I am pleased to announce the opening of my sports betting system. Keep in mind I did most of the complicated calculations and coding in 9 days, so I probably missed a few bugs. I think I caught most of them though.

Here are some highlights and notes which you should be aware of.

Front Page

1. Featured Matchups are ones which you not only get back a bet for, but also a bonus.

2. The search function is disabled at this point.

3. There is an active members area at the bottom, as well as some stats, including the member who has won the most points betting.

Link Bar

1. I did a link bar similar to the reviews system, but I think I made it look nicer.

My Bets

1. This is a list of all of your bets you have ever made and gives the results on them, as well as other information.

Recent Matchups

1. These are matchups which have been added since your last visit to the site.

2. I have them showing their category and the table is somewhat different than the normal matchup tables are.

Category Pages

1. Clicking a link from the home area will take you to a list of the matchups for that category.

2. The number to the right on the front page is OPEN matchups.

3. On the category pages themselves status is open if you haven't bet and still can, closed if the betting is closed and you did not bet, or done if you already did bet on it.

4. Click on the link with the away vs. home teams in it. That takes you to the bet page.

Bet Pages

1. If the betting is closed or you already have bet on it, the form will no longer be there. It will be replaced with a different table which is a results table.

2. Simply select who will win, your bet type, and your bet amount between the minimum and maximum values for that matchup.

Bet Types

1. There are three types of bets you can place:

a. normal - You bet an amount, it is subtracted from you, if you win you get it back plus that amount over it. You have unlimited normal bets, but of course you must have enough points to use it.

b. free bet - You can pick for free and STILL win the amount you bet within those limits. You only can use this type of bet 3 times per month at this point, so use them wisely.

c. bonus bet - This is the best type of bet, potentially. You only have 3 per month, however. For this time of bet you get your bet multiplied by the multiplier listed on the page. Currently you would win double (plus your own bet back). So if you are sure you will win, use one of those for a lot of extra points. Some days I will even make it triple or quadruple though, so it may be wise to be careful when you use them.

2. There are notes telling your point total, free bets remaining, and bonus bets remaining down by the submit form.

3. You only receive the other bonus amount (listed as "bonus" on the bet pages) if the bet is a featured type bet.

Odds

1. I will usually not use the favorite or odds features. If I do, however, then the favorite must win by MORE than the odds amount or the underdog must lose by less than the odds amount.

2. I can mark a bet as having no winner. I may do that for games where it is the exact margin as predicted. If this happens you receive your original bet back, but nothing more.

How Winnings Are Calculated

1. free bet used - You receive the bet amount back.

2. regular bet used - You receive your original bet back twice.

3. featured matchup - If you bet on a featured matchup, the "bonus" amount is added to the total figured to this point.

4. bonus bet used - Your total to this point from the above 3 steps is then multiplied by the multiplier available the day you bet. If the multiplier that day was listed as 2, you get double your grand total. If I change it another day to 3, then people who already bet got double, wheras people who bet on that special day would get triple their winnings back.

5. If you bet 0, then obviously you would not win anything, but would still be able to show you won the bet and in the bowl pickem they count even if you bet 0.

Bowl Picker

1. I actually had time to put in the bowl picker and added a few games and will add the rest later. It may be wise to wait before betting on them. Or you can bet now. YOU CAN BET ZERO POINTS and still be entered into the contest. Also you do not have to make picks for all matchups and still would be in the contest which simply tells who has won the most picks. It is listed on the Picks page, along with points you won from them and your total picks you made for the bowl competition. You can also bet on them if you so choose.

Notes

1. In most bets you can bet 0 points and play for free without using your free bet ticket. However you will not win any points in return.

2. I think I tested this pretty well and I take so long to release things because I try to get them working as well as possible. However, click the bugs link at the top of any page if you want to report a bug you find in the system. I will try my best to see if the bug can be confirmed.

3. I just noticed the table with categories listed looks mighty similar to the one on the front page of the challenge system and that system has a betting component to it, but I did not look whatsoever at that when making this. I am actually kind of freaked how similar the table is with descriptions and then a number on the right. lol

4. Feel free to give feedback on whether games where the odds are exactly met should mean 1 of the teams wins or if it is a pushed bet. I say it should be a pushed bet.

Future Plans

1. NCAA Tourney Picker.

2. Fantasy sports content.

3. Search being enabled.

4. Link on front site page showing number of new bets.

5. Photos/logos of teams. I already have the settings there, but have not yet decided where I can put them and have things still look good.

6. Tips area for matchups. You would either pay points or maybe be in a certain suer group to be able to read tips for matchups. I think this is a cool idea because I may, for example, point out a trend I notice with a team or maybe something someone else informed me of.

7. A little re-skinning.

8. Bug fixes.

9. User Group Permissions.

10. Your Bet Amount always on my bets page.

11. Category on front page for featured matchups.

12. Users submit matchups and if I approve them, memebrs can bet on theirs.

13. Separate out the Bowl Picker to be different and more feature-packed.

14. Other cool features. Stay tuned!

Thank You Very Much for trying the system. Please feel free to suggest new features and report bugs in the bug tracker.

