This is an idea for a new belt competition, I've been trying to come up with something different to the masses of existing belts and trying to make it a bit more dynamic and involving to everyone interested in it rather than the 'put your name on a list and wait for x weeks' syndrome. It's still a conventional belt, in that there's a holder who takes it in turns playing challengers and whoever wins the game becomes the holder, the difference is in how the challenger is selected.
It's based on spread betting. Before a game between the holder of the belt and the latest challenger kicks off, everyone interested in becoming the next challenger places a bet on the outcome, the person with the most succesful bet becomes the next challenger.
Before the bets are placed the holder of the belt declares which map he/she has chosen to play on, the type of game (HQ/Wipeout), the number of force points, any force point restrictions, and also which race both teams will deploy as. The belt administrator (the Bookie) is responisble for producing the buy/sell limits for the holder and the challenger going on past performance/league table position/personal experience/game parameters/bribery whatever they feel like, and each punter has 10 pounds to spend in whatever way they wish.
I think each game should probably be a 5 day limit, with a 5 day lead before the start being open for punditry and people to place their bets. Scores could be posted up as the game progresses to keep people on the edge of their seats shouting at the contestants to stop scoring/start scoring faster/ripping up betting slips etc. The holder of the belt is just the winner of the game regardless of the betting etc. The type of game and the nature of the game is likely to vary considerably according to the race chosen, type of game etc which should keep everyone on their toes and should affect the kind of spreads offered by the bookie from game to game.
I'm sure that's a bit garbled, so an example: I'm the holder and my challenger is a fresh-faced newbie. I'm a bit of an Old Skool relic hanging around in permanent mid-table obscurity in the Elite league and consequently I've picked Crossroads as the next map and Marines for us both to deploy on a 20 fp Wipeout, no restrictions on unit fp. The Bookie decides to issue a spread of 11-14 for the holder and 7-10, which represents the final score that he thinks the respective parties will have scored at the end of the game. Punter A reckons the champion is likely to win quite comfortably (it's my Mum) so spends her 10 quid like so: 4 quid buying the holder, 4 quid selling the challenger, 2 quid buying the challenger (she's a bit batty). Punter B (the challengers Mum) reckons her little darling is going to wipe the floor with me and spends her 10 like so: 8 quid buying the challenger, 2 quid selling the holder.
So when I win 19-3, you get the following: Punter A bought 5 points at 4 = 20, sold 4 points at 4 = 16, total won = 36. The 2 spent on buying the challenger however then costs 2 x 4 points = 8, so total won = 28. Punter B: total won = 0.
Now this probably looks rather complicated but I think that's a lot more due to my description of it than how it would work in reality, the concept's pretty simple and even if you don't really understand what's going on you can still join in! I think the key to it is an on-the-ball Bookie to keep things interesting (i.e. interesting spreads) and current and maybe a spreadsheet for keeping everyone's bets on and calculating their profit/loss is all it'd need, you don't need a degree in maths or anything (I'm not volunteering to be the Bookie unfortunately, much as I would love to be I just don't have the time and would just end up spoiling it for everyone. Could do the spreadsheet though
) It might affect things by having all the betting done in an open forum too, if people can wait till the end of the betting period to see how people are spreading their bets and adjust theirs accordingly...? Guess we can see how that goes. Also, there's the possiblity of the Bookie calling it correctly and no-one winning anything in which case I think the person that laid the first bet should be the next challenger - we shouldn't have a replay since the match was still valid and the person who lost has still lost, all the betting shenanigans is about is picking the next challenger! The reverse situation is a bit more tricky since the game could be a draw with a winning punter (meaning they're the next challenger) but obviously the current challenger hasn't yet lost and with a replay we could then up with 2 challengers. I think we should declare draws as going in the favour of the holder?
