Virtual Sports

A Beginner’s Guide to Virtual Sports

Virtual Sports: A Beginner’s Guide

Virtual sports are games that are designed to accurately simulate sporting events for gambling purposes. You can play them at a growing number of online casinos and sportsbooks, and the range of events that you can bet on is fairly diverse. Some of the most popular virtual sports right now are horse racing, greyhound racing, tennis and soccer games. All results are quasi-realistically generated by a computer, and you can watch a virtual event unfold in real-time just as you would a regular race or game.

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Why Virtual Sports?

Real sports betting is widely available, so you might be wondering why virtual sports are even a thing. Several possible reasons could be offered, but one of the main ones is convenience. The fact is that if you want to bet on a horse race, a soccer game or a tennis match, you need to wait for one to take place. However, in the world of virtual sports, all of those events are running around the clock, so you never need to wait long for the next one to begin. If you’re the kind of person who gets an urge to bet on sports at the most inconvenient times, virtual sports provide an appealing alternative.

How Do Virtual Sports Work?

Just as computer software can accurately replicate a traditional roulette game in order to give online players a very similar experience, it is also perfectly capable of simulating a variety of sporting events. The graphical capabilities of computers have reached the point where you often need to look twice to notice that you aren’t watching the real thing, as console players will be happy to confirm. Watching a virtual sporting event is therefore just as enjoyable as watching the real thing.

The results of a virtual event are determined by a weighted Random Number Generator (RNG). This means that those who bet on virtual sports can take the ‘form’ of each participant into account to help improve their chances of success. An element of luck is certainly involved here, and probably more than in real-life events, but competitors won’t have an equal chance of winning.

Weighted RNG Explained

Consider a horse race with six runners. It would be very rare to find one in which all six runners are equally capable of winning. One might have much better form than all the others, two might have good form, two might have average form, and one might have as much form as a three-legged donkey.

In order to more accurately reflect this kind of situation, a weighted RNG system would give each runner a different chance of winning according to its form. Imagine that the race is a sack and that each horse is represented by a ball of a different colour. You could award eight balls to the horse with the best form, seven balls to each of the horses with good form, five balls to each of the horses with average form, and just two balls to the three-legged donkey.

Put all of those balls into the sack and shake them up. Now select one ball at random in order to determine the winning horse. There are 34 balls in the sack, and the horse with the best form has better chance of being drawn as the winner. The horse with the least form has the lowest chance of being drawn, but it isn’t impossible for that to happen.

This weighted RNG system allows bettors to look at the form and bet accordingly, just as they would in a regular sporting event. Odds are determined by the stated form (their chance of winning according to the number of ‘balls in the sack’), and the RNG does the rest to determine the actual winner.

Of course, this is a very simple explanation of how the outcome of a virtual event is determined, but the main principle holds true. You can therefore use the form as your guide to betting, or you can rely on blind luck, just as you can at the race track.

Types of Virtual Sports

The range of virtual sports that you can bet on is growing from year to year. This is an area which many game developers are working on, but a few of the sports available right now are as follows:

Virtual Horse Racing

Pick a horse from the card and bet on it to win, place or show. Or be even more daring and place a more risky bet, such as a forecast or tricast. Then watch the virtual horses gallop around a photorealistic track in real-time.

Virtual Tennis

Featuring players with fluid motion-captured movements, realistic courts and superb game simulation, virtual tennis gives you that Wimbledon sense of excitement all year round.

Virtual Basketball

Enjoy courtside action at any time of the day or night, thanks to virtual basketball. Take your pick from a full range of bets, just as you would for a regular game.

Virtual Soccer

The ‘beautiful game’ is just as enjoyable as a virtual sport as it is in real life. Bet on the winner, the first team to score, the correct score and even on the number of corners that will be awarded.

Virtual Cycle Racing

This is a virtual sport that could actually be more popular than the real thing for betting purposes. Expect as much speed, tension, tactics and potential tumbles as you’d see in an actual velodrome.

Virtual Greyhound Racing

Like regular greyhound racing, the virtual sport is fast and furious. Watch the dogs parade as you place your bets, then wait for the bell and hope that your selection is one of the first out of the traps.

Virtual Sports are Here to Stay

Virtual sports are already very popular, and they will only become more so as technology continues to improve. If you haven’t yet seen virtual sports in action, head over to Betsafe Casino to take a look at the range available there, and happy betting!

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