Fair Play Backgammon vs Backgammon Reserve
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Fair Play Backgammon
Experience backgammon with a focus on fairness and a clean interface. This game ensures truly random dice rolls for a pure strategic challenge. Enjoy the classic game without distractions.
- Fair dice rolls
- Clean interface
- Online multiplayer
- Pure backgammon experience
- Strategic gameplay
Read full descriptionHide full description
Tired of suspicious rolls? So were we. We built a backgammon experience centered on integrity and style. By stripping away the clutter and ensuring every dice throw is truly random, we’ve returned the game to its purest form. It’s just you, the board, and the math. Privacy policy: https://inkscapestudios.com/backgammon/privacy
Backgammon Reserve
This app offers a premium online backgammon experience focused on pure gameplay. Compete against real players with a live Elo rating, play daily games with flexible move times, or practice against AI bots. Enjoy a clean, ad-free interface designed for serious enthusiasts.
- Ranked online play with Elo rating
- Daily games with 24-hour move timers
- Fair, server-generated dice
- AI bot practice modes
- Pass & Play for in-person games
- Friend challenges and head-to-head records
- Full match history and stats
Read full descriptionHide full description
Backgammon Reserve is backgammon the way serious players want it. Most backgammon apps bury the game under casino mechanics: coin balances, spin wheels, loud effects. This is the opposite. A quiet, premium table for people who already love the game and want a trustworthy place to play it. PLAY RANKED ONLINE Match against real players on a live Elo rating. Server-generated dice, a match clock, and full rules enforcement. The doubling cube, gammons, and backgammons all count. Your rating, global rank, and percentile are real, earned, and on display. PLAY DAILY Backgammon on your schedule. Up to 24 hours per move and up to twenty games at once, rated in the same pool as live play with the cube in full effect. A notification tells you the moment it is your move, and the app icon counts the games waiting on you. MATCHES TO 3, 5 OR 7 Play a proper match, not just a game. First to the target score, Crawford rule included, with the cube live throughout. Agree a format with a friend, or pick one against the bot and in Pass and Play. TAKE ON SIR REGINALD One opponent. The whole community trying to beat him. Sir Reginald plays matches to 3, 5 or 7 and never a single game. He is not a difficulty setting and nothing against him touches your rating: his ladder is its own contest, ranked two ways, most wins and best average performance rating. His judgement comes from a neural network that taught itself backgammon over 750,000 games against itself, with no strategy written by hand. A bot built from written rules can only be as good as whoever wrote them. One that learns from results is free to find plays nobody thought to teach it. SEE WHERE YOU WENT WRONG Every match against Sir Reginald ends with a full review. A rating for how you played, your costliest decision shown on the board with the better move beside it, and a chart of how your chance of winning moved with every decision. It separates the dice from the play, so you can tell being outplayed from being unlucky. STANDINGS See exactly where you stand. The global board ranks the strongest players by rating, and your own row stays with you whether you are in the top 25 or climbing toward it, with the exact gap to the player above. A separate friends board ranks the people you actually know. Every rated game moves you, live or daily, and one rated game puts you on it. FAIR DICE Dice come from a cryptographically secure random source with bias rejection. No streaks engineered to keep you playing, no rolls tilted toward anyone. Online, the server rolls, so neither player's device can influence them. Against Sir Reginald you need not take it on faith: his page charts every die face rolled against the mathematics. SHARPEN YOUR GAME AGAINST THE BOTS Four tiers, from Beginner to Expert, all driven by the same self-taught network. Each is defined by how much it may give away per decision, so a weaker bot plays weaker moves rather than random ones. Bot games never touch your rating. PASS AND PLAY Hand the phone across the table. A clean two-seat mode for playing in person, at a single game or a full match. CHALLENGE YOUR FRIENDS Add friends, send a direct challenge, and settle it in a rated match. Play live with a clock, or start a daily game and take it slow. Agree the format, from a single game to a match to 7. A RECORD OF EVERY GAME Full match history, win and loss stats, streaks, recent form, and an interactive rating chart tracking every rated game you have played. DESIGNED LIKE A MEMBERS LOUNGE Walnut and brass, ivory checkers, understated motion. No neon, no confetti, no noise. WHAT YOU WON'T FIND • No coins, chips, or gambling mechanics • No ads • No pay-to-win mechanics. Nothing for sale. • No engineered dice Full backgammon rules are enforced: bar entry, blot hitting, forced maximum-pip plays, exact and overshoot bear-off, and the doubling cube with proper gammon and backgammon scoring.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Backgammon Reserve at none against Fair Play Backgammon's 6. Backgammon Reserve also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). On price, review sentiment, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Fair Play Backgammon sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Backgammon Reserve asks for nothing beyond the download.
Backgammon Reserve holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Backgammon Reserve has 16 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Fair Play Backgammon ships an update weekly, Backgammon Reserve every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Fair Play Backgammon | Backgammon Reserve |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (16 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 16 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | ADRIAN ALBU | Benjamin Taylor |
Customer experience
Fair Play Backgammon
Backgammon Reserve
In-app purchases
Fair Play Backgammon
- 15 Gems Pack$0.99
- 1000 Coins$0.99
- 45 Gems$1.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- 2300 Coins$1.99
- 5000 Coins$2.99
- 95 Gems$3.99
Backgammon Reserve
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Fair Play Backgammon free?
Is Backgammon Reserve free?
Which has better reviews, Fair Play Backgammon or Backgammon Reserve?
Do Fair Play Backgammon or Backgammon Reserve have ads?
Which is updated more often, Fair Play Backgammon or Backgammon Reserve?
Other comparisons















