25 replies to this topic

[Foxer]

I have previously posted this work elsewhere on DZ and CK - it is not plagiarised.

☠ Food Club Betting Guide ☠

☠ Introduction ☠

Welcome to Foxer's guide to making Food Club bets. There are a couple of things you should take note of before proceeding; I am not an expert. I have not won the Food Club trophy and this is not a guide to getting that trophy, it is extremely difficult to get even for veteran betters. This guide is completely legit and I hope to teach you how to make your own bets to make lots of Neopoints at this game. Food Club can be extremely lucrative for very little effort if you play it right, but at the end of the day it is still a game of chance, and even if you place perfect bets, there is no guarantee you'll win.

☠ The Basics ☠

Food Club is not a club. In fact it is a game of chance in which you place bets on the eating power of some scurvy pirates. Yes, it's an eating contest. There are five arenas with four pirates competing in each once per day. The aim of the game is for you to place up to 10 bets on the pirates you think are going to win in each arena with the catch being that you will only win as many Neopoints as the odds will allow. If you bid on a pirate with 2:2 odds, you will only win twice what you have bet. That is where the tricky part begins, but we'll get to that later. For now I'll introduce you to the game structure.

Every day at 2pm NST a game of Food Club will run. Betting for that game will close roughly half an hour before the game begins, and the game itself can last between half an hour to an hour. The moment one game ends, betting for the next game begins. You can place a total of 10 bets comprising any combination of arenas and pirates you want. The combination of pirates in each arena will be randomly generated at the conclusion of the previous game. The odds for each pirate will also be calculated based on a combination of their skill at food consumption and the combination of pirates they will compete against. Be warned, the odds can change between the conclusion of the previous game and the close of betting for the current one. The best thing you can do is make your bets no more than two or three hours before betting closes.

Your winnings are calculated by multiplying your original bet amount with the odds of all the bets you placed that won. You have placed ten bets with a bet amount of 100 NP for each. Two of your bets won, the first was 8:1, the second was 16:1. So for the first bet you will win 800 NP, and for the second you will win 1600 NP, making for a total of 2400 NP. This is a good win, since your ten bets at 100 NP meant you spent 1000 NP on betting. That means you've made a profit of 1400 NP, good job!

☠ The Arenas & Pirates ☠

As I mentioned before, there are five arenas and 20 pirates. Each arena, then, holds 4 competitors and there will be one winner from each. Each pirate will have odds for how likely it is they'll win. The best odds are 2:1, which means that pirate will have a high chance of winning. The lowest is 13:1, which means it's incredibly unlikely they'll win. However, since Food Club is still a game of chance, there will be times when 2:1 pirates lose and (rarely) 13:1 pirates win.

On the Food Club game page, you will find a list of the competing pirates. This is a handy list to have, as it will help you decide which of the pirates would be a safe bet, which is part of the betting strategy I will explain later on in this guide. Remember that the pirates in each arena will be selected randomly, so sometimes you will get Gooblah and Buck in the same arena, and sometimes you will get Gooblah, Venable, Stuff-a-Roo and Orvinn, in which case it's a fairly safe bet that Gooblah will win. It just depends on the pirate selection and their respective odds.

☠ Placing Your Bets ☠

Go to the Food Club Betting page.

The column on the right will contain a dropdown box showing the competitors for each arena and their odds. You place a bet by clicking the check boxes to include an arena in your bet and selecting a winning pirate from the dropdown menu. You then place your bet amount in the box at the bottom left and the odds and payoff will be calculated automatically. The amount of NPs you can bet depends on the age of your account, so it is better to use older accounts when betting, as you can bet much higher amounts of NP. You can bet a base of 50 NP plus 2 NP for every day your account ages. The betting page will show you how much you can bet.

The total odds are calculated by multiplying the odds for all the winning pirates in arenas you've selected. More about this later.

☠ Betting Strategy ☠

Now we've covered the basics of how the game works and how to get involved, you'll be wanting a good betting strategy to make you lots of Neopoints. Keep in mind that your bets don't affect any other player, and so it is not against the rules to share your bets or even copy others. In fact a lot of kind Neopians post their bets publically each day. The betting process can be complicated, and if you're finding it too hard, it's no trouble to just find someone else's bets to use. I recommend Drusillax.

