Before we look into the growth of virtual sports, we need to go over what exactly virtual sports are and how they are presented. In short, virtual sports are a virtual rendition of a sport using highly complex algorithms and artificial intelligence to dictate the outcome of certain virtual sporting events.
While this sounds like numbers on a screen, virtual sports are enacted by CGI models, sometimes to a point of being difficult to tell apart from the real sport it is based on. The five biggest virtual sports at the time are: football, horse racing, greyhound racing, tennis and darts. Any of these sports would be a great entrance into virtual sports and subsequently virtual sport betting.
Growth
With an average of 40% growth year on year since 2017, virtual sports are still a way from surpassing traditional sports, but are still on a steep up curve. The growth of virtual sports has exploded in recent years, thanks in no small part to the recent pandemic. Virtual sporting events have taken massive technological leaps in the past few years to a point where real footage is used, making it difficult to distinguish from physical sporting events. The growth of virtual sports has been consistent and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Advantages
Virtual sports come with a great share of advantages over traditional sporting events, as one of the key elements of virtual sports is betting, we will be focussing on advantages to bettors who make use of virtual https://australiansportsbetting.net/cycling/ betting.
- Availability – traditional sporting events have seasons and availability, with virtual betting events this is not the case. True 24/7 betting is finally an option for anybody keen on making a bet. No more having to watch games at odd hours in the night from time zone differences, virtual sports offer an experience to suit whatever your availability allows for.
- Research – Just like in real sport events, research is possible in virtual events as well. While the teams are all fictional, they usually have a set performance which will differ slightly in between games. While the random generation aspect will ensure that anything is possible, the teams on a particular sportsbook will stay roughly in the same performance brackets. A strong team is likely to stay a strong team making it possible to begin to predict outcomes of these events. At the moment the random outcome generation prevents us from predicting successfully on every event, but that is half the fun in sports betting anyway. Anything can happen, it’s up to the bettor to beat the odds.
- Options – Virtual sports offer an excellent range of markets available, often beating out that of real sport betting. If there is something particular you want to bet on, you can rest assured that it will be available in virtual sports betting.
Final Thoughts
As it stands, virtual sports are still a long way from overtaking traditional sports betting. However, the growth rate is nothing short of promising for virtual sports betting to have a great future ahead.