I don’t suspect this is a go-er for the average Bar punter, but the casting researcher is nice so knock yourselves out:

For some reason I found myself watching the latest episode of the horribly clinical National Lottery draw last night, where everything is automated, although possibly Alan Dedicoat recorded an extra line or two of dialogue of news to open the draw with in what must be the easiest money ever made. I know people “just want the numbers”, but I can’t help but think some sort of human touch would make it a bit more likable.

Compare and contrast with something I’ve become quietly obsessed with, which is the Irish Lotto’s Telly Bingo on RTE, where Declan Buckley, who’s been hosting the show for twenty years twice a week (for several years initially as his drag act Shirley Temple Bar) manages to get through a phone game and a bingo drawing in ten minutes utterly charmingly.

So my question for you is what’s the best international lottery draw show? It might have the best music or the best machine or the most drama. Importantly we’re only interested in the draws, so lottery sponsored gameshows are (mainly) out.

Something that may be of interest to punters, a free to play game released on Steam the other day called Split or Steal which, yes, is Bother’s Bar format favourite The Prisoner’s Dilemma as an online player vs player live experience. Make and risk fake money to buy things which make you more fake money and then make BIGGER RISKS for BIGGER FAKE MONEY.

Not sure I see the appeal but lots of positive reviews (I haven’t played it myself) but if this looks like your sort of thing then knock yourselves out.

The format for Beat the Chasers has leaked and we’re a bit disappointed to discover it’s a chess clock quiz, which are rarely quite as good and exciting an idea in reality as they are on paper.

Basically each contestant starts with 5 questions in a Cashbuilder for £1,000 each, then the Chasers make increasing offers depending on how big (or little) a headstart you get, from a baseline one minute. It sounds like winning is going to be largely dependent on how many questions the Chasers get wrong and keeping up a decent hit rate yourself.

Saturday, 7:15pm (UK)/8:15pm (Germany)
ProSieben or your naughty alternative of choice.

Join us for another exciting edition of Schlag den Star where once again two celebs will be battling it out over 15 mystery events for €100,000.

If you’ve got a microphone you’ll be welcome to join us and hangout in the Discord – link will appear here after we start broadcast – remember it’s a privilege not a right. To avoid cutting out, we advise turning Auto-sensitivity off and setting it to -85dB or so in your settings.

This episode chef Frank Rosin takes on footballer Mario Basler. Music provided by Johannes Oerding and Robin Schultz.

The link to the commentary stream will be live here from 7:15pm until end of broadcast.

This stream is commentary only. You will need to have a naughty stream running at the same time for the visuals. We are likely to be about 15-20 seconds behind the visual stream (and about a full minute behind if you’re watching an actual satellite feed), sorry.

The Opera VPN has apparently stopped being useful for SdS. Bother’s Bar recommends shelling out for a proper VPN service. Bother’s Bar uses ExpressVPN, other VPN services are available. Matt Clemson recommends Windscribe as a free alternative. We cannot take responsibility for anything you do to your system, so be careful and use some common sense.

To watch it would be useful to sign up for ProSieben’s catch-up service – it’s pretty simple to work out, don’t click the box if you don’t want e-mail messages. You will need to put in a proper e-mail because it will send you a confirmation. 

If anyone knows of any relatively safe livestreams, do feel free to share.

Lost in the shuffle yesterday, FOTB Alex McMillan is “doing” a Richard Osman’s World Cup Of Richard Osman’s House of Games you can still join in with. Check out his other tweets for the other ties.