World Series Of Backgammon
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World Series of Backgammon (WSOB) is a major televised live tour. The television shows capture the match action, jeopardy and background around some of the world’s largest
backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...
tournaments, and have broadcast throughout Europe on
Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...
1 and 2 whilst being distributed worldwide by
ESPN International ESPN International is a family of Broadcasting of sports events, sportscasting and production networks around the world. It was begun in 1983, is operated by ESPN Inc. and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Current operations Canada ESPN Int ...
. In May 2010, World Series of Backgammon launched it first online tour, the WSOB Online Tour on its own online backgammon and poker platform, PlayWSOB.com. PlayWSOB also offers qualifiers for major offline events including the 2010 World Backgammon Championships as well as free play and cash games.


About WSOB

World Series of Backgammon ("WSOB") is a televised, high-stakes backgammon tour created in 2006 by television producers and backgammon players, Andy Bell and Scotty Gelt. Season I launched in 2006 with an 8-hour television series presented by
Kara Scott Kara Scott is a Canadian British TV personality, journalist and poker player. Born in northern Alberta, Canada, Scott moved to the United Kingdom in 1999 and worked in the UK media until 2009 when she moved to California. Having trained in Mu ...
and John Clark broadcast on Eurosport 2 in 44 European countries capturing the Riviera Cup and team event, the Nations Cup from the Palm Casino,
Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...
. Sean Casey of
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
triumphed in the Riviera Cup against Georgia's Nodar Gagua and USA defeated
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
in the Nations Cup. Season II, 2008, expanded to events in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
- the UK Masters saw a 128 draw in the main event, the largest backgammon event held in the UK for 30 years; the world's largest event, the Nordic Open joined the WSOB tour for the first time and saw the Championship field increase from 78 to 153 players and finally on the 08 tour, WSOB Cannes, which recorded 155 Championship players, second only to the World Championships. The television series expanded to 15 hours and saw superstar poker and backgammon player
Gus Hansen Gustav Hansen (born 13 February 1974) is a Danish professional poker player from Copenhagen, Denmark who has lived in Monaco since 2003. In his poker career, Hansen has won three World Poker Tour open titles, one WSOP bracelet and the 2007 Auss ...
join John Clark in the commentary box. New Yorker Jessie Cantrell hosted with further contributions from experts Sander Lylloff, Falafel Natanzon and Morten Holm. 2008 also saw the introduction of WSOB's own 'final table', the €160,000 WSOB Championship which rewarded the best players from the tour and Super Satellite winners with €10,000 value seats to the 16 players finale. Frenchman Frederic Andrieu won the Gold Cube and the €100,000 champion's cheque. More than €500,000 in prize money was won on the second season. 2009 sees the WSOB tour re-format its schedule. WSOB events in Cannes, Prague and London to be followed by the 2009 WSOB Championship, where up to €320,000 will be won from a 32 player draw.


Online qualification

In 2008, the online backgammon site
Play65 Play65 is an online backgammon operator established in 2004 by an Israeli-based company, SkillEmpire, that hosts real-time backgammon games and tournaments. With its client software available in 21 languages, including English, Arabic, Chinese, D ...
ran three online qualifiers for the WSOB final table at Cannes aka WSOB Championship. Since 2009, WSOB offers the possibility of qualifying online to the WSOB Tour.Press release about online qualification
/ref> In July 2009, World Series of Backgammon launched a shared platform with Dicearena.com offering satellites for its events in Prague and London. In January 2010, WSOB offered satellites to its $480,000 guaranteed WSOB Championship, aka the 'Shootout' which saw the best players from the 2009 tour and a number of buy-ins at $7,500, compete for the second largest prize pool in the history of the game. The event was played by many of the best players in the world including Gus Hansen who bought into the Round of 16 for US$30,000. In May 2010, World Series of Backgammon ended its agreement with Dicearena and launched its own online backgammon and poker platform
PlayWSOB.com
licensing technology from Melita Gaming Network, who also supply to TrueMoneygames and several other poker brands.


WSOB online TV channel

In April 2010 WSOB launched its own online TV channel using the Vimeo video platform showing full-length shows from its archive of match-play television coverage. In October 2011 World Series of Backgammon announced a partnership with the largest online gaming operator in the world, Bwin.com, for online backgammon creating bwin.com/wsob to provide an online tour with a lower buy-in to attract all levels of players. The new tour mimics the major live tournaments run by WSOB and includes a series of events, a points race and the WSOB Championship. The WSOB Champion wins the Gold Cube and an official backgammon board made b
Geoffrey Parker Games
and worth apparently €2400.


See also

* List of world backgammon champions


References


External links

* {{official, http://www.worldseriesofbackgammon.com/
Vimeo.com/channels/wsob World Series of Backgammon online TV channel
Backgammon Board games competitions