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BGonline.org Forums
How many pro BG players?
Posted By: Phil Simborg In Response To: How many pro BG players? (leobueno)
Date: Thursday, 14 March 2013, at 2:37 a.m.
The first question is: What is a "living"? What one person calls living might be death to another.
The next thing to deal with in your question is the ambiguous way it is phrased: you asked how many "players" make a living from Backgammon. Well, if what you are asking is if they make a living by playing backgammon, that is different from making a living as a result of playing, teaching, running tournaments, making videos, and doing promotions.
I don't think anyone can truly answer your question completely, but the answer is, it really doesn't matter if we are talking about 5 people or 30 people, it is a very small number; it is a very hard way to make a "living," only a very few have ever managed to make any "big money" from backgammon, and that was not from tournament play, but from private money games; and just about anyone, like me, who devotes most of their time to the game of backgammon could not begin to live reasonably well on what they make from backgammon. They had better have other investments, income, or means of support or be willing to live very meagerly.
Yes, we know of a few people who have made good money on backgammon software, but we certainly don't know how much, but I don't think that's what you mean. And there are people who have written successful books, but I don't think that is what you mean. We know some people who run tournaments and we have no idea what they make. I don't know anyone who runs tournaments that tells me they are making a lot of money doing it by the way. Yes, we know some people that win a lot of backgammon tournaments and cash a lot....none of them will tell you that, after expenses, in the long run, they could live off of tournament wins.
Many of us are aware that there are some pretty big money games going on here and there. Does anyone consistently win, year after year, and make a living? No one knows for sure, but certainly there are those (like Svobodny in particular) that have been said to have made a lot of money playing for money.
Now, another question to ask is: how many people are trying to make a living playing backgammon? Even that number is very small, but the few who have no other source of income than what they make playing and teaching and promoting backgammon are not about to tell anyone what they make (me included, as I am one of those few people). So we'll never know. And we have no idea what other sources of income those people have, or if they are backed by others and have to share their income, or if they are partially supported by spouses, parents, or investments, or income from other activities.
So, I am sorry, but the question is nebulous, and the answer is not possible for anyone to provide. But generally, it is clear that very few try to make a living playing backgammon; that those who do also teach or have other income; and that it is not a recommended life choice for your children.
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