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BGonline.org Forums
WSOB statement
Posted By: Andy Bell
Date: Wednesday, 7 October 2009, at 4:50 p.m.
WSOB, STATEMENT
7th October 2009
As published on our website, “Super 16” players will receive their expenses to return to London on dates that are to be announced.
WSOB launched its online platform in July. We have made a significant investment to get online satellites working and they are now; so we will now embark on an intensive qualifying campaign over the next three months. What form this takes will be presented at our next event in London.
We have decided to move the shootout for commercial and viability reasons.
With hind-sight, the shootout should have been a separated event anyway. It deserves that as a spectacle, especially after the extraordinary tour and finale in 2008.
Nevertheless, investors have been bold, and commercial partners supportive, in very difficult economic times. But I am here to make tough decisions, and if that upsets the tiny minority, then so be it. (We only know the identity of two of the shoot-out’s cast so far after all!) I hope that after previous successes, players might give us the benefit of the doubt on this occasion.
This season, WSOB has continued to invest in delivering high visibility, ‘sexy’ events in Cannes and Prague, at considerable cost to us, but which we regret not a cent.
Though Cannes and Prague had several positives, world-class fields at very high buy-ins, innovative webcasting and live betting, superb venues and value, London needs to signify to me and my partners that this project is worthwhile. I know from player feedback there is plenty of buzz about WSOB. But this needs to translate NOW, and show our commercial partners there is life in this game and a desire from the community for something big.
In any case, the shootout will be a superb event. It will be webcast worldwide from a London TV studio, and will be an amazing exposure for the game, which it is gasping for, and has been for so long. In its short existence WSOB has already given the game of backgammon so much. Finally, after 25 years of getting “spanked” by poker (to quote Mike Svobodny), we are fighting back with a vengeance. At WSOB we truly believe we have the superior game, open to the masses (like poker) but where the cream rises to the top quicker. A glance down the list of WSOB all-time greats confirms this.
It is nothing less than damaging speculation to insinuate that players in the shoot-out won’t get paid.
The 40,000 euros in added money should be cause for celebration not scepticism. It certainly was in 2008, when we delivered the world’s greatest BG extravaganza just as promised. And last month we fielded private investment that more than covers the added prize fund.
We are wholly confident the super-satellites will be a great success, and that the ‘golden tickets’ will be chased voraciously. Last year in Cannes the entries for the live super-satellites we ran on the ground were both sold out within a matter of minutes.
So in summary, please get behind London and WSOB and join many of the greatest players the world has ever seen (who we earnestly thank for their ongoing support). We are so proud that the cream of the world’s backgammon community shows such faith in us. The masses, given the chance, will follow, and there’s no reason why in five years, WSOB can’t be every bit as popular as WSOP.
If we fail in our mission we shall take solace in the knowledge that we gave everything we had, financially, and through sheer blood, sweat and tears. But what will sting most is a return to the bad old days of non-equitable, all but invisible tournaments.
Yours truly,
Andy Bell
World Series of Backgammon
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