Frank Wenzig for EGR

As the gaming industry continues to grow more crowded and competitive across the world, bookmakers are increasingly looking for ways to enhance their sportsbook offering and gain an edge over the competition. Aside from the basics – the odds, interface, the right selection of sports and UX factor – this is about providing the entertainment and engagement factor that punters seek these days, as this is what can attract and retain customers on site for longer.

Gaming solutions began as a straightforward way of achieving this, with virtual sports enabling punters to continue betting after the real event had ended, in fact, whenever they liked. Thanks to advancements in technology and gaming, virtual sports has an even greater ability to extend user sessions and increase site visits. And as the concept of anytime, anywhere mobile technology continues to advance and increase, so too does the potential of virtual sports in adding more value to a sportsbook.

However, like any component of a bookmaker’s offering, operators need to be aware of the trends that make virtual Gaming Solutions a viable option for various sportsbooks in markets worldwide. Here’s three that should be considered.

Fans want more betting entertainment

Gone are the days of linear sportsbooks with single sets of odds. These days audiences want more out of their betting experience. This is partly due to the fact that, within the sports technology industry as a whole, cutting-edge innovation has helped bring fans closer to the action, with more options available to increase entertainment and levels of engagement. As such, additional elements that appeal to the user, including statistics, live content and gamification will continue to help bookmakers create a unique offering that can stand out from the rest. Personalisation will also be a huge factor, enabling fans to choose what they want to bet on, when and how.

Virtual sports has all these features of betting stimulation rolled into one. With Betradar’s Gaming Solutions for example, virtual sports are based on real sporting events and can be played out live across multiple channels, including retail, terminal, mobile and online, providing the same engagement factor as live streaming. The same betting markets and statistics utilised in real sports are presented, giving users access to just as much information and entertainment. While the look and feel, betting options and ability to play around the clock provide the gamification and personalisation factor that, again, will continue to be a key aspect of a stand-out offering. The underlying factor of all of this is realism.

Realism is crucial

Gaming technology has come a long way. These days video games and virtual reality are becoming more and more realistic and immersing users into the experience like never before. Audiences therefore expect the same quality from virtual sports betting solutions. There isn’t much point providing a virtual sports offering if it looks old and not up to the quality of what audiences expect. Gaming Solutions with long load times, latency or low-quality, pixelated imagery are therefore less likely to gain traction. This is one of the reasons why some of the world’s best motion capture studios are behind Betradar’s Gaming Solutions. Utilising this technology with real-life professional athletes, we are able to create virtual sports that look and feel just like the real thing.

The other key to ensuring the most realistic experience with Virtual Sports is by utilising the same data, markets and odds as real sports. Our Gaming Solutions are all based on our comprehensive sports and betting data, which we have been accumulating and analysing for almost two decades now. This is what enables our virtual sports to be powered with real-life team and player statistics and strengths. This has, and will continue to, boost our Gaming portfolio with in-play betting solutions to appeal to punters who like to bet on form and momentum. This is important as it helps to maintain the unpredictability and therefore exciting nature of real sports. We offer the same betting markets in our virtual solutions as we do in real sports, merging the betting experience seamlessly so that the experience of betting is the same to that of placing a bet on a real sport. Using the quality and speed of our data, we offer just as many markets with new bet cycles that are just as frequent.

Flexibility and choice are key

Having the same extensive fast-cycle betting options as real-life sports ensures punters are presented with just as many options just as quick. Virtual sports enhance this further given they provide punters with the ability to bet on these markets before, after or even during the half-time break of a real event. This is an ideal solution for bookmakers who may want to fill the gap in their current offering with an option that not only allows users to bet how they like but when they like. And in today’s day and age, where flexibility and, again, personalisation are continuing to grow as trends, giving the audiences this choice is ideal.

Gaming Solutions have expanded across the years, with more and more sports presented as virtual offerings. Betradar, for example, has grown its Gaming portfolio from a single Virtual Football product to one that includes multiple competitions, including World Cup, Euro Cup, Champions Cup and Asian Cup modes, and multiple sports, including Virtual Horse and Dog Racing, Virtual Basketball and Virtual Tennis In-Play. There’s also many more to come, with Baseball and Cricket In-Play on the horizon.

Such solutions are also available in a variety of different languages. This not only gives more punters across the world more choice when it comes to virtual sports betting options, but bookmakers themselves too, whether they want to provide a complete Virtual Sports solution, or use one preferred sport to target a particular region. Virtual Sports continue to prove popular in areas of Asia, for example, so could therefore serve as a way for bookmakers to step into new and upcoming markets. Truly innovative Gaming Solutions, like ours, give operators the opportunity to completely customise and localise their virtual sports offering so that it can be integrated in the most seamless way possible to cover a range of demographics, geographies and channels.

As technology and sports betting continues to advance across the world, the appeal of Virtual Sports is likely to grow. As a supplement to a sportsbook, Gaming Solutions should therefore not be underestimated. Operators, however, do need to be aware of the trends that make a Virtual Sports offering truly effective as part of a sportsbook. With comprehensive data and cutting-edge technology adding to its realism, the flexibility and 24/7 nature of Virtual Sports can enhance and complement the entertainment and engagement factor of a sportsbook. Essentially, this is an efficient way for operators to target and increase audiences, their usage and time on site, therefore providing a feasible way of contributing to commercial goals.

Try out Betradar’s Virtual Sports offering via the demonstrator or, to find out more, join the webinar on Thursday, March 19th via this link.