They're already a prime candidate to win the premier league but one player is never going to guarantee you results. Messi didn't win Barca the La Liga or stop them getting stuffed by Bayern this year. Messi's style of play may not fit in well with the Premier League as well. No idea how he's going to fair in such a league. He's really not going to like a lot of the tough tackles and I think a lot of players will give him a hard time just to prove a point or because they think he's a primadonna. Regardless, I'd still like to see him at City and I do think he would be a huge boost to their team. I really just can't see him leaving Barca though. I think this is just a huge power play by him. Apparently the new manager allegedly said to him he wasn't going to get any special treatment and maybe that caused him to throw is toys out of the pram. I'm sure there will just be a huge shake up behind the scenes and Messi getting his own way and subsequently staying put. It's just going to be too messy otherwise (excuse the pun). There will probably be a long legal battle if he does try to leave especially since the clause in his contract that allows him to leave has allegedly expired, but who knows what that means due to the extension of the league due to coivd. City won't be able to stump up the fee Barca want otherwise so the only option is him likely going there for free.

You can ask theymos about it but from comments he's made in the past he isn't a big fan of specific set-in-stone rules and even the 'rules' thread here is unofficial and not sanctioned by him, considered more of a guide if anything. Just like feedback or scams they're left up to users to decide on how to police and from what I recall of his previous comments on merit they're to be largely unmoderated and left up to users to decide on how they issue then.Maybe you can create a thread and get community input on what they should and shouldn't be given for but I'd just say take potential abuse of them on a case by base basis like this situation.

I'm looking for the same but with City to win the PL and CL. Maybe even the treble or quadruple. Harder to do these days though when managers seemingly field weaker teams for the domestic non-PL cups. Had a bet on Liverpool to win everything last season but they went and threw it away fielding schoolkids in the cups.

Timelord accused me of being homophobic for making a joke and subsequently left me negative feedback for such. Taste is subjective, but you're being transphobic if anything though. You're not respecting my identity as the Queen of England. That's as valid as anybody else's identity and to deny it is hatespeech. Also, I'm not transphobic (or homophobic). Transphobia is the fear of Trans people. I don't fear them. As I said to you before, I actually support both trans and gay rights, but I don't support people's rights when they infringe on others and that includes forcing people to think the same way you do. If you don't want to respect someone identifying as genderless or genderfluid or  identifying as an animal or whatever else they make up you don't have to, just like you don't have to support my right to identity as the Queen of England. Not everyone has to think the same way and it certainly shouldn't be a crime to do so.


I'm gender/species/monarch fluid. Sometimes I identify as an attack helicopter. Sometimes a dog or ferrit. Sometimes the Queen of England or the Prince of Narnia. Depends how I feel that day.


OMG. He needs to be tagged for this. Seriously though, I think timelord just went through all the threads I'd created and was looking for something to tag me for and that's the first thing he could think of.

I think they will probably win the PL fairly easily this year, but with the CL that's a whole different ball game as you're coming up against the best of the best in Europe. If Barca can get thrashed 8-2 by Bayern and City get knocked out by Lyon that just shows you that anything can happen. Maybe if City get Messi then they might have a better chance at it but Messi didn't stop Barca getting pummled.


Are you joining the Premier League pool if you're itching for a bet? If anyone wants to join you can do so here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5270461.msg55039640#msg55039640

You're allowed as many accounts as you want and many users here have alts including timelord and theymos. This has always been the rule here. The only thing people usually have an issue with is if you use them maliciously, deceitfully, or use them to break the terms of a signature campaign ie only one user per campaign. It would only be a double standard if I signed up to the same campaign with two accounts... assuming that was against their stated rules.

Looks like timelord is here to save bitcointalk from bigotry and trolling and he does what all SJWs do: accuse you of something you're not and things you didn't say. I'm not sure how making a joke about the ridiculousness of gender politics is homophobic. I didn't even know timelord was gay, though I did jokingly refer to him as gaylord2067 once. We all know satire and jokes are poison to SJWs though.


