Following presentations and a vote of the member nations at the WBGF Extraordinary General Assembly on 6th October 2024, the UK was invited to host the 2026 WBGF World Team Championship and Women’s World Team Championship. This event and the subsequent individual event will be held at the Mercure Earls Court hotel in London from 24th to 30th August 2026.
The award of hosting the event followed over a year of preparation by a team comprising Martin Barkwill, who delivered the presentation and hosted and documented the meetings that preceded the bid, Chris Rogers, whose idea it was to bid, and Andrew Selby, who was responsible for the Powerpoint presentation, searching of venues and efforts to secure sponsorship. Raj Jansari also provided invaluable advice on presenting our bid.
The venue has two large conference rooms on the ground floor. One for the backgammon event and the other for the 30th Mind Sports Olympiad which will run concurrently. We are highly confident the backgammon hall can accommodate as many as 300 players which we believe is attainable for what is likely to be the biggest and most prestigious backgammon event held in the UK to date.
Arda Findikoglu will be the Tournament Director supported by an experienced and proven British team. Arda is very well known to the global community having directed the Backgammon World Championship, Merit Open, Istanbul Open and Loutraki Grand Prix among other major events.
The UKBGF is determined to make the event accessible to all levels of players. The individual event will have a Masters division as well as an advanced level and intermediate division to suit a range of budgets. There will be the usual side events comprising Super Jackpots, “ad hoc” Jackpots, Consulting Doubles, Speedgammon, Seniors, one point etc.
The venue is near Piccadilly Line underground stations ensuring easy access from Heathrow Airport and London mainline stations. The Mercure and ibis hotels offer a large number of rooms for the players and excellent dining and refreshment facilities.
The UKBGF board appointed Tony Lezard as the Project Manager of the event. We will of course keep the membership updated as the date approaches.
The team wishes to thank the WBGF board and member nations for placing their faith in our ability to host the event and the UKBGF for their encouragement during the bidding process. Special thanks are also due to Etan Ilfeld and Mind Sports Olympiad for their financial backing and making an ideal London venue possible, Andrew Selby who conducted the negotiations, and Tim Spring who expertly handled the financial aspects.
Putting a team together for ANZBGF (Australia and New Zealand) and expect to be there.
Congrats, how exciting!
Excellent news
This is wonderful and exciting news, and I fully intend to support the event if at all possible. Well done to Martin, Chris, and everyone on the board for making this happen.
Good news indeed – Martin you’d mentioned the different regions of the UK could have their own team representation as a one off, with it being in the UK – is this still the case?
It is a possibility.
Thanks for confirming Martin. My reply with Scotland flag emojis appears to have been censored / removed by the bot 🙂
If England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are entering teams, will the United Kingdom be entering a team as well as it has done for ten years?
I can’t answer this just yet as we are awaiting clarification from the WBGF.
Great news and a fantastic step forward for backgammon in the UK !!!
Well done UKBGF for getting this prestigious event.
What great news!!!! I want to attend this if I am free!
That’s great news!!
Well done to all of you! That’s absolutely incredible, fantastic and exciting! Thank you for all the work you’ve put into this I’m sure it will be amazing.