First-ever Thoroughbred Horse Race To Take Place in the Metaverse
Game of Silks Press Release
BOCA RATON, Fla.— Game of Silks (“Silks”), the first metaverse that mirrors real-world horse racing, today announced that thoroughbreds at Keeneland Spring Meet (11:00 am ET, April 7, 2023) will race simultaneously in the metaverse for the first time as their “Digital Twins” replicate the real world race results, with the digital horse owners earning rewards based on performances.
Silks is the official blockchain partner of the New York Racing Association (NYRA), which operates Belmont Park, Saratoga Race Course, and Aqueduct Racetrack, allowing Silks to incorporate these premiere racing destinations into their metaverse and offer exclusive on track complementary experiences. The Silks partnership is NYRA’s first move to tap into the metaverse and blockchain gaming markets, which were valued at more than $100 billion USD in 2022 according to Fortune Business Insights.
“We believe Game of Silks can deliver a similar impact on the sport of horse racing to what fantasy football did for the NFL and the World Series of Poker did for professional card play,” said Game of Silks CEO and Co-Founder, Dan Nissanoff. “In both cases, novel technologies and play formats attracted new demographics of fans who might have never watched a quarter of a football game or played a hand of cards in their lives and changed mainstream culture in the process.”
In 2022, Silks created an initial crop of thousands of Digital Twins using data from registered yearling (one-year-old) thoroughbreds. With the start of the Spring racing season, these horses are now turning two years old and are slated to begin competing at Keeneland and later races. Silks utilizes non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to create digital versions of every thoroughbred and catalog them on the Ethereum blockchain.
Between 15,000 and 20,000 thoroughbred racehorses are born and registered in the U.S. annually and compete for more than $1 billion USD on the thoroughbred horse racing circuit.
The Digital Twins exist in the Silks metaverse, which consists of more than 200,000 one-acre parcels of land. Participants in the metaverse can also earn rewards by participating in the broader horse racing economy within the game by building farms and stables that are utilized by other players.
“Part of Silks’ mission is to expand the thrill of racehorse ownership to new audiences and demographics beyond the upper class,” said Troy Levy, Co-Founder of Game of Silks. “Since launching last year, we’ve built an engaged online community of more than 25,000 fans and have become a Top 10 sports-themed NFT platform on the OpenSea marketplace, which we see as the tip of a very large iceberg. Hosting the first thoroughbred horse race in our metaverse is a significant milestone in the history of the sport.”
All horses racing at Keeneland that are not currently owned by a Silks player will be listed in an auction before the race. Formatted in a reverse auction format with prices starting high and decreasing until purchased, the event will guarantee that all participating horses at the meet will be owned by Silks players.
For more information, visit silks.io.
