Online Backgammon at TrueMoneyGames - Backgammon 3.0
Sebastian Jarosch
heard of TrueMoneyGames.com. There's been a recent software update
implementing quite a few new interesting features, rake changes and an
improved design.
It is now possible to play multiple backgammon sessions at the same
time and the rating system has been completely removed. TMG is also
determined to establish a fair play environment at the backgammon
tables by raising penalties and abolishing free disconnects.
There are always several bonuses and promotions running for both poker
and backgammon, stop by and have a look, most offers are more than
competitive on the market.
Check out the TMG website for detailed info:
http://www.truemoneygames.com/news-promotions/promotions/backgammon-30-reinventing-the-game.html
For questions, news and promotions or feedback you can visit this
google group as well:
Piranha
> I'm pretty sure most online backgammon players already know or have
> heard of TrueMoneyGames.com. There's been a recent software update
> implementing quite a few new interesting features, rake changes and an
> improved design.
>
> It is now possible to play multiple backgammon sessions at the same
> time and the rating system has been completely removed. TMG is also
> determined to establish a fair play environment at the backgammon
> tables by raising penalties and abolishing free disconnects.
>
> There are always several bonuses and promotions running for both poker
> and backgammon, stop by and have a look, most offers are more than
> competitive on the market.
>
> Check out the TMG website for detailed info:
>
>
> For questions, news and promotions or feedback you can visit this
> google group as well:
>
> http://groups.google.co.ls/group/truemoneygames
TMG is a kinda hopeless cause.
By now I´m quite sure, they won´t learn it anymore, or better, they don
´t want to.
Just a few examples:
1) TMG is a system based on fish, weak players bringing money, playing
strong players, where the server shares the profit in form of rake
with the winnings of the strong players.
The one and only key to success for such a system is advertising.
Take a look at GE, compare to ANY other BG site and you know, why TMG
will never become a successful fishfarm, they simply don´t have the
resources to invest in advertising on such a large scale, posts in a
forum like this are just not enough.
TMG used to be successful, because they started as one of the first
real money sites on the web, and over time they accumulated enough
loyal players to keep going without much advertising, but that was
before GE even existed, nowadays that´s a slightly different story.
2) Bonuses work fine to attract bonus hunters, who in return bring
action, which attracts other players, and after a while it grows to a
point where the plain amount of players is enough to keep the system
going, even if the bonus gets terminated.
But bonus hunters do the math before going for a bonus.
TMG sets conditions to bonuses that reduce a bonus to some kind of
rakeback, where the rake is from start calculated high enough to leave
enough for the server after the bonus is released, or in other words,
this is not a bonus, it´s just a reduced rake, no bonus hunter gets
attracted, and the whoile idea is doomed to fail before start.
Once again, TMG doesn´t have the resources, to invest a few millions
in bonuses that could really be named bonus.
3) A lot of countries, like the US or Italy, are enforcing some kind
of anti gambling law.
In most of these countries Poker is considered gambling, but BG is
not.
While small servers like GameAccount simply don´t accept players from
those countries ( see http://www.gameaccount.com/badCountry/italy_english.html
),
companies like PG have learned the lesson, they separate BG from their
gambling section, making their BG site entirely independent from the
rest, with the result that PartyGaming is locked in Italy, but
PartGammon is wide open to Italians.
TMG doesn´t even recognize the problem, keeping several countries out
of their site, only because they keep Poker and BG in one software
package and they don´t even have a page on their site explaining the
problem.
4) For years TMG has insisted on ratings, no matter how many players
ran away, no matter how many players tried to suggest otherwise, now,
after all this time, after nearly all players are gone, where all they
have left is a handful of players who actually like the ratings, they
remove the ratings and try to celebrate it like a great new idea, but
in fact they now have even less players, simply because the ones who
like the ratings are leaving, while the ones who ran away during their
rated times are either not aware of the change or are by now loyal to
some other server.
