Hello! This is the Wajerleague.com development team (myself), and I thought it would be helpful to have a development blog to keep visitors informed of development progress on the website, and solicit ideas from the public.
This project started as a contest for the former SB Nation website "The Daily Stampede" (called "Voodoo Five" earlier). This community had a bit of a gambling bent to it, so we had an annual college football handicapping contest called Protect Your Unit, inspired by the late Tampa broadcaster Chris Thomas. After a couple years of being run by email and spreadsheets, I built an app in 2014 that would do most of the dirty work: collect, calculate and offer lines; accept wagers; and keep score. Over time it became more sophisticated, and by 2022 I had greater ambitions for the project.
My goal became to build a home for play-money betting on all sports; make it more automated and more public-facing; and also downplay the more unsavory aspects of sports betting, while keeping it as realistic as possible. Real-money sports betting isn't legal everywhere, and some people may prefer not to be exposed to it. Play-money internet games were plenty popular during the age of Texas Hold'Em, so why couldn't they be again for sports betting? The real-money sites also offer such games, but I'm trying to "gamify" it a bit more - make it look more friendly and appealing, like a video game. Old 8-bit arcade games were my inspiration for the dark, colorful palette.
Yes, this is probably all goofy as hell, but it's a passion project for me. I enjoyed running the game, and a little culture developed among the 25 or so regular players that was fun to be a part of. My hope to attract an even larger community of such people, and offer almost every sports pick you can make in real life.
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