WSOB Teams up with Bwin
www.bwin.com/wsob

I am happy to announce the launch today of our new exclusive online backgammon offer which is an exciting new partnership with bwin - the largest online gaming operator in the world.

This is an exciting development because this is, in my view, the best backgammon platform out there, for money play anyway, whilst bwin will be promoting WSOB Online Tour and the monthly standings to millions of its players.

We'll be running several new tournaments including a brand new format WSOB Online Tour to decide the WSOB Champion 2011, with the following format:

- 5 Online Tour Stops running final Sundays of the month from October to February - buyin €55 with 100% prize pool return
- Weekly qualifiers at €5
- Win points in the Race for the WSOB Championship
- Top 12 qualify for Championship - top four start round two, places 5 - 12 start round 1
- WSOB Championship decides WSOB Champion 2011 who will win the WSOB Gold Cube® and a €2,400 WSOB board made by Geoffrey Parker Games

Sign up today at www.bwin.com/wsob


You can read our press release at www.worldseriesofbackgammon.com

Please sign up to www.facebook.com/worldseriesofbackgammon for regular updates or subscribe to our Twitter @wsobbackgammon

Please note this is exclusive to bwin.com/wsob

As usual, please do provide any kind of feedback ideally here or do email me direct about anything ab@worldseriesofbackgammon.com

Cheers
Andy

Andy,i appreciate your work,however :

The "bwin - the largest online gaming operator in the world,the best backgammon platform out there"
has an cute 15% rake with 30€ cap.Ok,who wants to live with that rake,no problem.
Whats even more annyoing:
They give a **** on bots.I reported some i detected,all longterm supernaturals.
No one cares about anything,bots produce a lot of turnover regarding the tremedous rake.

Here are only a few names of the bots:
-kikola
-Ninja76
-OVWIN1

I have gamefiles from these players,and many more questionable players,but these 3 are just obvious bots.
Im in the business from the very first Gamesgrid-days,so no one should tell me im a conspiracy theorizer.
I hunted and catched dozends of bots in the past for other networks,so i know what im talking about.
Furthermore:
The software crushes often,its just instabile.

Btw ,Bwin is also known as BWHINE,cause they set you to a minimum bet of 10€ after just a few wininngs in the sportsbetting section.
Support is so slowly if they answer at all.
You can deposit 100K within a few seconds,however if you want to withdraw 50€, they may need weeks to pay,after demanding all kinds of documents and further hassle.
Best Network by far is Casinorip,i wonder why you didnt get into business with them.

hi Moulino

www.bwin.com/wsob

thanks for your comments but I have to disagree with you..!

I have personally played 100s of games on this technology so I know it's good, plays beautifully and is stable. The personalization features are fab too.

Most importantly, I have seen the stats and there has been a HUGE amount action at ALL stakes, from micro to €100.

The network partners are very strong and indeed are bringing in many more new players than any other network.

As far as minimum bets on the other products are concerned, I can't really comment about that as first and foremost I sought a backgammon site that would cut it for WSOB.

I have indeed had numerous conversations with the guys at Casinorip (gameaccount) who I know well and who are a very good 'uk company' - but we never agreed on the deal unfortunately.

Bots are not allowed on our site and have their accounts frozen.

Anyway I think our offer is really great now and for the future of WSOB, because bwin has millions of customers who they will be promoting WSOB Online Tour and Championship to heavily over the coming months, which should bring in lots of new players. With the new lower buy-in, all in all this should create an exciting WSOB season!

Rake is always too high with online backgammon but hey ho it's action. Downloaded it ok but it won't connect. My PC fine with everything else, poker sites included. Any tips?

Hey Andy,

I logged on and created an account, couple of questions.

There's nothing on the site that says or seems branded to WSOB, at least, not that I can see. Just looks like bwin's platform.

Where's the WSOB freerolls? I can't find them.

When you register you can't indicate that you're USA player. is this a legal issue? (I know online gambling is illegal in the US, but I won a bunch of those freerolls and was able to play small stakes money games on the old site...it's always better when your opponent has some skin in the game).

Can you download the game files from bwin for analysis in a bot? this was my #1 favorite thing to do on the old site. side benefit was looking out for cheatbots (which, for the record, I never came across on the old site)

Glad your up and running again Andy, it would be nice to see those PlayWSOB color branding again though.

Nick

hello Nick

in answer to your queries.

I have partnered with bwin rather than 'run' a platform. It means bwin are an official online partner for wsob. It's a decent option as they have such a huge player base in the millions to promote to (though bwin backgammon is unfortunately unavailable, for now, in France, Italy, Argentina and Greece)

Bwin.com/wsob will run exclusive WSOB branded tournaments as well as a range of other tournaments.

