vBookie - vBulletin Betting Hack

vBookie

Introduction

vBookie is a 'bookmakers' or betting extension to vBulletin. It enables authorised members to post Events and Outcomes that forum members can bet on. Each Outcome has its own set of odds, and odds can be modified through the life of an Event (bets that are placed are stored with the prevailing odds, so even if the odds change, your users are paid at the correct rate).

Once the results are known, Events can be settled and forums members awarded their winnings.

vBookie uses its own vCash by default, but this has no more use than as 'bragging rights'. However, vBookie also comes with a built-in switch to allow it to use either uCash or Petz money instead. That means that all bets are paid for and settled using uCash or Petz money, making betting even more attractive than just for fun on forums with uShop/Petz installed. Although vBookie does not have any built-in facility to integrate with any other store hacks, it's a very simple job to hack vBookie itself to integrate it with any store/points system you care to use.

Features

• master switch to turn vBookie off
• option to use uCash
• option to use Petz money
• settings to restrict the creation of Events to specific user groups
• settings to restrict which user groups can bet on Events
• settings to restrict which user groups can edit or settle other people's Events
• per-Event, specify whether punters may bet on more than one outcome
• optional 'charity mode' so that the poorest members of the forum always have something to play with
• supplied with a module for vBadvanced

Please click if you install this hack, thanks. Please also let me know - send me an email or a PM. If you'd let me know the forum URL too that'd be cool!

vBookie is free, and will remain free.

Updates

1.0.0 -> 1.0.1

- adds the ability to delete Events. See this post for upgrade instructions if you already have 1.0.0

1.0.1 -> 1.0.2

Corrected a minor bug with the charity mode when using uCash. See this post for manual upgrade instructions from 1.0.1.

1.0.2 -> 1.0.3

Corrected a minor bug with the richest people display when using uCash. Just overwrite includes/functions_vbookie.php with the one from the new Zip file.

1.0.3 -> 1.0.4

Corrected some date display problems when using "Detailed" dates. For manual update instructions, see this post.

Corrected Petz bug whereby all winnings were paid to the bet's owner rather than individual winners. To upgrade from 1.03 or earlier, see this post or overwrite includes/functions.vbookie.php with the 1.0.4 version.

Problems?

-> Petz - If you are using Petz there is a bug in all versions up to and inclusing 1.0.3. Your players won't get paid their winning, and all payouts will end up in the account of the person that posted the Event. To correct this, please see this post. This fix will be incororated into 1.0.4 onwards.

-> If you can't post Events, or can't bet on them make sure you have set your user permissions

-> If you have an SQL error Invalid SQL: UPDATE SET =25 WHERE <25 make sure you are using version 1.0.3 or later.

-> If you have any other general problems, please check the installation/hack instructions and make sure you have carried out all the steps and also check that you made the changes correctly

Anything else, ask in this thread.

Other Stuff

-> If you are using Detailed Date & Time display and have a problem with Event dates appearing as '1 Minute Ago', see this post.

-> If you want to use poster 'Reputation' as the currency for vBookie, see this post.

About Odds

Odds of "5/1" are "amount won per amount placed". This means that I would win 5 for every 1 placed. Of course, if I win, I get my stake back as well. Odds of "1/5" means that I win 1 for every 5 placed. I'd have to place 25 to win just 5.

Decimal Odds

Decimal odds are just another way of displaying the same information. 2.0 is the same as 2/1. 0.2 is the same as 1/5. vBookie only lets you specify odds in terms of x/y, but if you think in terms of decimal you can still work out what odds to provide. Simply think of your decimal odds as "2.0 / 1.0" or "0.5 / 1.0" and then multiply each side through by 10 or 100 until there are only zeros to the right of the decimal point, then just take the whole number part.

2.0 / 1.0 has no decimals, so this is the same as 2/1

0.5 / 1.0 has a 0.5, so multiply both parts by 10 to get 5.0 / 10.0. Then you can specify your odds as 5 / 10. You might also realise that this is the same as 1/2. The technique is a simple way to work out any odds you may need to specify.

Odds of 0.65 -> 0.65 / 1.0 -> 65.0 / 100.0 or 65/100. Then you can divide through by 5 to get to 13 / 20, although this step isn't necessary.


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[msimplay]

absolutely Fantastic hack great work

i would make a suggestion tho adding events to threads that don't already have them
like the add poll button on the forum drop down

[tjdrico]

Originally Posted by msimplay

absolutely Fantastic hack great work

i would make a suggestion tho adding events to threads that don't already have them
like the add poll button on the forum drop down

Yep, fair point. I didn't actually realise one could add a poll to a thread like that until very recently when I stumbled upon it my accident. I have a few things I want to do for an update to vBookie, and I dare say this will be one of them.

