination, in a warm and exotic location), his view of today’s backgammon comparing to the pre-bots era (“like the difference between reading a story that that you know the ending to and one that you don’t, or perhaps like reading a novel and reading the Cliff’s Notes to it.”), his unique philosophical beliefs (a dogmatic atheist and anti-tribalist) and his strange fascination with Doris Duke death.

New on Play65 backgammon platform: from now, you can add avatars to your personal profile and let your opponents whether you are a shark or a pigeon, a frog or a gorilla. Play65 offers selection of about 15 original avatars you can upload to your profile, simply by right clicking Setting. Of course, if you do not want to play a backgammon game when both opponents are wearing the same avatar, you can change an avatar temporarily or permanently.

Play65 also gets ready to the World Cup that starts tomorrow with a special backgammon bonus (40% up to $150, only during the WC period), and a special tournament that will take place right before the final.

Play65 offers special 40% bonus for the World Cup period (11/6 – 11/7). All you need to do is make a deposit and insert the bonus code "wc2010". Play65 World Cup bonus is limited to a maximum of 150 (in any currency) and to one bonus per account.

More on Backgammon and Football (or Soccer)

Play65 World Cup Bonus is not the first crossroad of backgammon and football.

- Backgammon and football have both been played on Lost, along with ping pong, poker, tic-tac-toe and other sports and board games, but none of them has received such free publicity as backgammon and its parent game the ancient Egyptian Senet.

- Play65 once sponsored an Israeli fifth league football club, Hapoel play65 Kiryat Shalom, planned to be the first interactive football team in history, the first to be managed entirely by its fans via online social networks.

- Play65 also sponsored a charity soccer match for the Israeli Foundation for Medicine Funding back in 2008.

- Two world-class backgammon experts, Frank Frigo and Chuck Bower, have developed a computer software called Zeus, designed to analyze American football games the same way backgammon bots such as Snowie and GNU analyze backgammon matches.

- The Green Bay Packers keep a backgammon table in their locker room, what turned backgammon automatically into the team’s #1 pastime, at least for the present season.

- For Marc Olsen, the a midfielder for Denmark 1st Division, backgammon is not just a favorite pastime, as he already published a backgammon book and joined the celebrated Danish team at the Denmark vs. the World backgammon match held at the last Nordic Open.