Sports gambling, wagering and gaming have been around for a long time and have moved into the mainstream from behind closed doors in recent decades.  However, unlike casino gambling that governments have embraced over the past 20-30 years, there is an affect on other institutions, namely the professional and amateur sport ranks.  Certainly the lessons of the Chicago Black Sox scandal, Pete Rose, Tim Donaghy, and Rick Tocchet show that gambling has a corrupting influence on sports.  While regulating it at the sports level seems like the solution, rules banning it were in place for all the above examples.

Placing the government in charge of sports gambling is a risk in itself.  Not only have they allowed $200 million in false winnings to be collected in their lottery games, but have made mistakes on their existing Pro-Line sports wagering business (I can only find this anecdotal reference to a $900,000 soccer mistake).  There is also no evidence that the government act responsibly with the billions they raise from gambling today.  Additional billions will increase the income statement for the provincial coffers, but the money will not be targeted to any specific social infrastructure area to benefit all.

Finally, there is a social cost to increased gambling.  Moral issue aside, the advent of casino gambling and VLT’s in Canada brought increased gambling addictions.  This in turn has increased the theft and fraud of businesses, charities and governments as well as personal bankruptcy.  When the government tells people to start practicing their happy dance for their sports wagering, how many more will be caught up in dreams of hitting it big?

I see that real government sports book will eventually come.  They will not resistant to ignoring a new revenue stream.  I am satisfied with small charity games and the lottery sports offerings available today.  Adding betting on individual games will only cause problems for sports and that is what is most important to me, not the side wagers.

I have planned on adding a Pool Board contest type to Overtime Central for use with Grey Cups and the like.  That is still in the works.  It is a little harder to do on a website and requires a little greater clientele that what I have (by my calculations a 0-20 score board would have 441 squares).  Someday I will get to it.

You don’t see pool boards to often anymore except in small towns and perhaps Legion Halls.  They’ve been replaced by the pool ticket schemes that minor hockey and football teams use a fundraisers.  Totally anonymous and set to scale for our modern world.  They can’t beat writing your name on a board and seeing some good scores written in for your squares.

Not likely my visitor was looking for advice on running a pool board, though.  I expect they were in charge of creating a Grey Cup ticket pool for a child’s fund raising effort.  I’ve never run one so I open it up to commenters who may stumble upon this post to add a little advice on how to go about running a Grey Cup pool.

I’m also going to shift the focus of posts. Topics will include the Overtime plugin, the development process, different fantasy contests and the world of fantasy sports as it appeals to me. Posting on the progress of development and features of the plugin I hope will provide an opportunity for feedback from interested parties, although I don’t expect much until the plugin is officially released and publicized. I won’t commit to any post frequency, but hope to post on a regular basis.

Finally, Overtime Central will only host private contests from now on. I’ve decided the stress of managing public contests is not needed and interferes with my other focus. As time permits I will still hold the odd private contest for my usual group of associates.

Entries received as of today for the public Pick ‘em contest are short of the required 20 entries as specified in section 4, point 6 of the rules. All entries and new accounts will be deleted today.

After much deliberation and consideration of the options and a sleepless night, I have decided it is best to take this year off, regroup and prepare for next season. Due to other commitments, the preparation and launch of the contest was left later than desired, but I still tried to push through all the work necessary in a couple weeks. This resulted in the contest not receiving the exposure it should have, with only a quarter of the regulars signing up, and the contest not being fully ready for the new season.

The lack of participants was only a minor factor in the decision. Last night, after reviewing the entry count, I considered continuing on with the contest with perhaps an adjusted prize list. However, after getting into some of the contest setup remaining for automation of emails and updates, I realized I had forgot some major work that needed to be done. With an already busy schedule at work and lots of overtime the past six months, I wasn’t looking forward to putting time in to patch the system to the point it would work. Instead, I decided I should take a period off, get some things off my plate, then focus on getting the system ready for next year. Without any contests taking up my time, this will be the best option for me to get the code quality to where I want it to be.

