Putting Abigail's explanation of why a win and a loss is not equal a different way (for those who see 0 q, p r s and find their eyes glazing over and their mind going blank, lol): The points per game is based on the difference between the two players' ratings. After the first game that distance will have changed and thus the second game will be worth a different amount.

The backgammon formula gives a match a maximum value equal to the square root of the match length. Whether that's the "correct" function to use or not, it makes sense that longer matches earn more beans; more effort/risk, more reward/loss.

I've often been puzzled by this one. I've seen it in player's profiles at Vog but not been able to retrieve any match from the archive. How can you have a draw in backgammon?