SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Golden Race’s Jimmy Bone explains why the future of virtual sports will be about creating the perfect betting experience for players, which is completely manageable and customisable for each operator, market, and player tastes. And why the fact that Golden Race have been doing this since the beginning is what makes it the best.
Virtual sports are a huge part of the future of the sports-betting industry. This is despite it being a saturated market. Virtual sports growth continues, at different rates, all around the world.
For instance, the Nigerian market – where Golden Race solutions are used in more than 90% of retail locations – is booming. Meanwhile, Latin American and Asian punters are warming to virtual sports, although in Latin America that has taken more time than anticipated, and many companies have fallen short in that market.
While the European market has felt some slow down, markets such as Nigeria, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia are huge, and Golden Race are already operating and seeing great success in all of them.
How can growth continue? How can we ensure the future? Instead of going for a pretty picture, our focus on the perfect betting experience – because that is what players want.
We want to make virtuals more integrated; that means moving away from retail and casinos to online and direct-to-mobile experience. It’s nothing less than direct player engagement, 24/7. Golden Race has created the perfect virtual betting experience – the new and unique online platform, which we call ‘the online Revolution’ – designed from ground up to be a real, complete sportsbook, exactly the same as the real thing, where the odds, voiceovers, excitement, benefits, and winnings are all real. Only the events are virtual.
The options and features which real sports gamblers love are all included – for example multi-event betting across different sports, combination bets, bonuses, and connected jackpot prizes.
The interface is exactly like a real sports betting website – entirely familiar in appearance, layout, and functionality. It feels real, and is very intuitive – there is nothing for players to learn, they can just get right into the action.
From a management perspective, virtual sports are unbeatable. Complete control of odds and limits, jackpots, scheduling of games, backed by certified RNG and licenced by various regulatory bodies for total security and peace of mind.
Golden Race also offer a complete white-label solution, and extensive branding and promotional opportunities within the actual games.
We made a decision more than 10 years ago to do things differently. The market is full of companies whose main goal is purely visual. Admittedly, the products are truly beautiful, but more important, and what Golden Race focuses on, is the complete experience for players, and the most flexible and cost-effective solutions for operators.
Having the best-looking product means nothing if it takes a huge amount of time and work to make even the smallest changes, as is the case with any pre-rendered 3D game. At the end of the day, players prefer to go home with a real gaming experience far more than something which just looks nice.
Golden Race instead spreads its efforts across the whole spectrum. We are the only company to live-render 3D football directly on the box, allowing flexibility, easy updating and customisation, and it means that each event is unique.
A lot of effort goes into the creation of realistic odds models based on statistics to create realistic odds from in-house professional bookmakers. They are regularly updated and individual odds for each and every individual game, and also for each and every different virtual league competition, are created. Using real sports commentators for in-game voiceovers, and collaborating with real cameramen, rounds out an authentic experience.
That is the future of virtual sports, and indeed a key to the company’s on-going growing successes – delivering a true sports betting experience which players recognise as the same as the real thing, and one which operators can manage, tweak, and fine tune to their specific business needs.
While we will never lose enjoyment from real sports, and players will always enjoy betting on them, the future of virtual sports remains bright for any company that delivers the same betting experience in a lightweight and flexible way.
Jimmy Bone, Marketing and Client Executive at Golden Race, has 18 years’ experience delivering customer focused results across various industries. He quickly identifies customer needs and champions critical changes for them. With a passion for doing things the right way, he cultivates the voice and vision of Golden Race.
