Ian JohnAlmost everybody is aware nowadays that the digital revolution has ushered in a new era for the betting industry. Not only are more people enjoying sports betting, casino gaming, poker and bingo
online than ever before, but the digital platform, the advent of mobile technology and the ever-increasing capabilities of modern devices means that there are now more varied opportunities to bet than ever before too.
Indeed, in the sports betting industry, there is a niche market that does not even require you to wager on a real life sporting event of any kind, because the software can create its own sporting events to bet on.
This is the world of Virtual Sports and on SkyBet, there are a choice of five Virtual Sports you can bet on these are:
- Horse Racing
- Greyhounds
- Football
- Motor Racing
- Speedway
In this article, we are focusing on Virtual Football and whether or not, this service from SkyBet offers football punters a genuine chance to enjoy some quality soccer betting action at any time of the night and day, 365 days a year. If you aren’t yet a customer, be sure to secure yourself a Sky new player offer before you do any betting!
What is Virtual Football on SkyBet?
Virtual Football is a piece of software that is designed to emulate betting on a soccer match. The software selects two teams to play against each other (teams are weighted to allow for different odds in different games) and there are a number of betting markets where odds are created based on the relative strengths of each of the teams competing.
The result however is not solely based on the strength of each team but also a significant random factor which allows for surprise results to take place and thus, allow punters a chance to win some of the longer odds bets, if they are lucky.
Once a match has been completed and the results are known, the software then plays the next match on the fixture list and so on.
What markets can I bet on in a SkyBet Virtual Football match?
There are five different markets you can place a bet on for every SkyBet Virtual Football Match. The same options are available for every SkyBet Virtual Football match, although the odds on offer for each selection will change for every match.
The markets available are:
- Match Result – You can back the home team to win, the away team to win or the draw.
- Correct Score – There are always 15 Correct Score options to pick from as each game in Virtual Football on SkyBet can only have a maximum of up to four goals. Therefore, you can bet on either the home team, or the away team to win 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-0, 3-1 or 4-0. You can also bet on three draw options of 0-0, 1-1 and 2-2.
- Total Goals – There are always five options here for the total number of goals scored in the match, 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 goals.
- Under/Over 2.5 Goals – This is a simple choice bet of whether there will be Over 2.5 Goals or Under 2.5 Goals in the game.
- Double Chance – This is a bet on two of the three possible outcomes of the match. You can back on the home team to win and the draw, the away team to win and the draw, or either the home team or the away team to win.
Placing a bet on Virtual Sports is very easy to do as you simply use the same method as you would for any SkyBet market. Just click on the odds of the market you want to bet on to add it to your bet slip, then enter your stake and then click the button to place the bet and your bet will be placed.
All you need to remember is to place your bet on the game within the 90 seconds from when the markets are made available to bet on, until the moment the highlights start of the game in question (at which point, no more bets can be made on the game).
How is the result of the Virtual Football match decided?
When the betting markets close on a Virtual Football match, the highlights package will begin which will display the key moments from the game complete with a rudimentary commentary on 
the highlights. The software powering the game will work out what the final result of the game is and how many goals are scored via a complex computer program and also with a degree of randomness in the results.
This degree of variability means that you can still get surprise results, low scoring and high scoring games that deviate away from the norm and thus, this ensures that the favourites do not always win.
Once the highlights are played through, the final score of the game is displayed with a summary of which of the five bets from the five betting markets were the winning choices for that game. Another nice touch on SkyBet, which is not always available on other sites, is that you can view the results of several other recently played games in the Results section.
Are the teams based on real life teams and players and can I use real world data to help me select my markets?
International teams share the same name as real life international sides, but club teams tend to have a similar name to real life teams. For example, Barcelona Braves v Milan Reds, is the Virtual Football equivalent on SkyBet of a match between Barcelona and AC Milan. Some teams though do retain their original name (such as Anderlecht and Hibs).
There are no real life players as such in Virtual Football, the players are all generic players simply used to highlight the key incidents in the game. Real life players play no part in Virtual Football or the betting on it.
As a result of this and the fact that all teams performances are not based on how they are playing currently in the real world, you can’t use real world data to help inform your SkyBet Virtual Football bets.
How often does it take a Virtual Football match to play through from start to finish on SkyBet?
It takes three minutes for a typical Virtual Football match to be worked through on SkyBet from start to finish. The match starts with a period of 90 seconds in which you can place your bets on the match. Then the Highlights package takes up around 60-70 seconds. The remaining time is when the results summary of the match is displayed, after which the next match will start.
SkyBet’s Virtual Football offers a simple way to enjoy betting on a wide range of matches in double-quick time. Fans of slots and more ‘random chance’ games will certainly enjoy the wealth of bets on offer as well as football fans and with the random element, there is always a chance of landing one of the longer priced bets.
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