It seems this season that we have fewer people participating in vbookie. My question is why? I know for myself betting a minimal amount of points on a game so as to have points for the whole season has left something to be desired for me personally. Removal of all my points after last season removed a lot of the fun I took from this 'game.'

So I guess what I am asking is, what would drive more interest in vbookie? As it sits now, it's not worth my time each week to look up lines, fill out the threads with all the information, and rush on to payout the bets with the minimal amount of action that we get here.

Should we go back to where people could continue to build a bankroll? Would that motivate more people to play? Should we continue what we did for this season even though it's driven down the participation? Should I simply stop posting lines? It's not fun to post the lines when I am one of the very few people playing. During the regular season of NFL and NCAA I spend upwards of an hour a week getting the odds posted and another 15 minutes paying the bets out (early on Sunday morning in most cases for NCAA games and early Tuesday morning for NFL games). If people aren't going to play then I am just wasting my time.

So... are people not playing because there is no interest in this anymore? Are people not playing because it's not fun making tiny wagers? Are people not playing because their 'work' is wiped out after the season? Are people not playing because they are out of points (and too this end, are people out of points because they don't care to actually participate in vbookie and blow their wad on one game)? If people blew their wad (a whopping 500 points, what I normally bet on each game last season)on one game was it because they didn't care if they participated or not in vbookie? If so, why?

I'll be honest, if participation next football season is like it was this season, I probably won't post lines for more than a week or two. It's not worth my time in the current format with the current partipation levels.

What do people propose?

I know people liked the game of the week that we did before, and I would be willing to go back to that if the point totals actually mattered. Since they get wiped out at the end of the season, it's about impossible to even approach our 25000 bets + like Shortyrez and a few others threw out. I know from my point of view, seeing those bets each week was fun. Seeing the person win was ok, but seeing a person lose 25k in a bet was very entertaining. A Lot of that excitement has been removed for me. How about for others?

I will be posting odds for the remainder of the NFL season. I will probably post some of the side bet odds for the Super Bowl as well for some fun. Without more response though, Feb. 1 could be the last set of lines I ever bother to post again though. I simply will not waste my time for another season of lackluster participation going forward. Help me know if it's worth my time. Suggestions would be great.

I enjoy playing quite a bit, I just simply ran out of points relatively early on (about Week 6 if I remember correctly).

Why did I run out of points? You have to bet big to win big, this game does nothing for me if the point is only to marginally increase my point pool. Now, that is not to say I bet like an idiot, quite the contrary, but I eventually had a few bad weeks in a row and ended up out of the running. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I would love to see a fair way for someone like me to get back in the running but any strategy we come up with to give points back is likely to be unfair. After all, this is fake money and the only prestige we get is from building a large point pool (and quickly I might add).

I don't know. I hate to see someone go through the effort of creating all these lines if it is not a popular activity. Count me in for next year but I would completely understand if you wanted to stop spending your time on it.

I enjoy playing as well. I think I was knocked out week 4 /curses Baylor and A@M. Different from previous years we had given a replenishment of funds to those that had lost everything by mid season ect.. With that not occuring this year I was done.

I dont think we need a huge bankroll to start out. 1k at most if you wanted to increase it. its not that difficult to multiply into high $$ with game of the week ect opportunities.

Yeah and having my previous winnings erased was sad as well, but I can understand it.

thanks for taking the time to continue to do this Tal. I have alot of fun with vbookie here.

I have a blast betting the Vbookie. I had a system meltdown in Oct. so i wasnt online for a bit and thats why i fell off towards the seasons wind down. the reset did affect my betting in that i started small hoping to build a bank roll and be out of the running to early. maybe instead of the wipe/reset we could go to a tax system. take 10% off the winnings bi-monthly and use it to refund those that screwed themselves. might encourage peeps to be a bit more active and risky in the betting if ya knew losing big didnt mean your out for the year. wouldnt bug me to get taxed if it would help keep the game afoot. it only pixels on Sans server after all.

Count me in as someone who does appreciate your efforts. now off to plot my complete dominance in next years fantasy league.

I love sports betting. Vbookie is fun, but it takes just long enough that I'm often too lazy to worry about it. Especially because there is no monetary incentive. We should all paypal 10 bucks into a pool and the winner at the end of the year takes all!

I like the game of the week with 2/1 odds, as it is the only way to really increase your winnings; I only bet NFL tho', so not sure how NCAA would work, as far as extra work for you.

And, maybe starting at 1k like was mentioned would make the money last longer thru the season.

I also appreciate the effort you put into this, and I think the only reason we see less involvement is due to early loss of funds and fewer people active with the boards.

Carry over from season to season is six of one and half dozen of the other; good reasons to do it as well as not to, so either way works for me.

