Anyone who has played backgammon online for long enough has accused the dice of something. Usually out loud, usually to nobody. Orion Backgammon has just arrived on iPhone and iPad after launching on Android in August, and the independent studio behind it, Arthea, has actually done something about it.

Its dice are provably fair. Before a match starts, the seed that decides every roll is sealed away, and once it ends your own phone checks that nothing was swapped along the way. Think of it as writing your prediction on a card and putting it in an envelope before the match. 

You can’t fiddle with what’s already sealed. There’s even a public verifier where you can punch in any game ID and check it yourself. This answers a complaint that’s as old as online backgammon, and it does it with maths instead of a promise. Can’t really fault that, right?

Past the dice, it covers most of what you’d want from live backgammon. Real opponents in real time, the doubling cube, ten ranked leagues with seasonal rewards, and clubs for you and your friends. 

Every weekend from Friday to Sunday, Orion Backgammon runs a Masters tournament, set up like a poker tournament with live standings and a gem prize pool, though it’s all in-game coins and gems with no real money involved. 

If you don’t fancy a live opponent on a given evening, there are twelve themed destinations, each with its own offline campaign against the AI. They range from a café in Tangier to a moon garden in Kyoto, and come with handcrafted boards, dice and checkers to collect.

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