Inspired plans to expand Virtual Sports in the Americas amid growth, enter African markets this year

Inspired Entertainment has confirmed plans to expand its Virtual Sports offerings in North America and Latin America, with virtual baseball coming soon there, while also introducing its Virtual Sports content into African markets this year.

"These new markets have their own unique challenges, but Inspired’s experience in understanding player types, popular bet markets and sports, and which products and features will be most popular puts it in a strong position," the developer explained in a release this week. 

Inspired started its Virtual Sports business in 2000. Since then, the company spent most of that first decade building a platform and expanding its Virtual Sports content portfolio throughout Europe. "Now, the rest of the world is discovering what many European markets learned more than a decade ago—and once players learn about Inspired Virtual Sports, adoption is swift," the company said.

Inspired’s Virtual Sports are a lifelike simulation of real sports. They mimic the experience of real sports betting for experienced bettors, but are more accessible for novices, as explained by the firm. Players can bet on many of the same markets they are used to seeing on a standard sportsbook. Every three to five minutes, computer software generates 90-second video streams of scheduled fixed-odds sporting tournaments, matches, or races that closely depict a live sporting event. All bettors see the same schedule of events and the same outcomes. 

“In our Virtual Sports, however, each event is unique,” said Steve Rogers, Chief Commercial Officer, Virtual Sports for Inspired. “We add thousands of variables to the graphics to augment the player’s experience and to ensure that each event is as engaging as the last. And unlike in most real sports, Virtual Sports allow players to place a bet and know the results after just a few minutes.”

 Steve Rogers, Chief Commercial Officer, Virtual Sports for Inspired

Rogers continued: “We’ve seen Virtual Sports grow from a niche product to a global industry by providing fresh new content that has generated significant new revenue growth opportunities for sportbooks, lotteries and casino operators both online and in retail. Sports bettors, lottery players, and casino players love virtual sports because they provide graphically entertaining versions of sporting contests with familiar bets and a high frequency of events. With virtual sports, players don’t have to wait hours or days for the next race, or the next match.”

According to Inspired, it has the largest and most diverse content portfolio currently available, including the most popular sport for every market. Over the last five years, Inspired’s Virtual Sports have seen big growth in North America and Latin America with the introduction of basketball, football, the first-ever women’s soccer game, and coming soon, baseball. 

"The appeal and growth of Inspired’s Virtual Sports are rooted in the games’ quality and realism, their ease of play, and their similarity to real sports betting in allowing players to bet on many of the same markets sportbooks provide," the developer explains. "Inspired’s twenty years of experience enables the adaptation of the core product to suit a multitude of player types in many different geographies. As with live sports, data drives innovation in Virtual Sports as Inspired launches products and adapts them over time."