Virtual horse racing

[weegeebored]

I was curious if anyone has tried any of the online games. Horse racing is a tiny market and I think only a few FOFC members have interest in the sport (QuikSand and maybe a couple of others). I ask because there was a promotion on a horse racing forum that I have been a member of for 20 years. I have had some curiosity about virtual horse racing but I signed up only because of the promotion. I was wondering what the pitfalls are if anyone has experience with sites like these. My initial impression is that there is some serious coin involved and the game is not designed for the casual player.

I had a chance to play for free because of the promotion and it seems fun. (I've spent too many hours learning the basics.) But this particular site also uses NFTs and a version of crypto (utility tokens) on the Solana blockchain so there are investment opportunities. Do other sites do the same thing? I really don't know much about investing in crypto so it's an aspect of virtual horse racing that I would likely stay away from.

[Lathum]

I played Photo Finish for a while. It was ok.

Hooves of Thunder is still the best but IMO there really isn't anything that good. Quick may know better.

I think the crypto/NFT thing is interesting because IMO the reason a horse simulation never took off was people into horse racing actually want to wager. Most are total degenerate gamblers.

[SirFozzie]

anything with NFT is going to get the side-eye and skepticism at best from me.

[QuikSand]

I'm vaguely interested, but thus far the offerings have either presented a steep entry barrier (knowledge/familiarity wise) or just reeked of scamminess.

I agree, generally, with the above... without wagering, who am I winning money from? Just other players? Doesn't sound like that could possibly be +EV without a ton of work.


And now MyRaceHorse is gonna blow up, which feels like it might scratch a similar itch for those with such inclinations.

[RainMaker]

Little off topic but does anyone remember an arcade game from like the 80's or 90's that was horse racing? You would bet on the horse races and that watch them play out.

[SirFozzie]

Sounds like one of the G1 Jockey series.

[QuikSand]

..or Final Furlong

[RainMaker]

Found it. Was called Arlington Horse Racing.

[Ajaxab]

I spent a lot of hours playing Gallop Racer in the mid 2000s.

It's a shame that there are no decent PC horse racing sims. Anyone tried Rival Stars Horse Racing? It seems like it might be a bit too arcadey and simplistic.

I know Starters Orders is out there and Horse Racing Manager is coming, but both unfortunately look pretty archaic at this point.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

It's a shame that there are no decent PC horse racing sims. Anyone tried Rival Stars Horse Racing? It seems like it might be a bit too arcadey and simplistic.

I played it a while ago when it first came out...it was way too linear 'collect 5 hay to train your horse to level 2 in order to compete in level 2 races' and 'get your barn to level 3 to breed level 3 horses' and such.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

It's a shame that there are no decent PC horse racing sims.

Agreed.

There was a quirky small-scale game several years ago called "The Racing Breed" which was the best in the class, for my money. It had a CD-check as an anti-piracy tool, I have since lost my CD and no longer have a CD-drive on my computers anyway, and so while I have the files for the game, can't get it to run.

The best I have now is "QuarterPole Plus." It has meaningful deficits, but it's the best out there for what I want to play, and I pick it up every so often, but touch bottom too easily.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I'm vaguely interested, but thus far the offerings have either presented a steep entry barrier (knowledge/familiarity wise) or just reeked of scamminess.

I agree, generally, with the above... without wagering, who am I winning money from? Just other players? Doesn't sound like that could possibly be +EV without a ton of work.


And now MyRaceHorse is gonna blow up, which feels like it might scratch a similar itch for those with such inclinations.

The promotion was for Photo Finish Live, the site that Lathum mentioned. It seems legit but I have noticed some odd things that make me a little skittish but that could just be due to my lack of knowledge of the ecosystem. There are multiple ways to make money. Wagering doesn't seem too high on the list as from what I observed as there are a limited number of opportunities. The other ways to earn cash are to win purses (paid to the top four finishers, I believe), selling horses on the market, breeding (stud fees), and investing (in the racetracks or through the NFTs known as PFPs).

It seems that the players put up all the money with the only exception being subsidized purses. I am not exactly sure where that money comes from but it seems like "added" purses IRL horse racing. As I already mentioned, I don't think the game is for the casual player. It's too easy to make mistakes if you don't know what you're doing, so the players need to do their homework. But that's no different than real horse racing as the smart players/whales have the best chances to have a positive ROI.

I'm probably going to put up a little money -- maybe $100 -- and see what happens. (The promotion includes a FanDuel-like match funds option.) If I can play a few months with that initial investment it would be worth it for the entertainment value. But $100 doesn't go very far which is another reason the game seems geared more toward a serious player. I am guessing that other similar sites have the same type of costs as PFL.

[SirFozzie]

This sounds like a huge scam and avoiding it would be high on my priority list.

[bhlloy]

Yeah that sounds like it’s going to end up about as well as the Football Index stock market that lots of people lost their shirt in a couple years ago.

At best, you are a market crash away or a couple of dodgy decisions from the site going bust and being towards the bottom of a long list of investors trying to get their money back. At worst, yeah it’s got serious scam potential.

[Umbrella]

SIMHorseRacing was awesome back in the day. Mostly text based, but the game was very deep, and the community was really helpful. My biggest problem was waiting a week for the next round of action.