While keeping the rake (at low stakes) at 4.4% per player, which is
nearly twice as much as they used to have and as other servers like GA
have, I say, it won´t get them anywhere.
Under the given circumstances, TMG would have to start over from
scratch, a bonus that´s just a lame form of rakeback, a rake that can
´t compete on the market and a complete lack of advertising is just
not enough.
I´d love to see TMG getting back to their former success, but I guess,
if at all, it will take many years and even if they get there one day,
for me here in Italy, it would still be useless.
Sebastian Jarosch
Thank you very much for your feedback, I understand your point, but
there are certain aspects that I can't completely agree with.
TrueMoneyGames is an online backgammon and poker platform that works
just like all the other servers out there. Players sign up, choose
their stake and play against opponents of similar strength and skill.
The rating was removed to avoid misleading numbers which surely occur
for several logical reasons. Instead it makes more sense to determine
the rough skill level of an opponent by checking out the stake or
observing a session in progress.
The bonuses work slightly different compared to those of competitors
on the market. Obviously you get a higher percentage of your deposit
added as a bonus, plus there are regular reload bonus offers available
to all customers which easily beat any offers out there. It's correct
that player points are not earned as fast as at some other sites,
nevertheless on the long run with all the additional special offers
the players receive at TMG, continuous game play pays off a lot more.
This applies to both poker and backgammon.
TMG is aware of the online gambling bans certain countries have
imposed on their citizens, most nationalities will actually have full
access to the real money client, however, the terms and conditions
encourage every player to check with national laws concerning online
poker and backgammon. TrueMoneyGames can't take full responsibility
here and will not penalize any players for their origin.
The rake is in fact lower than anywhere else, this applies especially
to high stake backgammon matches and single games. I can't go much
into rakeback details, although they are very well competitive I will
leave this to the TMG affiliates out there.
Piranha
>
> - Zitierten Text anzeigen -
Forgive me if I appear a bit stubborn here, I just had to put in a few
comments:
> TrueMoneyGames is an online backgammon and poker platform that works
> just like all the other servers out there ....
And THAT is exactly the problem.
TMG used to be an exception.
TMG used to be a very popular server, without they had to put up much
advertising, simply because it was there as one of the first.
Today TMG is just another server among all the others, near empty, not
attractive to anyone.
> The bonuses work slightly different compared to those of competitors
> on the market.
You might say: They don´t work at all, at least they don´t serve their
purpose, proven by the fact, they don´t attract players.
What´s the point of having a bonus system with tons of offers, all
leading to nothing more than a reduced rake?
While 4.4% rake doesn´t attract players in the first place, wouldn´t
it be far better to lower the rake from start and forget bonuses
nobody cares about?
> The rake is in fact lower than anywhere else, this applies especially
> to high stake backgammon matches and single games.
I just love the way nearly ALL servers point out high stakes rake as
their most attractive feature.
Has any server manager ever noticed that 99.99% of all games and
matches are played for LOW stakes?
4.4% rake is among unrated servers one of the highest, but let´s just
say it´s competetive enough on the current market.
What does that tell about success and chances for future success?
The entire list of competitors consists of nothing but near empty
servers, and while GE has about 10K players online around the clock,
there´s no point in comparing yourself to another successless
business.
> The rating was removed to avoid misleading numbers which surely occur
> for several logical reasons.
Let me guess ..... some years ago logic wasn´t an issue?
Last but not least, I don´t want to be too negative, there wouldn´t be
much point in criticizing everything, if I didn´t have a solution, or
at least a suggestion.
TMG is trying, together with a ton of other servers, to compete on a
fishfarm market that GE has completely occupied.
The result is a ton of successless servers, struggling for survival,
but nowhere near success.
GE has shown you how it works, invest millions in advertising, that´s
all you need.
Unless someone is planning on a large advertising campaign, to
overpower or at least compete with GE on advertising, no other sever
will ever get anywhere with a fishfarm system.
So the alternative is a system NOT based on fish.
