[jillybean]

EugeneLS, on 2026-August-12, 02:16, said:

Are we going to be able to tell which players are 'premium' members, and which are not?

Furthermore: it might be useful, in the case of non-premium members, to know how many of their allotted six boards they have used up.

There are so many ways in which this new system can be exploited and misused. PLEASE THINK AGAIN ADMINS!

Here's my suggestion, though it may be unpopular with many: do away with free membership altogether; charge a modest monthly fee (well, less than US$5.99 at least!) to all participants. I already pay monthly for sites like Netflix etc. - another sub. wouldn't break the bank for me, and probably not for most others...

Shirley, a bridge player, can count to 6.

[scarletv]

fmjssy, on 2026-August-09, 21:25, said:

Hi everyone, sharing this here since it answers a lot of what's been asked in this thread. You could find the breakdown of what's included in Basic, Basic No Ads, and Premium.

https://doc.bridgeba...elp_Center.html

Hope this helps!

Is it possible to read it in English the translation is not in all points understandable

[mike777]

pes_6, on 2026-August-12, 09:00, said:

The day has come when BBO isn't free for end users anymore. Don't be funny, six free boards per day can't be real free, that's only cca 1/4 of "offline" tournament. I remember when you said that BBO will be free forever (for end users). We have a saying that says: "Never say never". I hope that BBO owners calculated well how many money will earn from that membership plans. I still think that woun't be so high that they thought. Personally, I'm not against membership plans on BBO, but I would like that BBO owners admit that there is no longer a real free BBO. I hope that in premium plan will be possible change table cover and remove that stylized "B" in the middle of table, that disturb, especially when playing, after auction.

I doubt the families that own BBO have any idea what BBO is or care. It is such a tiny part of their investments. If it becomes a headache just end it.

The people you are quoting sold BBO long ago.

Posters seem to believe the owners are bridge crazy players who love bridge.....

BBO is run by a large company where bridge is a tiny part of the company. In turn the company is just a small part of a huge hedge fund. In turn the hedge fund is owned in large part by 50 European families....The families own many things besides the hedge fund....

[pes_6]

mike777, on 2026-August-12, 10:52, said:

The people you are quoting sold BBO long ago.

I didn't know this information to now. Unfortunately, that explain everything.

[Gaawz]

Geesh...

I do not plan to stay if there is a membershipp fee,,,,,

I play regularly and do a bunch of ACBL stuff on line and if I have to play to practice this leaves me cold

[Rfulrabbit]

 Vampyr, on 2026-August-05, 06:42, said:

Play online 5 times a week? I don’t think people do that. I play a couple of times a month, if that - in a social team game and sometimes league matches. Sometimes just playing casually against random pairs, mainly for practise or ironing out a system.

If they wanted to start charging, at a pay to play system would at least be fair.

The solution is switching to Real Bridge or Into Bridge. It’s a pity. No one I know would be willing to pay $5.99/month.

Into Bridge is more expensive than Bbo.

I play every single day tho.

And have no face to face I can attend.

[mike777]

 Vampyr, on 2026-August-05, 06:42, said:

Play online 5 times a week? I don’t think people do that. I play a couple of times a month, if that - in a social team game and sometimes league matches. Sometimes just playing casually against random pairs, mainly for practise or ironing out a system.

If they wanted to start charging, at a pay to play system would at least be fair.

The solution is switching to Real Bridge or Into Bridge. It’s a pity. No one I know would be willing to pay $5.99/month.

If no one is willing to pay 6 bucks a month
Why should the 50 Euro families that own the hedge fund, that owns the company that BBO is a small part of, care...


The families that own BBO are not bridge crazy players that live for bridge...they may not even know BBO exists..it is so small...

If you prefer only to play on bridge sites owned by bridge loving players, players who are not in it for profit, then..

Remember the ACBL has roughly 120,000 dues paying members, they are losing roughly 3000 to 6000 a year

In person clubs are closing over the years .

China has its own sites

Add in non Chinese, Europe, wherever, the market is not growing enough to justify capital expenses..





They may just simply walk away and redirect their capital towards chess or poker or AI things..

[EugeneLS]

jillybean, on 2026-August-12, 09:12, said:

Shirley, a bridge player, can count to 6.

But Jilly, yet another bridge player, apparently doesn't bother to read other people's posts properly.

[OrShoham]

I'm not here to yell, scream or snipe, but I'd like to chime in with my proverbial two cents on this subject.

