We launched WagerMinds last fall and we’re proud of the betting community that we’ve built.  While we think we’ve put together something pretty special around pick tracking and transparency, we wanted to add more interaction to the community. So today we are proud to announce our new social networking features – all designed to help you get more value from our website and our community.

As we’ve said before, our goal is to bring honesty, accuracy and transparency to the sports gambling world and we think the new features of the site help accomplish that. Each and every feature is designed to help make you a more informed sports bettor – whether you’re a serious gambler or a recreational bettor.

Here’s a list of some of the new features:

Follow Users

Instead of incessantly checking users profiles, you can now simply follow a handicapper.  When you follow a handicapper all of their plays will be featured in your activity stream (more on that below) so you can keep updated with their actions.

So let’s say you want to follow some of the top MLB handicappers, you can head over to the MLB Leaderboard and give some of the top users a follow.  You will then be able to track them more closely and you’ll be notified of their activity.  You can follow users directly from their profile page or by hovering over a name on the leaderboards:

Users will also be able to show plays to only those that follow them if they’d like.  As with any other ‘private’ bet on the site, the play will be displayed publicly as soon as the game starts.

Smart Groups

While following users will be a great way to stay connected, groups will help Wagerminds users keep track of the best and brightest on the site.  Once you follow a user, you can add them to as many groups as you’d like.  Let’s say that you’d like to form a group on MLB sharps, a group on NBA sharps and those good at O/U plays – well, that’s no problem.  You can create as many groups as you’d like and add as many users to each group as you like.

One of the key benefits of these groups is that you’ll be able to see the consensus plays of each group for a specific game.  Take Game 4 of the Miami Heat / OKC Thunder series, for example. Overall, the WagerMinds community was overwhelmingly on OKC’s side.  However, if you look at just this particular NBA sharps group, you’ll see that they all were on the Heat:

You can make a group for a specific league, a specific team, or a specific bet type. The only limit is your imagination. And again, the process is dead simple: just follow users that you like, then head to your preferences page to manage your groups.  All you have to do is drag and drop a user’s avatar into the group you’d like to add them to – it’s that easy.

Chat & Messaging

Previously, the only way to get in contact with another user was to stalk them on social media sites.  That seemed silly. So we’ve built some really cool on-site communication methods. Now, if  you want to communicate with another Wagerminds user, you can send them a direct message or, if you prefer, chat directly.  When a user is online a green icon will show up next to them – signaling that they will be available to chat.

Instead of having a traditional direct messaging system, we’ve built a less disruptive chat that allows you to talk, regardless of what page you are currently on:

Users can block anyone that becomes a nuisance and any missed messages will show up in their betting toolbar (see below).

Fixed Toolbar

 Last month, we changed the top toolbar to be consistent no matter what page you’re on.  We are now powering it up with notifications and other detailed information.  The toolbar pulls in live scores for active games, new message notifications, activity stream updates and achievement information.  In short, the toolbar is an easily accessible dashboard for each and every user that allows you to get the data you need quickly:

When an icon in the toolbar is clicked, users will stay on the current page – keeping the notification experience as smooth as possible.

Activity Stream

Looking to see what your friends & groups are up to?  Our new toggle-able activity stream allows you to see data from all users you follow, or by select groups.  Items that show up in the activity stream include:

• Wagers
• Reconciled (Graded Wagers)
• Achievements
• New Follows

This is only the first step in a series of many that will help users connect and communicate on the site.  If you have any suggestions or ideas for improvement, please leave them in the comments below.  Enjoy!