As with the game of Poker a few years ago the popularity of Backgammon and online Backgammon has seen a rapid increase recently with over one million online players, bringing internet gambling experts to see one of the world's oldest and best known game as “the next big thing”. In this context world class online Backgammon server TrueMoneygames (TMG) is proud to sponsor the 31st World Backgammon Championship in Monte Carlo. This prestigious event will bring together the world's greatest players to compete for the World Backgammon Championship title and a prize pool up to $300,000.

The World Championship will take place at the Fairmont Monte Carlo from July 10th to 16th 2006. This 4 star deluxe hotel has hosted this event, the best in the Backgammon circuit, for over 30 years and is ideally located in the heart of the Principality on the beautiful seafront, giving the Tournament its unique charm, prestige and panache.

The World Championships not only gives the players the opportunity to test their game strategy and play with some of the top ranked players worldwide, but also the chance to play live matches and compete for the ultimate world title.

To bring newcomers to the Tournament and challenge the competition TMG (www.truemoneygames.com) will sponsor over 12 full entry packages to the Championship offered to the winners of its online qualifiers running throughout June on its software.

And to spice it up even more, in an effort to bridge the gap between online and regular Backgammon events, TMG is hosting and sponsoring the annual World Online Backgammon Championship. The World Online Champion, winner of this event, will receive an entry package to Monte Carlo where online and offline Backgammon stars will battle it out for the title of World Backgammon Champion.

In Monte Carlo alongside the excitement of the competition, there will also be a demonstration of the SNOWIE Backgammon Artificial Intelligence software, where the public will be shown how to use this analytical software by a professional backgammon player.

SnowieGroup SA (www.snowiegroup.com), the artificial intelligence software company, has been developing backgammon software since 1997. SNOWIE 1 played a massive 3 million games against itself before it went to market, with SNOWIE 4 considered to be capable of consistently beating any backgammon player on the planet.

Thanks to the latest technologies, TrueMoneygames has the capability to broadcast the World Championship in real time on the internet and will provide real-time transmission of the semi-finals and the finals with automated live match analysis powered by SNOWIE, the unique world class Backgammon software based on Artificial Intelligence, as well as daily news and tournament results.

So if you can't make it down to Monte Carlo for the real thing, then at least you can watch it all online!