1) I understand that BBO is a business and needs to make money.
2) I assume the current business model isn't making enough money, hence the need to revise it.
3) Six boards a day is simply not enough to consider this a viable Freemium service. That's less than a free tournament, and it's not enough to bother looking for a table to sit down at - by the time you get warmed up, your quota is done. You're either paying for the premium membership, paying for the tournament, or you aren't going to be on BBO. It might be enough if the boards carried over across days - you could play a couple times a week - but not as it stands with no carryover.
4) $120 a year for premium isn't terrible, but it's not cheap. Pretending it's half the price isn't going to convince anyone when the price goes up after the first year. For what I do on BBO, this is not something I'm willing to pay.
5) With this policy, I don't personally think BBO is going to survive as anything other than a premium service. Thus, even the free quota isn't going to be helpful - you won't have anyone to play with. The paying players aren't going to bother partnering with someone limited to six hands a day, and the free players aren't going to be there at all.

I've been around BBO for well over 20 years (my join date on the forums says it's been over 22 at the very least, but I'm fairly certain it's been a fair bit longer). I completely respect the business decision. This is not a complaint. I am just sharing my sadness at what appears to be the end of an era.

[pescetom]

mike777, on 2026-August-12, 10:52, said:

I doubt the families that own BBO have any idea what BBO is or care. It is such a tiny part of their investments. If it becomes a headache just end it.

The people you are quoting sold BBO long ago.

Posters seem to believe the owners are bridge crazy players who love bridge.....

BBO is run by a large company where bridge is a tiny part of the company. In turn the company is just a small part of a huge hedge fund. In turn the hedge fund is owned in large part by 50 European families....The families own many things besides the hedge fund....

It doesn't make much difference to uncertain BBO players, but I don't think your analysis is at all exact.
BBO is now run by a small company, based on the passion for bridge and personal gain of one person, backed by a hedge fund.
That small company has the clear aim of obtaining and retaining a near monopoly position in the small market of online card games, and bridge is a huge part of the company. It already bought up most online bridge companies (US, Europe and China). It is very likely to buy up a promising competitor like Intobridge, if it has not already done so. It doesn't seem interested in creating a newco and offering a better experience. Expect prices to continue to rise.

[mike777]

 pescetom, on 2026-August-14, 14:54, said:

It doesn't make much difference to uncertain BBO players, but I don't think your analysis is at all exact.
BBO is now run by a small company, based on the passion for bridge and personal gain of one person, backed by a hedge fund.
That small company has the clear aim of obtaining and retaining a near monopoly position in the small market of online card games, and bridge is a huge part of the company. It already bought up most online bridge companies (US, Europe and China). It is very likely to buy up a promising competitor like Intobridge, if it has not already done so. It doesn't seem interested in creating a newco and offering a better experience. Expect prices to continue to rise.

Please show the source of your information.
My understanding is totally different, extremely different.


For starters list all the owners of HLD investment Group. Please keep in mind others outside this group also own BBO.

It definitely sounds as if you are missing many many owners


My understanding is this group owns many billions in investments and the owners have outside investments, outside of HDL.

You say backed by a hedge fund, that means owned by the hedge fund. There are apparently other owners, outside owners..in addition

As for 52 entertainment, hardly a small company, Google says up to 250 employees, valuation arguably up to 650 million euros


Again. Just a small piece of what the owners have in investments..


My point being, not owned by one guy who loves bridge..

Bridge is NOT a huge part of all of these owners net worth..


However even if 52 entertainment is a tiny company, these owners have billions and billions of other investments
.

[brecherdc]

jillybean, on 2026-August-10, 13:24, said:

"You play a few deals here and there and ads don't bother you → Basic has you covered, free"

It doesn't have me covered in any remote sense. Not at six deals a day -- that's like ten minutes.

I would happily deal with more ads to get that limit up to 12 or 20. But that's not an option.

And by the way, I'm getting virtual zero ads today through the browser interfact. Which makes no sense at all.

[brecherdc]

barmar, on 2026-August-11, 08:35, said:

You will not be allowed to start playing a tournament that has more boards than the number of free deals you have left. This is one of the reasons we created the 4- and 6-board free tournaments.

What are you talking about? I go to "Free Tournaments" every day, and every individual tournament I see is 8+ deals.

[pescetom]

 mike777, on 2026-August-14, 18:06, said:

Please show the source of your information.
My understanding is totally different, extremely different.


For starters list all the owners of HLD investment Group. Please keep in mind others outside this group also own BBO.

It definitely sounds as if you are missing many many owners


My understanding is this group owns many billions in investments and the owners have outside investments, outside of HDL.

You say backed by a hedge fund, that means owned by the hedge fund. There are apparently other owners, outside owners..in addition

As for 52 entertainment, hardly a small company, Google says up to 250 employees, valuation arguably up to 650 million euros


Again. Just a small piece of what the owners have in investments..


