The Launch of the Online European Series of Backgammon Event
Backgammon enthusiasts are being invited to participate in the first ever online European Series of Backgammon event at ESOB.com on March 28th, 2010 with an estimated cash pool of 15,000 euros.
The Backgammon tournament is being organized by a brand new non-profit organization managed by a committee that includes commentator John Clarke together with backgammon player Eric Guedj and tournament organizer Mike Main with the support of a number of gaming organizations.
The group aims to hold four online backgammon championships a year that will attract some of the best backgammon players in the world and eventually offer a prize pool close to 100,000 euros. The first ESOB event is being limited to seventy participants and has a direct buy-in of 220 euros but players can also qualify online at ESOB.com for just 2.20 euros.
The organization stated that it is also bringing together a number of the largest offline backgammon tournaments in the world including the Zakynthos Backgammon Festival in Greece to start a yearly European tour.
The first backgammon event of this new series will be the 11th yearly Scope Backgammon and Bridge Tournament in London early next month followed a few weeks later by the Scottish Backgammon Open in Edinburgh and the London Open in late May 2010.
There will be information on each backgammon tournament alongside post-tournament interviews and picture galleries at ESOB.com with the seven-event backgammon series concluding in late-August 2010 with the Bristol Open.
Clark, who is serving as the head of the new group, said that they feel that the launch of the ESOB will open a lot of opportunities for the backgammon community in Europe.
Clark said that with the majority of Europe's 40,000 backgammon players able to participate in their online tournament for a chance at sizeable cash prizes, they hope that these will quickly rival the most established offline backgammon events.
Clark added that they do not have any intention to change the social aspect of Backgammon and by inviting some of the best offline backgammon players in the world to join the ESOB umbrella; they hope to market the backgammon tour as a whole and attract more players to participate in each backgammon event.
17 2010