So basically I jumped the gun here, pushing forward because I did not want another year to go by. My busy work schedule left me unaware of just exactly what tasks I had remaining for this year. I feel the final outcome will be better by taking a break and getting the code completed rather than in a good-enough state.

I hope everyone will understand this position. I would like to thank all participants that signed up and cfldb.ca for their sponsorship. Check back next year for what contests we have available.

There have been a lot of account creations, but not as many entering the contest. I will outline the procedure in case it is not clear. First, you must create an account, which requires a valid email address (I do need to contact you if you win!). I hate spam too, so don’t worry, your email address will not be sold. After creating an account and signing in with the password emailed to you (check your spam filters), enter the contest by entering a team name, selecting the Pick ‘em Challenge contest and accepting the terms and conditions in the sidebar Contest Signup section. After you have entered the contest, a link to your entry home page will appear in the sidebar. Follow the link to see the contest status and make your picks. Not as easy as it could be; I will work on improving the flow in the future. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment here.

Our initial free contest open to the public, cfldb.ca has graciously stepped forward to provide $150 in prizes for this contest. First place will receive a 2GB iPod Shuffle, second place a $50 Sony Store Gift Card and third place a $25 Ciniplex Gift Card. Call this our first toe in the water. The success of this contest will determine the free contests we hold in the future and the quality of the prizes.

The season starts June 26, so check out the rules, get entered today, then tell your friends. This is a public contest, so feel free to post and link to Overtime Central. In 2008, “This is Our League” is the CFL‘s new motto, so show off your CFL pride by entering our contest. You just may win a prize while you are having a good time.

Check back for the announcement of the full slate of Overtime Central 2008 CFL contests in the next week. There are some great prizes this year and I believe this will be Overtime Central’s best year yet. As always, if you have feedback, suggestions or something to get off your chest, leave a comment or use the contact address.

The following awards were handed out in a ceremony before this broadcast.

2008 Overtime Central NHL Loser Challenge Awards

Best Team Name

The Bourne Loser (2008)
A subtle combination of an old comic strip, an action series and an imdb.com movie listing, this team name is like a decadent desert with many layers I can’t get enough of. I still laugh every time I see it.
I accept this award on behalf of Jim, who was… uhum… unable to be with us tonight.

Best Retro Team Name

Kerri’s Kool Kats
Honourable Mention: Winnipeg Jets

Best Team Name Named After a Dog Breed

TeamHusky

Best Team Name Named After Stuffed Animal Pets

Team Webkinz

Best Team Name Named After a Television Reality Show

The Biggest Loser

Worst “I Think I See a Theme Here” Team Name

LoserJunkie

The Scratch Your Head Team Name Award

Aloha Arlene

The Diamond Dave Award

In honour of Diamond Dave, who finished so far back in a contest one year, we could not find him afterwards.
The Bourne Loser (2008)

Now on to the main part of our program. Please keep your acceptance speeches short.

Most No Valid Team to Pick Days

Tie: Team Dynamite, Kerri’s Kool Kats, The Bourne Loser (2008) and Aloha Arlene (1)

Most Missed Picks (Automatic Picks)

Aloha Arlene (7)
Honourable Mentions: The Biggest Loser (6), Team Dynamite (5)

Biggest Week Award

Team CLM (21 points in Week 9)
Honourable Mention: Aloha Arlene (20 points in Week 7) and Team Dynamite (20 points in Week 9)

Smallest Week Award

Tie: 7 teams had 0 point weeks
Team CLM (Week 1), The Bourne Loser (2008) (Week 3), Loser Junkie (Week 5), Winnipeg Jets (Week 6 and Week 7), TeamHusky (Week 7) and Kerri’s Kool Kats (Week 10)

Shortest “Losing” Streak

The Bourne Loser (2008) (3)