Somehow most players and managers can´t even imagine, how such a
system would look, so let me give you an idea.
It´s just one example out of several options, maybe not the best one,
but it should do, to show you what I mean.
1) Forget about any kind of bonus, any rakeback, any affiliates, any
attraction to make players deposit money, all this causes transfer
fees and the only winners out of that are the online wallets and
credit card companies.
Terminate free money transfers, forward money transfer fees to the
players, to encourage them chosing the cheapest method and do a
transfer only if they really want to use the money for playing.
2) Set a rake that is REALLY competetive, something like 0.1% for ALL
stakes (depending on how much profit the server requires per year,
even ZERO rake would be an option), as long as you don´t have to pay
transfer fees, it doesn´t cost a thing.
Now, where does the profit come from?
3) Request a fixed deposit from all players, that they cannot use to
play with, maybe $100 or so, which you put in your bank to cash
interest.
Let´s say the bank pays 2% interest per year, that´s $2 per player and
year.
Now split that in half, use 50% as your profit and the other 50% to
hold freeroll tournaments, which are open ONLY for players who have
been member at your server for 6 months or more.
Depending how much you advertise for this, it may start slow, but
imagine you can tell every player, they don´t pay a thing, they can´t
lose anything if they don´t want to, the initial deposit remains their
money, they get it back in case they withdraw.
If GE has accumulated over 1M players with a rated system and
progressive rake up to 50%, I would believe you should be able to
accumulate 10% of that, with an unrated zero rake.
Now imagine you´re holding a yearly freeroll, for $100K prizepool,
including satellite events and stuff, and that while you make 100K
profit for yourself and without any need for fish.
Doesn´t that sound slightly better than a near empty server running
deeper and deeper into debt, while the profit doesn´t even cover the
expenses for hardware and staff?
A new server might have difficulties in getting this started, it´s a
matter of trust, before players would be willing to deposit money
without any bonus, but even after the business is completely down the
drain, TMG still has a trustworthy reputation.
As I said, it´s maybe not the best example, I´ve got much better ones,
this one is just the most basic one I´m giving you for free, to show
you it is possible to run a successful NON fish server and it doesn´t
have to include Poker.
Sebastian Jarosch
Well yes you're correct, the TrueMoneyGames bonuses do actually work
like a rakeback. The benefit is that TMG offers these bonuses
frequently, which in the end sums up to quite a bonus amount if you
add up the money over an entire year.
Honestly I still see TrueMoneyGames as an exception, especially when
it comes to the online backgammon community. The software for a
example is something you won't find anywhere and TrueMoneyGames has
always been pretty much famous for it. Resizable windows, multi
tabling etc. are just a few features that are not exactly integrated
in any backgammon room. Certainly this is one of the reasons why lots
of star players play online backgammon and poker at TMG on a regular
basis, it's just more convenient to use. Especially when it comes to
compatibility with GNU are Snowie for analysis there is certainly an
edge compared to several other locations. Another plus is certainly
the possibility to play poker and backgammon simultaneously with one
client. It's pretty common among players to play both of these skill
games, so in fact it's a lot more convenient concerning player
accounts and funds for example.
TrueMoneyGames has worked a lot on promotions and offers to spice up
the game play at the platform as the news and promotions section
certainly reveals. With an increased marketing and a new affiliate
system with exclusive offers an upwards trend is already visible
regarding traffic and action at the backgammon boards and poker
tables.
No rake and living from bank interests is certainly a utopia,
especially since TrueMoneyGames has to cover for expenses arising from
highly specialized employees, hardware costs etc. to maintain the
level of quality they are currently offering. Still TrueMoneyGames
always surprises with freerolls, free money and several other
promotions to make the stay as pleasant as possible for the players.
Perhaps you haven't seen the upgraded TMG yet, I'd say you check out
the website at www.TrueMoneyGames.com and browse through the offers
and improvements, they're certainly not going to become less in the
future.
bob
"Now imagine you´re holding a yearly freeroll, for $100K prizepool,
including satellite events and stuff, and that while you make 100K
profit for yourself and without any need for fish."
