Since there are a few of us now that seem to know the NFL fairly well and who have taken to wagering, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in participating in a contest? I was thinking of something like the following:

* Everyone starts with say…$1000 in their fake bankroll
* Each week, you’d post in the contest thread with your picks for the week (spread, over/under) and how much of your fake $1000 that you wagered. You wouldn’t have to wager on every game, though you could if you wanted to. You also don’t have to wager every week if nothing appeals to you that week.

For the lines, we’d have to all agree on a book that will let you see what you will win without actually having to sign up. For that, I was thinking sportingbet, because its interface is really nice and you don’t have to have an account to see how much you would win if you wagered x amount of dollars at x odds on x team.

Also, a cool feature of sportingbet is that it lets you choose different lines at different prices in regards to the spread. For instance, for the MNF game last week, they had the normal line started at Colts -3.5 at odds of -110. However, if you wanted to buy Colts -3.5, they offered odds of -120. By the same logic, if you wanted Colts -7, I think it was at +120 or something like that. And I have to reiterate, IT LETS YOU KNOW HOW MUCH IT WILL PAY OUT without you ever having to actually make a bet.

As far as a prize, I don’t know if FTR would sponsor such a contest or not, so I can’t promise a prize from them. A few ideas that I have up in the air right now are
1) no entry fee. Pride and bragging rights over other FTR members are prizes. Maybe I’ll buy something and put it up as a prize.
2) entry fee (I dunno, like $5?) and winner gets the pool. Of course, if we go this route, we’d have to set up some way to transfer money between all of us, so I’m not too crazy about this idea at this moment.

As far as logistics for everything goes, there would be ONE thread for the contest. The initial post would be edited each week to record everyone’s standings as the season goes on. Every week, everyone would be allowed to post ONCE with their picks. Once you post your bet, the only edit that you will be able to perform is to add another bet. You will not be able to “take it back”, because the lines will change throughout the week sometimes.

When you post your bet, it will need to look like this example:
Week 10
ensign_lee

Denver @ Oakland
$100 to win $190.91
Denver -3 @ -110

Houston @ Indianapolis
$50 to win $85.71
Houston +21.5 @ -140

Parlay
Washington @ Oakland
St. Louis @ Seattle
$100 to win $364.46
Washington -0.5 @ -110
St. Louis +7 @ -110

If you have a teaser or something, make sure to label it as such, like I labeled the parlay up there.

As far as the timing of bets is concerned, no bets may be made once it hits 2 hours before kickoff of the first game of the week, so generally, this will be Sunday at 10:00 AM CST.

Winner of the contest will be the person with the most fake money at the end of the season.

Also, the point of this contest is to have fun. Don't go trying to influence people to pick the wrong way in order to try to help your standings in the contest, because people may be betting real money at the same time as this contest. The point of this specific portion of FTR after all, was supposed to help each other make picks for the week.

I think that just about covers it as far as rules are concerned. How many people are interested? If you’re interested, please post below and tell me what you think, along with any changes that you may advocate.[/i]