PartyGammon was the moment the world's biggest online gambling company bet on backgammon. Launched in 2006 by PartyGaming Plc, the site existed for only a few years, but it staged the richest backgammon tournament ever held — the PartyGammon.com Million — and defined the brief 2006–2008 era in which backgammon was promoted as "the next poker". This page records that history neutrally; the present-day GamesGrid is unaffiliated with PartyGammon and PartyGaming and operates a different model, free of real-money play.
Platform
Active years
Owner
Model
Status
PartyGammon
mid-2006 – c. 2008–2011 (exact end undocumented)
PartyGaming Plc (Gibraltar)
Real-money ring games and tournaments
Defunct; did not survive as a standalone brand after the 2011 bwin merger
December 2007 — the PartyGammon homepage, a year after the Million (Internet Archive).
1. PartyGaming Enters Backgammon
PartyGaming Plc — the Gibraltar-based operator founded in 1997 by Ruth Parasol, Anurag Dikshit, Vikrant Bhargava and Russ DeLeon — was by 2006 the giant of online poker through PartyPoker, with PartyCasino and PartyBingo alongside. In late June 2006 it announced a backgammon site, and PartyGammon launched in mid-2006 as the newest member of the family, sharing the PartyGaming account system: one wallet across poker, casino, bingo and now backgammon.
The strategic logic was explicit throughout the industry's marketing of the period: backgammon was an ancient skill game with a betting cube already built in, and the poker playbook — ring games, tournaments, televised finals, satellite qualifiers — could simply be rerun. No entrant had more resources to test the thesis than PartyGaming.
2. The Platform
PartyGammon offered a downloadable Windows client with real-money ring games, sit-and-gos and multi-table tournaments, plus variants including Hypergammon and Nackgammon, and an online "backgammon school" for instruction.
Serious players were not uniformly impressed. A detailed contemporary player review posted in December 2006 — a community assessment rather than an official audit — criticised the client, noted the absence of public ratings, estimated the effective rake at low stakes at around 12%, and complained that match logs could not be exported for analysis in Snowie or GNU Backgammon (on analysis engines, see bots and AI). The contrast with the dedicated servers' culture of ratings and recorded matches, familiar from FIBS and the original GamesGrid, was pointed.
One market was closed almost immediately: when the US Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act arrived in October 2006, PartyGaming — as a London-listed company — suspended all US real-money business, and PartyGammon's American customers were cut off within months of launch.
Video: “PartyGammon Review” by onlinebackgammon.org (YouTube, c. 2009). The player loads from YouTube’s privacy-enhanced domain only after you press play.
3. The PartyGammon.com Million
PartyGammon's claim on history rests on five days in the Bahamas. The PartyGammon.com Million, held 21–25 January 2007 at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, was the world's first backgammon tournament with a prize pool above one million dollars.
Detail
Fact
Dates
21–25 January 2007
Venue
Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island, Bahamas
Buy-in
10,000(onlinequalifiersfrom2.50)
Prize pool
Over $1.2 million
Winner
Andreas Maertens (Germany), over $600,000
Runner-up
Lasse Hjorth Madsen, approx. $144,000
The structure copied the poker satellite model directly: 2.50onlinequalifiersonPartyGammonfedplayerstowardsthe10,000 main event. The field mixed qualifiers with the game's elite — Nack Ballard, Matvey "Falafel" Natanzon and Sander Lyloff among them, alongside eight former world champions. The event was filmed for television.
The final delivered the storyline the format was built for: Germany's Andreas Maertens took the title and more than 600,000—thelargestsingleprizeinbackgammonhistory—withDenmark′sLasseHjorthMadsenasrunner−upforapproximately144,000. Nearly two decades on, the PartyGammon Million remains the largest-prize backgammon tournament ever staged. No subsequent event has approached its scale.
4. Decline
The sequel never came. The "backgammon as the next poker" wave crested with the Million and receded: no second Million was staged on the same scale, and the wider real-money backgammon economy contracted after 2008 (see Play65 and GammonEmpire for parallel arcs). The exact date on which the PartyGammon brand was wound down is not documented. What is documented is the corporate endpoint: PartyGaming merged with Austria's bwin in March 2011 to form bwin.party, and PartyGammon did not survive as a standalone brand.
Date
Event
Late June 2006
PartyGaming announces its backgammon site
Mid-2006
PartyGammon launches
Oct 2006
US customers cut off following UIGEA
Dec 2006
Critical contemporary player review circulates
21–25 Jan 2007
PartyGammon.com Million at Atlantis, Bahamas
Mar 2011
PartyGaming merges with bwin; brand does not continue standalone
5. Legacy
PartyGammon is the definitive artefact of backgammon's flirtation with the poker boom. It proved that a seven-figure backgammon tournament could be staged, televised and won in dramatic fashion — and also that one spectacular event does not make an industry. The community's centre of gravity returned to where it had been: clubs, federations, and free or subscription servers such as GridGammon and DailyGammon, with the game's history and free-play tradition chronicled on our history page. Andreas Maertens's $600,000, meanwhile, still stands where PartyGammon left it: at the top of the all-time prize list.
Wikipedia, "PartyGaming" — corporate history, founders, UIGEA withdrawal and the March 2011 bwin merger.
CardPlayer articles, 2006–2007 — launch coverage and PartyGammon Million reporting.
ReadyBetGo, "PartyGammon Million" — tournament structure, field and results.
rec.games.backgammon thread, December 2006 — contemporary player review of the PartyGammon client and rake.
Frequently asked questions about PartyGammon
What was the PartyGammon Million?
The world's first million-dollar-plus backgammon tournament, held 21–25 January 2007 at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas: a 10,000buy−ineventwith2.50 online qualifiers, a prize pool over $1.2 million, and a field including Nack Ballard, Falafel and eight former world champions.
Who won the PartyGammon Million?
Germany's Andreas Maertens, who collected over 600,000—stillthelargestsingleprizeinbackgammonhistory.LasseHjorthMadsenwasrunner−upwithapproximately144,000.
When did PartyGammon shut down?
The exact brand shutdown date is not documented. PartyGaming merged with bwin in March 2011 to form bwin.party, and PartyGammon did not survive as a standalone brand.
Is PartyGammon connected to GamesGrid?
No. GamesGrid is unaffiliated with PartyGammon and PartyGaming, and unlike them has never offered real-money play.
A new backgammon world is opening.
Imagine online backgammon as a living world, where you compete against over 500 unique personalities from 120 countries. Every member has their own character, life story, voice, playing strength and style. They compete in the same leagues and tournaments as you, build careers alongside yours and remember the matches, conversations and history you create together.
Learn who they are. Adapt to how they play. Earn their respect, make friends, create rivalries and become part of their story—because they will become part of yours.
No paid coin economy. No loot boxes. No pay-to-continue mechanics. Just online backgammon, the way it was meant to be.
