Now that we have covered the broader terms associated with the various types of horse racing simulations, we can now look at them individually in a little more detail.
Many bookmaking companies show virtual horse racing daily in their licensed betting offices. Some of the major bookmaking companies have their own, exclusive virtual horse racing tracks. Examples of this are Ladbrokes' Lucksin Downs or William Hills' Sandy Lanes or Canterbury Hills. Virtual horse racing tracks are often also shown 'live' online on bookmaking company websites.
Many bookmaking companies show virtual horse racing daily in their licensed betting offices. Some of the major bookmaking companies have their own, exclusive virtual horse racing tracks. Examples of this are Ladbrokes' Lucksin Downs or William Hills' Sandy Lanes or Canterbury Hills. Virtual horse racing tracks are often also shown 'live' online on bookmaking company websites.
You will usually find these races online listed in the games section of a bookmaker's website. The reason for this is that they are, in fact, more akin to lottery games than they are to real horse racing. Wikipedia describes virtual racing as, "a visual representation of a computerised random number draw. The odds of the different horses (or dogs) are created by having the horses with the lower odds have more numbers in the draw than horses with higher odds. However, each number can only be drawn once and therefore the same selection can not come first and second."
These games have proved very popular, especially during the winter months when adverse weather conditions regularly cause abandonment of real horse racing fixtures. Virtual racing events are never cancelled because of the weather and running as much as once every 3 minutes, can go a long way towards filling gaps left in the regular schedule. The most popular virtual horse racing tracks of all are Portman Park, Sprintvalley and the virtual national hunt racing course, Steepledowns. These virtual race tracks are produced by lottery company, 49s Ltd and are broadcast by Satellite Information Services to thousands of licensed betting offices in the UK and abroad.