Partouche Group Launches Backgammon Tour in Europe
with €300,000 Guaranteed

by Michael Strato and Kathy Liberopoulos - 17 April 2007

The Partouche Group of France, owners of some 50 land-based casinos in Europe, kick off the 2007 Partouche Gammon Tour with the Paris Masters and Open this week. The tournament will be held at the landmark Hôtel Lutetia in Paris from April 18-22 and is the first of four stops, each with €50,000 guaranteed, in which players can earn points to win a free seat and hotel room at the fifth and Grand Finale event that will pay out €100,000.

The tour will be “The Most Prestigious Backgammon Circuit in Europe” and is to be directed by Eric Guedj, the CEO of Partouche Gammon, who is also the Director of Riviera Challenge and Nations Cup tournaments held annually in Cannes right after the Monte Carlo World Championships. Guedj is also the man behind the World Series of Backgammon (WSOBG) television series.

Here are the dates for the entire schedule of the 2007 Partouche Gammon Tour, all of which will be held in France:

Please note that third stop of the tour was originally scheduled to take place at Knokke le Zout in Belgium and instead will now happen in Saint Amand les Eaux, France.

Expected to compete in the Paris Masters and Open this week are several Giants of Backgammon and other top international professionals such as François Tardieu, Matvey "Falafel" Natanzon, Mochizuki "Mochy" Masayuki, Mario Sequeira, Andreas Humke, Alain Babillon, Serge Rived, Jean-Philipe Rohr and Michel Sneoual, just to name a few.

The tournaments will have other competitions as well as side events and mini-jackpots, however, only those that play in the Main Division (called Partouche Gammon Tour Flight) at each of the first four tournaments vie for €50,000 guaranteed at each and earn points that put them on the PGT ranking list. The winners of the first four events plus the top 20 players on the ranking list after the fourth tournament, win free seats in the Grand Finale.

Players have two ways in which to receive PGT points in the Partouche Gammon Tour system. Simply be a devoted PGT player and earn Assiduity Points for attending one or more events and get points in this order:

Assiduity Points (AP)

• Attend one tournament: 1 point

• Attend two tournaments: 3 points

• Attend three tournaments: 5 points

• Attend all four tournaments: 8 points

That’s 17 points just for attending the first four stages of the tour.

The second is based on achievement - the final four players of each of the Main, Consolation and Last Chance flights of the Main Event are awarded Performance Points in the following manner:

Performance Points (PP)

• Main Winner: 24 points (plus a seat in the Grand Finale)

• Main Runner-up: 12 points

• Main Semi-finalists: 6 points

• Consolation Winner: 14 points
• Consolation Runner-up: 6 points
• Consolation Semi-finalists: 3 points

• Last Chance Winner: 8 points
• Last Chance Runner-up: 3 points
• Last Chance Semi-finalists: 1 point

It’s a challenging format and with so much money at stake it will definitely be an interesting tour for avid backgammon players to play in and others to follow in the news.

Of the 24 players in the Grand Finale, the top eight on the ranking list get to skip a round. The other 16 must face off in a qualifying round whose eight winners join the other eight in a flight of 16 players battling it out for the lion's share of the €100,000 added prize money.

The entry fee for the main PGT flight at each of the first four tournaments is €450 plus €120 for registration with 100% of the entry fees to be returned and no less than €50,000 guaranteed to be paid out at each of the first four tournaments.

The winner of the each main PGT flight wins 50% of the prize pool (a minimum of € 25.000) plus a seat in the Grand Finale. The remaining 50% of the prize pool (also a minimum of €25,000) will be distributed in the following method:

Main Flight:

• Runner-up: 24%

• Semi-finalist: 12% each

Consolation Flight:

• Winner: 20%

• Runner-up: 8%

• Semi-finalist: 3.5% each

Last Chance Flight:

• Winner: 12%

• Runner-up: 5%

At the Grand Finale in Grand Domaine de Divonne-Les-Bains, the €100,000 will be distributed in the following manner:

PartoucheGammon will also launch a backgammon server in the near future where players will be able to win entries to tournaments on the Partouche Gammon Tour.

The software uses Flash and utilizes your web browser (no download or installation required) and functions exceptionally well – in fact, we believe you will really be quite impressed by its quality.

However, please remember it is still under development and that Partouche Gammon would very much appreciate your comments and suggestions on the design, features and graphics as well as any issues you encounter with its functionality, especially any bugs.

Players experienced with online backgammon software, who are interested in earning a few dollars as beta testers for PartoucheGammon, should contact GammonLife Editor Michael Strato for details on what needs to be done – it will involve playing a certain number of games and submitting your comments in reports.

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