Editing Backgammon (section)

=== International competition ===
{{See also|List of world backgammon champions}}
The first world championship competition in backgammon was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1967. [[Tim Holland (backgammon)|Tim Holland]] was declared the winner that year and at the tournament the following year. For unknown reasons, there was no championship in 1970, but in 1971, Tim Holland again won the title. The competition remained in Las Vegas until 1975, when it moved to [[Paradise Island]] in the Bahamas. The years 1976, 1977 and 1978 saw "dual" World Championships, one in the Bahamas attended by the Americans, and the ''European Open Championships'' in Monte Carlo with mostly European players. In 1979, Lewis Deyong, who had promoted the Bahamas World Championship for the prior three years, suggested that the two events be combined.<ref name="PLAY65">{{Cite web|title=World Backgammon Championships History &#124; Backgammon Masters &#124; Backgammon Articles' Categories &#124; Play65™|url=http://www.play65.com/world-backgammon-championships-history.html,%2520http://www.play65.com/|access-date=2022-12-29|language=en}}</ref> Monte Carlo was universally acknowledged as the site of the World Backgammon Championship and has remained as such for thirty years.<ref name="mindzine">{{cite web|url=http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/classic/bg/tournaments/world00report.html|title=Backgammon News—World Championships 2000|author=Michael Crane|publisher=Mind Sports Worldwide|date=July 25, 2000|access-date=2006-09-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060907014829/http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/classic/bg/tournaments/world00report.html|archive-date=7 September 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Monte Carlo tournament draws hundreds of players and spectators, and is played over the course of a week.<ref name="maxa"/>

By the 21st century, the largest international tournaments had established the basis of a tour for top professional players. Major tournaments are held yearly worldwide. [[PartyGaming]] sponsored the first [[World Series of Backgammon]] in 2006 from [[Cannes]] and later the "Backgammon Million" tournament held in the Bahamas in January 2007 with a prize pool of one million dollars, the largest for any tournament to date.<ref name="partygammon">{{cite news|title=PartyGammon.com to Stage First Ever US$1 Million Backgammon Tournament|work=PR Newswire|date=July 10, 2006|publisher=[[Lexis-Nexis]]}}</ref> In 2008, the [[World Series of Backgammon]] ran the world's largest international events in London, the UK Masters, the biggest tournament ever held in the UK with 128 international class players; the Nordic Open, which instantly became the largest in the world with around 500 players in all flights and 153 in the championship, and Cannes, which hosted the Riviera Cup, the traditional follow-up tournament to the World Championships. Cannes also hosted the WSOB championship, the WSOB finale, which saw 16 players play three-point shootout matches for €160,000. The event was recorded for television in Europe and aired on [[Eurosport]].

The World Backgammon Association (WBA)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.world-backgammon-association.com|title=World Backgammon Association|website=www.world-backgammon-association.com}}</ref> has been holding the biggest backgammon tour on the circuit since 2007, the "European Backgammon Tour"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ebgt.info/|title=Home|website=www.ebgt.info|access-date=2013-11-20|archive-date=2018-03-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307074142/http://ebgt.info/|url-status=dead}}</ref> (EBGT). In 2011, the WBA collaborated with the online backgammon provider [[Play65]] for the 2011 season of the European Backgammon Tour and with "Betfair" in 2012. The 2013 season of the European Backgammon Tour featured 11 stops and 19 qualified players competing for €19,000 in a grand finale in [[Lefkosa]], Northern Cyprus.