Comparison

Tavla Rivals vs Backgammon Reserve

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Tavla Rivals

Features
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Tavla Rivals is a modern backgammon game built for fast matches, clean controls, and a competitive profile system. Play against AI opponents, choose your difficulty level, roll fair random dice, make legal moves, and improve your ELO after every match. Earn BIT through daily rewards, optional rewarded ads, and in-app purchases, then use BIT to unlock visual themes and hints. Features: - Classic backgammon gameplay - AI difficulty levels - Fair random dice system - ELO, ranks, streaks, and match history - Achievements and profile badges - Unlockable board themes - Optional rewarded ads - Optional in-app BIT packs - Optional ad-free upgrade Tavla Rivals does not offer real-money gambling, cash prizes, betting, withdrawals, or real-world rewards. BIT is a virtual in-game currency used only inside the app.

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
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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

Tavla Rivals4 screens
Backgammon Reserve4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Backgammon Reserve at none against Tavla Rivals's 4. Backgammon Reserve also leads on ads (none vs shown). Tavla Rivals's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Tavla Rivals sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Backgammon Reserve asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tavla Rivals ships an update every 4 days, Backgammon Reserve every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Tavla Rivals versus Backgammon Reserve: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTavla RivalsBackgammon Reserve
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (17 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—17 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size50 MB17 MB
Age rating4+12+
Developerenes aguBenjamin Taylor

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Tavla Rivals

One-time4
  • 100 BIT$0.99
  • 500 BIT$0.99
  • Ad-Free Pack$1.99
Show 1 more
  • 1200 BIT$2.99
None

Backgammon Reserve

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tavla Rivals free?
Tavla Rivals is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Backgammon Reserve free?
Backgammon Reserve is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Tavla Rivals or Backgammon Reserve have ads?
Tavla Rivals shows ads; Backgammon Reserve does not.
Which is updated more often, Tavla Rivals or Backgammon Reserve?
Tavla Rivals ships an update every 4 days, and Backgammon Reserve every 3 days. Most recently, Tavla Rivals was updated on October 24, 2026 and Backgammon Reserve on October 24, 2026.

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