MYMMeetYourMatch

Board games

Backgammon

Skill plus variance, with match length built into the maths.

Backgammon estimate0–30002–2 playersBoardNeeds real-match testing

How a game is set up

Formats, length and resource

Formats

  • Match to 5
  • Match to 7
  • Match to 9

Typical length

30 / 60 / 90 minutes

Resource booked

Board

Scoring

points — e.g. 7-4 match points

Equipment

  • Tournament board
  • Precision dice
  • Doubling cube

Typical venues

  • Café
  • Members club
  • Bar

Physical layer

Portable MeetYourMatch kit — Portable game: the venue takes the official Meet Your Match backgammon kit, ID-tagged and marker-enabled.

How skill is estimated

Backgammon estimate

Range

0 – 3000

Method

Match-length-aware: the expected win chance scales with the square root of the match target, so a nine-pointer counts for more than a five.

What we capture

Match target and final match score; opponent confirms.

How it updates

Winner gains the match length times their chance of losing; the loser loses the same amount. New estimates start at 1000.

First games

One answer about cube decisions, or a dated existing rating; first three matches provisional.

Placement question

Can you play a complete match and decide whether to double, take or pass using the score? — four answers, or skip.

Honesty about the number

What this rating is, and what it isn't

Where no universal amateur scale exists, MeetYourMatch says so rather than inventing one.

Benchmark

Match-length-aware backgammon Elo, published 1000-origin reference

Choosing a national federation implementation is a reproducibility decision; local familiarity should be checked before a international launch.

Open decisions

Which reference scale an international launch should use.

Status: Needs real-match testing.

Handicap: Starting score

A starting-score allowance and altered Crawford timing, agreed manually.

Manual starting-score allowance; those matches are excluded from the rating.

What it costs to play

Illustrative MeetYourMatch service fee for Backgammon: £3.60 per player, against a planned average of £4.50 per player per game.

The MeetYourMatch service fee covers matchmaking and booking coordination. Each player pays their own. The approved assumption is an average of £4.50 per player per game; actual per-game and per-city rates are still to be set, and the amounts shown here are illustrative demo prices. Anything the venue charges — table or court time, any minimum spend — is separate from this fee.

Illustrative price · not final

Where it could be played

Example venues for Backgammon

Example venue profiles · not live listings

Islington Chess Café

Café & board room · Islington

Twenty weighted sets, digital clocks and the best flat white on the network.

Chelsea Social Club

Members club · Chelsea

Card rooms with gin rummy tables, social poker nights and a quiet backgammon corner.

Clapham Games Room

Coworking & café · Clapham

Daytime desks, evening games. Popular with the lunchtime blitz crowd.

How venues & hosts fit in
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