Simulated Matches and Races Run to a Countdown

Virtual sports holds matches and races that are generated rather than played out by anyone, and the page opens on the studios that build them. A tile carries the studio name over artwork of what it covers — footballers, riders, greyhounds, motorbikes — with the studio logo in the upper corner.

A studio tile leads to a catalogue of its own, and the titles in it say plainly what they simulate. Football appears as leagues named after the countries they imitate and as cup and champions formats; horse races are counted by the size of the field; greyhounds, speedway, motorbike racing, golf and table tennis stand beside them. Several titles are listed twice, once in a scheduled form and once in an on-demand form, so the same event can be waited for or started at once.

A title opens inside the same page, with the trail above it naming the studio and then the title. A clock counts down to the next event, and that clock paces the whole format: stakes are taken while it runs and the event plays out when it reaches zero.

What sits under the clock depends on what is being simulated. A race puts the runners in a table with the trap number, the name and rating of the runner, its recent form and prices in separate columns for the win and for the placings, and a second tab holds the exacta. A football round puts the fixtures of a week on a board with a price on the home side, the draw and the away side, and a strip above it swaps that board for correct score, over and under, double chance and handicap markets.

A panel down the side keeps the slip and the bets already placed on separate tabs, while a column of settled draws logs the identifier of each one and the combination that came out of it. Where the studio supplies a picture, a video window sits beside the board and plays the event.

Play is not arranged the same way from one title to the next. One runs on a play balance with no account behind it, another states the stake limits it works to and answers a click on the odds with a prompt to log in first, so Registration and Log in in the top bar are part of the format. Closing the frame returns the catalogue of the studio, the first step of the trail returns the studios themselves, and the top bar keeps Sports and Live within reach for events that are not simulated.