History of Virtual Horse Racing
Virtual horse racing began as filler between live races on British betting shop screens. Two decades later, 4.8 million people watched a computer-generated Grand National on prime-time TV.
Timeline at a glance
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2001 | Kiron Interactive is founded in Johannesburg to run Turfmaster, an online horse racing skill game. |
| Early 2000s | Inspired Broadcast Networks puts computer-generated races on UK betting shop screens, at fictional courses such as Portman Park and Steepledowns. |
| 2007 | The Guardian reports that computer-generated races take nearly one in five bets in UK betting shops and earns bookmakers about £700m a year. Kiron opens a virtual sports division. |
| 2010 | Betradar sets up its Virtual Gaming unit, starting with horse racing, greyhounds and football. |
| 4 April 2020 | ITV shows the Virtual Grand National. 4.8 million people watch, Potters Corner wins and £2.6m goes to NHS Charities Together. |
| 2020s | Suppliers mix formats, such as races built on real greyhound footage, and online games publish their maths. |
Betting shops in the early 2000s
British betting shops had a problem: dead time. Between live races from real courses, the screens showed nothing to bet on. Inspired Broadcast Networks filled the gap with races that never happened. Punters bet on computer-generated horses at fictional tracks such as Portman Park, Steepledowns and Sprintvalley, with a new race every few minutes.
The early graphics were simple. Regulars called it "cartoon racing" or "the plastic ponies". The bets were real: fixed odds, settled like any other race.
Why bookmakers backed virtual racing
A computer-generated race has no weather, no non-runners and no fixture list. It runs on time, every time, and the bookmaker sets the margin in software. For a shop that wanted something on screen between real races, it was ideal.
It also made money. In August 2007 The Guardian reported that the format accounted for nearly one in five bets in UK betting shops and earned the industry about £700m a year. A Victor Chandler spokesperson called it "a stunning success that has exceeded even our most optimistic expectations", as Vice later recounted.
New suppliers and new markets
Other companies followed Inspired. Kiron Interactive started in Johannesburg in 2001 with Turfmaster, an online horse racing skill game, and in 2007 added a division for virtual sports in shops and online. Betradar, the sports data company now part of Sportradar, launched its Virtual Gaming unit in 2010 with horse racing, greyhounds and football.
Today Inspired supplies virtual sports to about 32,000 retail channels, including Betfred and Ladbrokes, and Playtech supplies brands such as Paddy Power, BetVictor and Coral. The catalogue now goes far beyond horses: football, tennis, basketball, cricket, motor racing, even marbles.
From betting shop screens to phones
As betting moved online, virtual horse racing followed it onto websites and then into mobile apps. Graphics moved from flat 2D to 3D tracks with TV-style camera angles, live standings and replays. A betting site with virtual racing has something to offer at 4am on a Tuesday, when no real course is running.
The format barely changed underneath. A random number generator still decides the result, and the video still shows a race that was settled before the stalls opened.
The Virtual Grand National, 2020
In spring 2020 COVID-19 shut down live sport, and the Grand National at Aintree was cancelled. On Saturday 4 April, ITV showed Inspired's Virtual Grand National in its place at 5pm, with 40 computer-generated runners.
The broadcast peaked at 4.8 million viewers, about 30% of the UK television audience at the time. Potters Corner won at 18-1. The average bet was just over £2, and bookmakers and Inspired gave their profits, about £2.6m, to NHS Charities Together.
The race showed that a computer-generated contest could hold a national TV audience, at least for one evening when nothing else was running.
Where virtual horse racing goes next
Two trends stand out. The first is hybrid content: Kiron and Vermantia, for example, have built races on footage from real greyhound meetings. The second is transparency. Players increasingly expect to see how a game sets its prices, which is why this site publishes the RTP of every market and explains how each race gets drawn.
If you want to see the format for yourself, the free game on our home page runs a new race about every minute, with demo credits only.
Sources
- Vice: The Horse Isn't Real. People Are Betting on It Anyway.
- Wikipedia: Virtual racing
- Racing Post: £2.6m payout for NHS charities from the Virtual Grand National
- SBC News: Virtual Grand National success
- World Casino Directory: Kiron Interactive company background
- Solo Azar: Betradar's Virtual Gaming solutions
- InterGame: Vermantia and Kiron launch virtual racing with real greyhound content