So the first thing you need to do when deciding on your bets is to look at each of the arenas. Find one that has three average pirates and one good one, as you're going to need multiplier bets. As I mentioned before, the odds for each pirate you bet on in each arena are multiplied. A multiplier bet is a safe filler bet that will bolster the odds and get you more winnings.

So let's say the Shipwreck arena has the following competitors:
Scurvy Dan the Blade - 2:1
Captain Crossblades - 13:1
Sir Edmund Ogletree - 7:1
Ol' Stripey - 6:1

Scurvy clearly has the advantage, and the other three aren't likely to win. That doesn't mean one of them won't create an upset, but the odds are in your favour. Scurvy is going to be one of your multiplier bets. When you bet on pirates in other arenas, if they have anything below 4:1 odds, you can include Scurvy in that particular bet to multiply your existing odds by 2. Anything above 4:1 is high enough that it doesn't really need to be multiplied, but that doesn't mean you can't put him in there if you're confident in him winning his arena. Remember that you only have 10 bets to work with, and you won't be able to cover all your bases, so you need to be quite selective. Sometimes you will want to have multiple multipliers in your bets, and I usually leave one bet reserved for four 2:1 competitors.

So let's say Gooblah is in the Lagoon with three mid-ranking pirates. He will be our second multiplier because he is the strongest and wins the most often. Once we've isolated those multipliers, we're going to need to pick one arena in which the winner is not inevitable and focus on covering that arena. You're never going to be able to pick the winners for all arenas, so it's best to focus on just one or two and make bets on all the competitors in that arena. Using your safe bets to multiply those odds means that, provided your safe bets win, you should always get at least one or two bets paying off.

Let's say Hidden Cove is our main focus for this round of betting. The competitors stand like so:
Buck Cutlass - 3:1
Squire Venable - 10:1
Federismo Corvallio - 3:1
Lucky McKyriggan - 2:1

Venable probably isn't going to win, but his odds are high and it's worth making bets on all of them. So with our two multipliers, our first few bets might look like this:
Scurvy Dan the Blade - 2:1
Gooblah the Grarrl - 2:1
Buck Cutlass/Squire Venable/Federismo/ Lucky - 3:1/10:1/3:1/2:1
Total odds - 12:1/40:1/12:1/8:1

12:1 isn't a bad show, but if you wanted to you could always include another multiplier. 40:1 is amazing, but remember that the more players you include in your bet, the less likely it is to win. You could always remove one or even both of the multiplier bets. Finally, 8:1 is, again, okay, but it could do with another multiplier.

Sometimes you might want to switch out certain multipliers for certain bets. If you want to use one pirate as a multiplier but you're uncertain of his winning, you can make two bets, one using him and the other using a more reliable multiplier. You might also want to make filler bets to stand alone. Once you've made bets on all four players in an arena with multipliers to bolster your odds, you can make a single bet with just your multipliers, Scurvy and Gooblah. The odds will only be 4:1, but remember that you have already made 4 bets using them. If they both win, you win 5/10 of the bets instead of 4/10.

Since you have 10 bets, you can also partially cover another arena if you would like. I also sometimes like to make one or two wide catch bets on some of the lower chance pirates simply because Food Club is a game of chance, and sometimes a pirate with 13:1 odds will actually win against Gooblah. If you bet on that pirate, you don't need any multipliers to make yourself rich.

Your betting method and structure will largely depend on how the odds fall on any given day, as well as how risky you want to play it. Sometimes you will lose NP to this game. There will be days where the odds are not in your favour and it isn't a good idea to place bets, or the game decides to throw a spanner in the works and one of your multipliers loses to Stuff-a-Roo. It's okay, though, because in the long run you can make a lot of money from this. Keep an eye on the results for each arena each day. As you progress each day, keep note of who has won and who hasn't won for a while. If Gooblah has won his last ten competitions usually the game will let him lose one. If one of the 13:1 pirates hasn't had a win in a few weeks it might be that it's time for him to have his day. The game might be random, but there are always patterns for those willing to look for them.

Here is a general outline of the contents of each bet. Adapt it to the odds and your preferences.