Jason

This is so amazing thanks for making it Jason :D

But uhmm lets not be a jerk and limit the free and bonus bets because Pip sucks at gambling? Lmao maybe you should at leat thinking about it kay? :D

Damn. Missed the mnf game. Guess I will have to wait until tomorrow to use it. Looks great though. Much better then the olod version.

Thank You

Thanks.

Pip, you can bet for 0 on most of them so technically you can still do it for free without using them. I'll see how things go as far as limits because things can always be changed. But if there are too many of those, nobody would ever be risking anything.

One reason I set it low this month is becuase the month is nearly half over. Also, I am not sure how many matchups I will add. Eh what I could possibly do is increase the free bets and then just lower the maxbet where you cant bet as much if you use the free bets. That way people could still win some without risking anything, but then they wouldn't win as much as people who are risking.

By the way, it will be less and less of a problem though when you have more points. You haven't been here long. Look at me and Aaron's totals. Limits aren't even noticed by us. Just somehow your total needs to build.

I fixed several issues.

Now although it still takes points away when betting (where people can't bet more points than they own), it doesn't take "bet points" away until you lose a bet. And it adds them when a bet is won. I did this becuase it had Pip's winnings as a huge negative number even though she really won the only bet which has been completed. So now the stats will be accurate on the front betting page. I also have its bets total as the total of bets completed, not all bets.

Also there were some other bugs which were going to cause issues, but luckily I noticed them. And I added the category to the front page table of featured bets.

Oh also Pip look on the my bets page and see what it says under result. I am making sure it calculated it properly. It's calculating that from my file, not from the database, so I can't check myself and make sure it has it properly displayed.

Aaron, there were already other matchups that didn't end that day. That was just one. And the only game in any sport worth adding for today is one you haven't bet on either. I can't force teams to play. Also, I am going to add fewer games to bet on than I would be doing if it was very active here. In the past I added a lot of matchups on that last system that nobody ever bet on. Members can always suggest that I add one in particular though. But as the activity level stays low, I am not going to add tons and tons of them. We need more active members than us 3.

Id like to donate 2000 points to Pip but I cant find the link. Jason could you please do the transfer manually so she can play around with the new sports betting game. Thank You

ok, I will do it later. The reason the donate link is not there is because unfortunately there are people who abuse things, so I have ahd to safeguard. In this case it's because someone could keep registering accounts and donating points from them all into one account. Although actually you only receive 100 points when you join. But you do then get points automatically every Monday morning so someone could let it build and then boost their main account. That is why I had to take so long on reviews system and this sports system too, trying to prevent that type of opening.

If anyone thinks of something sports-related, I am always trying to think of new ideas. Or I could make something else also. I have a couple ideas for adventure type components, but those would be better for the other site and it is really inactive there.

I am probably going to take a break, but over the next couple days I may add thes earch feature and also I need a stats page to show who is winning bets, how many points, etc... Otherwise not much to add right now.

I made bets on the dallas game and the indy game. I think when I bet onthe dallas game, I didnt bet anything. Could you let me know how I can review my bet points? I can see my picks and the results stuff but I didnt see how much I bet. If I did bet 0 on the dallas game can you reopen in for me so I can rebet.

Thanks

When a game is completed it will say in the result column "won 50", "lost 100", etc... I will figure some way to show the bet amount in that column until the result is shown, I guess. I meant to all along, and I thought well you can click the link to the matchup page and see other details. HOWEVER, I forgot your bet amount still won't be shown there. I am just trying to use as few columns as possible. Maybe I will have it say n/a and the point total in that column, although that will look weird. Maybe I should have it say something like "?100", buttttt here is another problem, your bet and the amount you win CAN be different becuase of bonus bets and free bets and special bonuses.

So long story short, it's complicated, but I will figure some way to show it.

I looked in the DB. You did bet zero. Also just another clarification, you bet 0 on the oens you used the free bets on also. On that you still have to put a bet amount where it will figure up what you can win. Honestly though if someone uses a free bet, they obviously would bet the MAXIMUM. So I think what I will do is make it where it auto pays the max bet when you sue free bet. But anyway just confirm what you want to bet on those. I think it would make zero sense not to bet the max now that you know how it works though becuase you lose zero regardless.

Also did you notice I did put odds on the Colts game? The cowboys one should be easy for people, but the colts have to win by more than 10.

Just another note: Notice on the front page where it has the colts game as a featured matchup, the reason the colts are underlined is they are the favorite. I thought it would look cool to have the favorite team underlined. For some pages it is not done that way becuase it was going to be a link so underlining wouldnt have been noticed in those cases obviously.

This post is long. Wow.

And yet another note: I am starting these out slow, but normally would have higher maxes on them.

Maybe free bets should only allow for half the max to be won. I don't know. People who are risking points should be able to win more, I would think. So I am still toying with all of this and am open to opinions on things.

ok there ya go. Now on your my bets page it will say what you bet until it is paid out then it will say won or lost and the amount you won or lost.

