Backgammon Pro: the dice are random

Please read this page in full before sending a comment. If you still have concerns afterwards, contact support.

The dice are random: they favor neither the AI nor the player

Backgammon Pro has four ways of drawing dice values, chosen with the “dice” setting:

• TrueRandom: a list of 100,000 values created at RANDOM.ORG, which generates truly random numbers from atmospheric noise.
• Excel: a list of 100,000 values created with Excel’s random function.
• Balanced: uses the TrueRandom list, but tries to balance the number of doubles each player gets.
• Mersenne Twister: the algorithm most commonly used to generate random numbers in backgammon.

Every turn the game takes the next value from the table and gives it to whoever is playing that turn, you or the AI. Nothing analyses or modifies the values afterwards.

The game also records each roll in a statistics table, where you can check whether the dice favor one side. It counts doubles per player, times a player was blocked from entering from the bar, doubles thrown during bear-off, and more. These statistics become meaningful after at least 1,000 rolls.

Backgammon is a game of skill, but dice add luck. A lucky run of rolls can make your opponent win even when you play perfectly, and the same is true for you. If you are honest about it, you will notice lucky rolls that won games you would normally lose. Strong players focus on their error rate and checker-play skill percentage rather than on wins and losses. Work on lowering your errors and, over time, you will win more.

It looks like the dice favor the AI

Most backgammon players have an ELO rating of 1600 or lower, so it is hard to match the strength of the hardest level. Only players rated above about 1800 can judge how well the Expert level plays. Anyone claiming proof that the dice are rigged would need to be among the top players of their region to assess that fairly.

Backgammon Pro does not cheat. Sometimes the AI gets lucky, as any player can. But often what looks like luck is skill: the neural-network AI has evaluated millions of positions, and it steers toward positions with many useful rolls for itself and few for you.

For comparison, try GNU Backgammon or Snowie. At their hardest levels they play better than almost all humans. Unless you are one of the top players in the world, it is hard to win more than 60% of your games against the Expert level.

How to enjoy the game more

Try the Easy or Medium level and set the dice option to Balanced. You will have a better chance of winning and room to improve. The Expert level plays better than most players, will beat you more often than not, and can be frustrating.

Still think the game cheats?

Backgammon Pro is played over 150,000 times a day, so every day there are games where the AI rolls an unlikely run of doubles, even with TrueRandom. That is just bad luck.

Every good backgammon game on phones and tablets collects reviews claiming the dice are loaded. Either all of the best games cheat, or most of them are well written and their top levels simply play at a strength above most players.

If you are still not convinced:

1. If Backgammon Pro isn’t right for you, try other backgammon games.
2. To improve your game, try GNU Backgammon. It is free and open source, so you can see what kind of opponent you are facing.
3. If you firmly believe otherwise, contact us.

Can you prove the game does not cheat?

Yes. The dice are fixed in advance. The table of 100,000 values is always used, whether you play against the AI or another person, and the game never changes values taken from it.

To check, turn on the “History” setting, write down the last 10 dice throws exactly as shown at the bottom of the screen (the values shown as {n,n}), and stop playing. Send them to us with your dice setting (TrueRandom or Excel) and your game version. We will send you the next throws in the table. They will not change whether you are winning or losing, which shows that the order of the dice is precalculated and never manipulated.

Contact us

If you have written an unfavorable review, or firmly believe the game cheats, please write to us. Include a detailed explanation of the problem and how you would fix it, for example which statistical test you would use to detect anomalies in the dice. We can’t answer comments that only say “the game cheats” without taking into account the information on this page.

If you bought the game to find a worthy opponent that improves your play, thank you for your support.

The Backgammon Pro team