 Play65 Summary
Play65 is home to a constantly growing online backgammon gambling community, offering a platform to play backgammon online for fun or for real money against board game enthusiasts from around the world. All you have to do is download Play65’s client software from their website, select a username and password, and then you can start playing backgammon and gamble for fun money or real money – it’s that simple.
Play65 Games Available
Play65 offers both fun money (virtual money) and real money online backgammon games. On top of offering you the possibility to earn cash prizes, the real money games can be recorded and saved. The dice thrown in Play65 backgammon games is completely random. Additionally, Play65 is a safe, secure and spam-protected website that efforts to minimize cases of cheats and abuse.
Play65.com Player Traffic
Needless to say, because it is pretty much the oldest running such operation, Play65 gets the biggest traffic of all online backgammon rooms. They have the info regarding the player and active table numbers displayed on their homepage, so you know what kind of community you’re getting yourself involved with, even before you sign up. At the time of this review, the counter displayed 14,614 players and 4,614 tables.
Play65 Tournament Info
There are a number of tournaments held by Play65 that you can get involved in, including tournaments where you play for real money, and play-for-fun tournaments. You can find more information on up-and-coming tournaments in Play65’s events calendar.
Play65 Software
The lobby of Play65 shows three main tabulars; Live tables, Sit&Go and Tournament tables. The tabular Live tables is divided into Serie matches and One point matches. The stakes vary from $0.50 to $500. You can easily see the rating of your opponent because of the various colours that are used to indicate them.
Playing at the Play65 table is very user friendly. You can easily drag and drop the checkers, or double click them to see them move automatically. The global timer in the bottom of the screen shows you the remaining time left when you have used all of the regular thinking time for a single move. Other options in the screen are 'Auto Roll' (let the computer automatically roll your dice when it is your turn), 'Auto Bearoff' (automatically take the checkers of during the bear off) and 'Mute Chat' (if you do not want to be bothered during the game).
Play65 is easy to use and navigate. It tries to simulate the experience of gambling on a wooden board, complete with (optional) sound effects. The board is in "3-D" style and not overladen with fancy features that we don't have in real life. But there are reasonable time limits which help prevent frustration and/or ill feeling. Each player has a timer with 2 clocks. One (the "Move Timer") is reset after each move and the other (the "Global Timer") is never reset during the game but only starts when the other runs out. In the Help section is the rule: "You may not disconnect on purpose while in a game or allow the global timer to run out.."
Players negotiate to play at either "Normal" or "Fast" speed. "Normal" is 45 seconds on the move timer and 2.5 minutes on the global timer, while "Fast" is 25 seconds on the move timer and 1.5 minutes on the global timer.
Online help is readily available, and new players can familiarise themselves with the layout and mechanics by playing in the "play money section" before switching to risking real cash.
Play65 Bonus & Promotions
Play65 used to offer some pretty generous sign-up bonuses in the beginning of their online presence. However, as more and more players signed up with them, their bonuses got cut back too.
Presently, they offer a 20% match on your first deposit, up to $20. In order to receive the bonus though, you need to use the bonus code provided on the website. Pay attention, because if you fail to introduce the code at sign-up, you will not get the bonus.
As soon as you sign up, the bonus will be credited to your bonus account, in order to have it transferred to your real money account, you need to unlock it. To unlock it, you have to play 30 real money games.
As the uncontested online backgammon leader, Play 65.com offers a host of interesting promotions, which will certainly have you coming back for more. In this respect, the Play65 backgammon tournaments are the best on the web.
Play in their Sit’n Go s, together with 4-64 other players, or in one of their “Event” tournaments where the prizes are in direct proportion with the number of players registered. With the traffic that they get, the prizes are sure to skyrocket, too.
The Play65 Swing tournaments are much like a poker tournament. Each registered player receives an equal amount of chips, which he can use to play. Players will be matched randomly against one-another and the stakes of the game (called CPP) will be periodically raised (kind of like the blinds in poker)
As soon as your chips run out, you’re out of the game.
Their satellite and knock-out tournaments are without a doubt among the best on the internet, and they are pretty unique to Play65.com too.
Besides all the above mentioned promotions, Play 65 also offers a host of freerolls, where you can play backgammon for free, or for real money prizes.
The “tell a friend” promotion is also a way to earn more bonus money, which you’ll have to unlock the same way you release your sign-up bonus.
Play65.com Deposit & Withdrawal Options
Deposit Options: Paysafecard, eps, Webmoney, Visa, Switch, Maestro, Solo, Eletronic transfer, Neteller, Click2Pay, Moneybookers, Banc,Mister Cash, Ideal, Diners Club, Laser, Click&buy, giropay, Ukash, Ewire, EC&ELV, UsemyBank, Entropay, Bank Wire Transfer, Bank Transfer
Withdrawal Options: Webmoney, Visa, Switch, Maestro, Solo, Eletronic transfer, Neteller, Click2Pay, Moneybookers, Bank Wire, Bank Transfer, Check by Mail, Checks UPS
Play65.com Languages
Supported Languages: Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Play65.com Currencies
US Dollars
Play65.com Customer Service
Play65 Backgammon provides knowledgeable and friendly player support on a 24/7 basis, accessible via email - they guarantee a response within 24 hours.
Play65.com Additional Information
Community - Players can chat to their opponents, but with cash at stake and a clock ticking I get the feeling that not too much of this goes on. The site is mainly geared to simple gambling rather than making new friends.
Play65 internet backgammon software can not run on Mac or Linux. However, there's a Web / Java non-download backgammon version which can be used for playing within the web browser from a Mac, Linux or Pocket PC.
Play65.com Pros & Cons
Pros:
- The user interface is easy and natural to use. The controls are simple and straightforward. It's obvious a lot of thought has gone into creating the client software.
- The graphics and sound effects are great. (You can turn off the sound.) The country flags and color-coded skill levels are a nice touch.
- There is a large pool of players to compete against; you can find competition at every level.
- Play is free if you stay on the fun-money side
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