My point being, not owned by one guy who loves bridge..

Bridge is NOT a huge part of all of these owners net worth..


However even if 52 entertainment is a tiny company, these owners have billions and billions of other investments
.

Please read more carefully what I said.
250 people is a small company, at global level (I worked with 56,000 at one point).
Based around the passion for bridge and business of one person (Olivier Comte) is a fair summary of the origins of 52E, from what I read at the time: it was created to establish an empire in online card games. I did not say he was the owner, technically he is (or was) CEO. I imagine you can still read about this on the 52E site or in Google.

I have no idea who owns the French HLD fund behind it, and fully agree that they will probably know little about being in the bridge business and care even less. What does that matter to BBO users?. I doubt the US pension funds in Canadian Oaktree know they control the biggest soccer club in Italy, but that's how the world works today.

[mike777]

What does it matter?
Clearly based on these posts it is the main matter? It is the whole point.

They complain talk as if BBO is on owned by one person rather than hundreds or thousands. That these owners have bills to pay, families to feed and how dare they are not altruistic...


From what I read about European football fans, especially in Great Britain they are even worse..on this subject.

The attitude being, how dare you don't spend your money, lose more money, the way fans or users demand....


To use your phrase, why does that matter to BBO users..
The posters keep complaining about greed on the part or lack of caring about bridge and they demand these families do more..

To use your example that all these pensioners sacrifice and spend more on their beloved football Italian team or they are greedy..how dare they raise ticket prices
.

[pescetom]

 mike777, on 2026-August-15, 05:07, said:

What does it matter?
Clearly based on these posts it is the main matter? It is the whole point.

They complain talk as if BBO is on owned by one person rather than hundreds or thousands. That these owners have bills to pay, families to feed and how dare they are not altruistic...


From what I read about European football fans, especially in Great Britain they are even worse..on this subject.

The attitude being, how dare you don't spend your money, lose more money, the way fans or users demand....


To use your phrase, why does that matter to BBO users..
The posters keep complaining about greed on the part or lack of caring about bridge and they demand these families do more..

To use your example that all these pensioners sacrifice and spend more on their beloved football Italian team or they are greedy..how dare they raise ticket prices
.

My point was that, ironically, BBO *is* again in the hands of a bridge lover running a company largely focused on bridge.
Unfortunately that does not guarantee that things will improve for BBO users, so far quite the contrary.

[mike777]

 pescetom, on 2026-August-15, 05:47, said:

My point was that, ironically, BBO *is* again in the hands of a bridge lover running a company largely focused on bridge.
Unfortunately that does not guarantee that things will improve for BBO users, so far quite the contrary.

But it is not. The owners don't care, they might not even know BBO exists if it is that small.
If Google is correct, they may even be required to sell the company very soon, per their hedge fund rules..
Apparently they already tried to sell the company a year or two ago..


Ironically my football team is owned by one person, one family, a football loving family. Family has owned the team for a 100 years

However we fans want them to sell
Why?
They don't have the billions we want them to spend.


For all the robot playing And complaining of the robots.
The solution is known. Money..
Money to pay someone smart to fix them.
Millions, perhaps less if AI is helping..

As far as bridge itself here in America
Perhaps 200 thousand a week, every week, in tournament prize money will garner interest.. another 200 thousand a week for advertising and expenses..
Perhaps make Bridge as popular as Tennis??
As a small goal


.

[pescetom]

 mike777, on 2026-August-15, 07:55, said:

But it is not. The owners don't care, they might not even know BBO exists if it is that small.
If Google is correct, they may even be required to sell the company very soon, per their hedge fund rules..
Apparently they already tried to sell the company a year or two ago..


Ironically my football team is owned by one person, one family, a football loving family. Family has owned the team for a 100 years

However we fans want them to sell
Why?
They don't have the billions we want them to spend.


For all the robot playing And complaining of the robots.
The solution is known. Money..
Money to pay someone smart to fix them.
Millions, perhaps less if AI is helping..

As far as bridge itself here in America
Perhaps 200 thousand a week, every week, in tournament prize money will garner interest..
.

You still failed either to understand or to believe what I said.
Let me try one last time before I give up.

The direct owner of BBO is 52E, a company launched by the HDL fund explicitly to establish an empire in online card game businesses, starting with BBO. It is absurd to suggest that the management of 52E or indeed of the fund above it might not know it exists. They might not care about anything other than squeezing maximum profit out of it without significant investment, but that is a different issue. What the investors behind the HDL fund but not part of its management know or care is irrelevant, as I see it.