Have you ever dreamt of owning your stable of pedigree racing horses? You can now, with Metaverse horse racing projects that utilize blockchain and NFT technology to breed, run, and own, unique racehorses that you can race against other NFT horses!!
Over the last year, some great NFT horse racing projects have come to fruition that could change the horse racing industry. These include Zed Run, Metarace, DeFiHorse, Silks, and Pegaxy to name but a few.
Although each virtual racing game has its own characteristics, they essentially offer players a chance to breed, own, race, and trade their virtual horses. For example, Zed Run and Pegaxy use a fantasy theme for their horses, while Metarace allows you to build mechanical horses.
The games are built using blockchain technology and employ NFTs to represent each unique horse.
How to earn money from digital racehorses
There are three main ways to earn money from your NFT racehorses. First, as each horse is a unique NFT, it can be bought and sold on secondary marketplaces.
Second, you can earn rewards by entering and being placed in a race against other horse owners. On some platforms, placement goes up to fifth place. Each entrant to the race will pay a fee that is used to make up the prize money.
Third, and probably the most lucrative, is breeding your digital horses. To breed you will need a mare and a stallion at least and pay a small breeding fee, with some platforms requiring you to own a stud farm. Also, in most cases, the owner of the mare will own the offspring, whilst the owner of the stallion will receive a stud fee.
Top Metaverse horse racing games
As mentioned earlier, there are many NFT horse racing games to choose from. In this section, we will give a short description of some of the more established projects.
Game of Silks
Silks use blockchain to mirror the world of thoroughbred horse racing. Each NFT horse represents a thoroughbred in the real world. Gameplay is linked to the actual US race horsing economy, where 20,000 foals are bred and registered each year.
Within the Silks eco-system, members can purchase and trade horses, syndicate their horses, speculate on land purchases, and develop the land into stud farms.
Members can earn rewards through different means, including staking, running and breeding horses.
Metarace
Metarace horses are somewhat different from Silks in that the horses are “mechanical”. The horses have six gene types, Speed, Endurance, Acceleration, Control, Steering, and Grip. These traits combine to influence the outcome of races and the quality of bred horses.
Metarace offers different types of metaverse racing NFTs, including horses, jockeys, stable colors and even horseracing tracks.
Each type of NFT offers different rewards. For instance, you can earn rewards by earning first, second or third place in a race.
Furthermore, owners of the racetracks can earn in a variety of ways, including 2% of all bets placed on their racecourse and 8% of race registration fees.
ZED RUN
Zed Run was the first of the metaverse horse racing games when it launched in January 2019. The game uses an algorithm to create “breathing NFTs”, each with its unique genes and DNA.
The horses can then be bred, and their DNA passed onto their bloodline. Furthermore, each bloodline has different characteristics, with the Nakamoto bloodline being the rarest.
Horses can further be categorized by their breed, with six breeds available, including Genesis, Elite and Legendary.
Owners can earn prizes by entering either free or pay-to-enter races.
Afterthoughts
Horse racing has been with us for thousands of years and is known as the sport of kings. However, with these new metaverse horse racing NFT games, it may well become the sport of the masses. Metaverse horse racing looks as though it could change the way we interact with the sport.