Crash course in backgammon - Getting Started

Online backgammon doesn’t have to be difficult to get started with - and it isn’t. There are only a few steps involved as you can read from our next article series, Crash course in online backgammon. We will go through all steps from creating a player account, playing for both for fun as well as for real money, depositing and online money transfers. But first, let’s start from, well, Getting started.

Choosing your backgammon site

As a newcomer to online backgammon you first need to choose the backgammon site you want to play on. Our Best online backgammon sites listing gives you a few good options to choose from and although nothing stops you from trying out all of them it is best to stick to one site at first as this lowers the learning curve.

You will want to choose a site that is safe, has good support, a good selection of features, provides a pleasant in-game experience, is not confusing and has a lot of players at all times. The number of players is not important in the beginning but it does make a difference later when you are playing for real money. More players mean more available players, more and bigger prize money tournaments, i.e. more fun and more chances for winning. We recommend Gammon Empire as your first backgammon site as it has all the above mentioned features.

Downloading the backgammon software

Backgammon sites often offer the possibility to connect their database and play at their tables either via an online Java application or via a downloadable backgammon software. If you can, you should download the software and install it to your PC as this normally gives a much better game experience.

Downloading and installing the software is a breeze. Gammon Empire has excellent instructions and you can’t go wrong when you follow them.

Once you have installed the software you can launch it, after which you will need to create a player account.

Creating a player account

When you first launch the backgammon software you will need to choose a user name and enter a password. We also recommend you to enter a valid email account as by doing so you will get a $2 real money bonus. You will then receive an email with the details how to redeem the bonus. It’s not much but you can put it to good use at the backgammon school (will be discussed in the next article).

While redeeming the $2 bonus you will be visiting the Cashier section. That’s the place where you normally take care of all the incoming and outgoing money transfers. However, apart from taking care of the bonus you don’t need to spend more time there at this stage.

The next step

The next stage is to get familiarized with Gammon Empire and to learn the basics of online backgammon while playing for Fun money. This we’ll cover in the next part of this series: Playing for Fun.