[euclidz]

OK this is a BBO forum but . . . . (EBU - English Bridge Union)

What are Master Points; do they serve any purpose - what purpose do they serve?

[DavidKok]

I do not play under the EBU so I am not fully confident in my answer, but here is the short version:

Master Points are a lifetime achievement measure. You earn them over the years, and it shows you how long or at what level someone has been playing.
Because they are lifetime achievement points, it is not possible to tell the difference between e.g. a player who recently started playing and earned a lot quickly and a player who started a long time ago and earned the same number gradually (with the former typically being a much stronger player than the latter). Therefore Master Points are usually only somewhat indicative of skill, but not really a great measure for that purpose.
There are tournaments dedicated to certain Master Points brackets, to eliminate people with too much skill or experience.

Other than this I believe they do not serve any purpose, and generally I think people seek far too much value in them.

[awm]

DavidKok, on 2026-October-25, 04:23, said:

There are tournaments dedicated to certain Master Points brackets, to eliminate people with too much skill or experience.

Other than this I believe they do not serve any purpose, and generally I think people seek far too much value in them.

The EBU has the National Grading Scheme (NGS) which is a much better measure of skill than Master Points. The NGS rating is normally used for brackets and the like.

Some bridge federations (i.e. ACBL) still use Master Points to determine flights/brackets/seeding/eligibility, despite the obvious flaw that they only accumulate. Others have Master Points that decay over time (i.e. Germany, Switzerland) and use these similarly. But in EBU I suspect that Master Points are mostly a relic of the pre-NGS days. Perhaps someone who has played more than a couple times in the UK can comment further.

[paulg]

awm, on 2026-October-25, 04:45, said:

The EBU has the National Grading Scheme (NGS) which is a much better measure of skill than Master Points. The NGS rating is normally used for brackets and the like.

Some bridge federations (i.e. ACBL) still use Master Points to determine flights/brackets/seeding/eligibility, despite the obvious flaw that they only accumulate. Others have Master Points that decay over time (i.e. Germany, Switzerland) and use these similarly. But in EBU I suspect that Master Points are mostly a relic of the pre-NGS days. Perhaps someone who has played more than a couple times in the UK can comment further.

The EBU also has a Gold Point scheme, where winning significant national master points in a single event will contribute to your Gold Point ranking: Gold Points decay by 20% per year and are used to help seeding in the leading congress (Spring Foursomes).

Each NBO in the UK maintains its own master points although they are largely transferable. As far as I know, only the EBU has a National Grading Scheme, so accumulating master points are still used for bracketing, seeding, etc.

[euclidz]

How accurate are they?
Master points are awarded to individuals. Bridge is a game of pairs. If one person in that pair is very competent and the other is very weak I presume they both get the same MP score?

[DavidKok]

What do you mean 'accurate'? It sounds like you are assigning a meaning to masterpoints. What is that meaning you think it should have, and why is that accurate?

[euclidz]

DavidKok, on 2026-October-25, 08:18, said:

What do you mean 'accurate'? It sounds like you are assigning a meaning to masterpoints. What is that meaning you think it should have, and why is that accurate?

Amongst the list of features/benefits for members listed by the EBU is the award of Master Points. It logically follows that the EBU believe that members get some benefit from that 'score' - what is that benefit and for there to be any benefit even if it jsut ego surely the score must purport to be accurate?

[DavidKok]

Sorry, you've lost me. The EBU thinks there is an ego boost to getting masterpoints, and you are worried about ego being disproportionate with masterpoint total?

I think you are reading something into the score that isn't there. I recommend rereading this thread, it contains several good answers explaining what masterpoints are. If you assign any other meaning to them I think that's on you.

[paulg]

euclidz, on 2026-October-25, 08:50, said:

Amongst the list of features/benefits for members listed by the EBU is the award of Master Points. It logically follows that the EBU believe that members get some benefit from that 'score' - what is that benefit and for there to be any benefit even if it jsut ego surely the score must purport to be accurate?

The EBU tracks your lifetime accumulation of master points and awards you master point titles as you progress through the ranks. I still have my Club Master and Local Master certificates, although I don't think they send out physical certificates any more - but at the time I was thrilled to receive them as they mean something when you are a new player. TBH I was more pleased to get these than a Grand Master certificate.

