A local business offering bespoke backgammon playing sets is celebrating after reaching its global sales target of 200 boards, picking up a shortlisting for a prestigious national design award and acquiring a legion of high profile fans in the process.
Bone Club, founded by Lancashire designer and backgammon enthusiast, Guy Haslam, started out as a community for local backgammon players ten years ago. Haslam, who studied furniture design and antique restoration, identified a gap in the market for a championship sized backgammon board that could enable players, new and old, to have the experience of championship play at an affordable price.
Utilising his sculpture and carpentry skills, Haslam began designing and manufacturing the ‘ready to play’ collection of competition size backgammon boards, with the first hitting the market in 2016. Guy added this product range to his existing bespoke, handmade collection with private commissions offering boards made of leather, brass and Oak.
What started out as a passion project has soon become a viable business with over 200 boards sold worldwide and a forecast to sell a further 100 before the close of 2018. Bone Club will also introduce a new range of board, ‘the good traditional’ which will be available from October onwards.
In September, the Bone Club backgammon board was shortlisted for a prestigious UK Backgammon Federation award for ‘best design’. Alongside recognition from the world of backgammon, Bone Club has been well received by a number of high profile fans.
International news giant Bloomberg purchased six boards for its summer party, the Malaysian royal family have a bespoke Bone Club board and two-time backgammon world champion and professional player Bill Robertie is also a fan of the brand.
More recently, world-renowned drum and bass master, and MBE awarded DJ, Goldie joined the Bone Club fold. The international music legend, who is a huge fan of backgammon, has waxed lyrical about his love for his Bone Club board to his 90,000 Instagram followers, pitching himself against Hollywood actor Jason Statham for a game.
Speaking about the boom of Bone Club, founder Guy Haslam commented: “I started out the Bone Club community as a way to reconnect with family and friends after relocating to the Fylde coast from Manchester ten years ago and I never imagined it would take the path that it has today.
“I’m hugely excited by innovating the boards and raising the profile of backgammon amongst new and global audiences. We’ve large ambitions to create new products, ranging from Carbon Fibre backgammon boards to WIFI backgammon boards, and are in talks with a US distributor to help take Bone Club Stateside.
“And with the likes of Goldie, who I’m still waiting to take up my challenge of a game – and other high profile players all talking about the game, I’m confident that we’ll see more young players coming through the ranks and making their own mark on backgammon.”
