Community rules

Last updated 26 October 2026

Online play is open to anyone with a free account. A few rules keep it friendly for everyone. By choosing a username you agree to them.

These are the rules for online play. The rules of the game itself are in backgammon rules.

Your name

• Pick a name other players are happy to read: nothing offensive, hateful, sexual or threatening.
• Don’t pretend to be someone else: another player, a famous person, a bot, or anyone working on Backgammon Room.
• The app turns down names it knows are rude or taken, but it can’t catch everything. That’s what reports are for.

Play fair

• Play your own moves. No programs, bots or analysis tools during a match, and no one helping you.
• Don’t play against yourself with a second account, and don’t lose on purpose to change someone’s rating.
• Don’t leave matches on purpose. Leaving several matches before they start, in a short time, closes the queue for you for a little while.

Be kind

You can only send the six quick phrases, such as “Good luck” and “Well played”. If a player bothers you anyway, open their card (tap their name on the board, in your friends or on a friend request) and hide their phrases, or block them: you won’t be paired with them again, they can’t find you, add you or challenge you, and if you were friends, you aren’t any more. You can unblock them in Settings › Account › Blocked players.

Send friend requests to people you’d like to play. A request you decline isn’t shown to the sender as declined.

Reporting a player

Tap their name during the match, in your friends or on a friend request, or use Report on the screen at the end of the match, or press on the match in Profile › Your games. Choose why: an offensive username, cheating, or something else. Your report reaches us at once, with the match it’s about, and we look at every one within 24 hours. You can also write to [email protected].

What happens then

• An offensive or misleading name is changed to “Player” and four digits. You can then choose a new name.
• Cheating or repeated abuse closes online play for the account. Everything else stays: the bots, the daily puzzle, your lessons and your games.
• If you think we got it wrong, write to [email protected] and we’ll look again.