Hope we have enough folks playing to keep it going, because it is the only reason I watched football the last two years, pretty much.

I think start the year with 1000 points and give everyone who is playing a "wage" of 1000 a week.... that way you are never out of the game and keeps the money flowing......

if we are going to give everyone that much, why not carry over the winnings from year to year?

if we are going to give everyone that much, why not carry over the winnings from year to year?


There are alot of good ideas here, I didn't play this year due to the 500 vcash, even though it's not real $ it is more fun when you can bet big, a psychological thing with me I guess.

I say start each with 5k and retain last years earnings. I also like the idea of a real money pool. Perhaps a $20 dollar "in" for each sport you will bet on and then go with a fifty/fifty at the end 50% for the winner with the balance going to board maint and any costs incurred. The winner determined by number of wins at the end of each type of season. I think that would be a good way.

I do not want to handle real money in betting. Even legality aside, I don't want to be responsible for real money. I DO make mistakes from time to time when I pay out the bets, and if real money were affected, I would be lynched. Also, I fudge the lines a bit if the point spread is an even number to assure a payout. When it's not someone's real money being affected, that's not a big deal.

But yeah, the whole internet gambling thing being illegal in the US and stuff, I really don't want to go to prison over a fun game here.

my computer has been down for a while. or i woule be betting

To be honest I just sort of forgot about it this year :(

My time to post here seems to get shorter and shorter some weeks that I just zero in on Real Life and PC Gaming so much that I neglect other areas. I'm sorry Tal, I think everyone appreciates what you're doing and it would suck if you weren't doing it. I will try to be better at spending my virtual bucks.

Here's my take on it. It's not a knock on you Tal, because I know it must take a shitload of time to do this. In previous years I believe we got more random one off bets (such as NCAA BBall games, etc), more crazy odds bets (like 2 - 1 payouts for each side) and faster payouts. These things allowed bigger bankrolls to amass faster. The payout for Sat NCAAF games has to come on Sat night or Sun morning so that betting can be spread to Sun NFL games as well. Honestly, it's a neat concept but it requires so much work that it just may not be feasible unless you somehow delegate tasks. Maybe have one person who commits to quick NCAAF posts and payouts, one person for NFL, one person for other stuff.

Here's my take on it. It's not a knock on you Tal, because I know it must take a shitload of time to do this. In previous years I believe we got more random one off bets (such as NCAA BBall games, etc), more crazy odds bets (like 2 - 1 payouts for each side) and faster payouts. These things allowed bigger bankrolls to amass faster. The payout for Sat NCAAF games has to come on Sat night or Sun morning so that betting can be spread to Sun NFL games as well. Honestly, it's a neat concept but it requires so much work that it just may not be feasible unless you somehow delegate tasks. Maybe have one person who commits to quick NCAAF posts and payouts, one person for NFL, one person for other stuff.

Bullshit. You didn't get payouts any faster than as soon as the last game was over in prior years.

I always payout the NCAA games Sunday morning (unless there happens to be a Sunday game in the mix) and the NFL either Monday night or Tuesday morning. Hell, Sunday night I paid out literally 3 minutes after the Steelers game ended.

As far as the 2/1 payout games, no I didn't do many of those this year. People complained that people saved up points through each season, and the only real way people made any 'money' was through the 2/1 games. So I got rid of that complaint. It also was 'more work' when people weren't playing anyhow.

As far as other betting lines. Nothing that I have done outside of football ever gets any action, that's why I stopped doing anything but football. If more than one or two people bet on other sports, it would be worth investing more time in setting up lines.

Though I'd like to know how I could payout any faster (without splitting the thursday/friday/saturday football games, which I did do sometimes). Other than the weekends I was out of the state, there was never a time that payouts weren't done within 12 hours of the final game ending. If that's not fast enough, than I am done for sure. That's an irrational expectation for someone to even say I haven't paid out fast enough this year. I'm actually insulted by that insinuation. There were nights I came down here and paid out the bets instead of going right to bed. If that's not good enough, well forget there being any more lines.

Be realistic Shorty, the reason you aren't betting is you lost all your points (and I'm talking about the 0 you have right now from losing, not the reset). That's not something I did.

That said, if we do continue vbookie, and people want other sports lines and will actually participate, I am open to doing that.

I don't follow sports due to work/timezone issues. Poker played with real money is more my flavor. If anyone wants my Vbucks and there is a way to distribute them than have at em.

Tal I don't think Shorty was complaining or in any way knocking you. :)

There has to be a place where we can go and just have it done for us, we all sign up and play it there.... that way it takes none of our time....

Vegas.

Nothing that I have done outside of football ever gets any action, that's why I stopped doing anything but football. If more than one or two people bet on other sports, it would be worth investing more time in setting up lines.

