Backgammon clubs: join one or found your own

A club in Gammon42 is a group of players with its own chat, its own tournaments and a place on the weekly club leaderboard. Clubs are in the app for iPhone and Android from version 1.4.0.

You can be in one club at a time, and joining one is free.

Where to find clubs

Open the app and tap “Social Hub” in the bottom bar (it may just say “Social”). The first tab is “Clubs”, and it has three parts:

“Discover”: your club, the requests you have sent, and a list of clubs to browse or search.
“Leaderboard”: this week’s club ranking.
“Invites”: clubs that have invited you.

How to join a club

In “Clubs”, stay on “Discover”. Scroll through “Browse clubs”, or type in the “Search clubs by name or tag” field. Clubs you can join right now are listed first.
Tap a club to open its page. You see its description, who can join, any requirements and the member list.
Join the way the club allows:
- Open club: tap “Join club” (in the list the button just says “Join”). You are in straight away.
- Request to join: tap “Request to join”, add a short hello if you like, and tap “Send request”. The owner or an officer decides. Your request waits under “Waiting for approval”, where you can also tap “Cancel request”.
- Invite only: you need an invite from the owner or an officer. It shows up under “Invites” and as a notification. Tap “Accept invite” or “Decline”.

Some clubs set requirements: a minimum rating, a minimum number of Boosted or ranked games played, or only players who use the club’s language in the app. If you don’t meet one, the club page tells you which. An invite skips these requirements, so a club can still bring you in.

You can have up to five join requests open at once. As soon as you join a club, your other requests and invites are cancelled.

How to found your own club

You need a username in your profile, and you can’t already be in a club.

In “Clubs”, tap the round “+” button next to the tabs (“Create club”).
Enter a “Club name” of 3–24 characters and a “Tag” of 2–5 letters or digits. The tag is your club’s short code, and the app checks straight away that no other club uses it.
Add a “Description” if you like, up to 300 characters.
Pick an “Emblem” and a color, or tap “Upload picture” to use a square picture instead.
Under “Who can join”, choose “Open” (anyone can join instantly), “Request to join” (players ask, officers approve) or “Invite only” (only players you invite).
If you want, set a “Minimum rating”, “Minimum games played”, a “Home country” and a “Chat language”. With a chat language set, you can also switch on “Only players using this language”.
Read the note at the bottom. It shows what founding costs in Sparks, or that it is free, and how many members a club can hold. Tap “Found club”.

Your club page opens, and you are its owner. If the club is ever disbanded, the founding Sparks are not refunded.

With Gammon42 Pro, founding a club is free.

What you can do in a club

Chat with your club

Every club has its own chat, under “Chat”, and only members can read it. Long-press a message to “Reply”, “Copy text” or “Report” it, or to delete your own. The app also posts a short line when someone joins or leaves, when a tournament is created and when the announcement changes.

Challenge a clubmate

Open “Members”, tap a player who is online and choose “Challenge”. They get a game invitation, just like a friend invite, and you don’t need to be friends first. These are friendly games: as the app says, “Clubmate games don’t count for club points.”

To play friends outside your club, see how to play backgammon with friends online.

Play club tournaments

The “Tournaments” tab lists your club’s tournaments. The owner and officers set them up with “Create tournament”, and the other members get a notification. Tap “Join” to take a seat, or tap a tournament to open its lobby. Seated players get a reminder 15 minutes before the start.

In the app’s words: “Club tournaments are just for fun — no prizes or rating changes.”

Race for the weekly club leaderboard

“Leaderboard” in “Clubs” shows this week’s ranking. This is how a club scores:

Every win by a member in a Boosted or ranked game is 1 point for the club.
Wins against members of your own club don’t count.
Friend games, club challenges, private rooms and tournaments don’t count.
A win only counts for your club if you were already a member when you won it.
When a member leaves, their wins for the week leave with them.

The week resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC. The board shows the top 50 clubs. If your club has points but is outside the top 50, it is shown below the list. After the reset, members of every club that scored get a notification with their club’s final place.

Bring your friends

The owner and officers can open the menu (⋮) on the club page and tap “Invite friends” to invite people from their friends list. Anyone can tap “Copy club link” in the same menu to share the club.

Gifts for club mates (Pro)

Gammon42 Pro members can give club mates free power-ups. Tap a member, choose “Send gift” and pick “Re-roll”, “Lucky Dice” or “Joker”. The gift comes from the app, so nothing leaves your own balance. There is a weekly limit that resets on Monday, and new members and new accounts need a little time and a few games before they can receive gifts.

Running a club

Every club has one owner, and the owner can make other members officers. The app sums up the officer role like this: “Officers accept join requests, invite players, remove members, moderate the chat, pin announcements and run tournaments.”

Owner: everything an officer can do, plus “Edit club”, “Make officer” and “Remove officer”, “Make owner” to hand the club over, and “Disband club”.
Officers: accept or decline requests in the “Requests” tab, “Invite friends”, “Set announcement” (a pinned message of up to 200 characters), delete chat messages, create tournaments, and remove or ban members.
Members: chat, challenge clubmates, join tournaments and win points for the club.

Officers can remove or ban members, but not other officers or the owner. The owner can remove anyone.

To moderate, tap a member in “Members”:

“Remove from club”: the player can join again after a short cooldown.
“Ban from club”: the player can’t join again unless an officer invites them. Officers and the owner can lift a ban later under “Banned players” with “Lift ban”.

Any player other than the owner can also use “Report club” in the menu to send a club’s name or texts to the Gammon42 moderators.

Leaving or closing a club

Open the menu (⋮) and tap “Leave club”. Your wins for the week leave with you.

The owner has to hand the club to another member first, with “Make owner”, and then stays on as an officer. If the owner is the last member, leaving closes the club.

“Disband club” deletes the club, its chat, its tournaments and its weekly score for everyone. You type the club tag to confirm, and the founding Sparks are not refunded.

More questions about the app? See the Gammon42 FAQ.

Frequently asked questions

Can I be in more than one club?
No. You can be in one club at a time. To join another club, leave your current one first.

Does joining a club cost anything?
No, joining is free. Founding a club can cost Sparks, and the app shows the price before you tap “Found club”.

How does a club score points on the weekly leaderboard?
Every win by a member in a Boosted or ranked game is 1 point. Wins against clubmates, friend games, private rooms and tournaments don’t count. The week resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC.

Do club tournaments change my rating?
No. Club tournaments are just for fun, with no prizes and no rating changes.

Can I play a clubmate who is not on my friends list?
Yes. In the club’s “Members” tab, tap a player who is online and choose “Challenge”. These games don’t count for club points.

What happens if the owner wants to leave the club?
The owner first hands the club to another member with “Make owner” and becomes an officer. If the owner is the last member, leaving closes the club.