Using robots in your tournaments
There are several ways you can use BBO's robots to improve your online games. Al...
Last updated: September, 2024
BBO has partnered with a leading video conference company to provide high-quality video chat in our tournaments and team matches. It'll make your games even more engaging.
Video Chat in tournaments and team matches is free of charge and granted on demand to clubs and bridge organizations. All club manager accounts already have access to free video.
Try it first, and if it does not work for you contact us at tournaments@bridgebase.com to ask for access to free video chat. Mention your BBO username and how you intend to use it.
Tournament and team match hosts can activate Video Chat for:
Players can also access Video Chat at casual and practice tables they start themselves, available in the BBO+ Lounge (BBO+ subscription required).
Video Chat is currently available only on the web (i.e., when you access BBO through an internet browser). It’s also supported on mobile web, so you can enjoy video chat by accessing BBO through your browser (such as Google Chrome or Safari) on your mobile device.
Video Chat is free for virtual clubs that wish to activate it in their tournaments. It’s granted on demand to club accounts and to usernames with permission to create tournaments or team matches. We suggest trying it out first, and if it doesn’t work for you, contact us at tournaments@bridgebase.com to request access to free Video Chat for your tournament or team match. Please include your BBO username and a brief explanation of how you plan to use it.
Write +video+ in your tournament or team match description to activate video.
Activate video chat in your tournament:
Activate video chat in your team match:
When your game starts, each table will have a video widget, with four squares corresponding to the four players at the table, and a Join button.
You will be able to see and hear the players who have already joined the Video Chat. They will not see or hear you until you click the Join button.
Yes! Video Chat works on the Google Chrome browser for Android devices and on the Safari browser for Apple devices. Please note that players will need to access BBO through our website at https://www.bridgebase.com/v3/.
We've partnered with a leading video conference company to provide a very high-quality video chat for our bridge tournaments. We chose this solution as it's scalable, reliable and offers excellent quality.
Video Chat is completely optional when setting up your games. It is up to you, as the organizer, to activate this feature or not, depending on what your players prefer.
Note that players have the possibility to minimize, or close the video chat widget, as well as Mute all, to block incoming sounds from the other players. This allows you to offer Video for the players who enjoy it, while players who prefer not to use Video can turn it off.
Video Chat helps bring back some of the live bridge experience, allowing players to socialize more easily. It’s also more convenient than typing, making it easier to chat with others in real-time. For players new to online bridge, Video Chat provides a more familiar and engaging way to enjoy the game, closer to what they’re used to in person.
Yes. There are two ways to do this. Your players can Minimize the video widget, which keeps video and microphone on, so that they can still chat. Or, they can Close the video widget completely, which turns off both video and sound.
The same options are available by clicking the blue button with three grey lines at the table (the "hamburger" menu):
When video chat is minimized, players can click the speaker icon at the bottom of their screen to Mute all. To Restore the video chat widget, click the video icon at the bottom of the screen.
You can also restore the Video Chat widget by clicking the blue button with three grey lines at the table (the "hamburger" menu):
IMPORTANT! Please note that when Video chat is Minimized (and not Closed from the X icon on the video chat widget), players' Camera and Microphone remain in the state they were when they minimized the widget. If their camera or microphone were ON, and they clicked Minimize, their camera and microphone remain active (so that, for example, they can voice chat, or hear what other players say, with the widget minimized).
It's not possible to mute a specific player. Players have the option to Mute all, by minimizing the video chat widget, then clicking the speaker icon to turn off sound. You can also ask other participants in chat to mute themselves when they are not speaking, if they have disturbing background noise. We'll continue to refine and add more helpful settings as we collect feedback from players.
Not yet, but we'll continue to refine and add more helpful settings as we collect feedback from players. For now, Video Chat is a social feature, meant to help players keep in touch and see each other face to face.
Yes, the TD can join any table's video chat and also sees the table video if the players have activated their cameras.
Yes! Click here for a Video Chat help file you can share with your players to help them onboard and troubleshoot common issues related to activating camera and microphone. You can also host a casual table with your players, to help them set up their camera and microphone before the actual game.