Support your Game daylong

[cherdano]

The description of these tournaments say:

Every day, with the “Support your game” tournament, help a bridge player during this difficult period.

By participating in this tournament, you will help a partner who works in the world of bridge and who is very impacted by covid-19 with 70% of the net profit generated.

 

This is an unusual arrangement for what is supposed to be a charity game. How much of the 6$ will actually go to charitable causes? And who is being supported with these funds?

Similarly, what percentage of the ACBL Save your Club table money actually goes to the club?

 

Seems a better idea to just play a normal ACBL tournament on BBO and donate the rest of the money directly.

[cherdano]

Bump.

So if 70% of the net profit goes to charity, does that mean BBO first takes a 2$ deduction for costs, then gives out 70% of the remaining 4$ = 2.80$ to charitable causes? I.e., BBO gets more than the charitable cause?

[hrothgar]

Bump.

So if 70% of the net profit goes to charity, does that mean BBO first takes a 2$ deduction for costs, then gives out 70% of the remaining 4$ = 2.80$ to charitable causes? I.e., BBO gets more than the charitable cause?

 

As I understand matters, BBO takes some amount of money off the top. (Not sure how much)

 

Then there is a second split between the ACBL and the local club. I suspect that is where the 70% / 30% split comes into play...

[shyams]

I am sure that the tournament cherdano refers to is not ACBL support your club. It is an entirely new one not affiliated to ACBL or any other NBO.

 

For example, I believe the chosen organization for the first week was Le Bridgeur.

[cherdano]

As I understand matters, BBO takes some amount of money off the top. (Not sure how much)

 

Then there is a second split between the ACBL and the local club. I suspect that is where the 70% / 30% split comes into play...

There are two types of tournaments - ACBL Save your Club, and the BBO's own "Save your Game". The phrase I quoted was about the second one, and was very specific. Are you suggesting that the person who wrote it doesn't understand the term "net profits"?

[hrothgar]

There are two types of tournaments - ACBL Save your Club, and the BBO's own "Save your Game". The phrase I quoted was about the second one, and was very specific. Are you suggesting that the person who wrote it doesn't understand the term "net profits"?

 

I wasn't aware that this second tournament type existed.

[shyams]

.

[cherdano]

I find it a little disconcerting to see no reply here. I have always thought of BBO very fondly, and it would be sad if I had to change my opinion now that it's under new ownership.

 

How much money is BBO taking off the $6 for each Support your game entry? How much off each ACBL Support your Club $6 entry?

[cherdano]

Bump.

[barmar]

Sorry, I've asked management to provide the details.

[cherdano]

Sorry, I've asked management to provide the details.

Thanks, appreciated.

Meanwhile, here is a comparison. The normal 12-board daylongs cost 0.59$ to enter. Presumably the price is set such that BBO makes a profit.

That would suggest that BBO's cost for running the 18-board Support your Game daylongs is below 0.90$. And so, unless BBO decided to profit from a charitable endeavour, we would except them to pass on 5.10$ for each entry to charitable causes. I.e., 85% of revenue, not 70% of profits.

[barmar]

Sorry, the CEO says he's not going to make financial details public.

 

But they're considering the profit on a percentage basis, not fixed costs per tourney. There's also things like taxes.

[cherdano]

That's not very reassuring.

But they're considering the profit on a percentage basis, not fixed costs per tourney.

 

What is that supposed to mean? So if BBO has 10% profit margin, this means they are spending 70% of the $0.60 profit on $5 on charitable causes?

[johnu]

Sorry, the CEO says he's not going to make financial details public.

 

But they're considering the profit on a percentage basis, not fixed costs per tourney. There's also things like taxes.

My impression is that BBO is price gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

What exactly are "fixed" cost per tourney? There are thousands of tables playing for free in the various player clubs, and hundreds or thousands more playing various free robot games. Sure there are some costs with scaling up servers and having to get them running in the BBO environment, but $5/8/10+ per table per tournament seems ridiculously high to me.

 

In addition to the "free" bridge, there are robot tournaments where the table charge is $.29 per person/table. So what is the profit margin and how is calculated? No matter how you calculate it, IMHO BBO is price gouging on the more expensive tournaments.

[hrothgar]

Sorry, the CEO says he's not going to make financial details public.

 

Actually, that's all the information that we need to know

When a company refuses to divulge how much much money its "charity" is actually donating to charity, that's really telling

 

For years, BBO was doing fine with a business model based low priced tournaments and advertising.

 

And then some VC's decided to pay a ridiculous sum for the assets and now they need to recover their investments.

[smerriman]

An event publicised as supporting charity that does not tell you how much of your money goes to that charity.. to be honest this feel more like a scam than price gouging.

[helene_t]

This is very weird.

 

Whenever I buy a bottle of water at a train station in the UK, the label says how many pence per bottle go to water safety projects in rural Africa. It doesn't tell me about some weird percentage of something, based on an obscure denominator.

[cherdano]

Does anyone feel like making a bridgewinners post about this, politely asking BBO to be transparent about where the table money for these games goes?

It's all a bit ridiculous - these "Support your game" tourneys must be a miniscule fraction of their daily revenue. They probably could have directed 120% of the table money to charitable causes and make good based on the goodwill it would have created for BBO.

 

So it's not about a lot of money, but that doesn't make it any less wrong. Personally, I have decided to stop spending money on BBO.

[barmar]

More information should be coming soon.

[hrothgar]

One of my last BridgeWinner's posts was

 

https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/what-does-a-bbo-competitor-look-like/

 

I had considered calling it "What Does a BBO Killer Look Like"

[pilowsky]

The tournaments are called save your club not save the starving children. Attach a brain to your fingers.

[hrothgar]

The tournaments are called save your club not save the starving children. Attach a brain to your fingers.

 

And yet the basic principal that charities should not be skimming off large amounts of money applies both when

 

1. The money is being given to starving children

2. The money is being given to "your clubs"

 

If you are unable to understand as basic a point as this, then you might want to avoid criticizing other people's cognitive abilities.

[shyams]

The tournaments are called save your club not save the starving children. Attach a brain to your fingers.

 

Actually the tournament referred to in the OP and in the title of this post is "Support your game". It wasn't "save your club" --- whatever that means.

[pilowsky]

Whatever. The largest bridge 'club' 'centre' 'organisation' in the world, no matter how unresponsive or shabbily run at times, is BBO. I'm happy to keep supporting them.

[hrothgar]

Whatever. The largest bridge 'club' 'centre' 'organisation' in the world, no matter how unresponsive or shabbily run at times, is BBO. I'm happy to keep supporting them.

 

That's great.

And if BBO were to run a $6 a head tournament and directly state that they were keeping the money, I'd have no problem with that.

 

But that's not what they are doing.

 

They claim that the purpose of these tournaments is to support third parties.