Bet One: 2-4 multipliers
Bet Two: 1-2 multipliers and focus arena 1
Bet Three: 1-2 multipliers and focus arena 2
Bet Four: 1-2 multipliers and focus arena 3
Bet Five: Focus arena 4 (lowest odds does not need a multiplier)
Bet Six: 1-2 multipliers (the ones you're most sure of)
Bet Seven: Alternate arena 1 (low odds) and possibly 1-2 multipliers
Bet Eight: 1-2 multipliers and alternate arena 2 (highest odds)
Bet Nine: 1-2 multipleirs and alternate arena 3
Bet Ten: Round up any loose ends.

☠ Conclusion ☠

Food Club seems confusing at first, and in some ways it is. On the face of it the betting is simple, but there are many ways to make your bets and no way is the right way. As you experiment, you will lose some Neopoints until you find what works best for you. Mine is just one of many methods that you can adapt to suit your own betting style. And hey, if you don't want to or you're just too lazy, go use a betting guide. I won't judge.

Thanks for reading and I hope it was helpful. Please post any comments, suggestions, questions, etc.

☠ ~Foxer~ ☠

Edited by Foxer, 07 August 2012 - 08:11 PM.

[Yung]

Yung's Guide to the Food Club

If you're into writing guides then I recommend you check the Neocodex Guide Directory and see what already exists.

Edited by Yung, 07 August 2012 - 07:09 PM.

[Foxer]

I just took a look. Both of our guides are very different. *shrugs*

[NapisaurusRex]

Why didn't you just link us here?

[Foxer]

I wasn't aware linking to other cheating sites was even allowed, here. It isn't at the only other two I frequent. And yes, I plagerised my own work. Naughty me. I could also link you here, too.

Geez, guys, I hope this isn't how you treat other people who're new to posting guides here.

Edited by Foxer, 07 August 2012 - 07:34 PM.

[NapisaurusRex]

I wasn't aware offsite linking was even allowed, here. And yes, I plagerised my own work. Naughty me.

Geez, guys, I hope this isn't how you treat other people who're new to posting guides here.

Just seemed like it would be a little less time consuming, that's all.

[Yung]

Just seemed like it would be a little less time consuming, that's all.

Copy pasting isn't very time consuming.

[Foxer]

Copy pasting isn't very time consuming.

That, and it's a lot more personal. If I'd just made a whole new thread simply to link you to another site, I hardly think that would go down well. I do my best to make quality guides despite being rather new to the entire thing, and it's really unpleasant when people sort of flock around and either tell you they think you've plagerised or that you might as well not have bothered because someone else covered a slightly related topic. It'd be much nicer if people gave useful constructive criticism that I could actually use to improve what I already have worked hard on, rather than destructive criticism to tear it down.

[NapisaurusRex]

Copy pasting isn't very time consuming.

Neither is being a dick.

I wasn't aware linking to other cheating sites was even allowed, here. It isn't at the only other two I frequent. And yes, I plagerised my own work. Naughty me. I could also link you here, too.

Geez, guys, I hope this isn't how you treat other people who're new to posting guides here.

I already found it.
Anyway, I still see self-plagiarism as wrong.

That, and it's a lot more personal. If I'd just made a whole new thread simply to link you to another site, I hardly think that would go down well. I do my best to make quality guides despite being rather new to the entire thing, and it's really unpleasant when people sort of flock around and either tell you they think you've plagerised or that you might as well not have bothered because someone else covered a slightly related topic. It'd be much nicer if people gave useful constructive criticism that I could actually use to improve what I already have worked hard on, rather than destructive criticism to tear it down.

You obviously didn't plagiarize, you're using the same name. If you would like some criticism, you should probably use your spell check.

Edited by Napiform, 07 August 2012 - 07:42 PM.

[wikkles]

A shorter guide:

1. Go to the Games section of the Neoboards
2. Find the thread dedicated to the food club
3. Find someone who posts their daily bets and looks like they know what they're doing
4. Copy their bets
5. Profit

[Foxer]

A shorter guide:

1. Go to the Games section of the Neoboards
2. Find the thread dedicated to the food club
3. Find someone who posts their daily bets and looks like they know what they're doing
4. Copy their bets
5. Profit

Already covered. You'd know that if you had read more than the title. xP

Neither is being a dick. Or hitting spell-check.

