Autumn Championship 2018 Betting info/rules & sign ups
Posted: 09 Sep 2018, 09:53
It's time, my stardusty friends. Time for zoom to win another betting event. Time to show everyone else that you are the most active participant in the AoE3 high level community, or its most religious viewer, and know exactly who is in shape and who isn't. As always, it's all about guessing the right results, but it helps if you pay attention to the odds.
A number of betters, most notably @spanky4ever, came close to the prize last time around, but it was @zoom who ran away with it in the end. Again. He pulled off his classic trick of losing all of his points about 5 times and then coming back to win it with some solid betting in the last couple of rounds, and a good amount of luck of course. But to what extent can we realistically blame his luck, when it's the 4th time he's won? That's more than half of the betting events, and he was never short of competition. What is his secret? Perhaps a combination of his frequent stream-watching, subsequent solid understanding of players' strengths and weaknesses, and a knack for betting the odds? Assuming the master of betting will be back to defend his title, whoever signs up here will have their work cut out for them.
For those who participated before, it'll be the same as always with one additional rule: You are only allowed to donate if you have above the average amount of points. This rule prevents people from signing up, not participating and donating all of their points to someone else.
Everyone who is new to it, make sure you read the rest of this post. Don't hesitate to ask any questions in this thread or via PM, and I welcome any feedback. If you think I should do something differently please do mention it, even small things. Also, if something seems out of the ordinary or doesn't seem to be working like it should, shoot me a PM.
Betting starts after the group stages, beginning with the round of 32 of this event. This should be somewhere around the 24th of September.
Happy gambling and may fortune be with you!
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Prize
There is a $100 prize up for grabs reserved from the tournament prize pool. Winner takes all! The winner is the player with the most betting points after the finals of the tournament.
Participation is free.
How to sign up
Simply leave a reply in this thread, or send me a message. You will receive a PM with further info. If you're reading this after the tournament started, you can still sign up.
How the system works
After you sign up, you'll receive a message from me with a link to your own personal betting sheet (example) where you can enter your bets and a link to the stats sheet which contains the standings as well as everyone else's bets. The system is hosted in the cloud (Google docs) and updates automatically as you place your bets. Where to enter your bets: http://i.imgur.com/84cIjd2.png but on your own personal sheet of course.
Betting updates will be posted in a discussion thread which I will post later, with all betters tagged in it. So make sure you keep an eye on your notifications during the event! Alternatively you can keep an eye on your betting sheet, which will always show all of the open betting matches and when they are scheduled to be played.
You start with 1500 points.
Which matches to bet on will be decided by me. There will be at least 5 matches to bet on in every round up to the round of 16, and after that you will be able to bet on every match. I will send a message to all participants if there is a new match to bet on. This information can be found in your player sheet too, of course.
Note that if a match is played early in the round and there is still some time, I may select another match in that same round to bet on so keep an eye out for that.
The system rewards participation, as there is a bit of inflation each match which only benefits people who participate (and win). Typically the point total at the end of the event will be around 150% of the point total at the start of the event.
How the odds work
If the odds against player A winning are 5.00 (also read as 5 to 1) that means you get 5 times the amount of points you bet in payout if player A wins. So if you had bet 1000 on player A winning, you would get 5000 points in payout which is a 4000 point profit.
The odds update real time based on your and other players' bets. The odds are frozen right before the match starts and payouts will be based on those final odds, not based on the odds at the time you placed your bet.
If many people bet on a result, you will get less points in payout if it happens. This means you are not betting against a bookmaker, you are betting against the other betters and if a lot of them think player A will win but you think player B is underrated, it could be a worthwhile strategy to bet a bunch of points on player B.
In short, if you bet on a result which the community thinks is unlikely and it happens, you are rich! If you bet on a likely result and it happens, you also win but you are less rich. The more risk you take the higher your potential reward, but of course many well-placed safe bets can also add up to big profit. Develop your own betting strategy accordingly.
Rules
1. There is a maximum of 1000 points per specific result (like Player A winning 3-0) and 10000 on the results "Player X winning". The system will complain if you try to put more points on results than allowed.
2. At the bottom of your player sheet is your balance (points available to bet with). If this number reaches less than zero as a result of you placing bets, none of your bets will be counted so make sure it stays above or equal to zero.
