What Bones are
Bones are BragRights’ currency — and only its currency. There’s no way to buy Bones, sell them, or cash them out. They exist purely to keep score.
Never real money. No purchase path, no payout path, for anyone.
How you get Bones
You’re credited an opening stake the moment you join a crew. After that, you get a recurring allowance — the amount and how often it lands are both set by your commissioner. A bad week never leaves you with nothing left to wager.
Placing a wager
On any single game, wager Bones on one of three markets:
- Moneyline — pick who wins outright.
- Spread — pick who covers the handicap.
- Total — pick over or under the combined score.
Whatever odds are on the board when you place the wager are the odds you get paid at — frozen the instant you bet, even if the line moves afterward. You can cancel or change a wager freely until the game starts; once it starts, it’s locked, win or lose.
Parlays
Put two or more selections on one ticket and the odds combine into a much bigger payout. The catch is the obvious one: every leg has to win. A single loss ends the ticket, and each leg still keeps the odds it was frozen at when you added it.
Legs can come from different games or the same game. The one combination we turn down is the moneyline and the spread on the same game — those two outcomes lean on each other rather than being independent, so pricing them as if they weren’t would hand out a payout the odds don’t justify.
Season-long futures
Futures are bets on how a whole season ends rather than on one game: the championship, a conference or division winner, or which team finishes with the most wins. They pay at the odds you placed them at, months later if that’s how long it takes.
Because a future has no single kickoff to lock against, it stays cancellable for a full refund right up until the market resolves. You can also back more than one team in the same market — that’s hedging, not a mistake, and it’s allowed.
Parlays and futures are both switched on for new crews by default. A commissioner can turn either off in the crew’s settings.
Balance, exposure, and standings
Your balance is what you have free to spend. Bones tied up in wagers that haven’t been graded yet are your exposure — still yours, just not free to bet again until that wager settles. Standings rank crews by balance plus exposure combined, so being mid-wager on a big bet never makes you look broke.
Splitting the haul
When the voyage ends, standings lock in and the crew splits the haul — settling up based on final position. Someone ends up with the black spot for last place. Next voyage, everyone starts fresh.