Betway’s Virtual Sports Offering Returns And It Looks Better Than Ever

Written By Ian John on September 13, 2017 - Last Updated on February 23, 2024

A little while ago Betway temporarily removed their Virtual Sports offering from their site while the different games available underwent some upgrade work. Well the good news for Virtual Sports fans is that the games are now back on the Betway website and not only that but the new look games look absolutely fantastic.

In this article we are going to take a brief look at each of the seven different Virtual Sports offered at Betway and give you a preview of some of the key improvements made to it compared to one of our other sites that offers a similar number of Virtual Sports, Bet365 Sport.

Betway Virtual Sports

The first thing you will notice with all of the Virtual Sports at Betway when compared to Bet365 Sport is that their console is considerably larger. This makes the action on screen bigger, better defined and easier to follow.  It also enhances the quality of the graphics and the presentation of the Virtual Sports on Betway now look far better quality and more clearly visible than on the Bet365 site.

One nice touch is you can expand the screen to full size to see the event at the maximum size on your screen, which is a fabulous addition.

Additionally, each sport now has a far more interesting build up to the event starting than previously. Rather than a screen with “Please Wait” on, Betway now sees its sports display a screen with betting on (in the case of football) or a preview of the competitors competing in the race (such as in all the six other different race-based games).  This gives the Virtual Sport a more realistic and cinematic quality and certainly enhances the experience.

However, these are not the only big upgrades available with Betway’s new service. Each of the seven different sports has been given an overhaul and is new and improved. We’re going to take a look at each, with a screenshot, and explain to you some of the key improvements made to all seven Virtual Sports games.

Virtual Football

Aside from the improvements made to the build up to the game where you now get a preview of the main betting markets available on the screen, together with the shirts of the two teams competing. The new Virtual Football software has added some extra animations to the game which means you tend not to see too many repetitions of the same animations as often.

One nice touch is the addition of a statistics table which is displayed at half time and full time which outlines key stats from the game, such as possession percentages, number of passes made, number of passes completed, number of tackles and fouls made. The new way the summative data is displayed  at the end of a game is also much clearer and easier to follow.

Horse Racing

The main improvement to Horseracing is that with the better quality graphics, you get better animations of the horses running and an increased number of camera angles to view the race unfold on the screen. The horse position indicator is now bigger and there is now an indicator in the bottom right of the screen which shows you how far into the race you are.

Additionally, the way the results have been displayed are also easier to see and now includes the form of each horse. This is also displayed in the preview of each of the runners in the race that takes place before the race, which really does add to the whole horse racing experience and makes it feel like it is ‘real’ rather than virtual.

Greyhound Racing, Cycling and Motor Sports

The improvements in the Greyhound racing, Cycling and Motor Sports virtual sports are similar to those implemented in the horse racing section where the form is displayed on the summary of the race and the preview before the race of each of the competitors adds a good deal of excitement to the build up.

Of all the upgraded games, these three have perhaps had the least amount of upgrades added to them but the small changes that have been made do enhance the experience of betting on each sport considerably, even though the changes are largely cosmetic.

Speedway

Of all the improvements to their Virtual Sports offering, I think the changes in the Speedway one are most marked. Not only do you get a TV style preview of each of the four racers and their form and colours in the build up to the start of the race, but once the race gets under way there are an increased number of camera angles and panning shots used to bring the race to life just as if you were watching it live on TV.

The animations on the Speedway Virtual Sport are particularly impressive, so much so that if you didn’t know this was a Virtual Sport, you could well think that you were watching the real thing. Certainly in terms of aesthetics and presentation and comparison to real life sport, Speedway is up there as one of the very best Virtual Sports you can play.

Trotting

Trotting may not be the first sport that most people in the UK would think of when it comes to sports betting, but it has undergone some significant improvements as a Virtual Sport. There is now the same race indicator in the bottom right hand corner of the  screen which tells you how far into the race you are and the position indicators, as in horseracing and greyhound racing, are larger and easier to see.

Like the Speedway option before this, the animations for Trotting are superbly smooth and once again you could be fooled into thinking this was the real thing. The way the results and betting is presented is also very easy to follow and with just three minutes in between each race, you can rattle through a high number of Trotting races in a relatively short space of time.

Conclusion

Although it’s disappearance from the Betway site may have been a little inconvenient at the time, the changes made to the Virtual Sports offering on the site are extensive and have made significant improvements to each of the seven sports offered. These changes may be largely cosmetic, but the overall effect has been to enhance the visual appeal of each of the sports and increase the feeling that these are “realistic” representations of sporting events.

Certainly in comparison to the Virtual Sports on Bet365 Sport, for a long time the benchmark for other Virtual Sports offering to aspire to, Betway’s new offering achieves wholesale improvements on the Virtual Sports and it would not surprise me if as a result, other companies gave their Virtual Sports offerings the same tweaks and modifications that Betway have.

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Ian John

Ian John is an expert across many realms of online gambling, both in US and international markets. Based in the UK, Ian covers sports betting, poker, and the regulated online casino and esports betting markets for a wide number of industry-focused publications.

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