ROTFLMAO. Is there no difference here between revenue and profit?
Piranha
> and improvements, they're certainly not going to become less in the
> future.
I actually went through the efford of bypassing my providers DNS,
download and install TMG3.0 and I did take a look 3 times at different
times of the day and 3 different days during the last week.
I didn´t plan on playing there, at least not yet, while the state of
Italy keeps increasing their anti gambling effords, I can´t be sure,
whether I might lose any deposit I might make, but I was curious
enough to check it out anyway.
I only knew the ratings were gone, so I expected a bit more than I
found, until I went to the website and checked the new terms and
conditions.
Once I was aware of just how lame the great new improvements are, it
didn´t take much logic to figure out the reasons.
There never were more than 2 moneygames in progress at same time,
average stakes 50 cents.
If you honestly believe 5.4% rake out of an average of one game at a
time for stakes of 50 cents would exceed $100K profit a year, you
certainly live in utopia.
I´m aware TMG can´t exist from $100K profit per year, but TMG can´t
exist from a plain loss either.
I didn´t suggest you to live from bank interest alone, that was just a
small example, one out of many options of how to get started.
Once you have the players back, there are tons of further options, but
until then you´re facing the reality of an empty server near collapse,
where $100K profit seems to be far better than a plain minus.
Of course you can try to insist on your increased traffic, same as you
have insisted on the success of the ratings over the last years, but I
´m afraid, same as the non existing success of the ratings, this one
won´t get you anywhere either.
Sebastian Jarosch
Maybe you should come at peak times of around 20:00 - 01:00 CEST or at
noon, I'm sure you'll find all sorts of stakes. Compare the software
to any competitor and you'll see a few obvious differences, which is
why TMG has always been rated highly among professional online
backgammon players.
Well I don't want to encourage you to play backgammon for real money
regarding legal reasons, but perhaps you want to try the play money
sessions to see TMGs benefits.
In case you play online poker, you'll immediately notice an increase
of traffic and several interesting poker tournaments and races you can
compete at, once again make sure you are not violating any local
gambling laws concerning online poker.
Piranha
> Maybe you should come at peak times of around 20:00 - 01:00 CEST or at
> noon, I'm sure you'll find all sorts of stakes.
Actually I watched a 25 cents moneygame, it was 21:00 - 22:00 CET and
it was the only match in progress during the whole time.
> Compare the software
> to any competitor and you'll see a few obvious differences, which is
> why TMG has always been rated highly among professional online
> backgammon players.
>
Quality of software is near meaningless when it comes to money making,
only if 2 servers would have the exact same settings, the same amount
of fish and the same conditions, the software might give the deciding
factor, in any other case, realistic chances to make money rate 99:1
over software quality.
> Well I don't want to encourage you to play backgammon for real money
> regarding legal reasons, but perhaps you want to try the play money
> sessions to see TMGs benefits.
>
I´ve played at TMG for many years, before they implemented ratings.
I´ve been about the first to predict the downfall when I saw the
ratings and I´ve been among the last who left, when TMG turned out to
be advice resistant.
I´m the one who created statistics over 1 million consecutive
dicerolls out of my games, to prove the dice were fair.
I really don´t need your playmoney section to know what I´m talking
about, but maybe you should revise your opinion about me not knowing.
> In case you play online poker, you'll immediately notice an increase
> of traffic and several interesting poker tournaments and races you can
> compete at, once again make sure you are not violating any local
> gambling laws concerning online poker.
I don´t play poker, I fully agree with Italian anti gambling laws and
the ban of gambling sites.
Even if there was no such law, I wouldn´t play Poker, I´ve tried a few
freerolls in the past, that was enough for me to discover, it´s just
not my type of game.
I would stay away from your Poker section even if it was wide open,
but I´m aware how many gambling addicts there are, who can´t control
themselves.