Better get cancelling Sacha Baron Cohen.


I doubt it. It's probably only going to get worse, especially when it becomes a hate crime to misgender someone or "dead name" them. Trans-racial and tran-species people exist now and if you don't respect them or call them by their correct pronouns then you are committing a hate crime and should be arrested. Of they should just go on twitter and cry about it. It probably won't be long before it becomes a hate crime to say the Earth isn't flat the way things are going.

Is this actually true? To be honest, it probably depends on how much control he has over the club/behind the scenes but sometimes a reality check for divas is a dose of reality they need. I have no idea whether this is true of Messi but if he's thrown his toys out of the pram just because he's been told he's not going to get special privileges then this is a bit petty. I still don't think he's going to leave but surely his reputation there with both the board and fans will be soured unless they love him blindly so much he will be forgvien no matter what he does.


Big difference. Messi is a one club man and Ronaldo had already left Lisbon and United. I'm sure he'll play for a couple of other clubs before he retires as well. I read the other day that Italy only has 25% taxes so that was one of the reasons why he went there. Maybe Messi will go there for the same reasons too.

17 users paid so far:

webtricks
swogerino
morvillz7z
Mbitr
TBA
TBA
casperBGD
buwaytress
Hhampuz
leea-1334
LTU_btc
DeathAngel
Harkorede
cryptofrka
trofo
slaman29
hahay
big_daddy

Hopefully we'll be able to get at least 30. I know there's a lot of people who like betting on the PL here - or certainly at least like to talk about it - so there's probably a lot of people who would enjoy this so keep spreading the word.


Look at a few other tipsters to gauge your picks. There's plenty of people, websites and youtubers doing them including ex footballers, though I think half the fun is making them yourself, though sometimes it's helpful to see what others are thinking.

It has just been brought to my attention that Timelord2067 has committed a very serious hate crime against me. As you can see from the post below he has misgenderd me *holds back tears*:


His/He? How dare you! I identify as the Queen of England and my pronouns are Her Royal Highness/Majesty. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask Timelord to surrender himself to the Internet Police as he should be arrested for crimes against satire. Since timelord thinks nonsensical made up "hate crimes" are a valid reason to leave negative feedback I can only urge the community to hold him to the same sort of standards. I am very offended by all of this. Nobody should be misgendered in 2020. Can't stop crying.

There aren't really any official rules regarding merit or the sending of it, much like the feedback system it's left up to the community to decide what is right or wrong. Giving merit away like this should probably be frowned upon or at least discouraged though. I've seen a couple of instances in the past where merit has been used as some sort of prize for winning something and I don't think people should be doing that personally. Giving merits away as a prize or reward for getting a bet right shouldn't really be done, but at the same time I don't think giving merit to a post that posted a winning bet would be inherently bad as long as it was worthy of being merited, but specifically offering merits for this is going to encourage users to bet with them. As others have said, worse posts are merited. I even saw OgNasty merit a your favourite fruit thread which is just another shit thread that shouldn't be merited but people can merit whatever they feel is deserving at the end of the day: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5265481.0

That's not their real twitter. This is: https://twitter.com/FCBarcelona


Not much they can do if he exercises the clause in his contract that allows him to leave, but the question is is that still valid due to the covid delays. I'm sure there will be a legal battle if he does try to go though. Either way his standing with the club will be soured. Do they really want a player that threatens to leave or is probably trying to run the club his own way? Maybe it's best for them to let him go if his ego is getting in the way. He's not going to stay there forever anyway so maybe it's time for Barca to start planning for life without him.

Users paid so far:

webtricks
swogerino
morvillz7z
Mbitr
TBA
TBA
casperBGD
buwaytress
Hhampuz
leea-1334
LTU_btc
DeathAngel
Harkorede
cryptofrka
trofo
slaman29
hahay

One or two users might have paid but didn't PM me.

There's still a lot of users who played last season that haven't signed up yet so hopefully they'll see this and sign up here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5270461.0

There were a handful of users who PMd me wanting to join as well so I'm hoping they are just leaving it late to sign up.  18 days to go before the PL starts so it'll creep up fast.

