Just wondering if there's anyone who knows how they come up with this? Is there some upsets past a certain point spread? Another great future about this game that I just love.

its not based on actual simulations, its just a simpler function of your team ratings and performance so far. there also appears to me, to be a random component, although i would definitely not say i was positive about that. i think most people put no stock in the vegas odds, i definitely put no stock in them, its just something to jazz things up a bit. there used to be this thing called the whatifsports book, where you could gamble on HD games, and like win some points or something, but it got shut down some years back.

it is somewhat indicative of relative team strength

That's awesome info. The whatifsports book sounds pretty interesting to me. I would be all over that!
Thanks fellas.

Posted by gillispie1 on 2/5/2016 2:29:00 PM (view original):
its not based on actual simulations, its just a simpler function of your team ratings and performance so far. there also appears to me, to be a random component, although i would definitely not say i was positive about that. i think most people put no stock in the vegas odds, i definitely put no stock in them, its just something to jazz things up a bit. there used to be this thing called the whatifsports book, where you could gamble on HD games, and like win some points or something, but it got shut down some years back.

whatifsports book was great coz about 6 people bothered to play it, and it was always pretty easy to pick the 10 games (max number) from those teams that had like 60 point spreads they'd never cover. I won a few thousand reward points (maybe half a dozen seasons) that way back when...

I remeber that when I first started HD way back, I don't remember when they did away with it and I didn't ever recall being able to win reward points!! I probably would have tried it out!!

So wait, if I'm understanding this right, there used to be a sports book where you could bet on the sim games??

That is awesome!

I honestly don't understand how a sim game can't produce extremely realistic lines. If they improved the way they generate spreads the sports book would be wild!

Anyone have more info on the mentioned sports book? I have no idea how it used to work.

Posted by fluff_nasty on 1/26/2018 12:06:00 PM (view original):
So wait, if I'm understanding this right, there used to be a sports book where you could bet on the sim games??

That is awesome!

I honestly don't understand how a sim game can't produce extremely realistic lines. If they improved the way they generate spreads the sports book would be wild!

Anyone have more info on the mentioned sports book? I have no idea how it used to work.

As I recall, you started a season with $10K...you "wagered" on games...whoever ended the season with the most fake-cash (actually I think it was top 3) got reward points or something.

That sounds really fun, and again, I'm pretty disappointed that they can't produce more realistic lines. It should be easy considering they know the calculations for the sim.

Even without betting, having realistic spreads would be a huge step forward.

Well the problem is these spreads aren't generated like real life. In real life, they don't use spreads to predict who will win, they use them to generate betting. This is why spreads will change once betting starts, it's influenced by the bettors and has nothing to do with the teams playing at that point.

So if you'd want realistic spreads, they'd have to be variable and change throughout the day based upon who has placed a bet. Not really practical or feasible IMO.

Good point about the purpose of spreads. I don't think it would be that hard to adjust them as money came in though. If the money is lopsided, the line moves. I think that could be implemented without too much of an issue if they decided they really wanted to bring the sports book back. Not that they ever will.

Either way, I'm tired of seeing 70 point spreads.

Posted by fluff_nasty on 1/26/2018 4:56:00 PM (view original):
Good point about the purpose of spreads. I don't think it would be that hard to adjust them as money came in though. If the money is lopsided, the line moves. I think that could be implemented without too much of an issue if they decided they really wanted to bring the sports book back. Not that they ever will.

Either way, I'm tired of seeing 70 point spreads.

Yeah, I mean the other thing is, the spreads don't count pace of play. So you could see a 50 pt spread but you know the coach plays slowdown every single game and has never won a game by more than 25 so obviously he won't cover. There are little things that I'm sure people exploited that led to it's removal.

But I agree, it would be really fun.

True, good point.

Yeah I'm sure it was exploited.