Some players believe Poker is not gambling, I believe it is, but that
´s a topic for a separate discussion, after all this is a BG
newsgroup.
I only regret, when a site like TMG excludes players from BG, only
because they insist on having Poker in the same software package.
I believe the problem is not that you´re not aware of it, the problem
is, you believe BG will never be a profitable business, you´re keeping
BG up only because you hope to drag some players over to Poker, where
you see the better chances for your business.
You don´t even care, whether or not you lose some players in BG, as
long as they are no potential Poker players, you don´t want them in
the first place.
I believe BG could be far more successful than Poker, simply because
there are 100s of huge Poker sites on the market, but not one single
good BG site, or in other words, there´s an enormous hole in the
market.
Of course BG is an entirely different game, as GE has shown you, if
you want it to be a fishfarm system, success in BG depends on
advertising, nothing else.
But then, compensating for the expenses of advertising would almost
automatically lead to high rake and rip off players.
I believe there is another way, but I´m aware, as long as you see your
BG section as a non profitable side business in competition to a
highly profitable Poker section, you won´t even give it a try.
In fact, I´ve contacted TMG, shortly after ratings were implemented,
when it became obvious that it was going down the drain, and I´ve
asked for permission to hold a real money tournament there.
Nothing unusual, a plain regular tournament with a given entry fee
plus registration, where the prizepool equals the sum of entries, no
bonuses, no added money, just plain standard.
I didn´t even ask for any compensation for my work, I was volunteering
to organize the event for free, all I asked was that I set the entry
fee, the format and the prizepool.
All I wanted was to show you, that a simple regular tournament could
be a success, if only you did the setup right.
It wouldn´t have cost you anything at all to give it a try, just
another tournament in your list, where worst case would have been the
same as you experience with so many of your tournaments, terminated
due lack of signups.
All I got back was the standard reply from your support: "We have
forwarded your mail to our management", but the management never found
me worth an answer.
Rich
wrote:
>
>I don�t play poker, I fully agree with Italian anti gambling laws and
>the ban of gambling sites.
>Even if there was no such law, I wouldn�t play Poker, I�ve tried a few
>freerolls in the past, that was enough for me to discover, it�s just
>not my type of game.
>I would stay away from your Poker section even if it was wide open,
>but I�m aware how many gambling addicts there are, who can�t control
>themselves.
Well you are one of them Piranha. You are a backgammon addict who
played 500,000 games over a five year period. You admitted that for
years you did nothing but play backgammon. Sounds like a pretty bad
addiction to me.
>Some players believe Poker is not gambling, I believe it is, but that
>�s a topic for a separate discussion, after all this is a BG
>newsgroup.
Some people believe backgammon is not gambling too.
>I believe BG could be far more successful than Poker, simply because
>there are 100s of huge Poker sites on the market, but not one single
>good BG site, or in other words, there�s an enormous hole in the
>market.
I thought you were going to fill that hole. What ever happened to YOUR
plan to set up your own backgammon site.
>In fact, I�ve contacted TMG, shortly after ratings were implemented,
>when it became obvious that it was going down the drain, and I�ve
>asked for permission to hold a real money tournament there.
>Nothing unusual, a plain regular tournament with a given entry fee
>plus registration, where the prizepool equals the sum of entries, no
>bonuses, no added money, just plain standard.
>I didn�t even ask for any compensation for my work, I was volunteering
>to organize the event for free, all I asked was that I set the entry
>fee, the format and the prizepool.
>All I wanted was to show you, that a simple regular tournament could
>be a success, if only you did the setup right.
>It wouldn�t have cost you anything at all to give it a try, just
>another tournament in your list, where worst case would have been the
>same as you experience with so many of your tournaments, terminated
>due lack of signups.
>All I got back was the standard reply from your support: "We have
>forwarded your mail to our management", but the management never found
>me worth an answer.
Smart management.
Rich
Grunty
> Rich
After long hibernation, TMG's resident zombie is back.