1.

The biggest backgammon tournament of the month is tonight at 21:00 GMT and you have a chance to get a piece of the $15,000 guaranteed prize pool and be one of the 16 lucky winners who’d share between $300 and $4000 prizes. Registration is still open, hurry up and enroll.

2.

If you are more into little wins, you might be happy to know that $0.5 is no longer the lowest bet limit, as you can now play backgammon for as little as $0.1, and pay only 3cent rake. Note: only in small bets ($0.1 - $0.49) the rake is fixed on 3cent and is taken from both players.

Play65 invites you to celebrate the 10/10/2010 and the upcoming winter in a special $15,000 online backgammon tournament at 9:00 PM GMT (or 10/10/2010 at 10:00 PM in Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Vienna, Copenhagen and others). Fifteen thousand dollars will be shared between the 16 top finishers; the winner of the 11-point final will be awarded with a $4,000 prize.

Entry fees are priced at $200, but there is more than one way you can earn a free entry into the biggest backgammon tournament of October:

- Online satellite tournaments everyday at 19:00 and 21:30 GMT. Entry fees: $14
- Free online qualifiers exclusively for VIP members on 2/10/2010 for Silver and Gold players at 19:30 GMT and 9/10/2010 at 19:30 for Gold players.
- Members of Play65 VIP Club can also purchase the $200 tournament entry fees using their Shop Points.

Play65 Backgammon is happy to be one of the founding sponsors of the US Backgammon Federation, along with the top presenters of the backgammon game including several Giants of Backgammon, national and world backgammon champions, tournament directors and other supporters of the game. The USBGF and Play65 share the same devotion and enthusiasm about the backgammon game and they both intend to promote its positive aspects in clubs, tournaments and in online play.

USBGF Honorary Founding Sponsor

Another surprising supporter of the backgammon game is the Serbian tennis star Ana Ivanovic who has received an honorary lifetime membership (and a matching doubling cube) from the US Backgammon Federation. Ivanovic, who had recently played the US Open (not the US Backgammon Open obviously), often stated that backgammon - against the computer or her previous coach – used to be her number one locker room pastime.

Potential Honorary Sponsors…

Backgammon was also a favorite pastime of the Green Bay Packers’ locker room, as several members of the American football team were occupied by it in between matches. Backgammon was played at a private jet flight by two hockey team owners - Nelson Skalbania and Peter Pocklington – and played a crucial part in the history of hockey.

Play65 is happy to introduce the first VIP Club in backgammon – Play65 VIP Club.

Play65 VIP Club includes three progressive levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold.
VIP players earn VIP Points and Shop Points on every real money backgammon games played at the software.
Bronze level players earn 1 VIP point & 1 Shop point for every $1 stake
Silver players – 1.5 per $1
Gold – 2.5
Your VIP status is being recalculated every month based on your last month activity.

VIP Points are used measure your VIP level
You’ll need 650 points to reach Bronze VIP level
3000 points for Silver
10000 points for Gold

Shop Points can be used for Play65 Gift Shop, open exclusively for VIP members, offering everything from backgammon sets to game consoles and laptops that can purchased with your Shop Points, i.e. the money you had already spent playing backgammon online; Shop Points can also be used for Play65 tournaments’ entries or be traded in cash.

For more information, check out Play65 VIP Club FAQ

Team Play65 also known as "Mama Boyz" has been representing Play65 at the Danish Backgammon Federation tournaments since 2008. 2009 was the team’s championship year, as it ended with their overplaying the team “Nemo” and winning the Danish Team Tournament. For the opening of backgammon tournaments season in Denmark, it is about time you’ll meet the team members.

Karsten Bredahl is Team Play65 captain, backgammon player and teacher, two times Nordic Open champion and the highest rated players in Denmark.

Karsten has been playing at the Danish Backgammon Federation from 1993, and since then he had achieved 55 results, more than any other member, including two Nordic Open championships and four Danish team tournament wins (including the last one with Play65). In 2007, he achieved the highest rating in Denmark, a record that has not been broken yet. On top of playing backgammon, he also teaches the games to students in local backgammon clubs.

Casper Brandenborg aka Scraperband, has been playing backgammon since the mid 1990s, almost exclusively in live events. He had finished second at the 2007 Danish Singles Championship and was part of Team Play65 during the championship year.

Claes Norreen aka Kalibalak (which means "watch out" in Arabic)

Lasse Hjort Madsen

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.

The Danish backgammon players are considered the best players in the world, so if Play65 team won the team championship ofthe Danish Backgammon Federation (DBgF), does that make them the best backgammon players in the world?

Play65 Team won the 2009-2010 Danish Team Backgammon Championship held last Saturday. Play65 Team (also known as the Mama Boyz) won 3-1 against their biggest competitor, DBgF leading Team, Nemo, and grabbed the DM title for the first time since its founding, leaving behind both the current golden medalists (Nemo, now holding the silver medal) and representatives of another online backgammon room (Team Ladbrokes Backgammon, Bronze).

The Danish Backgammon Federation was the organizer of the backgammon team championship, the league games that proceeded the championship and other backgammon events, most notably the international Nordic Open backgammon championship. The Nordic Open started 22 years ago as a local gathering of the lively Scandinavian backgammon scene, is now one of the biggest backgammon events in the world, attracting players from as far as the US and Japan. By the way, qualifiers for the 2010 Nordic Open are taking place at Play65 this week, don’t miss it….

Play65 in now on your TV! (if you live in Israel and subscribed to Hot digital services – Mars* 226 on the converter)

*Mars is Hebrew for Gammon, a game that ends with the losing player not bearing off any of his checkers. The term is originally from Turkish, where it means something like shocking someone to speechlessness. Traditionally, in Sheshbesh and in Tavla, the two backgammon variations common in Israel and Turkey, there is not backgammon in the meaning of triple game, nor there is a doubling cube, so gammon is the highest possible score.

What else there is on TV anyway?

1.

Play65 closes February with a large backgammon tournament – Backgammon Arena €4000 on February 28th, 2010 20:00 GMT. Entry fees are €45, and there are satellites everyday 18:30 and 21:30*. Winner gets €1200!

* For free entry to the daily satellites, deposit $€₤100 and enter the coupon code: BGARENA

2.

Should backgammon be in the Olympics? The instinctive answer would be no, but if curling is sports, and ESPN dared to suggest to include poker among the Olympic Games, we can contemplate the idea as well.

Most of the poker players who discussed this half-amused notion with the ESPN columnist, agreed that poker does not belong to the Olympics. Poker, like backgammon, is not really a physical activity, it involves some amount of luck, and its skill element finds expression only in the long run - after a week long tournaments marathon or its 27-points match backgammon equivalent.

Poker author Nolan Dalla thinks otherwise:

"I have just two words for anyone opposed to poker as an Olympic sport: synchronized swimming."

athletes in action