Page 66 - Public Gaming International September/October 2017

INTERVIEWS

PUBLIC GAMING Steve

ROGERS

Chief Commercial Officer
Digital Products, Inspired Entertainment

Virtual Sports: The RNG game that combines the sociability and thrill of sports,
the interactive experience of digital games…and the equal chance to win of LOTTERY

Paul Jason: offering and now we continue to develop likely that the random number genera-
How has Virtual Sports, the product and the Virtual Sports products for more niche tor will land on one of those numbers.
market-place, evolved over the last ten years?
international markets. For instance, we The lower probability horse has a smaller
Steve Rogers: went into Sweden and Italy where trotting/ range of numbers making it less likely that
harness racing is a big sport and so adapted the RNG will land on one of those. So,
It was in the UK, back in 2001, that our virtual horses, drivers, and carriages the lower probability horse pays a larger
Inspired Entertainment was tasked with to create a market-specific trotting prod- amount if it wins and the prize pool allo-
the job of creating a product that would uct. In North America, we’re focused on cation is directly proportional to the odds
fill the space in between the live broadcast American Football, baseball, basketball, of winning. The player has no influence on
of horse races in betting shops. The typi- hockey and such. the outcome, and there is no information
cal horseracing day included lots of lengthy that the player can know ahead of time to
gaps when no live events were scheduled, enhance the odds of winning. The outcome
especially early in the morning or late in is randomly determined, and there is noth-
the evening. During the day, the screens ing the player can do to change that.
would go empty for periods of time while
waiting for the next race to start, and so Ever since 2001, and continuing today,
the idea was borne to create a graphical every single betting shop in the UK
representation of a horserace to be slotted features Virtual Products from Inspired.
in between the live racing in order to offer The outcome being RNG determined makes We launched in Italy in 2013, in Greece
a full program of non-stop betting oppor- the game fundamentally much like Lottery, in 2017, where we’re now live in 5,880 and
tunities throughout the day. Such was the right? 4,600 venues respectively. We’re also live
genesis of Virtual Sports. in China in around 6,000 shops, Ukraine,
Steve Rogers: Belgium, Denmark and Poland among
We started with horseracing in 2001 and Exactly like Lottery. Software will take other countries. Following the announce-
then created greyhound racing in 2002, an eight-horse race and it will apply prob- ment of Inspired’s selection via RFP, we
soccer in 2006, and car racing 2008. Over ability against each horse, so that there is will launch with Veikkaus in Finland, most
the last seven years, Inspired has advanced the favorite with the highest probability of likely across both their land based and
to create virtual cycling, speedway, tennis, winning, the outsider with the lowest prob- digital channels. Following the inevitable
boxing, basketball, golf, cricket, darts, and ability of winning, and then the range of regulatory steps which are a part of entering
more recently - basketball and American spreads in between. The favorite will have any new market, we anticipate that integra-
football. We expanded our core sports a larger range of numbers, making it more tion with Veikkaus will take approximately

66 // PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // SEPTEMBER /OCTOBER 2017