What are fair odds between unequal opponents in backgammon, and how would one determine them? That is presuming you want to equal chances for each player. The first problem is to accurately determine strength. A simple method would be to be rate them against the same computer program in a series of matches. (assuming no cheating). But even if we have these ratings the odds are not clear. In chess a 200 point rating difference means the stronger player should win 3 out of 4 games. And a 600 point difference means the stronger should win about 99 out of 100. But does that really follow in backgammon? I am sure every elite backgammon player has lost to much weaker players far more often than grandmasters do. And then there is with question of what is better (or fairer) money odds or games in a match. I think the better player would rather give money odds. I am just curious how fair odds can be determined in backgammon.

No. Bg must be played straight up, period.

If you insist on odds, some might bet PR on the side, and spot you 1-2 PR. As for me, the very modest 3-4% advantage we might have over you is what we work so hard for. **** you and your spot.

My post isn't personal, but theoretical. I will point out though that many games of skill can be, and are, played at odds. Especially when money is involved.

Lets phrase the question differently. Lets say you are a bookie and you want to create action on each game in an open backgammon tournament. (open meaning all levels)
Assuming you want to even up the action like football lines do, how would you establish betting odds between unequal opponents?

The secondary part of the question was do ratings in backgammon have the same predictive value as they do in chess. Do the same expectations hold?

Also what is a PR?

Cheers

Establishing betting odds -- the players who want to bet on a match make educated guesses as to the odds they want or are willing to give. Sometimes players can agree on a number, often not. It's most commonly seen when players of obviously unequal strength are paired in a finals match and they want to hedge.

Do ratings have the same predictive value as in chess? -- No. There are no official ratings for players to begin with, although from time to time someone makes an attempt to create one. (And usually abandons the effort within a few years.) Even if you had numerical ratings, the variance would be colossal.

PR is a measure of your error rate, which you can get by playing matches against a bot like Extreme Gammon, or having a live match recorded and analyzed by Extreme Gammon. The number measures the amount of equity lost per move, averaged over all the non-forced moves in a match. A lower number is obviously better. The best players have PRs in the 2.5 to 3.5 range. Intermediate have numbers in the 10-20 range. A beginner might have PRs over 30.

Thank you. I suspected the variance would be a great difficulty. This also means that I should ignore what gnu-backgammon says my rating is and just work on bringing the error rate down.
Cheers