The Scottish Bridge Union gives small presents when you make certain ranks - I don't think the EBU does this.

[jillybean]

NZ events award liquor, cash and other goodies, along with points that do decay.

[a_user]

There's a huge literature on the value of meaningless things in marketing.
For example, if you want to encourage people to sell condoms in Zambia (1) it's more effective to offer the seller gold stars in a 'thermometer' than it is to pay them a small amount of money.
In Bridge, the people who supply tournaments (the coffee shop owners) purchase multi-coloured masterpoints wholesale from their national federation.
They then sell them retail for a profit.
Despite the MP's having no value, the system seems to work.
As far as I know, none of the federations also sell condoms.

1. Ashraf, N., Bandiera, O., & Jack, B. K. (2014). No margin, no mission? A field experiment on incentives for public service delivery. Journal of Public Economics, 120, 1–17.

[EugeneLS]

Up until about 3 years ago I was playing at an EBU-accredited club, so I got a position in the National Grading Scheme (NGS). This placing drops out if you don't play for a period of time: mine has certainly long since disappeared.

There is a minimum threshold before you can be on the NGS. Playing 150 boards gets you an 'evolving' grade; 1000 boards puts you in the 'mature' category.

There are currently about 33,000 players on the NGS, 25,000 of them 'mature', so it's a large pool! I think I counted myself lucky to be among the first few thousand (briefly!)...

[EugeneLS]

While we're on the subject of 'grading', I admit to being puzzled by this "BXP" scheme right here on BBO. Mine stays stuck obstinately at zero - probably because I've only played in Social and the ACOL free tourneys. So you have to 'buy' access to the BXP system, do you?

Clearly they cannot be used as a measure of a player's ability. So I've been ignoring other players' "badges". Why have them at all?

[EugeneLS]

euclidz, on 2026-October-25, 07:38, said:

How accurate are they?
Master points are awarded to individuals. Bridge is a game of pairs. If one person in that pair is very competent and the other is very weak I presume they both get the same MP score?

Ah. I don't know about MPs, but the NGS takes care of that. If some of your results have been attained with a strong partner, the contribution to your NGS placement is downgraded somewhat - whilst if you've been playing with a weaker partner, it's upgraded. I don't know how the maths of the system works, but I assume they've tried to make it reasonably fair.

[jillybean]

EugeneLS, on 2026-October-26, 06:43, said:

While we're on the subject of 'grading', I admit to being puzzled by this "BXP" scheme right here on BBO. Mine stays stuck obstinately at zero - probably because I've only played in Social and the ACOL free tourneys. So you have to 'buy' access to the BXP system, do you?

Clearly they cannot be used as a measure of a player's ability. So I've been ignoring other players' "badges". Why have them at all?

Like ACBL masterpoints, you can convert them to air miles. I am saving up for a flight to Europe.

[TMorris]

I found that you can turn off the BXP sign on your profile so mine is blank.

[akwoo]

EugeneLS, on 2026-October-26, 06:43, said:

Why have them at all?

Because some people are vain enough that having them there encourages them to pay to play in tournaments where they can win them.

BBO has figured out that having them helps them make money.

[paulg]

EugeneLS, on 2026-October-26, 06:43, said:

While we're on the subject of 'grading', I admit to being puzzled by this "BXP" scheme right here on BBO. Mine stays stuck obstinately at zero - probably because I've only played in Social and the ACOL free tourneys. So you have to 'buy' access to the BXP system, do you?

Clearly they cannot be used as a measure of a player's ability. So I've been ignoring other players' "badges". Why have them at all?

Master points, ranks, and the chase for them, have basically funded bridge since time began. It was considered better if they were accumulative, since no-one wants to know that they are below average at the club, but the EBU's NGS seems to have been successful in breaking that mould.

It might be an urban myth, but I thought a lot of people in the USA gave up bridge when they reached Life Master because they had achieved such a significant goal.

Those of us who used to play on OKBridge, before BBO started, saw how a live ranking scheme could generate undesirable behaviour as so many players were keen to 'protect their ranking'. I suspect this is why Fred G never implemented such a scheme on BBO - he wanted a friendlier site.