Anyway, I still see self-plagiarism as wrong.

So when you write something useful, it's wrong to share it with different groups of people? If you write a guide, it becomes your intellectual propery to do with as you please. You might find it wrong, personally ... that's your opinion, you can choose not to cross-post your own work, but please don't force your personal moral opinions on to other people. Unless it says somewhere in the rules that I'm not allowed to post something I created somewhere else as well as here, then don't tell me I'm being a naughty little child. I respect your moral standing and I won't try to force you to post your work elsewhere, so please also respect my moral standing.

Edited by Foxer, 07 August 2012 - 07:43 PM.

[NapisaurusRex]

So when you write something useful, it's wrong to share it with different groups of people? If you write a guide, it becomes your intellectual property to do with as you please. You might find it wrong, personally ... that's your opinion, you can choose not to cross-post your own work, but please don't force your personal moral opinions on to other people. Unless it says somewhere in the rules that I'm not allowed to post something I created somewhere else as well as here, then don't tell me I'm being a naughty little child. I respect your moral standing and I won't try to force you to post your work elsewhere, so please also respect my moral standing.

I didn't do anything like that. I expressed idle curiosity, which you have answered. In spite of the fact that I have no capabilities to force you to do anything, you would know if that was my intention.

[Mishatu]

Maybe instead of just copy-pasting the guide, you could write a little note close to the beginning that you have posted this work elsewhere and wanted to share it here?

You don't even have to say where, but give us a heads-up that you aren't plagiarizing (even if it's just yourself).

[Foxer]

I didn't do anything like that. I expressed idle curiosity, which you have answered. In spite of the fact that I have no capabilities to force you to do anything, you would know if that was my intention.

My apologies, then. I've had a bit of a rough day and my fuse is a bit short. Coming back here after a long while to such an unwelcome reception isn't pleasant, and neither is dealing with accusations of plagerism. I am sorry to have snapped at you, I meant not offense by it.

Maybe instead of just copy-pasting the guide, you could write a little note close to the beginning that you have posted this work elsewhere and wanted to share it here?

You don't even have to say where, but give us a heads-up that you aren't plagiarizing (even if it's just yourself).

That's a great idea, thank you.

Edited by Foxer, 07 August 2012 - 07:55 PM.

[NapisaurusRex]

My apologies, then. I've had a bit of a rough day and my fuse is a bit short. Coming back here after a long while to such an unwelcome reception isn't pleasant, and neither is dealing with accusations of plagiarism. I am sorry to have snapped at you, I meant not offense by it.

I understand. I'm pissy too, obviously. I agree with Mish, though. And spell-check.

Your winnings are calculated by multipliing your origonal bet amount with the odds of all the bets you placed that won. You have placed ten bets with a bet amount of 100 NP for each. Two of your bets won, the first was 8:1, the second was 16:1. So for the first bet you will win 800 NP, and for the second you will win 1600 NP, making for a total of 2400 NP. This is a good win, since your ten bets at 100 NP meant you spent 1000 NP on betting. That means you've made a profit of 1400 NP, good job!

I have previously posted this work elsewhere on DZ and CK - it is not plagerised.

Edited by Napiform, 07 August 2012 - 08:02 PM.

[Foxer]

I think I wrote this at like 6am. xD I'll go through and fix mistakes later once I've proven that I'm actually me.

[wikkles]

Whoops, my bad then x)

[NapisaurusRex]

I think I wrote this at like 6am. xD I'll go through and fix mistakes later once I've proven that I'm actually me.

More curiosity: why bother? and how are you going to prove it?

[Foxer]

More curiosity: why bother? and how are you going to prove it?

I bother because I value integrity - both my own and others'. I don't want to be thought of as a liar or a thief, I'd rather at least attempt to clear the air than let my honesty be called into question.

How, well ... I simply logged in to my accounts on all of the other sites where my guides were posted and edited the approrpriate guides with 'Hello Pyro699'. And it worked, I am cleared of all charges. Though I understand why the suspicion was there, since I'm relatively new and haven't posted much in the past.