WSOB Online Tour starts in a couple of weeks so you'll see more and more WSOB branding and colours around the bwin end in the coming days.

Andy

Ok, nevermind, I've uninstalled it and won't play there.

hi Swighey
sorry I missed your brief message..!

what country are you dialling in from ? currently, access is prevented in Greece, Argentina, France, USA, Italy. I hope the situation will be changing in some of these countries in the not too distant future (it's on my agenda with bwin), especially Italy and France.

hope you get in soon...! any further problems please do email me direct ab at worldseriesofbackgammon.com

Andy

I'm in the UK. It could be the configuration of my PC, but as I said everything else is running fine so maybe it's a conflict with something on my hard drive. The old PlayWSOB ran better than anything though. Thanks for the response, I'll try again.

Hello Andy,

I must agree with "moulino". I have had really bad experience with bwin. Thats the main reason why I wont play through that skin anymore. There are plenty of other skins to join the dicearena network, which are much better.

Regarding the software: It cant compete with the market leader at all (which in my opinion is Play65). But hey ... lets rock.

The rake is also just insane, after dicearena got ridd of the cash out fee of 4% they raised the rake by 250% !!!

Most importantly, I have seen the stats and there has been a HUGE amount action at ALL stakes, from micro to €100.
I totaly disagree !!! There is almost no action on higher stakes ... but I guess not many people will play highstakes BG.

I still hope your tournament will work out ...

Best the luck buddy

hi there BGforfun - do we know each other? It's hard to work out exactly who you are from your writing style! I note you are often promoting p65 - so are you totally impartial?!

you mention that other sites on the dicearena network are "much better" but I do not understand this comment as it's exactly the same technology across the network. There are some unique factors of course like WSOB running exclusively on bwin and other unique tournaments and promotions. I hope in time there will be some major networked tournaments, possibly WSOB.

I am working with bwin because

a) they have a massive presence and will promote WSOB to millions of their existing customers
b) It is a strong company - the largest online operator in the world - with a superb brand

We are working with Dicearena tech because I think it will be one of the big winners in the future of online backgammon - if you consider the scale of the network partners and those joining in the near future, it's exciting. The 'playability' is great too and it's got character.

There is a lot of action but the basis of a successful site it not around €50 a point or €100 matches which suit the pros. A healthy site needs a considerable amount of action at the lower end to be successful. The cash-flow will eventually rise through to the top so the top players can benefit.

p.s. the cash out fee of 4% was unique to dicearena.com and is not the case on bwin. The rake is as low as 5% for higher stakes and 6.8%/7.5% - which is reasonable i think for the action being generated. There is a lot of added and guaranteed money in freerolls and other tournaments which is what some of this rake finances.

I can definitely see the rake being reduced substantially in the future as the network grows.

Hi Andy,

yes, we know each other but I would like to remain anyonymous for now.

I think it is a great decision to join bwin if you join the dicearena network - dont get me wrong.

I have used different dicearena-partners like bwin, betoto, nordicbet and dicearena itself. The problem with bwin was that they kept winnings locked from games while I was playing, so my bankroll decreased while playing every game I was losing - but never grew when I was winning. Of course at some point I had to stop playing - which is a huge setback when playing a fish. Fish leaves and joins other shark ... loses my money to him ... you understand. It took bwin 2 days to unlock my winnings, so that I could play again ... that is scandalous !!! I have never seen something like that. Of course I quit bwin straight away after this happened. And I know for fact that it didnt only happen to me but also to other players.

I hope they might have solved that problem. I will try it again and see what happens. I will also check the rake but from what I have heard from my friends it is ridiculously high for 100€ dmps (13%).

But I wish you and your tournament series much success and hope you are getting me into the hilton again next time im in london ... :-) Maybe u remember me now ...

Cheers.

Hey Andy - you do realize there is no word about wsob on bwin thought, right? Or am I missing something.

How is it going to benefit wsob if the partner doesnt advertise wsob?

regarding the action: right now 8pm there is not 1 single game running at >30€ !

Hi BFF - well they are building it as I write and you can check back in a day or two and you will find all the WSOB stuff there through bwin.com/wsob, which will be connected to our 'home websites' www.worldseriesofbackgammon.com and www.playwsob.com (which is now designed for stats, race standings etc) - and of course WSOB tourneys will begin appearing in the lobby at bwin and bwin/wsob in the coming days too.

So give it a chance - please BFF..! we have only been doing some soft launch promotion on it so far for a few days, official press release, mailshot to some of our players; the major promo of WSOB OT will kick in next week to both the WSOB player base of around 5000 and millions of bwin customers - and this will continue over the months - we will be doing write-ups about the key action from each Stop on the tour which which will be published everywhere to WSOB players and Bwin customers, as if we were running a major live event - so I can see a great benefit to WSOB and the potential of this site and the WSOB tournaments - so we certainly hope to see much more action in the coming weeks and months, that's for sure, I hope seeing very many new players.

