There are two big areas of sports betting sites such as bet365 Sport that have seen a large increase in the number of people using them in recent times. One is in the area of esports betting, which is betting on computer games played by a selection of professional players in big tournaments around the globe and the other is in the realm of Virtual Sports. Virtual Sports now make up the third most important revenue stream for UK bookmakers behind just horse racing and football betting. As such, it is unsurprising that many companies such as bet365 are looking how it can increase and improve the quality and range of Virtual Sports betting services that they offer its customers. Just a couple of months ago, bet365 Sports, which already offers one of the most extensive ranges of Virtual Sports you can find online, expanded its number of Virtual Sports by another two. Adding to its range of Virtual Horseracing, Virtual Greyhounds, Virtual Football, Virtual Tennis, Virtual Speedway, Virtual Motor Racing, Virtual Cycling and Virtual Trotting, bet365 now offers Virtual Cricket and Virtual Darts to its customers. There’s also exciting news of some additional Virtual Sports coming to bet365 Sport customers in 2019, but first let’s take a look at how the two new games shape up.

Virtual Cricket

In terms of the sheer number of bets available, Virtual Cricket offers a wider choice of betting of the two new games. The game features representatives of the top cricket playing nations in the world, England, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, India, Pakistan and South Africa and these teams are pitted randomly against each other for each Virtual Cricket match. Highlights are courtesy of edited real-life footage and commentary on the match is provided by Phil Tufnell, the ex-England cricketer, which does give the game a little extra realism and a nice touch of humour from time to time. The presentation of Virtual Cricket is excellent and is a step on from the animated versions of Virtual Football and Virtual Tennis that are currently on bet365. Each match is contested over two overs. The first team bat first and have six balls to score as many runs as possible. After one over, the second team then bats and has to beat the total of runs scored by the first team in order to win the game. If the second team beat the number of runs accrued by the first team at any point in the six overs, then the match ends and the second team is declared the winner. If they can’t beat the score within six balls, then the home team is declared the winner. Each team is giving a rating for Batting and Fielding, which helps you gauge which are the stronger and weaker teams, although as with all Virtual Sports, there is a high degree of randomness in the results. Matches can produce ties as well as victors although tied games are not as common as in other sports, such as football. Some of the betting markets available on Virtual Cricket are as follows:

• Match Winner
• Total Match 4s
• Total Match 6s
• Total Match Boundaries
• Total Match Runs (Odd/Even)
• Both Teams to Hit a 4 (Yes/No)
• Both Teams to Hit a 6 (Yes/No)
• Home Team Total Runs
• Home Team Total Boundaries
• Home Team 1^st Method of Dismissal
• Home Team – Total Runs (Odd/Even)
• Home Team Total 4s and 6s
• Home Team Runs of 1^st Deliver
• Home Team Total Wickets Lost
• Home Team to Lose Wicket

Each Virtual Cricket match takes four minutes to complete with a period of time before game to place your bets, before the game starts and the game itself takes around 1 and a half to two minutes to complete. Virtual Cricket is an excellent addition to bet365’s range of Virtual Sports and its more realistic look gives it a far more pleasing aesthetic than some of the older Virtual Sports games. Let’s now take a look at the second new release at bet365, Virtual Darts.

Virtual Darts

If Virtual Cricket looks a lot more realistic than earlier released Virtual Sports, then Virtual Darts, or as Inpired call it Rush Darts, is virtually identical to watching a real leg of darts live on the television. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, Inspired have used real life darts professionals from the senior tour, and they have filmed them throwing the darts. The presentation of Virtual Darts also mirrors the split screen presentation you find on TV and with the use of real life scorers, it even sounds like a real game of darts. In fact, in terms of presentation, Virtual Darts has set a new standard for what is to be expected of the next generation of Virtual sports games and that can only be a good thing. The competing players are familiar names in the world of darts from yesteryear and features the likes of John Walton, Terry O’Shea, Dennis Priestly, Bob Anderson, Peter Manley, Colin Osborne, Alan Tabern and Chris Mason. Betting markets are fewer in number than Virtual Cricket but there are still some key markets you can bet on including:

• Match Winner
• Checkout Markets
• Player – First Three Darts
• Match Events
• Wincast

Each Virtual Darts game takes around five minutes to complete, which is slightly longer than the usual Virtual Sports game on bet365 and at the end of the game, a round up of the winning bets is shown. Virtual Darts is an outstanding addition to the bet365 Virtual Sports betting range and if you have not tried it, then I would urge you to do so now.

What is also on the horizon for Virtual Sports fans?

Although bet365 Sport have introduced the two new Virtual Sports offerings outlined above to their fans, this may well not be the end of the road when it comes to new games on the site in 2019. Through their partnership with Inspired, who design the games that bet365 use for their Virtual Sports offerings on the site, we can confirm that Inspired have been busy working on a brand new Virtual Basketball game, which is expected to be released later in 2019. The company hired out an arena in Las Vegas and hired a large number of basketball players, who they filmed in the specially decorated court and stadium area to capture the footage which will be a key element within the new game, much in the same way they captured the footage used in the new Virtual Darts game. Furthermore, Inspired are also believed to be working on updated versions of Virtual Horse Racing and Virtual Greyhounds, which they will rebrand as Rush Horse Racing and Rush Greyhounds in order to fall in line with their new Virtual Sports titling. However, there is no confirmed date when these new developments will be ready to be released across Inspired partner sites. Given how important revenue from Virtual Sports has become to sports betting sites and the fact that the market remains relatively untouched, it is likely that the recent releases and forthcoming new releases from Inspired will not be the last big news when it comes to Virtual Sports on bet365 throughout 2019.