[tri]

Now Neocodex has it's own guide to food club betting guide, css, pixel art & creative contest guide. Thanks. =) Maybe post some links to betting pages.

[ShadowLink64]

My apologies, then. I've had a bit of a rough day and my fuse is a bit short. Coming back here after a long while to such an unwelcome reception isn't pleasant, and neither is dealing with accusations of plagerism. I am sorry to have snapped at you, I meant not offense by it.




That's a great idea, thank you.

Good to see that it's been resolved. Sorry about the trouble you've experienced and thanks for sharing your guides with the community here.

In the future, mirror posts of guides that have been authored by the same user elsewhere are allowed to be posted here. It is not self-plagiarism if the material is not being branded/pitched as original and exclusive content. It's a matter of increasing accessibility to the content of the guide, so long as the intentions of the author are clearly stated, which has been done.

I wasn't aware linking to other cheating sites was even allowed, here. It isn't at the only other two I frequent. And yes, I plagerised my own work. Naughty me. I could also link you here, too.

I never understood this behaviour of disallowing the linking of other cheat sites. We used to do it many years ago, but we stopped because it's just silly. It's a well-known fact that many users here visit other cheating sites, and the same could be said about users at DZ and clraik. The only reasons I can possibly come up with for disallowing it is dislike, or fear. Surely they don't fear losing their members to us, right?

With that said, feel free to go visit DarkZtar and clraik, and report to me about our shortcomings and what we could do to overcome them.

[Nalah]

With that said, feel free to go visit DarkZtar and clraik, and report to me about our shortcomings and what we could do to overcome them.

I've had a look at a few of the other sites, but nowhere is as nice as here Codex is probably the least tacky, and most aesthetically pleasing neo forum around in my opinioin, so we've definently surpassed them there

But just to clear things up, does this mean we are allowed to link to other well known cheating forums, and programs on those forums?

*cough*kadfeeder*cough*

Edited by Nalah, 08 August 2012 - 05:09 AM.

[Strategist]

Not sure on the program linking but from what Slink has said, feel free to mention/link to the other sites.

I've noticed a few things on the other sites that we don't have and have informed the admin here about them Will be interesting to see what we can come up with in response XD

[redlion]

Back on the food club, I have to thank you for bringing the food club to my attention. I can bet around 2k on my account, and my first time placing ten bets (~20k) I netted two winning tickets:

Collect Winnings
Round Bet Info Amount Odds Winnings
4911 61696 NP
4911 30848 NP
Total Winnings 92544 NP

I'm about to bet for the next round too. Easy money people.

[redlion]

Little bit of a bump to say that this is ridiculously easy money for old accounts.

For reference, I've only played 11 rounds (daily rounds) of Food Club, and my net profit is over 200k NP.
Bets Bet Total Win Total Difference
110 159320 NP 398384 NP 239064

If you do the math, that's around 20k NP per day for essentially staking yourself into a horse race.

Edit: Also, I've included my bets for the current round (4931) so that you can get an idea for how I'm betting. I would invite you to open up the betting page so you can see the odds next to my choices (I'm not going to add them in) to really get a feel for the process. This has fast become my favorite daily.

Spoiler

Shipwreck: Ned the Skipper
Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Treasure Island: Scurvy Dan the Blade
Hidden Cove: The Tailhook Kid

Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Hidden Cove: Young Sproggie
Harpoon Harry's: Bonnie Pip Culliford

Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Hidden Cove: Captain Crossblades

Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Treasure Island: Ol' Stripey
Hidden Cove: Young Sproggie

Shipwreck: Admiral Blackbeard
Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Hidden Cove: The Tailhook Kid

Shipwreck: Fairfax the Deckhand
Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Hidden Cove: The Tailhook Kid

Shipwreck: Fairfax the Deckhand
Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Hidden Cove: Young Sproggie

Shipwreck: Ned the Skipper
Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Hidden Cove: Young Sproggie

Shipwreck: Ned the Skipper
Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Treasure Island: Ol' Stripey
Hidden Cove: The Tailhook Kid

Lagoon: Gooblah the Grarrl
Hidden Cove: The Tailhook Kid
Harpoon Harry's: Franchisco Corvallio