Longest “Losing” Streak

Tie: Team Dynamite and Aloha Arlene (6)
Honourable Mentions: TeamHusky, Kerri’s Kool Kats, The Biggest Loser, Team CLM, Team Dynamite and Aloha Arlene (5)

Fewest “Losing” Streaks Over 3 Games Long

Tie: Loser Junkie and Team Webkinz (1)

Most “Losing” Streaks Over 3 Games Long

Team Dynamite (5)
Honourable Mention: Aloha Arlene (4)

Most Incorrect “Loser” Days (Zero Point Days)

Tie: Team CLM and The Bourne Loser (2008) (17)

Fewest Incorrect “Loser” Days (Zero Point Days)

TeamHusky (11)
Honourable Mention: Team Dynamite (12)

Fewest Correct “Loser” Days

Tie: Team CLM and The Bourne Loser (2008) (13)
Honourable Mention: Team Webkinz (14)

Most Correct “Loser” Days

TeamHusky (19)
Honourable Mention: Team Dynamite (18)

That wraps up another award show. Thanks for coming.

Early battles had Kerri’s Kool Kats and The Biggest Loser battling for first place in the first 3 weeks. The Kool Kats claimed solo possession of first for days 10 and 11 before Team Dynamite wrested it from them for the next 3 days. At the mid-point of the contest, the Winnipeg Jets gave hope to their fans by claiming first for day 15. This was followed by four days of reign by the Kool Kats who were overcome by upstart Aloha Arlene. After four days at the top, the Arlene’s gave way to Team Dynamite who led the rest of the way, after both the Aloha Arlene’s and Team Dynamite forfeited on their last pick when they ran out of valid picks, taking away the last chance the Arlene’s had to tie Team Dynamite and split the first and second place prizes.

It is with pride we announce Team Dynamite have won the inaugural 2008 NHL Loser Challenge. Coaches Noah and Cole take home $70 for their first place finish with 72 points. Finishing in second with 63 points were the Aloha Arlene’s, coached surprisingly by Arlene, who takes home $20. With a strong season, staying in the mix the whole time, Team Husky, coached by Logan, takes home $10 for their third place finish with 59 points.

Awarded the Diamond Dave trophy this contest, and picking up $10 for his last place finish, was The Bourne Loser (2008), coached by Jim. Jim struggled the whole contest with his built-in instincts to pick winners and finished 11 behind ninth place with 21 points.

Account balances have been updated. Thanks to all that played. There will be no playoff hockey contest this year, but we hope to see you all back for more exciting CFL contests this summer.

1. You don’t need to know any players or their stats. Simply pick a team to lose from the teams playing that day.
2. You don’t need to follow the NHL, the team’s records or win/loss streaks. The loser selection page shows up-to-date team standings and streaks, allowing for players without a regular NHL following to play without research.
3. NHL parity (12 points separate the middle 26 teams as of this writing) makes predicting a loser each day no better than guessing.
4. The contest rule allowing each team to be only picked once during the contest evens the playing field between knowledgeable and less knowledgeable players. No advantage to Gord, no matter how many issues of The Hockey News he reads.
5. Random picks for days that you have missed making a pick for means you don’t lose your chance when you forget to make your picks.
6. Scoring streaks and resets after incorrect predictions mean the standings can quickly change in a day and you are always in the hunt.
7. It is a short 10 week, 30 day contest following the NHL All-Star game. Get into the NHL in the last half of the season, leading to the playoffs.
8. It will be lots of fun. Get groups of people to sign up and play against each other.
9. You could win valuable prizes. Beating Gord is it’s own reward.
10. It costs about the same as a couple cups of coffee or theatre admission for one, but provides 10 times the entertainment value. That is something you can afford.

I encourage everyone to check out the full rules and sign up today. Don’t wait until the last minute. The first game day arrives Tuesday, January 29, 2008.