Awesome. Thank You

I am thinking about making free bets automatically pay out only 50% of maximum bet amount and then giving more of them per month. Then the biggest wins of course would still be bonus bet ones, but then regular would give more than free. I need to redo some things. I think I am going to add a whole new column to the DB that way I can better keep up with different amounts for the free bets becuase it is kind of confusing having a number as the bet amount for a free bet when in reality they didn't "bet" anything, it just has to have a number to give them for win. Oh actually I could just not put a bet amount ANYWHERE for bet amount for free bets. Yeah I know what to do to make this easier...

Anyway also I am thinking about:

1. Making it where if you pick an underdog with no odds and they win, you receive a multiplier.

2. Stats page.

3. ?

I forgot what my third idea was. lol

I also need to change some of the look to better organize things both in this system and the reviews system.

It;'s amazing how fast the sports betting system loads compared to other pages on here.

Anyway I really need to look over everything again Sunday becuase the back-end of the system gets confusing and I can make it less so.

I really want to change the look some also as it is a little crammed and confusing in some areas.

Added an error message if you leave the point total blank.

Hmm one of us three picked Miami's first win properly.

We did great today. Out of our 9 bets, 8 were lost since Indianapolis didn't cover their spread.

lmao look at the bottom of the front page of the sports system at the number of bets won per completed bets. Also look at the top winner's amount. That is because we are all losers so far. lol

By the way I will raise up maximums soon. I was just getting a feel for things. I checked these closely and all three games today paid out properly. However, I want to look at my coding one more time tomorrow before adding the rest of the bowl games just to be sure I ahve it working the way I want.

Note: I reversed the columns with bet winner and your pick on the my bets page. I don't know why I had them in that order. Also, should I just remove the game winner and won by columns totally since they are shown by clicking the link for the matchup? Anddddd I am going to rearrange things on the matchup pages. For example the game winner, won by, and bet winner columns I should just fit into that other table.

I am going to add the rest of the bowl games Wednesday, as well as some more games. The bowl games start Thursday.

I will give 5,000 bonus points to whoever wins the bowl contest, although it looks like only 3 of us even doing it. Remember, you can bet 0 if you simply want to pick for the contest, so you aren't out any points other than if you do the LSU pick which has a minimum bet of 100.

I also added number of new matchups to my "new stuff menu" so you will know when there are new bets without going there to check.

Of course it wouldn't hurt to check sometimes in case some error happens, where you don't miss that bets can be made.

I am also going to change somr more things Wednesday.

I changed the name of bonus bets to big bets where it doesn't get confused with the bonus totals. I also rearranged things, got rid of things, etc... on the my bets page and the matchup pages. I am still not done with that.

On the my bets page now it says free bet, big bet, or bet and then the amount you bet. So starting now if any of those say 0, then you did not bet anything at all. Even for free bets it should not say 0.

I've almost got back to evem. If I get the duke game won later today, I will be back on the plus side.

This is my ninth straight post in here. That's why it's frustrating as far as the activity level here. It gets more evident when it's me talking to myself everywhere.

Anyway I think I did enough for a day's work on this system. I am not changing the version number yet, but ehre is what I did today:

1. Sorted bets on my bets page by game date. More complicated than it sounds because of complications.

2. Added some notes to matchup pages, including the current big bet multiplier at that time. It is a dynamic number. So if I change it some day, it will tell the current one, NOT the one that was there when you bet. I will later add YOUR multiplier into the DB and show it on the My Bets page where you will know what multiplier was in place when you made your bet.

3. Added some things on the Picks page.

4. Added a stats page. Go look at our great winnings thus far.

5. Kicked out some queries for areas which don't need them, thus loading pages more quickly. For the My Bets page I did a little twist to be able to sort how I want and not increase the time it takes to retrieve the results.

Be checking to be sure things seem to be paying properly. Lately I have not looked in the DB to be sure everything is proper becuase I think it worked in so many combos that I think I can assume it works fine.

I know it definitely paid me properly today. And it appears it did proper with you two also.

I just received almost 2,000 points alone from the memphis game becuase I bet 500, did it a big bet, it had 200 bonus. thus my total was my bet(500) + bonus(200) * big bet(2) + original amount taken away(500) = 1,900. (see I am luckily smart so when I wrote the coding I realized i needed to multiply before the original bet was tossed back in .

seems to be working just fine. no changes needed imho. maybe some extra nfl games and some nba games to bet on would be all I ask.

ok, I'll try to add more of them. NBA in particular seems kind of bad for betting since it and baseball are such long seasons, but I guess I can.

I still have a few plans, but just have been taking a little break from coding lately.

I agree nba daily would get boring, just looking for some games I can actually have some interest in.

Not that I did well when you put the dallas phily game in but ya see what im getting at?

Yeah. I also was going to put the last cowboys game up by the way, but nobody was on ehre when I realized they were playing and it was only 2-3 hours until game time.