WSOB Riviera Cup & Finale Results

Frédéric Andrieu of France is the 2007-8 World Series of Backgammon and the proud winner of the €100,000 1st prize. Andrieu, who was qualified to the WSOB Final in Cannes in a live super-satellite, bested American Robert Koca who had just championed the Riviera Cup a day earlier. As the 2007-8 WSOB finalist, Koca scooped €60,000. 

The second season of the World Series of Backgammon came to its end on Monday, July 21 at the Palm Beach Casino, Cannes. It started back in November 2007 at the UK Masters, continued at the celebrated Nordic Open and then made its grand finala at the French Riviera with two successive events: the Riviera Cup and the WSOB finale. 

Riviera Cup was held between July 16 and 21 at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, courtesy of PartoucheGammon Tour (PGT) and consisted of three major backgammon tournaments: the 6th PartoucheGammon Riviera Cup Championship, won by Robert Koca of the USA who defeated the famous Dane backgammon and poker pro Gus Hansen and earned a free seat at the WSOB finale, the annual Nations Cup, the team competition triumphed by the German team, and the WSOB Season 2 Finale. 

16 backgammon players had made it to the WSOB final table. 8 of them were the highest ranked backgammon player in the tour, and the other 8 were qualified in live and in online super-satellite competitions taken in backgammon websites such as Play65 and TrueMoneyGames and backgammon events as the Zakynthos Festival of Backgammon. 

The final table saw hot shot backgammon players such as Gus Hansen, Israeli Falafel (Giant of Backgammon of 2007), and Dane Lars Trablot (the newly crowned World Backgammon Champion), playing face to face against live tournaments newbies. The WSOB final four, however, was mainly dominated by backgammon veterans, except for Frédéric Andrieu the champion. The second place was taken by Robert Koca of the USA, the third by Lars Trabolt of Denmark and the fourth spot by "Falafel" Natanzon of Israel. 

Left to right: Gus Hansen and Falafel

The second season of World Series of Backgammon is planned to be broadcast around in Europe via Eurosport 2. The broadcast of the four WSOB Nordic Open episodes is scheduled to begin on July 24, 8 PM, Central European Time.