You mention €30 action which may come and go but there's a lot of action at lower and micro stakes. But we of course want to develop the tournament side for some variety.

anyway you know me - who are you btw BFF? have we met?

Andy

Hey Andy - yeah we met once in London during your tourney in the Canon Club. We played a chouette one night in my hotelroom in the Hilton (which you put me in, thanks for that, it was great).

I think we need to clear some points,especially the rake question,as anyone here seems to be impartial :

5% rake (per player) is available at 500€+.I never saw someone playing this stake here.
I dont know what is meant with "higher stakes",a 100€ Match is already pretty high in my oppinion,and for such a one point Match 100€ the rake is indeed 6.5% ,however PER PLAYER!That means my net win is 87€.
If this is now 13% rake or half of it depends on the view.
Fact is i made a bet of 100 and get paid 87 if i win.
For me thats 13% off at high stakes,but if you promote BWhine it is 6.5% at "medium stakes".

I 100% agree with this statement:
"There is a lot of action but the basis of a successful site it not around €50 a point or €100 matches which suit the pros. A healthy site needs a considerable amount of action at the lower end to be successful. The cash-flow will eventually rise through to the top so the top players can benefit"
However i see a problem:
the rake at the micros up to 2€ is 20%(twenty!!!),or in Andys mathematical model 10%(again per player).I doubt with 20% off the cashflow will rise even moderate to higher limits.

I 100% disagree with that statement:
"I can definitely see the rake being reduced substantially in the future as the network grows. "
A rakereduction never ever will happen as it never ever happened before,or did skillempire or pokerstars ever lowered the rake?

I dont say anything is bad there,indeed therse a lot of low stake action(however unbeatable with 20% off),this is just a place for funplayers who are not keen on big profits.
And Andy,better read the T+Cs for affiliates at BWhine,otherwise they give you the axe after 60 days not bringing new customers,of course keeping all the accounts you brought before.

ah ha 'MH' I remember you won one of our €2,000 entry packages to the WSOB UK Masters on our former WSOB Dicearena skin, - and I certainly remember that chouette - ouch - anyway satellites and exciting tournaments of that kind are part my stratetgy with Bwin of course starting with the new WSOB OT which I am sure we will see you on. There is bound to be a varity of strength players which will suit you I am sure plus you can win one of our coveted WSOB Gold Cubes® made of 14ct gold and silver plus the WSOB board worth €2,400 - it has more appeal to 95% of the players.

It is of course a fun site, but not geared towards the benefit of full time pros

p.s. Moulin I am aware of affiliate terms but I have a more detailed refined agreement with bwin which I am happy with. I am of course excited about what bwin can do brand wsob which might see interesting offline projects in the future...

just fyi

the WSOB tourney page with schedule at www.bwin.com/wsob is now up - and available worldwide in various languages.

The points race format is also up at www.playwsob.com/wsobot2011/race - new update to the format - you can win points in the weekly qualifiers as well!

Any comments on the format in advance of Day 1 of the WSOB OT this Sunday, please do let me know here.

Hey Andy

Do I download and sign on using the client at this link? http://www.playwsob.com/download

I've been signing on through the bwin site and playing in the browser.

https://games.bwin.com/backgammon.aspx?zoneid=136900


Also, is there any freerolls to enter to board tournaments?

hi Nick

No that playwsob.com/download is an old link which I will delete.

yes it is browser based and the games.bwin etc link is correct, technically; which converts from www.bwin.com/wsob to identify WSOB players

sorry no freerolls for WSOB OT and ultimately a board - I am working on trying to get a Cubey Wubey going but everything takes time with bwin to plan and implement. the more successfull WSOB OT, the easier it will be to do other promos and events.

I am glad to hear you are able to play for free from the U.S., I thought that was prevented somehow at the moment.. have you managed to play the freerolls, I also thought a money account was actually needed to play those!

I tried to register to the tournaments but I receive the error message that I dont have enough money in my account although I have plenty !
Diecearena Support says they cant reproduce the error ... Great software, yeah ... the best.
Just wanted to let yee know - anyone experiencing the same problem?

sorry for the glitches which are not unique to this network. All I can say is I support Jadestone, they are a very good company and work hard solve technical issues.

We did have a bit of a tournament meltdown on WSOB Monthly #2 10 days ago but that is now sorted so please do now play! It is definitely not too late to get a load of Race point and be in line for the board and 14ct WSOB Gold Cube.

The better it goes the more support backgammon will get from online gaming companies in the future - and that means more guaranteed prize pools, added money and more players!

Thank you for your support..

Andy