Meet Desi from the BBO Support Team

If you’ve ever contacted BBO support, there’s a good chance Desi was the one helping you. She’s been part of BBO since the early days. Long before the platform looked the way it does today. Over the years, she’s supported players through every kind of moment. We asked Desi a few questions to learn more about her story, her journey with BBO, and what keeps her here after all this time.

Most players know you from the support team, but who is Desi away from the screen?

I’m Desi, and I’m from Bulgaria, which is where I still live today. Away from the screen, I’m a wife and a mom to two kids, now 12 and 15. Both of them were born while I was already working at BBO, so in a way, they’ve grown up alongside the platform.

A regular day for me is a mix of family life, school runs, and quite a few emails. When I have a free moment, I love reading or planning our next travel adventure. Our most recent family trip was to Spain, inspired by my daughter, who just started at a language school with a Spanish program. Watching her enthusiasm for the language made the whole trip even more special.

You've been working on BBO for years now. What keeps you interested?

I’ve been with BBO since the very early days, back when the platform only ran on Windows computers. That’s a long time. What keeps me here is genuinely the people.

Over the years, I’ve moved through different roles. I started as “BBO HELP,” where my job was simply to be online and answer players’ questions in real time. Back then, the BBO community was small and close-knit, and I built real friendships through those conversations, friendships that have lasted to this day.

Later, I moved into email support, then into handling abuse cases, and eventually, in 2020, I transitioned to the accounting department. Each shift brought new challenges and new things to learn.

I’ve lived through every major version of the software, every change of ownership, and every wave of new players. That history is something I carry with pride. And honestly, when you’ve been part of something for this long, it stops feeling like just a job.

What's something about you that would surprise BBO players?

Probably that I met my husband through BBO. He was working as a Tournament Director for BBO Land, and his manager mentioned that the support team was looking for someone. That’s how I got connected, and eventually how we got connected too. So BBO didn’t just shape my career, it shaped my whole life.

Oh, and there’s a fun story about how I almost didn’t get the job at all. When I applied, I was asked to make a short instructional video showing how to create a table in the Main Bridge Club and send it along with my CV to Gary. I recorded it, sent it, and heard nothing. I assumed I hadn’t been selected.

A few weeks later, Gary spotted me online in BBO and asked why I had given up. It turned out his antivirus had blocked the file, because at the time the recording software produced .exe files. We laugh about it now, but if fate hadn’t intervened that day, my whole life might have looked very different.

If you could leave one message for the BBO community, what would it be?

Be patient with the platform, with each other, and with the people on the other side of your support email. We truly care about every single message that comes in.

During the COVID lockdowns of 2020, when the whole world suddenly moved online, our team was receiving thousands of emails a day. I was working 14 to 15 hours to keep up, only to find more messages waiting the next morning. But we made it through without leaving a single email unanswered.

That commitment comes from genuinely caring about this community. So know that when you write to us, a real person reads it, and that person wants to help.

Do you have any interesting stories to share?

One moment I’ll never forget is when Fred Gitelman officially announced that BBO was welcoming three new partners: Bill Gates, Sharon Osberg, and David Smith, joining Fred and Uday Ivatury. I remember the buzz around that news. It felt like a turning point, a signal that bridge and BBO were being taken seriously on a whole new level.

Then there was the launch of the new cross-platform version of BBO, the one that finally worked on any device, not just Windows. You would think players would be thrilled. Many were. But a surprising number of longtime users pushed back hard.

Change is difficult, especially when you have been comfortable with something for years. I understood their frustration, because I had been through every version, every update, and every transition. Sometimes the hardest part of progress is bringing everyone along with you.

After almost two decades, I’m still here, still reading your emails, still caring about this community. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Have you ever interacted with Desi on BBO or through support? We’d love to hear your experience in the comments. Stay tuned for more People Behind BBO stories.