3. You can't bet on your own matches except on you winning and/or you winning x-0.
4. You are allowed to donate points to other players, but only if they have zero points left AND if you have more points than the average amount per player (1500 to start). "Malicious donations" (under 50 points) are not allowed.
A number of betters, most notably @spanky4ever, came close to the prize last time around, but it was @zoom who ran away with it in the end. Again. He pulled off his classic trick of losing all of his points about 5 times and then coming back to win it with some solid betting in the last couple of rounds, and a good amount of luck of course. But to what extent can we realistically blame his luck, when it's the 4th time he's won? That's more than half of the betting events, and he was never short of competition. What is his secret? Perhaps a combination of his frequent stream-watching, subsequent solid understanding of players' strengths and weaknesses, and a knack for betting the odds? Assuming the master of betting will be back to defend his title, whoever signs up here will have their work cut out for them.
For those who participated before, it'll be the same as always with one additional rule: You are only allowed to donate if you have above the average amount of points. This rule prevents people from signing up, not participating and donating all of their points to someone else.
Everyone who is new to it, make sure you read the rest of this post. Don't hesitate to ask any questions in this thread or via PM, and I welcome any feedback. If you think I should do something differently please do mention it, even small things. Also, if something seems out of the ordinary or doesn't seem to be working like it should, shoot me a PM.
Betting starts after the group stages, beginning with the round of 32 of this event. This should be somewhere around the 24th of September.
Happy gambling and may fortune be with you!
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Prize
There is a $100 prize up for grabs reserved from the tournament prize pool. Winner takes all! The winner is the player with the most betting points after the finals of the tournament.
Participation is free.
How to sign up
Simply leave a reply in this thread, or send me a message. You will receive a PM with further info. If you're reading this after the tournament started, you can still sign up.
How the system works
After you sign up, you'll receive a message from me with a link to your own personal betting sheet (example) where you can enter your bets and a link to the stats sheet which contains the standings as well as everyone else's bets. The system is hosted in the cloud (Google docs) and updates automatically as you place your bets. Where to enter your bets: http://i.imgur.com/84cIjd2.png but on your own personal sheet of course.
Betting updates will be posted in a discussion thread which I will post later, with all betters tagged in it. So make sure you keep an eye on your notifications during the event! Alternatively you can keep an eye on your betting sheet, which will always show all of the open betting matches and when they are scheduled to be played.
You start with 1500 points.
Which matches to bet on will be decided by me. There will be at least 5 matches to bet on in every round up to the round of 16, and after that you will be able to bet on every match. I will send a message to all participants if there is a new match to bet on. This information can be found in your player sheet too, of course.
Note that if a match is played early in the round and there is still some time, I may select another match in that same round to bet on so keep an eye out for that.
The system rewards participation, as there is a bit of inflation each match which only benefits people who participate (and win). Typically the point total at the end of the event will be around 150% of the point total at the start of the event.
How the odds work
If the odds against player A winning are 5.00 (also read as 5 to 1) that means you get 5 times the amount of points you bet in payout if player A wins. So if you had bet 1000 on player A winning, you would get 5000 points in payout which is a 4000 point profit.
The odds update real time based on your and other players' bets. The odds are frozen right before the match starts and payouts will be based on those final odds, not based on the odds at the time you placed your bet.
If many people bet on a result, you will get less points in payout if it happens. This means you are not betting against a bookmaker, you are betting against the other betters and if a lot of them think player A will win but you think player B is underrated, it could be a worthwhile strategy to bet a bunch of points on player B.
In short, if you bet on a result which the community thinks is unlikely and it happens, you are rich! If you bet on a likely result and it happens, you also win but you are less rich. The more risk you take the higher your potential reward, but of course many well-placed safe bets can also add up to big profit. Develop your own betting strategy accordingly.
Rules
1. There is a maximum of 1000 points per specific result (like Player A winning 3-0) and 10000 on the results "Player X winning". The system will complain if you try to put more points on results than allowed.
2. At the bottom of your player sheet is your balance (points available to bet with). If this number reaches less than zero as a result of you placing bets, none of your bets will be counted so make sure it stays above or equal to zero.
3. You can't bet on your own matches except on you winning and/or you winning x-0.
4. You are allowed to donate points to other players, but only if they have zero points left AND if you have more points than the average amount per player (1500 to start). "Malicious donations" (under 50 points) are not allowed.