If it takes off I suppose we could try and keep track of individuals accounts to rollover winnings so that they've got more to bet on the next game making it more likely for you to become a succesfull challenger the longer you've been queueing, but that's maybe getting a bit ahead of myself there
It's based on spread betting. Before a game between the holder of the belt and the latest challenger kicks off, everyone interested in becoming the next challenger places a bet on the outcome, the person with the most succesful bet becomes the next challenger.
Before the bets are placed the holder of the belt declares which map he/she has chosen to play on, the type of game (HQ/Wipeout), the number of force points, any force point restrictions, and also which race both teams will deploy as. The belt administrator (the Bookie) is responisble for producing the buy/sell limits for the holder and the challenger going on past performance/league table position/personal experience/game parameters/bribery whatever they feel like, and each punter has 10 pounds to spend in whatever way they wish.
I think each game should probably be a 5 day limit, with a 5 day lead before the start being open for punditry and people to place their bets. Scores could be posted up as the game progresses to keep people on the edge of their seats shouting at the contestants to stop scoring/start scoring faster/ripping up betting slips etc. The holder of the belt is just the winner of the game regardless of the betting etc. The type of game and the nature of the game is likely to vary considerably according to the race chosen, type of game etc which should keep everyone on their toes and should affect the kind of spreads offered by the bookie from game to game.
I'm sure that's a bit garbled, so an example: I'm the holder and my challenger is a fresh-faced newbie. I'm a bit of an Old Skool relic hanging around in permanent mid-table obscurity in the Elite league and consequently I've picked Crossroads as the next map and Marines for us both to deploy on a 20 fp Wipeout, no restrictions on unit fp. The Bookie decides to issue a spread of 11-14 for the holder and 7-10, which represents the final score that he thinks the respective parties will have scored at the end of the game. Punter A reckons the champion is likely to win quite comfortably (it's my Mum) so spends her 10 quid like so: 4 quid buying the holder, 4 quid selling the challenger, 2 quid buying the challenger (she's a bit batty). Punter B (the challengers Mum) reckons her little darling is going to wipe the floor with me and spends her 10 like so: 8 quid buying the challenger, 2 quid selling the holder.
So when I win 19-3, you get the following: Punter A bought 5 points at 4 = 20, sold 4 points at 4 = 16, total won = 36. The 2 spent on buying the challenger however then costs 2 x 4 points = 8, so total won = 28. Punter B: total won = 0.
Now this probably looks rather complicated but I think that's a lot more due to my description of it than how it would work in reality, the concept's pretty simple and even if you don't really understand what's going on you can still join in! I think the key to it is an on-the-ball Bookie to keep things interesting (i.e. interesting spreads) and current and maybe a spreadsheet for keeping everyone's bets on and calculating their profit/loss is all it'd need, you don't need a degree in maths or anything (I'm not volunteering to be the Bookie unfortunately, much as I would love to be I just don't have the time and would just end up spoiling it for everyone. Could do the spreadsheet though
) It might affect things by having all the betting done in an open forum too, if people can wait till the end of the betting period to see how people are spreading their bets and adjust theirs accordingly...? Guess we can see how that goes. Also, there's the possiblity of the Bookie calling it correctly and no-one winning anything in which case I think the person that laid the first bet should be the next challenger - we shouldn't have a replay since the match was still valid and the person who lost has still lost, all the betting shenanigans is about is picking the next challenger! The reverse situation is a bit more tricky since the game could be a draw with a winning punter (meaning they're the next challenger) but obviously the current challenger hasn't yet lost and with a replay we could then up with 2 challengers. I think we should declare draws as going in the favour of the holder?If it takes off I suppose we could try and keep track of individuals accounts to rollover winnings so that they've got more to bet on the next game making it more likely for you to become a succesfull challenger the longer you've been queueing, but that's maybe getting a bit ahead of myself there
and the fact that the holder gets to set all the game parameters how they like should keep things interesting enough too.
and I suppose if you've never come across spread betting before you need to get your head round the concept from scratch, but it's nothing particulary OTT.
