Fantasy Horse Racing Game - Anyone want to play?

PH01

I've been doing this myself for the past while and I wondering if anyone out there would like to play along? It cost you nothing to play and you get to do it from the comfort of your seat. And though you don't win anything, it will sharpen your skill of studying the form guide.

So here's how to play.
Pick up a race card from any newspaper or web site and choose your picks for each race using the form guide (and others).
Place as much as you like on each race, then use the Tote returns to see how well you did after each meeting.

The winner is the person who wins the most money, or loses the least at the end the day.

So anyone up for it?

pro_gnostic_8

A great idea, PH01. I'm definitely up for this. And I'll put up a 20 euro free bet prize for the winner at the end of each month.

A suggestion, though, if I may............. I think picking a selection in every race is too time-consuming and difficult to monitor. Being selective, after all, is the key to profitability in betting. That is the only advantage we have over the bookmaker .......... he has to bet every race, but we don't have to. How about if participants in the competition submit , say, three or four horses per day???

And I would suggest level stakes of one point on each horse. Otherwise, you'll have guys putting zillions on 1/5 shots and ruining the comp.

PH01

Originally posted by pro_gnostic_8
A great idea, PH01. I'm definitely up for this. And I'll put up a 20 euro free bet prize for the winner at the end of each month.

Wow that's generous of you!

A suggestion, though, if I may............. I think picking a selection in every race is too time-consuming and difficult to monitor. Being selective, after all, is the key to profitability in betting. That is the only advantage we have over the bookmaker .......... he has to bet every race, but we don't have to. How about if participants in the competition submit , say, three or four horses per day???

There's that word again, "selective" - I'm going have to learn what that means. Yeah, just a selection would be a better idea and a maximum of 4 per day is a good idea. But how about a weekly limit as well of say 30 horses?

And I would suggest level stakes of one point on each horse. Otherwise, you'll have guys putting zillions on 1/5 shots and ruining the comp.

Yip I'd go along with that - 1 point per horse.

Hobart

Good Idea. And I'll backup pro_gnostic_8 's generous offer with another 30yoyo's to give a grand prize of 50 a month. The rules should be as pro_gnostic_8 mentioned. Maybe limit the betting to one or two meetings a week. It's fairly quiet up until after christmas, but we have Navan and Thurles on this week. So why not kick it off today??

Imposter

Firstly I'd love to play but I can't play as work don't like any racing sites. Secondly i'm not in Ireland or UK so newspapers also don't work.

Anyways a few suggestions:
Seeing as most people may not have enough time to do this every day how about giving each person 10 units per week (say a week is Mon - Sun). At least 1 unit per horse/dog/snail/donkey obviously. Maybe allow doubles etc but nothing too complicated like accumulators.

Allowing 10pts (for example) gives everyone the same chance regardless of time and gives everyone the same wager. This makes sense if the idea is to see who is the best at gambling.

We did something similar in college with the racing soc and it worked well.

Deducting the bet when lost is good too as it gives people that don't get to bet that week a chance. I'd also suggest maybe 3 month stints and make a rule that a person must bet at least 5 times (weeks) in the 3 months. (This cuts out someone winning because they never bet and all the others kept losing).

Hope i've given some ideas.

Hobart

Well I'll tell you whta, imposter, I will post the race cards for each meeting up on some web space I can get for free. I presume you can read PDF?

Imposter

That would work depending on where the free webspace is. If it's a lot of hassle for you then really don't bother. I waste enough time between boards and fantasy football!
(How they're still not blocked I dunno but I'm not complaining, yet.)

PS. If anyone knows a way to eliminate the effects of websense it would be appreciated!

Morgans

Does it block the sporting life. www.sportinglife.com

When work were more strict, that was still allowed. maybe gg.com as well might sneak through.

Imposter

Both fall under the theme of Gambling which is verboten as they say here.

Hobart

It's no hassle at all. Download this (Zipped PDF Files) and see if you can read them.

Imposter

Originally posted by Hobart
It's no hassle at all. Download this (Zipped PDF Files) and see if you can read them.

Ya see now here's the funny/stoopid thing: www.boards works but members.boards is blocked.

(Recently discovered that this is why I can't see a lot of images on boards)

This is why I can see it being hassle.

pro_gnostic_8

Sorry 'bout the delay in reply ............. I was away for a day and night. Anyway, I have a question:-

How do we incorporate the interests of both UK racing fans and followers of Irish racing in this comp? I would have favoured a daily selection of 1,2, or 3 horses being submitted but this is clearly not feasible for the Irish racing punters who are restricted to racing maybe three times a week. (I'm more au fait with UK racing form and tend to concentrate on that almost exclusively).

The only way maybe around this would be to give each entrant a staking "bank" of, say, ten points per week to bet on ten different horses at 1 point level stakes???? I dunno............

Your views would be welcome -- I really would like to see this thing get off the ground.

Morgans

I think that everyone is given a bank of 50 pts. Competition lasts a month, person with most at the end wins. Plain and simple. You can bet on what ever horse racing you want to bet on. Its all about making "virtual" money. I've no experience in the best time frame for this competition, but to me part of being teh best punter you can be is knowing the races on which not to bet. Maybe in the interests of competition, you are docked 10pts for each week in which you dont bet.

I dont know, just throwing things off the top of my head.

pro_gnostic_8

Morgans, just a query. Do you see it that a contestant would have a 1pt bet on each of fifty horses over the month or could he lump the entire bank on one horse?

I'ld be all in favour of the former. I think your suggestion is straight-forward and workable.

Morgans

i think the competitor should be able to do what he wants with his points. The 50 1pt bets would encourage outsider selections, which doesnt properly represent the best way to make money from racing in my opinion. If you fancy something strongly, you put however much you want on it. It also allows for the competitor who fancies a 33/1 shot to put 1pt on it. He/She will get duly rewarded. If he/she really fancies it and puts 10pts on it. It will take a bit of work for the others to catch.

PH01

I dunno, but one of the objects of the game is to sharpen your form studying skills, so lumping on the 50 points on to one horse kinda defeats the purpose, don't'cha think?
Though I'd be in favour of including a 'banker' option that would be a maximum 5 points say?

Morgans

October isnt the month to be honing your skills. The aim of the game should be to maximise profit.

pro_gnostic_8

Thanks to all of yiz for your feed-back.

Okay, this is what I propose (taking into consideration different peeps suggestion)::-

1) Each contestant begins the month with a 50 point bank to play.
2) 1 pt minimum stake and 5 pt maximum.
3) all fifty points must be used up by the last day of the month ............. any balance of the 50 pt bank not used will be forfeited.
4) No doubles, trebles or accums .......... "on the nose" singles only
5) All selections to be submitted at least five minutes before the off time.
6) Winnings to be calculated by reference to official returned SP's.
7) All UK and Irish racemeetings valid for the competition.
8) No limit to the amount of selections on a given day ....... you are limited only by your remaining betting balance (bank)



If there are no serious objections to the above, I would propose that we kick this off on Monday next (the 6th). If you don't feel like submitting a selection(s) on Monday maybe you could still post a line to the forum indicating if you're entering the
comp ........... so I'll know to enter you in a spreadsheet chartering the profits/losses of each player. (of course, if anyone else would like to monitor it then they are more than welcome). Oh, and would whoever is the first entrant to submit a selection start a new thread (say, Fantasy Racing - Oct Comp, or sumthin') on the Forum.

So, jump in and enter ............... theres that prize at the end of the month and of course the kudo's of being the Boards "King of the Tipsters" (well until the next month anyway).;)