Comparison

Backgammon House 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

Backgammon House

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Backgammon House brings the timeless game of backgammon to your iPhone with a clean, elegant board and an opponent that actually plays well. EXPERT AI Face an AI built on a world-class backgammon engine. Choose your level, from a relaxed game up to a Master opponent that will genuinely test you. BUILT-IN TRAINER Turn on Training Mode and get expert analysis of your position on every roll. See the best play, your winning chances, and the ideas behind strong moves. Like having a coach beside you. PLAY YOUR WAY - Single games or full matches - The doubling cube, with proper match play - Multiple board themes - Smooth, tactile piece movement and dice PLAYS OFFLINE The core game runs with no internet connection. (Expert and Master AI, plus Training Mode, use an online analysis engine for top-tier accuracy.) Whether you are learning the game or sharpening a lifetime of play, Backgammon House is built to make every match better.

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

Backgammon Reserve4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Backgammon Reserve at none against Backgammon House's 1. Backgammon Reserve also leads on device support. Backgammon House's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price 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. Backgammon House sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Backgammon Reserve asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Backgammon House versus Backgammon Reserve: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBackgammon HouseBackgammon Reserve
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (16 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—16 — better
Update frequency—Every 3 days
Ads—No
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
Devices—iPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB17 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperEsbro Labs LLCBenjamin Taylor

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Backgammon House

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$2.99
None

Backgammon Reserve

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Backgammon House free?
Backgammon House is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Backgammon Reserve free?
Backgammon Reserve is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

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