[msimplay]

i hope the updates easy to install hehe

[Alan Ang]

hi tjdrico,

i think your betting system is great!

i have a some features for the next version that i would like to suggest:

1. admin able to assign credits to individual members. (i.e. members with higher donations to forum can get higher starting vCash, it also allows players who are bankrupt to come back into the game with a new donation.)
2. members are able to set up separate wagers with fellow members, subjected to credit limit bought/assigned by admin. win or loss are deducted from one another.
3. when members bet with one another (i.e. this allows members to side bet with each other, and to deduct directly from current top winners.), a portion of the proceeds goes to the admin.
4. members have varied credit limits when betting, limit to be set by admin.
5. admin able to set a limit to the total bets received.
6. admin to have a panel that lists the full details of all bets as well as summarized reports.
7. admin to be able to stop accepting bets in realtime, in order to adjust odds.
8. admin to be able to set formula for calculation of odds for automatic tabulation.
9. members able to have a results panel to list their current bets, past bets and total profit/loss.

i feel that with these features, it makes for a more realistic betting system and it allows an avenue for forums to start its subscriptions for members. in turn, forums can work with businesses to sponsor prizes for the person who finally makes the most vCash at the end of the events/season.

is this possible? or is it too hard to be realised?

[tjdrico]

Hi Alan, I've read your post and will respond properly later when I've a bit more time. Most, if not all of the things are fairly straight forward. Really it comes down to whether I can be bothered. I'll give a better reply later.

[tjdrico]

Originally Posted by Alan Ang

1. admin able to assign credits to individual members. (i.e. members with higher donations to forum can get higher starting vCash, it also allows players who are bankrupt to come back into the game with a new donation.)

I addressed this previously, saying that there are many store/points hacks already available that offer this sort of thing. I don't really have plans to incorporate it into vBookie but you're not the first to ask, and if I get more requests for the same thing I'll probably do it.

However, there is already a mechanism for players to "get back into the game" - there's a "charity mode" whereby anyone on less than 25 credits gets set to 25 when a new event is added.

Originally Posted by Alan Ang

2. members are able to set up separate wagers with fellow members, subjected to credit limit bought/assigned by admin. win or loss are deducted from one another.

I like the idea, but it doesn't really fit into the current framework. It'd require some sort of challenge/response mechanism to be built in. That's not particularly difficult, but it's a sizeable addition. Like I say, I do like the idea though, so I'll consider doing it.

Originally Posted by Alan Ang

3. when members bet with one another (i.e. this allows members to side bet with each other, and to deduct directly from current top winners.), a portion of the proceeds goes to the admin.

Not entirely sure what you mean here by "deduct directly from the top winners.

Originally Posted by Alan Ang

4. members have varied credit limits when betting, limit to be set by admin.

This was actually in my original plan, but I decided not to bother since it's virtual "cash" and there's an unlimited supply as far as settling goes.

Originally Posted by Alan Ang

5. admin able to set a limit to the total bets received.

Again, since there's an unlimited settlement pot, there's really no need to limit the number or size of bets that may be placed.

Originally Posted by Alan Ang

6. admin to have a panel that lists the full details of all bets as well as summarized reports.

9. members able to have a results panel to list their current bets, past bets and total profit/loss.

Better reporting is certainly something that's relatively simple to add.

Originally Posted by Alan Ang

7. admin to be able to stop accepting bets in realtime, in order to adjust odds.

You can close an event at any point to do this, just by changing the appropriate time. Do you mean a one-click button to do the job?

Originally Posted by Alan Ang

8. admin to be able to set formula for calculation of odds for automatic tabulation.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here.

Originally Posted by Alan Ang

is this possible? or is it too hard to be realised?

None of it is particularly difficult. All I need is the motivation to do it. =) I'll look to release an update with some enhancements in the next week or two.

[Fanboys Suck]

I can't add events but at the top of the vbookie settings I see this error:

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in .../includes/functions.php on line 2871

I didn't even edit line 2871. Any ideas?

[tjdrico]

You may not have edited line 2871, but it may still tell you where the problem lies as you'll be able to see what the invalid argument is. Line 2871 of my functions.php is

PHP Code:

if ($forumpwd == md5($password)) 


so obviously I can't compare mine with yours. I'm guessing that yours is one of

PHP Code:

foreach ($parents AS $fid)
foreach ($_FIELDNAMES AS $field => $bitvalue) 


They are both in that area, anyway. The latter one might make sense, and could suggest that you didn't make all the vBookie installation changes correctly. First of all, go through all the changes and compare them against the changes you actually made. People usually find that they inadvetently missed an edit.

[Rushty]

Excellent hack, but im having one problem that I can figure.

Im useing the Petz money system, and everyone can place bets o.k. (and its deducted from there money) but when it comes to payout it dosent give anyone there winnings, but does seem to give it to me (defaulting to userid 1 which is my id?) any ideas?

[tjdrico]

Originally Posted by Rushty

Excellent hack, but im having one problem that I can figure.

Im useing the Petz money system, and everyone can place bets o.k. (and its deducted from there money) but when it comes to payout it dosent give anyone there winnings, but does seem to give it to me (defaulting to userid 1 which is my id?) any ideas?

Thanks for the bug report. There's an error in includes/functions_vbookie.php, in the function 'vbookie_give_user_cash()'.

You can correct it very simply yourself:

Find:

PHP Code:

$q = "UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user SET money=money+$amount WHERE userid=$bbuserinfo[userid]"; 


Replace that with:

PHP Code:

$q = "UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "user SET money=money+$amount WHERE userid=$userid"; 


My apologies for the oversight.