There's certainly no rush but the season is fast approaching with 18 days to go. I'm sure most users will sign up from last season but I'll be pretty disappointed it we don't get at least 30 users, though at least it gives us a better chance at winning. I thought we'd be swamped with interest this season due to the prizes. Pretty cool that Sportsbet stepped in at the last minute to sponsor them and keep Bitcoin in the Premier League. Nice to see that they've put the BTC logo on their shirts too as that's good for exposure and adoption and something Sportsbet certainly don't have to do so shows their commitment to bitcoin.

It's probably just a power play by Messi to get both more money and the people he doesn't like out of the club. He's left it very late if he seriously wants to leave and the time frame he has to hand in his request has seemingly expired, though he's apparently trying to argue that because of the Coivd delays it should be extended. Both the PL and La Liga start on the 12th along with many other of the big European leagues starting around the same time so that's not long. What team can even afford him and who would be willing to buy him at such a late stage? I don't think many if any clubs would match what he's currently on at Barca so he's probably best just staying and I reckon he will, just on a bigger pay package and probably getting his own way behind the scenes. I really can't see him going to another Spanish team, so if he does leave it will likely only be teams like Man City, Bayern and PSG, but I'm sure those teams have already spent most of their budget on new players and they'll possibly have to break financial fair play rules if they swoop in for him, though maybe if he goes for free they can get around that. Man City aren't going to want to get in any more trouble with that though. He's almost certainly going to want the same if not more money than he's already on at Barca and a wage that will see him overtake Ronaldo as the highest paid.

Roobet were the first to make an offer for the Premier League pool. I think they offered 0.15 as well but Sportsbet threw in a lot of other extras which was too good to turn down.


Sadly only about ten. I also thought we'd have 30 by now. Hopefully last year's users just haven't got the memo about the new pool. I haven't messaged them about it so maybe they're unaware. Keep spreading the word as I'm sure there are lots of users who would love to play. Don't want people messaging me after the season starts saying they would have joined like I got a handful doing last year. There'a a little under 20 days till the season starts and that will quickly creep up on us.

There's no deadline per se other than the start of the season but I'd rather get everyone's money in asap so I can work out the prizes. The more people that join the bigger the pot is and the more lucrative it is which makes others wan't to join. Don't really want a load of last minute sign-us if I can help it. I thought we'd have at least 30 users by now. Think only ten have paid so far. The more people that join the more likely it is we'll get a better sponsor for next pools including the CL one.

Paid to Bigdaddy, examplens and trofo.  Anyone know who sojourner is on here?


Haven't really asked anyone yet but I'll try and get one. Hhampuz mentioned he'll try speak to Roobet. I'll mention it to Sportsbet as well but I'll probably wait until the PL one starts and we see how many users sign up. It probably won't be anywhere as big as the Premier League one though as the CL seems to be a bit smaller in interest, though not many people have signed up to the PL one yet either. I'm hoping people are just trying to get some funds together or are going to leave it late to join. Hopefully both pools will grow in numbers over the years.


Tell them to join the pools! If people think they're good at predictions then these are the perfect games to play and you're not going to bankrupt yourself playing them like you can with regular gambling. Spread the word! I'm sure there's lot of people who would like to join but they just don't know about the pool.

Skybet also have Leeds to win at 150/1 whilst teams like West Brom, Fulham, Burnley and Palace are all between 1000-1500/1. I'm really not sure how they figure out Leeds are seventh favourite to win the league. In my opinion they'll be very lucky to stay up and should be one of the favourites to go down as much as I don't want that to happen. It's funny how you used to be able to get 5000/1 on the relegation favourites to win the league but after Leicester's miraculous Premier League win that changed everything. Very tough month for Leeds as well. Liverpool and City and Sheffield United away. The only team they should get some points from is Fulham at home who they beat 3-0 last year but lost 2-1 on the reverse fixture.