Top 10 Trends Powering Virtual Sports Betting

People are absolutely mad about sports and it never gets old, especially as most of the year, hardcore fans are sorely missing the return of the regular season. Fortunately for them, people who like to see an entire event play out to bet their money on, and people who feel like they’re good at picking a winner, virtual sports have come to fill the void, operating day and night, 24/7, so people never skip a beat. Virtual sports is currently a 12.68-billion-dollar-a-year industry, and by 2032 is expected to rocket up to 44.52 billion a year.

People can watch these fast-paced events playing out on any device with an internet connection, easily powered nowadays by the availability of smartphones, 5G, and cloud computing. Graphics in software like the odds96 app download are highly lifelike, complete with detailed stats and unpredictable gameplay. 

People get to enjoy betting on all kinds of sports:

• football
• horse & dog racing
• tennis
• motorsports
• cycling
• basketball

Without further ado, here are the top 10 trends powering virtual sports betting right now.

Expanded variety of virtual sports events

In 2020, virtual sports had a particularly large explosion, by a whopping 30%. A large part of this was that a lot of sporting events in the real world were canceled, and of course, viewership of all shows and events went up since more people were sitting at home. 

As technology advances and the sports fanaticism grows, there will be more and more simulations. New virtual sports leagues and tournaments could mirror global sporting events like the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics. This may incorporate fantasy leagues too. For that matter, people may even bet on simulations reminiscent of non-sports video games. 

Mobile-first betting platforms

Cell phones are the most commonly used devices today to access the Internet and it’s how most people like to place purchases. So virtual sports encourage apps and try to adapt to those platforms. With the advent of cloud computing and 5G, virtual sports have far less lagging and the Internet isn’t posing nearly as much of an obstacle in most places. There are going to be more minimalistic interfaces, not even requiring logins, but Face ID or social network authorization.

Enhanced integration will also speed up payments thanks to developments like:

• mobile banking;
• e-wallets;
• cryptocurrencies;
• push notifications;
• real-time updates and notifications.

Impact of blockchain

This renders gambling online in general much faster, cheaper, and freer of hurdles. On top of that, it builds people’s trust, seeing as it contains a ledger which enables people to track the entire history of the transactions, odds changes, and the outcome of every bet placed in an automated, smart fashion that neither party can manipulate or abuse. A lot of online platforms are also taking advantage of the fact that chargebacks cannot be so easily preyed on by criminals and bettors as can ordinary fiat currency. 

NFTs proliferation

Originally gaining popularity as art pieces that exist only in the digital world, non-fungible tokens have begun to develop into a very versatile asset, as:

• A collectible item that can serve as a ticket to an event or a bonus, which incentivizes users;
• Such bonuses and collectibles are resold on secondary markets;
• Companies and casinos now develop them to advertise their markets;
• Limited-edition items, which people will pay good money for due to their rarity because they are fans. In virtual sports betting, NFTs could represent exclusive assets tied to specific events, players, or teams.

AI supercharging betting

Artificial intelligence is poised to electrify the betting experience in many of the same ways that it’s doing that for traditional sports. It is growing to add as many little elements of traditional sports as possible, such as crowd behavior, the way the ball bounces, and player faces. Furthermore, people enjoy recommendations based on their wagering history, including the sports and teams they like and similar matches about to take place.

In addition, it’s incorporating player fatigue, streaks, and head-to-head matchups between players. The odds of these types of phenomena which play out in virtual sports as well are adjusted for in real time to allow for reliable bets during the game. People also enjoy enhanced protection from fraud as technology advances flagging suspicious phenomena.

Growth of esports and live betting

Esports has become a big hit, since many people enjoy playing video games themselves and therefore they are interested in watching it live and betting on it. The virtual gambling space as a whole is blowing up as people love live events. Thus, these industries too are feeding into virtual sports and these people are hot candidates to take a wager on a virtual horse race simulation. 

Esports raked in 6.61 billion dollars last year with people interested in watching games like:

• League of Legends;
• Dota 2;
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive;
• Fortnite;
• Valorant.

Virtual and augmented reality

Other communities in the virtual space which will provide particular excitement for sports fans are VR and AR. Virtual reality is the ultimate level of immersion, as people feel like they’re actually at the event and thus are more engaged. Meanwhile, in augmented reality, digital elements are overlaid in the real world, such as statistics, odds, and match information through AR glasses.

This will give them real-time updates. As both of these become more accessible, virtual sports betting will come up with more innovative ways to dazzle bettors.

Sophistication of microbetting

This allows bettors to place small, quick bets on specific moments or events within a game, rather than wagering on the overall outcome of the match. Users can bet on small things like the number of corner kicks, the next touchdown, or which specific player will score next. The fast-paced nature of these bets will appeal to those seeking instant gratification.

Gamblers can even place bets as the event progresses. As time goes on, people will even be able to bet on ever smaller events thus setting a low entry threshold, so that everyone can get involved without having to start out betting the farm.

Gamification

Elements like leagues, chats, and community events add a special social element to virtual sports, as is going on in all casino genres, that inject a whole new level of value into the event. 

These involve things like:

• leaderboards;
• total points;
• challenges, such as betting on a certain stat or total bets for the week;
• special rewards unlocked after placing a certain number of bets;
• sharing bets, predictions, and results with the whole community;
• friendly competitions.

Growing regulation

Governments continue to enforce more stringent regulations to prevent fraud, money laundering, and other abuses. These are very common occurrences that have long since kept gambling illegal in most places. Soon, governments will introduce clear and consistent regulations around virtual sports betting specifically.

Developer software has to be closely watched and provably fair methods must be integrated in case users want to see proof that the game and bet were completed in a just way. On top of that, as gambling causes a serious addiction problem, there are very strict data laws in place such as the GDPR and responsible gambling measures.