Personally i'm all about football. i've never been a MLB fan and the NBA has driven me away as a fan years ago.

I've always thought that those sports bieng such a marathon make for poor betting. not bieng a huge fan i wouldnt know enough to bet regulary on them. even with the fun only aspect of the Vbookie i'm not pissing my points away. that said if you put up a couple games/marquis mathcups aweek i'd be more likely to bite. dont go overboard and list every MLB game in a given week.

more heh,
take the ncaafb lines this year.

Really i could give a frakk about the southernohiostatetechnical/lowerbuffaloinstituteofagriculture matchup. not too many folks are going to be knowledgable about the lower tier matchups to place bets. I for one would be appreciable of you bieng more discrimanant(sp). less lines better choices=less work for you.

couple a times this year i forwent betting on the Sat. games because i just couldnt make an informed pick.

Personally i'm all about football. i've never been a MLB fan and the NBA has driven me away as a fan years ago.

I've always thought that those sports bieng such a marathon make for poor betting. not bieng a huge fan i wouldnt know enough to bet regulary on them. even with the fun only aspect of the Vbookie i'm not pissing my points away. that said if you put up a couple games/marquis mathcups aweek i'd be more likely to bite. dont go overboard and list every MLB game in a given week.

No way I'd ever do that either for MLB or NBA. Just waaay too much work and management. Though a game here or there much like you described is more what I was talking about.

more heh,
take the ncaafb lines this year.

Really i could give a frakk about the southernohiostatetechnical/lowerbuffaloinstituteofagriculture matchup. not too many folks are going to be knowledgable about the lower tier matchups to place bets. I for one would be appreciable of you bieng more discrimanant(sp). less lines better choices=less work for you.

couple a times this year i forwent betting on the Sat. games because i just couldnt make an informed pick.

I did this. Midway through this year I changed the way I did the college lineups to place lines only for matchups with top 25 teams and teams from BCS conferences. Early in the year it was stupid to have 50 plus games which in tern is 100+ entries for the week. Doing the BCS schools and top 25s (for teams like Utah, Boise St., Ball St., TCU, BYU, East Carolina, etc.) cut the number of games down to 30ish which in turn was 60ish entries.

The reason I didn't just do top 25s and instead included every BCS school is that we have fans of major schools that do get some action here and there even when the team isn't a top 25 team. I have tried to make sure that each person can bet on his/her 'favorite' team. I even left open the possibility for someone to tell me a team he/her may like that wasn't being included anymore (though I never got any PMs about any teams anyone wanted that I wasn 't including).

Bullshit.

Tal, I really meant no knock on you at all. I know it's hard to interpret tone over the internet but I think you took my comments completely the wrong way. I totally understand that you have much better things to do with your life than this shit. I was just trying to give some perspective on the whole ordeal.

I could easily be wrong, but I thought earlier in the season we didn't always get payouts from Sat in time for Sun betting. Maybe I'm confused, I don't know. I can't seem to check that on here anyway. For some reason I just remember that if I bet all my points on one day, it was all I could do for the weekend. Maybe I'm also confusing Sun/Mon games or something, I don't recall for sure.

Anyway, calm down dude. I wasn't blaming you or trying to get you riled up for any reason. I always thought of you as a friend in game and I was just trying to give you some suggestions and sympathy on here. I lost my points because of some stupid betting this year and I'm not angry at you or myself because of it. It's just a fun way to pass some time.

It's very very likely that you didn't see a payout for Sunday NFL games until Tuesday morning (or late Monday night) as in prior years, yeah the Sunday and Monday NFL games (and for that matter Thursday/Friday/Saturday NCAA games) were separated in many cases. I didn't do that this year for expedience sake.

Again there were a few weekends this year where I was out of town (notably Thanksgiving and Labor Day) where you definitely wouldn't have seen payout for Saturday's games before the Sunday games started. That was more the exception to the rule, but it did happen a couple times. More often than not though, the payouts from Saturday were done late Saturday night (or Sunday morning if there was a Hawaii game). NFL Games were paid out either late Monday night or first thing Tuesday morning once I got to work.

There were two instances where I made mistakes in payouts, and those two times definitely impacted people that bet on those games until the correction was made by the ubermodder.

Though yeah it does bother me to be told payouts weren't made promptly when the first thing I did most Sunday mornings when I got out of bed was go to my laptop and pay out. The first thing I did Tuesday morning at work after swapping out the backup tapes was payout the NFL games. I don't feel it is even reasonable for that to be brought up as I was as prompt this season as I was last season, and in most instances I was far more prompt. There is no way I could be more prompt than what I was this season. If that's really an expectation for it to be more prompt than within 9-10 hours max after the final result is in, that's an unreasonable expectation.