Virtual Basketball sees a launch in Greece

The growing trend of virtual content for entertainment has come to basketball as well, specifically in Greece for now. Inspired Entertainment, which is one of the biggest suppliers of software, content and technology for betting firms globally, recently announced the launch of its virtual basketball game, V-Play Basketball, in Greece. This game will be available at nearly all of OPAP’s retail betting shops, amounting to 3,700 locations in Greece, and it becomes the third virtual sports channel within OPAP betting shops, following V-Play Soccer 3.0 and Matchday.

This virtual basketball game, which includes the Euro League as well as Greek League Basketball, is in response to the huge popularity that the sport has in Greece. V-Play Basketball was first launched in 2019, and saw immediate adoption and incremental revenue generation, making it a very successful launch. Of course, this is also good news for basketball fans, especially those who also enjoy betting on the sport. Online gambling whether it be betting or online casino games have been gaining popularity in Greece these days, and the launch of V-Play Basketball in retail outlets should only help increase this, especially as basketball and other sports make a slow return all over Europe. Online forms of entertainment saw a lot of popularity during the first half of the year as people looked for ways to keep themselves occupied while being at home, and casino websites did extremely well as a result. Many online casino websites introduced a number of offers and discounts to bring in new customers, and these are all likely to be in place for some time in the future, making it a good time for people to get into online gambling.

Inspired has been trying to provide sports betting and play opportunities for sports fans throughout the year through Inspired Virtual Sports, not just during the season, and V-Play Basketball is another attempt in that direction. These virtual games use life-like graphics to simulate actual sports matches, to allow people to then simulate their sports betting experiences as well. This technology has been in existence for nearly two decades, constantly evolving over that time period, and through these games, Inspired is offering quick and short 90 second long virtual sports betting events, which are easy to play and yet can keep the customer coming back for more. V-Play Basketball has already been acclaimed as one of the best virtual basketball products in the world.

Inspired’s achievements in virtual sports saw wider recognition back in April, when DraftKings, which is one of the world’s largest fantasy gaming and sportsbook operators, with a huge footprint in the USA, signed a contract with the company to gain access to the V-Play portfolio of virtual games. Another partnership followed in June 2020, when the company reached an agreement with Scientific Games, in the form of a licensing deal, to roll out the entire virtual gaming portfolio on the OpenMarket sports betting aggregation platform. Inspired also recently became the first virtual gaming provider to be authorized in Turkey, with a partnership with the Turkish National Lottery. Under this partnership, Inspired will integrate its online end-to-end virtual sports book product, V-Play Plug & Play, with the Turkish National Lottery.

All of these partnerships and achievements only go to show how quickly virtual gaming is becoming a part of the online gambling space, with Inspired at the head of the innovation and growth that is taking place. According to Jan Karas, acting CEO of OPAP, V-Play Basketball was a specific product launched to target the popularity of basketball in Greece, which was also the reason for including a Virtual Greek Basketball League in the game. Such targeted launches will only improve Inspired’s performance in this space, especially with online gambling and gaming having become so prominent over the last few months due to the pandemic. With land-based casinos having been closed, online gambling became much more popular, and even with these venues slowly opening up, it is likely that this popularity will continue to drive people towards such innovative products in the future as well. Inspired’s stable of virtual sports games is therefore one to look out for in the online gambling space, especially in Europe, and any upcoming launches should also be as well-received as this one.